Life after the White House: Where will Joe Biden build his presidential library?
WASHINGTON – As he looks ahead to life after the White House, President Joe Biden still has a major decision ahead of him: Where to build his presidential library.
Biden said in an exclusive interview with Paste BN that he hasn’t decided where the library will be located but that he hopes it will be in his home state of Delaware.
“I’ve talked to former presidents – apparently building the library is a gigantic undertaking,” Biden said from the Oval Office. “And so I haven’t made that decision yet.”
Biden said there has been a push for him to attach his library to the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware in Newark, while Wilmington officials want him to put the library in their city. The University of Pennsylvania, which already has the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, also is interested in housing the library, he said.
One of the reasons he hasn’t decided, he said, is that he’s still in office – his presidency ends in two weeks – and hasn’t yet determined who will represent him in his library pursuit. He and first lady Jill Biden partnered with the Creative Artists Agency – a Los Angeles-based talent agency – in 2017 to continue their policy work after he left the vice presidency.
“Whether it’s CAA or other folks, I honest to God haven’t decided,” he said about who will work with him to establish his library.
Two of Biden’s close aides – deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden's top adviser – will take the lead on planning for a presidential library, Axios reported in December.
The project will demand multi-millions in fundraising. Any decision on the location will likely filter through not only Biden and the first lady, but also through layers of family and confidants in between.
Since Herbert Hoover, presidents have chosen to build presidential libraries and museums to house their papers, records and historical markers. Franklin D. Roosevelt formally started the presidential library system in 1939.
Presidential libraries cost millions of dollars – George W. Bush raised more than $500 million for his presidential center – and are generally funded with private donations and, in some cases, with contributions from state and local governments or university partners. After construction is completed, the National Archives and Records Administration typically operates and maintains the facility.
Barack Obama decided against a physical presidential library maintained by the government. Instead, the Obama Foundation plans to build and operate a private museum and presidential center, while maintaining the first all-digital presidential library. Some 95% of his records were already digital, according to the foundation.
The National Archives will store and preserve materials after digitalization, while some items will be lent for display at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago. This separate center will focus on the wider story of both the president and his family, before and after the White House, and is still scheduled to open in 2026.
In Delaware, there are a lot of ideas about where the Biden library should be.
The most likely option – one mentioned by Biden in an interview with special counsel Robert Hur last year – is his Newark alma mater: the University of Delaware. Biden earned his bachelor’s degree there in 1965, while the first lady also earned her bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the same Newark institution.
The university already hosts his senatorial papers and has several other connections.
University officials said in late December they had “no information to share” on the possible location of Biden’s library.