John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963), the 35th president of the United States (1961–1963). It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, next to the University of Massachusetts at Boston, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and the Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum. Designed by the architect I. M. Pei, the building is the official repository for original papers and correspondence of the Kennedy Administration, as well as special bodies of published and unpublished materials, such as books and papers by and about Ernest Hemingway.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963)
August 1977
Groundbreaking: June 12, 1977
Dedicated on October 20, 1979
Rededicated on October 29, 1993[1]
$20.8 million[2]
10 acres (40,000 m2)
The library and museum is part of the Presidential Library System, which is administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[3]
The library and Museum were dedicated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family. It can be reached from nearby Interstate 93 or via shuttle bus or walk from the JFK/UMass stop on the Red Line of Boston's MBTA system.
Location, design and dedication[edit]
Original site and name[edit]
During a weekend visit to Boston on October 19, 1963, President Kennedy and John Carl Warnecke, the architect who designed Kennedy's Tomb of the Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery[4][5] viewed several possible locations offered by Harvard University as a site for the library and museum. At the time, there were only four other presidential libraries: the Hoover Presidential Library, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Truman Library, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. They were all scattered around the country in small towns from New York to Iowa. Kennedy had not decided on any design concept yet, but he felt that the existing presidential libraries were placed too "far away from scholarly resources."[4]
Kennedy chose a plot of land next to the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.[4] The building would face the Charles River which was a few feet away, and on the other side of which, the dormitories that included Winthrop House where Kennedy spent his upperclassman days.[4]
Since Kennedy encouraged his administration to save effects of both personal and official nature, the complex would not just be a collection of the President's papers, but "a complete record of a Presidential era." Therefore, the building would have the word "museum" appended to its name as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.[4]
Initial progress[edit]
After President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, his family and friends discussed how to construct a library that would serve as a fitting memorial. A committee was formed to advise Kennedy's widow Jacqueline, who would make the final decision. The group deliberated for months, and visited with architects from around the world including Pietro Belluschi and others from the United States, Brazil's Lucio Costa, and Italy's Franco Albini. Mrs. Kennedy and others met with the candidates together at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts, and visited several in their offices. The committee also conducted a secretive process whereby the architects voted anonymously for the most capable of their colleagues.[6]
Progress on the building began shortly after his death. After the assassination, Cambridge residents actively opposed the Kennedy family's efforts to build a presidential library at Harvard Square due to traffic concerns.[7] On January 13, 1964, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy announced that a taped oral-history project was to be undertaken for inclusion in the library. The project would feature administration staff, friends, family, and politicians from home and abroad. The Attorney General also announced that Eugene R. Black Sr. agreed to serve as chairman of the board of trustees and that $1 million of Black's $10 million goal had been given to the trust by the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation.[8]
The death of the President was still fresh in the hearts and minds of the American public and by March of that year $4.3 million had been pledged, including 18,727 unsolicited donations from the public.[9] Large donations came from the Hispanic world with Venezuela pledging $100,000 and Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín offering the same. The oral-history project also began recording, starting with Jacqueline Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Originally projected to consist of interviews with 150 people, 178 had agreed to participate and the total number of expected participants doubled to 300, with just one person (a Secret Service agent) declining to take part.[9]
Also by this time fourteen architects were named to serve on a design advisory committee:[9]
The library's first floor features a museum containing video monitors, family photographs, political memorabilia. Visitors to the museum begin their visit by watching a film narrated by President Kennedy in one of two cinemas that show an orientation film, and a third shows a documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There are seven permanent exhibits:[32]
Among the Library's art collection is a 1962 portrait of Robert F. Kennedy by Lajos Markos,[42] a watercolor sketch of John F. Kennedy by Jamie Wyeth,[43] a watercolor painting of the White House painted by Jacqueline Kennedy and given as a gift to her husband, who had it hung in the Oval Office,[44] a fingerpainting by Caroline Kennedy as a child,[45] and a bust of John F. Kennedy sculpted by Felix de Weldon.[46]
Kennedy's 25-foot Wianno Senior sailboat Victura is on display on the grounds of the Library from May to October. Acquired by the family when Kennedy was 15, it played an important role in forging sibling bonds and, after the president's death, continued being sailed by other members of the family, especially race-enthusiast brother Ted.[47][48]
The Library has a variety of temporary and special exhibits.[49]
The library is also home to a collection of documents and belongings from Ernest Hemingway. The collection was established in 1968 following an exchange of letters between Hemingway's widow Mary and Jacqueline Kennedy that confirmed that Hemingway's papers would be archived there.[53] In 1961, despite a U.S. travel ban to Cuba, President Kennedy had arranged to allow Mary Hemingway to go there to claim her recently deceased husband's documents and belongings.[53] A room for the collection was dedicated on July 18, 1980, by Patrick Hemingway and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.[53]
The Ernest Hemingway Collection spans Hemingway's career, and includes "ninety percent of existing Hemingway manuscript materials, making the Kennedy Library the world's principal center for research" on his life and work.[54] It includes:[54]
Incidents[edit]
In 2013, a fire occurred in the library. Reports initially stated that the fire appeared to have started in a mechanical room.[55] The fire was unrelated to the Boston Marathon bombing, which occurred simultaneously.[56]
In 2022, a window washer fell to his death in the building's pavilion.[57]