This collection of 22 transcripts comprises approximately 6 hours of material recorded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt Sr. from 23 August 1940 through 8 November 1940. It includes the proceedings of 14 news conferences, the private exchanges that immediately preceded and followed those events, and various other conversations with Cabinet members, legislators, White House staffers, foreign officials, and private individuals. Each of these conversations took place in the Oval Office, which Roosevelt outfitted with a recording device in the summer of 1940. After an incident in January 1939 where he thought the press had misquoted him, Roosevelt expressed a desire for verbatim accounts of his press conferences. His staff approached David Sarnoff, president of the Recording Corporation of America (RCA), for a solution. Sarnoff ultimately provided the White House with a recording machine in June 1940.

The President’s tapes from the summer and fall of 1940 reveal a largely unscripted Roosevelt responding to the extraordinary events of the day. Against the backdrop of worldwide conflicts instigated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, as well as his unprecedented bid for a third term as president, Roosevelt answered reporters’ questions and bantered with White House guests. Discussions about domestic matters and about Roosevelt’s Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie also reflected broader concerns about the war and featured exchanges about developments in the European and Asian theaters, as well as legislation and activities addressing U.S. military preparedness.

Roosevelt taped most of his press conferences in the lead-up to his reelection on 5 November, but he questioned the ethics of doing so without the participants’ knowledge. He thus recorded only one subsequent conversation before discontinuing the practice.