Day 40: May 21
Here is a preview of our Scrapbook Interactive from the “Foundations of a Public Life” gallery.
John F. Kennedy, Jr. sits in the pilot’s seat of the Presidential helicopter during a weekend trip to Camp David in Frederick County, Maryland.
Photo Credit: Robert Knudsen/JFK Library. View more here: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-1963-03-31-A.aspx
The Kennedy Family at the Inauguration of Pope Pius XII
Today, foreign dignitaries gathered from around the world to watch Pope Francis be inaugurated as the 266th Pope of the Catholic church. As the Ambassador to Great Britain in 1939, Joseph Kennedy and his family attended the same event for Pope Pius XII.
Pictured here, the Kennedy family gathers for a quick photo-op before the ceremony. Pictured (left to right, back row) Patricia Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, (left to right, front row) an unidentified Vatican guard, Kathleen Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, Jean Kennedy and unidentified Vatican guard.
-from the JFK Library
Source: facebook.com
Happy Birthday Chelsea Clinton!
Photo: Governor Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton with Chelsea Victoria Clinton in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion on the day they brought their daughter home from the hospital. 3/4/80.
-from the Clinton Library
“I am a little country boy eight years old.”
-Forest Delano Roosevelt Ferguson letter to FDR
A guest post from Sherri DeCoursey, who used the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library to find a special piece of history for her father.
For as long as I can remember, a photo of FDR and a letter have hung side-by-side in the den of Mom and Dad’s home. The yellowed letter, written by FDR’s secretary Missy LeHand, was in response to a letter my father wrote the President in 1941. My dad—Forest Delano Roosevelt Ferguson—was eight years old in 1941. Dad will be 80 in June of this year…
Wouldn’t it be amazing, I thought, to have a glimpse of my father at such a young age—however small that glimpse was—if only to expand what I already knew about him as a father, business professional, family provider, veteran, jokester, and as we’ve grown older—a friend. What in the world would eight-year-old Forest Delano Roosevelt Ferguson have to say to the man running the country during such perilous times?
Seventy-two years after my father penned his letter, I discovered the answer to these questions in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. Read more on The National Archives blog
Snowball fight at the White House
Lynda Johnson and friend Warrie Lynn Smith throw snowballs on the White House Lawn. 2/11/1964.
-from the LBJ Library
Stay safe and have fun in the snow this weekend!
Source: facebook.com
Ronald Reagan was first called “Dutch” as a young child by his father. According to Reagan’s autobiographies, he received the nickname soon after his birth, from his father’s remark that he looked like “a fat little Dutchman.” As a toddler, the name was reinforced because of the “Dutch boy” haircut, once popular for little boys, that his mother gave him.
Photo: Ronald Reagan, (with “Dutch” haircut) Neil Reagan, and parents Jack and Nelle Reagan. Family Christmas card circa 1916-17.
-from the Reagan Library
The Kennedy Family returns from Palm Beach
President and Jacqueline Kennedy with their children, Caroline and John, Jr., at the south entrance of the White House. The First Family had just returned from a trip to Palm Beach, Florida. 2/4/61.
from the JFK Library
Jimmy Started Something New
In 1977, Jimmy Carter started a tradition that has now become one of the most anticipated events on Inauguration Day.
While in the motorcade of the Inaugural Parade, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter exited their car to walk the route to the White House.
Only the Secret Service had been notified of Carter’s decision to break with tradition, and at first, parade viewers thought the car had broken down.
Nine-year-old Amy Carter joined her parents for part of the parade route, jumping and skipping along Pennsylvania Avenue in her excitement.
-from the Carter Library
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
Inaugural Love
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were inaugurated in 1957, photographers captured an image of them on the Inaugural Parade viewing stand with the President’s grandchildren, Anne and David Eisenhower, and the VP’s daughters, Julie and Tricia Nixon.
David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon Eisenhower are now married, and in the most recent book that they co-authored, they recall that the event may have been the start of their lifelong romance.
David Eisenhower writes in “Going Home to Glory” that in one version of “the resulting photograph, I am staring intently at Julie and she is looking at me.”
-from the Eisenhower Library
