LibGuides: Government Information: The President & the Executive Branch

Resources about the President & the Executive Branch

The President
Executive Departments (opens in a new window)
Historical Collections of Executive Branch Departments' Records

Resources about the President

Current Presidential Papers

Compilation of Presidential Documents (formerly Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents)
Provides access to the official publications of materials released by the White House Press Secretary, from 1993-present. Publications include executive orders, remarks and statements made to organizations, letters to Congress, press releases, and more.
Budget of the United States Government
Contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications issued throughout the fiscal year.
Economic Report of the President
An annual report which gives an overview of the nation’s economic progress using text and extensive data appendices.
Federal Register (Daily)
Provides access to the daily publication of the rules, proposed rules, and notices of the Federal agencies and organizations along with executive orders.
White House Home Page
The public website for the White House.
State of the Union Addresses
Text of each President's messages to Congress.

Historical Research on Past Presidents

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
Includes addresses, remarks, appointments, nominations, bill signings, vetoes, communications to Congress & federal agencies, executive orders, media interviews, joint statements, letters & messages, meetings with foreign leaders and international officials, proclamations, resignations & retirements, and statements by the President from 1929-6 years ago (with the exception of the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency).
Note that access to the Public Papers of the Presidents (including the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency) is also available from 1929 to 6 years ago for IU Southeast students through HeinOnline.
American Presidency Project
Includes full text access to current and historical information about America's current and former presidents, including executive orders, State of the Union addresses, inaugural addresses, and more.
Federal Depository Library Program's Presidentials Documents LibGuide
Provides documents and links to documents about the office of the President of the United States of America compiled by the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).
U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: "I Do Solemnly Swear..."
The Library of Congress digital collections include a wide variety of primary source materials documenting presidential inaugurations. This Web guide includes diaries and letters written by presidents and those who witnessed the inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music.

Resources about Executive Departments

"The Cabinet is an advisory body made up of the heads of the 15 executive departments. Appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the members of the Cabinet are often the President’s closest confidants. In addition to running major federal agencies, they play an important role in the Presidential line of succession — after the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Senate President pro tempore, the line of succession continues with the Cabinet offices in the order in which the departments were created. All the members of the Cabinet take the title Secretary, excepting the head of the Justice Department, who is styled Attorney General." (from The White House's Executive Branch)

GovSpeak: A Guide to U.S. Government Acronyms & Abbreviations
The most current, extensive and fully-linked listing of U.S. government agency, office, program and publication acronyms.
United States Policy and Supporting Positions (Plum Book)
Every four years, just after the Presidential election, the United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, commonly known as the Plum Book, is published, alternately, by the Senate and the House. The Plum Book is used to identify presidentially appointed positions within the Federal Government.

Related Research Guide: Federal Government Departments

Historical Collections of Executive Branch Departments' Records

Declassified Documents Collections

Declassified Documents Reference System
Now called U.S Declassified Documents Online.
Digital National Security Archive
Declassified primary documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions since 1945. Currently there are 50 collections, each with a particular focus on a world event, country, or U.S. policy decision, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. espionage, the Iran-Contra Affair, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War.
U.S. Declassified Documents Online
Provides access to more than 750,000 pages of government documents covering major policy issues from the period before the Second World War into the twenty first century, the archive serves as a convenient source for documents from government departments including Defense; State; Treasury; CIA; and the White House. USDDO supports the study of history, politics, international relations, and journalism, among other fields.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Documents (Department of Justice)

Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization's program was one of “armed struggle” and its stated goal was to “take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.” Sourced from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library, this primary source collection consists of a wide range of materials, including FBI surveillance and informant reports and correspondence from a variety of offices around the country; intercepted correspondence; Justice Department memoranda, news clippings and articles; and more.
FBI Surveillance of James Forman and SNCC
This collection of FBI reports comprises the Bureau’s investigative and surveillance efforts primarily during the 1961-1976 period, when James Forman was perceived as a threat to the internal security of the United States. The collected materials also include Forman’s involvement with the "Black Manifesto" and the Bureau’s "COINTELPRO" investigations into "Black Nationalist - Hate Groups / Internal Security," which include information on the activities of SNCC.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984
A digital collection of historical documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collected during the surveillance of numerous African American individuals and the infiltration of a variety of organizations from 1920 to 1984.
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America
A digital collection of FBI surveillance files on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People’s Revolutionary Party. This collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for domestic Black struggles.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961
Primary source documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library related to the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated South to test the United States Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia. Boynton had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines.

This primary source collection sourced from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library includes surveillance reports, chronologies, witness statements and more. These materials provide unique (and in some cases recently declassified) insight into the Freedom Rides, the Kennedy administration, and the segregated South.
Coverage: 1961
Simultaneous User Limit: Unlimited simultaneous users

State Department

Afghanistan and the U.S., 1945-1963: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files
A digital collection of documents from the U.S. State Department Central Classified Files on Afghanistan, relating to internal and foreign affairs between 1945 and 1963.

Materials include special reports on political and military affairs; studies on socioeconomic matters; minutes of meetings with foreign government officials; court proceedings; full texts of important letters and instructions sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel; translated foreign journals and newspapers; translated foreign government documents.