Remembering John F. Kennedy
For an earlier generation, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 21, 1963 was a defining moment. Those of us old enough to remember can say exactly where we were when we heard about that tragedy, and some of us with archival foresight preserved newspapers and magazines which recorded the event. The Chapin Library has recently received a cache of these, including special memorial issues of Life, Look, and the Saturday Evening Post, and the October 5, 1964 issue of Newsweek concerning the report on the assassination – still controversial in some circles – produced by the Warren Commission. Together with related memorabilia, these came to us from Terence T. Finn, Williams ’64, who recalls that he was in Professor James MacGregor Burns’ political science class when news of the shooting arrived.
The death of John F. Kennedy ended a hopeful if troubled administration which began fifty years ago today with one of the finest speeches in American history. Always an accomplished orator, at his inauguration President Kennedy famously encouraged his fellow Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, and other citizens of the world to “ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man”. These stirring phrases were only two of many written by the president together with his aide Theodore Sorensen; a recent analysis of the speech explains the keys to its success. A video and transcript of the inaugural address of January 20, 1961 may be found on the website of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. – WGH
Shown is a printed card, with facsimile signature of Jacqueline Kennedy (Mrs. John F. Kennedy), acknowledging a contribution to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library. Preserved with its original envelope, it is part of the welcome gift to the Chapin Library by Terence T. Finn.