HYDE PARK — Former President Barack Obama’s records from his White House tenure have started arriving in Chicago.
The National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency charged with maintaining Obama’s records, confirmed that a plane carrying the first of the materials for Obama’s presidential library arrived at O’Hare International Airport on Thursday.
“It contains hundreds of millions of textual, electronic and audio-visual materials and tens of thousands of presidential gifts,” said Laura Diachenko, a spokeswoman for the archives.
She was not immediately able to say how many records would be moved to Chicago.
The first shipment arrived on a Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy, the U.S. military's largest aircraft, which is capable of transporting 135 tons of cargo at a time. Former President Bill Clinton’s records required eight trips by a C-5, according to reports.
Obama returned to Chicago this week for the first time since leaving office to work on plans for his presidential library, which will be built in Jackson Park.
While the library is built, Obama’s records will go to a former Plunkett Home Furnishings store in Hoffman Estates, where as many as 120 employees from the archives will be brought in to sort through the material, according to earlier reports.
