WASHINGTON—The last great archives of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency may soon be available to researchers and the public — 14 boxes of handwritten notes, gifts and correspondence, including a letter from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini congratulating him on his 1933 inauguration.
The House on Monday approved a bill to clear the way for the memorabilia to be donated to Roosevelt’s presidential library and museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.
While the House bill is identical to legislation the Senate passed in October, it will still have to return to the Senate for one more vote before it goes to the president.
The boxes have been sitting sealed at Roosevelt’s presidential library since July 2005, tied up in an ownership dispute between the government and a private collector.
Read the full AP article in the November 16, 2009 edition of Boston.com.
