Work at FDR library is Arkansan’s dream

“It’s a fascinating job,” Kirsten Strigel Carter says of her work at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

The Arkansas native, a 1999 graduate of Little Rock’s Central High School, says people from all walks of life wrote to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt through the Depression and World War II and in greater volume than to any previous president. Some wrote to say thank you, others wrote to criticize, voice opinions on political issues, describe their personal hardships, to ask for employment or financial or material support.

“President Roosevelt recognized that these letters help form a collective understanding of national identity, then and now,” Carter says. She adds that FDR created the nation’s first presidential library in 1939 as an institution to preserve the records of his administration and one that would open the papers directly to the American public permanently.

“And I get to work every day with this fascinating collection — one that reflects a special and unique part of our American story,” Carter says.

After graduating from Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., Carter received a master’s degree in library science from the University of Maryland College Park’s archives program. She has worked for the UMCP’s University Archives, the National Public Broadcasting Archives and the Library of American Broadcasting. She was an intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s Rinzler Folklife Archives.

“It gradually became a dream of mine to work at the FDR Library in particular — to take care of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt’s papers, be a part of the National Archives, and help people access what I knew to be a rich and unique collection,” Carter says.

The dream became reality in 2008 when she was hired to become the library’s first digital archivist.

“The only drawback is my distance from family in Arkansas,” she says, “But I bring my two kids home to visit as often as possible.”

— Linda S. Haymes