Located in Yorba Linda, California, on land that President Nixon's family once owned, the library is one of 13 administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Alarmed that Nixon's tapes may be lost, Congress abrogated the Nixon–Sampson Agreement by passing the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in December 1974.

As a result of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, President Nixon's White House papers and tapes were held by the National Archives, and so they could not be transferred to a facility in Yorba Linda.

Behind the museum is his birthplace, which was constructed by Nixon's father using a home building kit, and restored to appear as it was in the 1910s.

A 12-foot-high (3.7 m) piece of the Berlin Wall is exhibited in the expansive foreign affairs gallery, which includes a replica of a modest Midwest home from where American soldiers originated, statues of Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and pages of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty I signed by Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev in 1972.

The helicopter was in the presidential fleet from 1961 to 1976, transporting Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, and many foreign heads of state and government.

Boyer flew President Nixon dozens of times to Camp David, over the pyramids in Egypt, and on his final flight from the White House in this aircraft.

The entire facility underwent a $15 million renovation in 2016, and reopened in October, with appearances from Dr. Henry Kissinger, former California Governor Pete Wilson and Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai.

USA Today called it "a video-centric, cutting-edge experience" in which "guests are constantly invited to try touch screens or other interactive displays.

[9] In January 2004, the United States Congress passed legislation that provided for the establishment of a federally-operated Nixon Presidential Library.

The foundation filed a 158-page memorandum to the assistant archivist for presidential libraries expressing its dissatisfaction[12][13] and NARA stated a committee would review the objection but gave no timeline for when that process would be concluded.

[16] In December 2014, Michael Ellzey was appointed as Director by the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero.