JFK Library popular place on historic anniversary
BOSTON — To para- phrase Dickens, it was the best of days, it was the worst of days to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
I went on Saturday, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing that fulfilled President Kennedy’s pledge to put a man on the moon and bring him home safely by the end of the decade of the 1960s.
That made it a special day to be there, but everyone else evidently thought so, too. That meant lines. Long lines. For everything.
Despite the wall-towall humanity inside and the 94-degree heat outside, I was glad I went.
I enjoy politics, particularly politics of the past, when the issues and the politicians themselves seemed so much larger than they do today.
The Kennedy Library, on the campus of the University of Massachusetts-Boston, offers plenty of the old-time politics. I was a bit too young (three) to remember JFK’s campaign and
election of 1960, but the exhibits make the past come alive.
This is only the third presidential library I’ve visited (the others being California’s Nixon and Reagan libraries) and all do an excellent job of personalizing their president, giving you a feel for what they were like and how they rose to the presidency.
Does the JFK Library whitewash some things? Sure. We have learned a great deal about some unsavory aspects of the president’s personal life in the years since his death in 1963. I saw none of that on display, but that didn’t bother me.
The public didn’t know about his philandering when he was president; were we really worse off not knowing about it? It was a different time. The library offers plenty of photos and memorabilia broken down into these categories: Early Years, Harvard Years, War Years, Congress Years, Presidential Campaign, Presidency, Death and Legacy.
We are told that Jack, as he was known, was a bright but somewhat lazy student, eager to find the path of least resistance, doing just enough to get by. He matured while at Harvard, though, and wrote his senior thesis on the mistakes of England in allowing Germany to rearm.
With help from a friend of his father — another common theme, the influence/interference of Joseph P. Kennedy — young Kennedy’s thesis became a published book: “Why England Slept.”
A film about JFK’s life, through the nomination for president at Los Angeles in 1960, is narrated by JFK himself. It tells about his desire to serve in the Navy in World War II, his heroics with the PT-109, his return to the U.S. and entry into politics.
Some of my favorite exhibits included the campaign headquarters replica — complete with posters, buttons, and banners — and the replicas of the Oval Office and the attorney general’s office.
The AG, of course, was the president’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy.
As a newspaper person, I also liked the historic newspapers inside Boston Globe newsracks, just as they would have
You can’t go wrong touring America’s presidential libraries
appeared on the day after the election.
In honor of Saturday’s anniversary, the library hosted “JFK Spacefest 2019: The Eagle has Landed.” The event included a video greeting from the astronauts about the International Space Station, talks by astronauts Franklin Chang Diaz and Daniel Burbank; a spacesuit engineering demonstration by NASA engineer Su Curley; and a presentation by inventor Lonnie Johnson.
Hands-on activities for the younger set included Build and Launch Your Own Rocket, Space Patches, Space Helmets, Make Your Own Mercury Spacecraft and Make Your Own Moon Map.
There was also a scale model of the Gemini spacecraft.
In all, a lovely day. The thousands of people there seemed to have a grand time.
Now I think I’d just like to go back someday when it is not the anniversary of the moon landing.
William P. Warford’s column appears every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.