December 23, 2011
The Library has completed the digitization of the records of a series of meetings between Vice President Gerald Ford and various foreign and diplomatic officials from the Ford Vice Presidential Papers. In many cases the files include memoranda of conversations summarizing the discussions in addtion to background and briefing materials. Of special note is a folder on the Vice President's March 13, 1974 meeting with King Hussein of Jordan. Because President Nixon was not available, Vice President Ford also hosted the State Dinner on March 12. View digital images of files concerning Vice President Ford's meetings with foreign and diplomatic officials.

December 22, 2011
The Library completed the indexing of the collection National Security Adviser. White House Situation Room Presidential Daily Briefings in our PRESNET collection description database. This chronologically arranged set of memoranda was opened last spring, but previously was not indexed in PRESNET and did not appear on PRESNET search reports. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

December 6, 2011
The Library has begun digitizing the White House Press Releases from the Ford Administration. Press releases covering August 9, 1974 to September 5, 1974 are now complete. The press releases include transcripts of speeches, briefings, and press conferences; schedules; biographies; proposed legislation; press pool reports; etc. View digitized press releases.

November 30, 2011
The Library has completed another segment of a project to digitize White House photograph contact sheets and make them available on the web. Descriptions and images of photographs from August 9, 1974 to June 9, 1975 and May 18, 1976 to January 20, 1977 are now available. Detailed reports describe the photographs taken by the White House photographers on a given day and contain links to contact sheets (1:1 images of 35 mm negatives) for each film roll. We have completed the scanning and posting of images for the missing dates and the staff is working on completing the descriptions.  View the reports and contact sheets.

November 30, 2011
The Library has completed a major updating and expansion of the digital collection of selected historical materials on the 1976 presidential campaign. The items cover the early campaign planning in 1975, President Ford's announcement of candidacy, the emergence of a challenge for the nomination from former Governor Ronald Reagan, the primaries and caucuses, planning the fall general election campaign, the campaign debates, and President Ford's narrow loss to Jimmy Carter. See the links to the digitized files.

November 21, 2011
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation announced the list of recipients of Research Travel Grants from the fall meeting of the grants screening committee.

November 14, 2011
The Library has posted a list of documents declassified in whole or in part through the Mandatory Declassification Review process during the months of July to September 2011. You can also see lists of documents declassified in earlier quarters. Researchers may contact us for additional information about the newly opened documents or to order copies. Please note that Mandatory Review is but one of the methods through which Ford Library documents are declassified. Many additional pages are opened each month through systematic declassification review and returns from the Remote Archive Capture project.

October 28, 2011
The Library completed the digitization of all of the weekly reports to the President from the President Ford Committee (the 1976 campaign committee) in the Richard B. Cheney Files. The reports date from July 1975 to July 1976 and cover such topics as organization and staffing of the PFC, state campaign organizations, legal matters, delegate selection, fundraising, press contacts, advocate schedules, campaign advertising, and campaign leaflets. See the finding aid for links to the digitized files.

October 28, 2011
The audiovisual staff has digitized 20 additional audio recordings of President Ford's speeches, remarks, and press conferences from the White House Communications Agency Audiotapes. This brings the total number of digitized files to 75. View the list of digitized tapes.

October 13, 2011
The Library completed the digitization of boxes 3-5 of the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger Reports on USSR, China, and Middle East Discussions. These boxes contains memcons and reports for Henry Kissinger's discussions with Middle East leaders during his two rounds of shuttle diplomacy in 1975 that led to the Sinai disengagement agreement. See the finding aid for links to the digitized files.

September 30, 2011
The Library completed the processing of nine additional boxes from the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office File. More than four boxes cover the Cyprus crisis in great detail. Other topics in the newly opened boxes include the Defense budget, Puerto Rico Economic Summit, Egypt, France, India/Pakistan, Indonesia, International Labor Organization, and Iran. The first 15 boxes of the collection (covering the letters A through I of a large subject file) are now processed and open to research. Processing of this collection continues and additional boxes will be made available as they are completed.

September 20, 2011
The Library completed the digitization of the second box of the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger Reports on USSR, China, and Middle East Discussions. This box contains memcons and reports for Henry Kissinger's discussions with Chinese leaders and also for President Ford's meetings during his trip to China in December 1975. Similar files for the Henry Kissinger's Middle East shuttle diplomacy are currently being digitized. See the finding aid for links to the digitized files.

September 9, 2011
The Library completed the digitization of the first box of the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger Reports on USSR, China, and Middle East Discussions. This box contains memcons and reports for Henry Kissinger's discussions with Soviet leaders and also for President Ford's meetings with Leonid Brezhnev at Vladivostok and Helsinki. Similar files for China are currently being digitized. See the finding aid for links to the digitized files.

August 31, 2011
The Library completed the processing boxes 1-16 of the collection National Security Adviser. NSC Europe, Canada, and Ocean Affairs Staff Files. These boxes contain the Country Files for all countries from Albania to Poland. The remaining Country Files, plus additional series, will be made available as processing is completed.

August 31, 2011
The Library completed the processing of additional folders from the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office File. The first six boxes of the collection are now processed and open to research. Processing of this collection continues and additional boxes will be made available as they are completed.

August 31, 2011
Recent openings from the Ford Library Project File of Documents Declassified Through the Remote Archive Capture (RAC) Program include almost 8,000 pages of documents from such collections as the records of the U.S. Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (Rockefeller Commission), NSC Information Liaison with Commissions and Committees (much of this also relates to the intelligence investigations), and NSC Program Analysis Staff Files. Also included are recently opened codeword documents from a number of different National Security Adviser collections. The Project File is intended as a convenience to researchers, affording expedited access to declassified information from unprocessed/closed collections.  It also allows returning researchers to more easily discover newly declassified information from previously processed/open collections. Although some documents are now available, major portions of some of these sub-collections are still unprocessed and not available for research. Since November 2008 the staff has opened 50 archives boxes of declassified documents through the RAC program.

August 22, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the collection Gerald R. Ford: Redacted Version of the FBI Investigatory Report on Gerald Ford, Nominee for Vice President (less than one foot).  The collection consists of documents compiled in connection with the FBI's investigation of Gerald Ford, who had been nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon in 1973.  The materials document details of Ford's personal and professional life, and illustrate his character and personal attributes.  For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

July 26, 2011
The Library has completed another segment of a project to digitize White House photograph contact sheets and make them available on the web. Photographs from August 9, 1974 to April 30, 1975 are now available (with the exception of April 5). Detailed reports describe the photographs taken by the White House photographers on a given day and contain links to contact sheets (1:1 images of 35 mm negatives) for each film roll.  View the reports and contact sheets.

July 25, 2011
The Library has added to the Digital Library copies of the John W. "Bill" Roberts Audio Diary. For a few critical weeks in July, August and September 1974, assistant press secretary Bill Roberts tape-recorded his personal observations and recollections.  These provide insight into the last days of the Ford vice presidency, the transition to the presidency, and persons and personalities involved in the events. Listen to the diary.

July 22, 2011
The Library has posted a list of documents declassified in whole or in part through the Mandatory Declassification Review process during the months of April to June 2011. Researchers may contact us for additional information about the newly opened documents or to order copies. Please note that Mandatory Review is but one of the methods through which Ford Library documents are declassified. Many additional pages are opened each month through systematic declassification review and returns from the Remote Archive Capture project.

July 21, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the collection U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Special Agent Application Case File of Gerald R. Ford, Jr. (less than one foot).  The collection consists of documents compiled in connection with the background investigation of Gerald Ford, who had applied to be a special agent in June 1941.  The materials document details of Ford's pre-political life and illustrate his character and personal attributes.  For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

July 7, 2011
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is proud to announce that Brent Cebul has been chosen as the 2011 winner of the Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award in Honor of Robert M. Teeter.  Mr. Cebul is a doctoral student in American History at the University of Virginia and is completing his doctoral dissertation: Freedom From: Small Government, Big Government Policies, and the Rise of Blue Collar Republicans, 1970-1994.  He is exploring the rise of working class white voters within the Republican Party from 1970 – 1994 through the lens of conservatives, decentralized federal community and economic development. See additional information about this award.

July 1, 2011
The Library completed the processing of additional folders from the first two boxes of the collection National Security Adviser. Kissinger-Scowcroft West Wing Office File. The newly opened folders concern such matters as Algeria, Angola, Arab Boycott legislation, FY1978 budget, and Central Intelligence Agency communications. Processing of this collection continues and additional boxes will be made available as they are completed.

May 26, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the remaining 23 boxes of the collection National Security Adviser. NSC East Asian and Pacific Affairs Staff Files. The newly opened material covers U.S. relations with most countries in this geographic area, with the exception of China, Taiwan, Micronesia, the Mariana Islands, Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos (those files had been processed and opened earlier). The finding aid will be updated soon to reflect these new materials. In the meantime, all folders in the collection are described in our PRESNET collection description database and we would be happy to provide search reports. Contact the Library for more information.

May 26, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the collection National Security Adviser. White House Situation Room Presidential Daily Briefings (8 feet). This chronologically arranged set of memoranda from the National Security Adviser to the President (supplemented by updates from the White House Situation Room or the Department of State) contains information on developments in various countries, international negotiations, important events, and high-level conversations and correspondence.  The information is primarily reportive and analytical in nature rather than a briefing on current or proposed U.S. actions.  In spite of the name of this collection, it has no relationship to the Presidential Daily Brief produced by the Central Intelligence Agency. Although open for research, this collection is not yet indexed by subject in our PRESNET collection description database. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

May 26, 2011
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation announced the list of recipients of Research Travel Grants from the spring meeting of the grants screening committee. With these awards, the grants screening committee has now given out more than five hundred grants since the beginning of the program in 1982.

May 1, 2011
Deadline for the "Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award (Dissertation Award) in Honor of Robert Teeter". For more information about the award contact Christian Goos.

March 31, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the collection National Security Adviser. Trip Cables of Brent Scowcroft (3 feet). The collection contains cables exchanged between Brent Scowcroft and National Security Council and White House staff members while he was traveling with the President.  Files contain White House Situation Room reports and memoranda concerning the ongoing work of the NSC.  Subject content relates to a wide variety of foreign policy and national security matters including Lebanon, the Korean tree incident, the Middle East, and Africa.  The collection also includes material relating to the 1976 presidential campaign. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

March 30, 2011
The Library has opened to research four oral history audiotapes from the collection Composite Oral History Accessions relating to Gerald Ford's years as a University of Michigan student. The tapes cover interviews conducted in 1983 by David S. Pollock with Cliff Keen (wrestling coach and assistant football coach), Bennie Oosterbaan (assistant football coach), Elmer Raab (acquaintance of Ford), and Willis Ward (football teammate).

March 30, 2011
The Library has posted a list of documents declassified in whole or in part through the Mandatory Declassification Review process during the months of January to March 2011. Researchers may contact us for additional information about the newly opened documents or to order copies. Please note that Mandatory Review is but one of the methods through which Ford Library documents are declassified. Many additional pages are opened each month through systematic declassification review and returns from the Remote Archive Capture project.

March 2, 2011
The Library has opened to research the Michael H. Moskow Papers. The collection concerns his work in the Nixon, Ford, and George H. W. Bush administrations in the following agencies: Council of Economic Advisers, Department of Labor, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Council on Wage and Price Stability, and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The papers relate to such topics as collective bargaining, labor disputes, employment, economic policies, wage and price policies, and U.S. trade. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

February 23, 2011
The Library has opened two additional oral histories from the collection Gerald R. Ford Library Oral History Projects. The first is with Robert Barrett, who served as a Military Aide in the Ford White House and then as chief of staff to President Ford during the early years of the post-presidency (audiotape and 67 page transcript). The second is with William Scranton, who served on the transition team which assisted President Ford during the opening days of his presidency and later became U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (audiotape and 36 page transcript).

February 18, 2011
The Library completed the processing of the collection National Security Adviser. Trip Briefing Books and Cables for Henry Kissinger (18 feet), by opening the last seven boxes to research. This important collection contains communications exchanged between Henry Kissinger and staff at the White House and State Department while he was away from Washington.  Files contain Kissinger's detailed reports of his meetings with foreign leaders and the progress of negotiations he was conducting, as well as detailed summaries of concurrent events in Washington and elsewhere in the world.  Substantive materials on U.S. relations with the countries Kissinger was visiting and on foreign policy issues in general also appear. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 27, 2011
The Library has completed the processing of the collection National Security Adviser. White House Situation Room Evening Reports from the NSC Staff (1 foot). It contains daily reports from each section of the National Security Council staff summarizing important foreign affairs/national security developments, afternoon summaries produced by the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the Evening Notes compiled by White House Situation Room duty officers.  They cover most major world events from the last seven months of the Ford administration, but not in great detail. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 26, 2011
The Library has completed the processing of the Warren K. Hendriks Papers (3 feet). The collection contains material concerning White House efforts to identify administration spokesmen to fill key speaking invitations that the President could not accept.  The bulk of the collection dates from 1976. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 26, 2011
The Library has completed the processing of the Frederica Pantlind Papers (less than one foot). The collection contains a unique set of letters from young Gerald Ford to Pantlind, a hometown friend and neighbor. Also included are Pantlind’s newspaper clippings on University of Michigan football and on Gamma Delta Tau high school sorority, invitations to social events, and date books.  The letters reveal much about Gerald Ford’s life as a college student and athlete and, to a lesser extent, his work as an assistant coach at Yale University.  For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 20, 2011
The Library has completed the processing of the collection National Security Adviser. White House Situation Room Noon and Evening Notes (4 feet). Situation Room duty officers produced frequent memoranda summarizing the latest international developments for National Security Adviser Kissinger or Scowcroft.  The memoranda were based on cable traffic, intelligence reports, and news media stories. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 12, 2011
The Library has posted a list of documents declassified in whole or in part through the Mandatory Declassification Review process during the months of October to December 2010. Researchers may contact us for additional information about the newly opened documents or to order copies. Please note that Mandatory Review is but one of the methods through which Ford Library documents are declassified. Many additional pages are opened each month through systematic declassification review and returns from the Remote Archive Capture project.

See News Notes for Ford Library Researchers for the year 2010