Our Blog - JFK Presidential Library, Boston, MA

We had visited the LBJ Presidential Library last time we were in Austin, so we decided to find time to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library as we passed through Boston. It is located right on the water next to the University of Massachusetts Boston. This was NOT the original site for the library, which was supposed to be built next to Harvard University. But there were so many delays with the project that, President Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy as president, dedicated the LBJ Library and Museum before the JFK library even broke ground. Jackie Kennedy selected I.M. Pei, who also did the pyramid at the Louvre museum, as the architect. They finally broke ground in 1977 and it was dedicated in 1979. You get a really nice view of the Boston skyline from across the bay.

Tom for President!!

There are multiple exhibits that has information and memorabilia on various key parts of his life and presidency, including the life of the Kennedy family and the early life of Jackie Kennedy, the Campaign Trail in 1960, the briefing room, the space race, the oval office, and Bobby Kennedy's office as Attorney General. Here we see the oval office display, which features the Civil Rights movement in the videos playing above the desk.

While the Berlin wall did not come down during Kennedy's reign, he expressed solidarity with democratic German citizens in a speech in 1963 in front of the Berlin Wall. There is a piece of the Berlin wall in the presidential library that shows the graffiti on the West side of the wall and then also (using a mirror) see the totally blank east side. There is nothing on the east side of the wall because people were not allowed to get close enough to the wall to paint anything on it.

One thing that I didn't know about Kennedy before this visit was that he actually published a book in 1940. In 1939, Kennedy toured Europe, the Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East in preparation for his Harvard senior honors thesis. The thesis, entitled "Appeasement in Munich", was about British negotiations during the Munich Agreement. This was later published as a book, entitled Why England Slept, which examines the failures of the British government to take steps to prevent World War II and its initial lack of response to Hitler's threats of war.

There was also a large display of pictures of various state visits and gifts that were given to the President and First Lady. One of those gifts is this small gold purse, decorated with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, that was a gift from King Hassan of Morocco during this visit in March 1963.