Jacqueline Kennedy Oral History Unsealed After 47 Years

3 The President’s

Desk

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5 Peace Corps 50

Anniversary

5 Striking

Gold

6 Student

Spotlight

HIGHLIGHTS

Jacqueline Kennedy Oral History

Unsealed After 47 Years

ne of the most exciting

things about studying

history is how, when

new source material comes to

light, we can re-examine existing

interpretations of the past, and

come to a new or deeper under-

standing. On September 14, 2011,

one such source will be made

available to the public and

historians for the first time ever—

an oral history of Jacqueline

Kennedy. In the spring of 1964,

just months after her husband’s

assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy

sat down with historian and

Kennedy family friend Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. for a series of seven wide-ranging

conversations. These discussions were part of an extensive oral history project that

captured the recollections and reflections of those close to President Kennedy

shortly after his death. Sealed for 47 years, the oral history transcripts and tapes

will be published in a new book, Jacqueline Kennedy—Historic Conversations on

Life with John F. Kennedy with a foreword by Caroline Kennedy and annotations

by historian Michael Beschloss.

In the eight-and-a-half hours of audio recordings, Mrs. Kennedy shares her personal

recollections on a variety of topics from JFK’s early campaigns to the Cuban

Missile Crisis, and from their family and married life in the White House to her

evolving role as first lady. She also provides keen observations of the politics and

personalities of the day, both on national and international stages. In announcing

the publication in conjunction with the 50

anniversary of the Kennedy admin-

istration, Caroline Kennedy, president of the Kennedy Library Foundation, noted

that, “My mother’s passion for history guided and informed her work in the White

House.… She believed in my father, his vision for America, and the art of poli-

tics.… It’s a privilege for me to honor the memory of my parents by making this

unique history available.”

President and Mrs. Kennedy view a performance of the

Black Watch Tattoo on the White House South Lawn,

November 13, 1963.

The White House Diary:

Discover JFK’s Thousand

Days in Office

Travel back in time to the early

1960’s and experience each of

President Kennedy’s thousand days

in office through the interactive

White House Diary—a daily schedule

for President John F. Kennedy that

includes digital scans of his actual

appointment diary for any given

date, as well as video, audio, and

photographs of the day’s activities.

Discover events like the ones

listed below by visiting http://whd.

jfklibrary.org/diary/.

H August 28, 1961: The first

Peace Corps volunteers meet JFK,

then depart for Ghana the next day

H September 3, 1961: JFK signs

$1.25 Minimum Wage Bill

H September 25, 1961: JFK

endorses disarmament and chal-

lenges the Soviets to a Peace Race

H October 11, 1961: JFK holds

a press conference to discuss

Vietnam, mental retardation,

and the Berlin Wall

H November 13, 1961: Pablo

Casals plays at a White House

dinner in honor of Governor

Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico

H November 22, 1961: JFK sends

advisors to South Vietnam

H December 14, 1961: JFK

establishes Commission on the

Status of Women

continued on page 2

PHOTO BY ABBIE ROWE

ISSUE 15 H FALL 2011

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AT THE JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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2 New Frontiers

The Library’s Oral History Project is one of the institution’s

oldest continuing activities. Other oral histories recorded as

part of this project include interviews with Robert Kennedy,

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, Theodore

Sorensen, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, President

Gerald Ford, and Lady Bird Johnson. These interviews are

all housed at the Kennedy Library and may be accessed

at www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKOH. For

a description of the program, visit www.jfklibrary.org/

Research/How-to-do-Research-at-the-Kennedy-Library/

Oral-History-Program.aspx.

In conjunction with the publication of Mrs. Kennedy’s oral

history, the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will

unveil a new exhibit, In Her Voice: Jacqueline Kennedy, The

White House Years. Excerpts from these conversations will

be displayed in context with the objects, documents, and

photographs that help tell the story of the events described by

Mrs. Kennedy as she recalled her life with the President. In

the exhibit, you and your students may not only read these

excerpts, but also listen to her remarks and glean information

from both her words and the intonation of her voice. This is

what makes oral history unique in the constellation of pri-

mary source materials. Documents, such as diaries or letters,

may provide a first-person perspective, but only in the study

of oral history can we learn more about a person or event

through the sound of her or his voice and through film foot-

age—her or his body language, too.

Among the objects on display will be the dress worn by

Mrs. Kennedy to a State Dinner held in Paris, 1961, and

the October 1962 paperweight calendar given by the

President to Mrs. Kennedy for her personal support during

the darkest days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The exhibit

will be ongoing.

Oral History in the Classroom

Do you use oral history in your classroom? Oral history as

a primary source has great appeal to students. It personalizes

the past, contains a story element, often conveys emotion,

and demonstrates spontaneity and candor not always

present in a written account. Encourage your students to

include oral history in their research, and to assess the

information in relation to other primary and secondary

sources on the topic. Online oral histories ranging from

narratives by former slaves to the public reaction to 9/11

are readily accessible. On the Library’s website, topics such

as the Bay of Pigs Invasion or the Cuban Missile Crisis,

for example, may be viewed through the lens of different

presidential advisors’ recollections. And, in the case of the

Cuban Missile Crisis, these personal accounts may also be

compared to the tapes from the secretly recorded meetings

of the ExCom (Executive Committee of the National

Security Council). Tips for where to find and how to

analyze oral histories are listed below.

History also comes to life for students when they conduct

an oral history interview themselves. Preparing for the

conversation by researching both the subject and the

interviewee, and creating questions tailored to the indi-

vidual can yield a wealth of information and provide new

insights on a topic. For tips on creating and documenting

oral histories, see the resources listed below. H

Oral History, continued

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Definition of oral history: the record of an indi-

vidual’s reminiscences, accounts, and interpretations

of the past in his/her own spoken words obtained

through planned interview(s) and preserved through

the use of audio and video recordings, film, and/or

written transcription.

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You can find oral histories online at:

The Library of Congress: American Memory

memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

HistoryMatters: Oral Histories Online

http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/

online.html

StoryCorps: The Conversation of a Lifetime

http://www.storycorps.org/record-your-story/

Resources for Teaching with Oral History and

Conducting Oral History Interviews

Engaging Students with Primary Sources is a compre-

hensive guide to analyzing diverse original source

materials. It includes sample worksheets, lesson plans,

and suggestions for finding oral histories for class-

room use and organizing an oral history interview.

http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/

professional/PrimarySources.pdf

Library of Congress Teacher’s Guide: Analyzing Oral

Histories provides sample questions you can use

to help students analyze oral histories and form

questions appropriate for further investigation.

www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html

id you ever wonder what it is like to sit behind

the desk of the highest office holder in the land?

You and your students, and visitors to the

Library’s website may now sit virtually at President

Kennedy’s Oval Office desk and explore the objects he

kept around him—and the stories they tell. Created in

conjunction with the 50

anniversary commemoration of

the Kennedy administration, this interactive exhibit helps

bring JFK’s biography and presidency to life in new ways

for learners of all ages.

“I hope users will feel they are sitting at the president’s

desk themselves, and will be excited to bring history to life

in this dynamic setting,” said Caroline Kennedy, President

of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, in a statement

announcing the launch of the new interactive featured on

the Library’s website. “My parents shared a love of history,

and I know they would have enjoyed this exhibit themselves.”

The President’s Desk home page is based on an archival

image of JFK’s Oval Office and features seven interactive

modules. Highlighted objects—including the President’s

White House diary (official appointments book), tele-

phone, secret taping button, a piece of scrimshaw from

his collection, a picture frame, a campaign button, and

the coconut husk paperweight containing the message that

helped to save him and his PT-109 crew in WWII—open

to reveal unique multi-media presentations. Newly-

digitized resources ranging from recorded meetings in the

Oval Office to family home movies populate the site, and

provide an engaging and fascinating glimpse into the

Kennedy White House and JFK, the man. More than

1,000 primary sources are spotlighted in this exhibit.

The mode of presentation for each object is different, but

all offer the chance to explore a variety of original sources.

Students may, for example, dial up conversations with ten

different people from JFK’s rolodex. They can listen in on

discussions with Attorney General Robert Kennedy about

a Gallup Poll following the Bay of Pigs invasion, or Major

Gordon Cooper after splashdown following his space-

flight. Younger students may explore the road to the

White House through the 1960 election campaign button,

or find out more about JFK’s boyhood through the family

album featured in the picture frame module. Older students

may press the secret taping button and open the vault to

recordings of meetings held in the Oval Office or Cabinet

Room. They can play a recording on a reel-to-reel tape player,

and in a “you are there” experience sit side-by-side with

JFK as he and his top advisors discuss such pressing issues

as Vietnam or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Students of all

ages can learn more about JFK’s personal interests and

connections with the sea by selecting the piece of scrim-

shaw he kept on his desk. Clicking on this object unveils

a map of Cape Cod. By sailing his boat Victura from port

to port, students can explore JFK’s maritime collections as

well as view home movies filmed in Hyannisport.

As a teaching tool, The President’s Desk has applications

to classroom learning and homeschooling. To help teachers

maximize its use, we created The President’s Desk:

A Resource Guide for Teachers, Grades 4-12. The

guide provides curriculum-relevant lesson plans and

activities with ties to national standards. It is available

at www.jfklibrary.org/Education/Teachers/Curricular-

Resources and will be in print copy this winter. H

The President’s Desk was made possible with generous

support from IBM, Staples, Inc., and Shari E. Redstone.

New Frontiers 3

Take a Seat at The President’s Desk!

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4 New Frontiers

o commemorate the 50

anniversary of the

Peace Corps, the Kennedy Library and John F.

Kennedy National Historic Site presented Crossing

Borders—Through Literature, Poetry and Personal Stories,

a conference for teachers of grades 3-8 and school librarians.

More than 100 people gathered at the Library on April 7,

2011 for discussions with award-winning authors and

Peace Corps educators on how to deepen students’ under-

standing of peoples and cultures around the world.

Junko Yokota, professor of education and director of

the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books at

National-Louis University, served as moderator for a panel

discussion with authors Alma Flor Ada, Naomi Shihab

Nye, Linda Sue Park and James Rumford. The authors

drew on personal experience, examples from their works,

and responses from readers as they offered a range of

perspectives on what it means to “cross borders.”

Marjorie Anctil and Lynette Bouchie of Coverdell World

Wise Schools guided participants through the Peace Corps’

extensive resources for educators, available online at

www.peacecorps.gov/wws. Sasha Lauterbach, librarian

at Cambridge Friends School, and Marion Reynolds, pro-

fessor of children’s literature at Tufts University, presented

high quality books set in different countries as well as

criteria for selecting materials which accurately reflect a

particular culture.

To access a bibliography created for the conference

and to hear excerpts from the panel discussion,

visit http://www.jfklibrary.org/Education/Teachers/

Professional-Development.aspx.

Conference Marks Peace Corps Anniversary

Pictured from L-R are Junko Yokota, Alma Flor Ada, Naomi Shihab Nye, Linda Sue Park and James Rumford.

Audience members asked questions and shared ideas during the

panel discussion.

“As I think about borders, though, I think that many times

there’s a confusion between another word beginning with

the same sound, and that is “barriers.” And I think that

it’s essential that borders should not be barriers.… Having

been a several-times immigrant—from Cuba to Spain, from

Spain to Peru, from Peru to the United States—I know

very well at a personal level the difficulties entailed in

changing completely from what is familiar and known to

the unfamiliar and unknown, and yet how enriching that

possibility can also be.” — Alma Flor Ada

PHOTO BY MATTHEW TEUTEN

New Frontiers 5

n January 13, 2011 the Kennedy Library

launched a new website, highlighting its digital

archives. Teachers and students may now access

a large number of the Library’s textual and audiovisual

collections from home and school. Entire archival boxes of

textual materials have been digitized and presented in a

manner that will help students experience the excitement

and challenges of real archival research.

As an example of how you can explore the digitized resourc-

es, we have “pulled” a document from a virtual folder in

the President’s Office Files collection. (See image below)

This memo, dated August 14, 1961, from President

Kennedy to Secretary of State Dean Rusk was written the

day after construction of the Berlin Wall began, and offers

students an opportunity to evaluate Kennedy’s initial

response to

the Wall. You might have students consider the following

questions:

• How would building the Berlin Wall reflect poorly on

the East German government?

• Why would Kennedy be concerned with “how far”

exploiting the Berlin Wall should be pushed?

• You might also ask students to put themselves in the

shoes of Secretary Rusk and provide

possible ways the U.S. could use the

Berlin Wall as a propaganda tool.

As you can see, this document can

provide a “hook” for discussing the

critical situation in Berlin. How did

we find it among the thousands of

items in the digital archives? Here is

one of several methods:

Step One – Destination:

President’s Office Files

The fully digitized collection of the

President’s Office Files was originally

a set of working files kept by

President Kennedy’s personal secre-

tary, Evelyn Lincoln, in her office

located just outside the Oval Office

in the White House.

1. Visit the main page of our

website at www.jfklibrary.org.

2. Click the “Research” tab and select

“Search the Archives.”

3. If you click the “Search” button

without entering any data, a

screen will appear with a row of

topics on the left side of the page.

You can now browse the various

categories in the Digital Archives.

4. Under “Digitized Collection,”

select “Papers of John F.

Kennedy. Presidential Papers.

President’s Office Files.”

Striking Gold in the Digital Archives

continued on page 7

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT!

100 middle school students from across Massachusetts were

honored on March 23

with the Make a Difference Award at

the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Each

student received a personalized certificate in recognition of his

or her volunteer work.

The Library’s Make a Difference Award is given to Massachusetts

students who are nominated by a teacher or principal for their

outstanding volunteer work in their school, neighborhood, town,

or global community. H

“President Kennedy believed that every person

can make a difference and each of us should try.

These students are an inspiring example of JFK’s

timeless call to service.” — Library Director Tom Putnam

Kevin Kay, a junior at Walt Whitman High School in

Bethesda, Maryland, was selected as the first-place

winner of the 2011 Profile in Courage Essay Contest.

Kay was honored at the Profile in Courage Award

ceremony on May 23, 2011 along with Award recipients

Elizabeth Redenbaugh and Wael Ghonim.

Kay’s winning essay tells the little-known story of Florida

State Representative John B. Orr Jr. who risked his career

and personal safety in 1956 when he proclaimed that

“segregation is morally wrong.” His lone dissenting vote

in the Florida House of Representatives challenged

measures to perpetuate school segregation in his state.

To read the winning essay and access information on the

Profile in Courage Essay Contest, visit www.jfklibrary.org

and follow the links Education—Profile in Courage

Essay Contest. H

On April 22, 2011 sixty students and staff members from

New England enrichment programs attended the annual

Student Leadership Conference at the John F. Kennedy

Presidential Library and Museum. Students toured the

Museum, listened to a panel of peers discuss youth

volunteerism, and participated in several workshops

where they solved a budget crisis, wrote letters to U.S.

senators, and built model communities. H

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6 New Frontiers

PHOTO BY TOM FITZSIMMONS

PHOTO BY KENNEDY LIBRARY AND MUSEUM STAFF

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New Frontiers 7

Digital Archives, continued

Protecting

Jacqueline Kennedy

Monday, September 12

5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

Clinton Hill, Jacqueline Kennedy’s

Secret Service detail, shares

memories of the Kennedy White

House and his service protecting

the first family. H

Jacqueline Kennedy:

Historic Conversations

Monday, September 19

5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

On the publication of Jacqueline

Kennedy: Historic Conversations on

Life with John F. Kennedy, Caroline

Kennedy will join a panel of histo-

rians to discuss the 1964 interviews

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. conducted

with Mrs. Kennedy. This oral history

has never before been open to

the public. H

50th Anniversary: The

Missile Gap Controversy

Monday, September 26

5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

50 years ago this month, President

Kennedy received national security

estimates indicating that the United

States had surpassed the Soviet

Union in missiles, dispelling the

notion of Soviet superiority in the

arms race. Join historians Timothy

Naftali, Fred Kaplan, and John Prado

for a discussion of this pivotal

moment in world history. H

UPCOMING KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUMS

September

WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM:

Step Two – Destination: Department of State

On the left side of the page you will see that you have

selected the President’s Office Files among the Digital

Archives and find options for refining your search. Since

the U.S. response to the Berlin Wall would be an issue of

great importance to the State Department, you might want

to narrow down your search to JFK’s correspondence with

that department.

1. Scroll down to “Organization,” expand the selection by

clicking “more.”

2. Scroll down to “United States Department of State,

09/1789.” Click on it.

Step Three – Destination: Berlin

Now you will want to narrow down the correspondence

to those dealing with Berlin.

1. Scroll down the page until you see “Place,” and expand

the selection to find “Berlin (Germany).”

2. When you click on it, you’ll see one folder “pulled”

from this search: “State, 1961: August-September.”

As you scroll through the documents in this folder, you

will notice that they have been digitized in the same order

as they are found in the actual folder in the paper collec-

tion. You can have the same “aha” moment you may have

had yourself when visiting an archive—in the process of

browsing through a folder, you stumble upon a gem while

looking for something completely different. Yes, the memo

noted above is there, but are you also curious about

Kennedy’s thoughts on England joining the Common

Market? You have the folder—dig in! H

Columbia Point

Boston, Massachusetts 02125

T JFK/UMass

617.514.1600

www.jfklibrary.org

The Kennedy Library

Department of Education and

Public Programs offers free

museum passes to teachers

considering a field trip to the

Library. Please call 617.514.1600.

Museum Hours

Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Closed Thanksgiving,

Christmas, and New Year’s Day

PRSRT FIRST CLASS MAIL

US POSTAGE

PAID

PERMIT NO 157

BOSTON MA

★

NEW CLASSROOM AT THE KENNEDY LIBRARY!

Additional support for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum’s history and civic education programs is provided by:

The Coca-Cola Foundation; Connell Family Fund; the John F. Kennedy Irish Abroad Legacy Gift; and

Publication of the New Frontiers newsletter for educators is generously supported by Comcast.

n May 4, 2011, fourth- and fifth-

grade students and teachers from

the Winship Elementary School in

Boston joined Caroline Kennedy in a ribbon-

cutting ceremony for a new state-of-the-art

classroom at the Kennedy Library. The new

space will allow for additional offerings

for school and family audiences. For more

information on Museum programs for

elementary, middle, and high school students,

visit the “Teachers” section of our website

at www.jfklibrary.org. H

Winship Elementary School students join Kennedy Library Foundation President Caroline

Kennedy (center, front), Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson (far left), University

of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley (center, back), and JFK Presidential Library

Director Tom Putnam (far right) at the official opening of the new classroom.

PHOTO BY TOM FITZSIMMONS

For more online educational resources, be sure to visit www.JFK50.org, winner of the 2011

Gold MUSE Award for Education and Outreach.