FRANKLIN, the Library's virtual research room and digital repository, now provides free online access to more than 400,000 pages documenting the life, career, and accomplishments of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., a personal friend of FDR and one of the most significant figures of the Roosevelt Administration.  

Morgenthau Diaries and Press Conferences

Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was an influential Cabinet member whose work had direct and far-reaching effects on the New Deal and World War II. New digital collections in FRANKLIN shed light on his remarkable career and friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The original Morgenthau Diaries, bound into more than 860 volumes, are a truly unique resource. The contents of these diaries are now fully available online through FRANKLIN: Access to the FDR Library's Digital Collections

During Henry Morgenthau, Jr.’s nearly 12 years as FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury (1934 to 1945), he compiled more than 860 diary volumes. These are not your typical diaries. Rather, they are Morgenthau’s daily record of his official activities, including transcripts of his meetings and telephone conversations as well as copies and originals of the most important correspondence and memoranda that passed over his desk. These diaries were then expertly indexed by Morgenthau’s trusted secretary, Henrietta Klotz. Combined, these diaries and index cards total more than 285,000 pages.

 The Morgenthau Diaries also include a much smaller “Presidential Diary” of about 2,000 pages. These diaries contain memoranda of his meetings with FDR, recollections of Cabinet meetings, and handwritten notes or chits passed between the two men. They provide a unique window into the personal and professional relationship of FDR and Morgenthau. During his Secretaryship, Morgenthau also delivered hundreds of press conferences which were transcribed and then microfilmed. These press conferences cover subjects ranging from New Deal monetary policy and war loan drives to refugee issues and post-war planning. They total approximately 15,000 pages.                                    

The Morgenthau Diaries and Press Conferences are some of the most unique resources in the Roosevelt Library. No other Cabinet official kept as complete a record of his official activities and his relationship to the President than Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote: “[F]or so many years, both as friends and as workers, my husband and I were closely associated with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Jr… It is interesting to know that my husband never held a political office from the time of his governorship of New York State without having Henry Morgenthau, Jr., in some way in his official family... [T]here was an underlying deep devotion and trust which never really wavered.”

In digitizing the Diaries and Press Conferences of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum seeks to enhance the understanding of Morgenthau’s contributions to the New Deal and war effort as FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury. Now, through the Library’s FRANKLIN virtual research room and digital repository, online users can access hundreds of thousands of pages documenting his life and work.