America’s largest digitized presidential archive, the John F. Kennedy collection, is now available online. John Kennedy’s daughter and President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Caroline Kennedy, made the announcement on January 13, 2011, at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. The unveiling commemorates this month’s 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s inauguration.
Kennedy Library’s Access to a Legacy Project
The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy announced the effort to digitize the Kennedy collection over four years ago. “Because of this historical initiative, millions of documents, miles of film and hundreds of thousands of photographs from President Kennedy’s administration will be scanned, digitized, indexed and permanently preserved.”
Due to the partnership with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum , the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and four Founding Technology Partners, Senator Kennedy’s digital vision, The Access to a Legacy, is now reality.
JFK Library Digital Archives
Until last week, visitors were only privy to the vast array of historical information by visiting the Kennedy Presidential Library in person. Last week’s momentous launch of the digital archive offers users from across the world unprecedented access to thousands of historical recordings, photographs, films, audio, documents and personal papers with the click of a button.
Information concerning historical events in American history including the Civil Rights movement, Cuban Missile Crisis, creation of the Peace Corps and sending the first man to the moon is included. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s impact on art, culture and historic preservation are also available online.
Approximately 1,500 photographs, 300 museum artifacts, 200,000 pages of documents, 1,200 telephone calls and speeches along with hundreds of reels of audio tape are available online. President’s Office Files, JFK’s Personal Papers, Gifts from Heads of State, Audio Speeches, White House Photographs and Film and Video Collections are just a few of the many collections now available to the public at large.
With over 8 million pages of John F. Kennedy’s personal and presidential documents and more than 7 million feet of film housed in the Kennedy Presidential Library, the vast majority of information is currently undigitized. In an effort to provide access to all information that is available, archivists from the JFK Library are in the process of adding more documents and material to the online collection.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
One of nine children, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917. In 1940, Kennedy graduated from Harvard and entered the U.S. Navy. He later served in the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In 1953, at the age of 36, he married Jacqueline Bouvier. John F. Kennedy became America’s 35th President and served from 1961 until November 22, 1963, when he was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.
People from all over the globe are now able to get a glimpse into President Kennedy’s thousand days in office without visiting the Library in person. Whether you are a student, educator or history buff, the John F. Kennedy digital archive provides online accessibility to a treasure-trove of historical information.
Source:
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, News Release. January 13, 2011. “Caroline Kennedy and David S. Ferriero Unveil Groundbreaking Online Archive of the Collection of President John F. Kennedy.” Accessed January 14, 2011.
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