He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…
Article 2, Section 3. of the Constitution of the United States
Tuesday night President Bush delivered his sixth State of the Union Address. This year’s State of the Union can easily be found on the White House web site and Bush’s previous Addresses can also be found on the web site with just a little digging, but where do you go if you want previous presidents’ State of the Union Addresses?
Many State of the Union Addresses going back to the Johnson Administration can be found by performing a title search for “state of the union” in the University Libraries catalog. Earlier Addresses can be found in State of the Union messages of the Presidents, 1790-1966.
A final place to look for State of the Union Addresses and other presidential speeches is the Public Papers of the President. These volumes, which cover the Hoover Administration though the current Bush Administration, can be found in the University Libraries and also online in collections developed by the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. It should be noted that FDR’s papers were privately published under a different title (The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt), but can still be found in the University Libraries and in both the UCSB and U-M online collections.
