March 2013: Scholar of the Month:Timothy Naftali

Exhibiting Watergate: Why was it so hard for the federal government to install an exhibit on Watergate at the Nixon Library? And what does this mean for the state of public history in America?

Established by the Nixon Foundation in 1990, the Nixon Library and Birthplace was a private facility with a museum and a small archive. A law enacted by President Gerald Ford in 1974 had prohibited former President Richard Nixon from having any control over his presidential papers and Congress also decried that they could not be moved from the Washington, DC region. In the early 2000s, the Nixon Foundation lobbied Congress to remove that restriction, which it did in 2004. The papers, however, were to remain under the control of the National Archives, which would also take control of the private library's museum and archival facility. Congress also earmarked nearly 10 million dollars to built a state-of-the-art repository for the estimated 42 million page-presidential collection next to the old library. The entire facility would be renamed to reflect its new status. On July 11, 2007, it became the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

The museum included a controversial Watergate gallery, written by a Nixon aide Robert Bostock and approved by President Nixon himself. As part of the deal to make the transfer to the federal government happen that exhibit had to be changed. In the end, I was asked to do it as part of my duties as the Nixon Presidential Library's first director.

All modern presidential libraries are administered by the National Archives. This module will be about who exercises real control and the implications for educators and the general public. The creation of the Watergate gallery tested that issue. The ensuing controversy ultimately involved Congress, The New York Times, the Nixon family and other presidential families, and President Barack Obama's choice for Archivist of the United States. In the end, the public won, but only just.