• Executive Orders (E.O.)

  Executive Orders may be administrative (establishing new offices within the executive branch) or policy-setting (President Roosevelt's executive order requiring the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II). Almost all current executive orders have the force of law. Executive orders beginning in 1862 are numbered, while orders issued between 1789 and 1862 are unnumbered.

• Proclamations (Proc.)

  Proclamations can have significant legal force and effect (declaring emergency situations or invoking the President's constitutional powers as commander-in-chief) or be more celebratory in nature (President Washington's 1789 proclamation declaring Thanksgiving a national holiday).

• Other types of presidential directives
  • presidential letters designating individuals to hold specified positions in the government
  • Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs) - presidential decisions about homeland security policies
  • letters on tariffs and international trade
  • military orders
  • national security instruments - not required to be published, generally highly classified, only available after a number of years

Finding Executive Orders and Proclamations

A 1935 act of Congress required the publication of most presidential orders and proclamations in the Federal Register and these cumulate annually in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 3. Wellesley has presidential orders and proclamations in various locations. Use the following table to find what you need.

Indexes of Executive Orders

• List and Index of Presidential Orders: Unnumbered Series. Clapp Docs qZ 6455 A4 H5 1979
• Presidential Executive Orders Numbered 1-8030 (1862-1938). List and Index. Clapp Docs J 80 A73 2 vols.
• Index to the Federal Register [NARA] 1994 to present.

Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders. Clapp Docs J 81 C79 1989 and online.
Subject arrangement of proclamations and executive orders issued between April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989 (Truman through Reagan). Arrangement is in 50 chapters corresponding to the 50 titles of the Code of Federal Regulations. The text includes all amendments which were in effect on January 20, 1989.

Executive Orders Disposition Tables [NARA] 1933 to present - contains executive order number; date of signing by the President; Federal Register volume, page number, and issue date; title; amendments (if any); and current status (where applicable).

How to Determine if Proclamations and Executive Orders are Still in Effect

• Use the Executive Orders Dispostion Tables, from NARA, listed above. Lists amendments and revocations.
• Use the United States Code Service Tables volume, Clapp Docs KF 62 1972 L38, Tables IV (Executive Orders) and V (Proclamations) for a date list which refers to the directive, its corresponding Code section, and whether or not the particular directive has been eliminated.
• Use the Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders listed above. Includes disposition tables with the current status.
• Use Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Table 4, "Presidential Documents Affected During ..." includes executive orders and proclamations that have been revoked, amended, or continued. Note that you must look at Table 4 for each year. See the table above for available years.
• If all else fails, contact the Office of the Federal Register, 202-741-6000 or email fedreg.info@nara.gov

Additional Presidential Materials

AmericanPresident.org [Miller Center of Public Affairs] - overviews of presidents as well as articles on the office's powers and responsibilities.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897. 11 vols. including Index. Clapp Docs J 81 .B96
Contains the text of some unnumbered executive orders. In order by president.

Encyclopedia of the American Presidency. Clapp Ref JK511 .E53 1994

Presidential Executive Orders [Fedlaw] - selected executive orders 1961-1999.

Papers of the Presidents - Note: before 1977 and after 1989, proclamations and executive orders were NOT included in the Public Papers of the Presidents title.
     Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. Clapp Docs J 80 .A283 1945-
     selected presidents [Avalon Project at Yale Law School]
     1992 forward [GPO Access]
     1929 to present [American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara]

The Presidency Project [UC Santa Barbara] 

Presidential Libraries [NARA]

Presidential Speeches [Scripps Library, Millier Center for Public Affairs, UVA] - audio/full text of the most important speeches from selected presidents, Washington to Clinton.

• Wellesley College Library
• Date created: March 20, 2006
• Last modified: July 17, 2009
• Expires: September 1, 2010