For Immediate Release: March 31, 2010
Further information: Rachel Day (617) 514-1662, rachel.day@jfklfoundation.org
Boston, MA—The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum today announced that the linen dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy on Easter Sunday in 1963 is now on display in the First Lady Exhibit in the Museum at the Kennedy Presidential Library.
Designed by Oleg Cassini, the pale mauve day dress has modern, simple lines with an understated quatrefoil decoration on the front. Mrs. Kennedy wore the dress, along with white kid gloves and a pale lace mantilla, to a private Easter Mass at her in-law’s home in Palm Beach, Florida on April 14, 1963. A photograph taken that day shows President and Mrs. Kennedy with their two children, Caroline and John Jr.
Also newly installed in the museum is a dress and coat ensemble worn by Mrs. Kennedy on a state visit to Venezuela in 1961. The matching apricot linen pieces were designed by Marc Bohan for Christian Dior. Mrs. Kennedy’s fluency in Spanish was a great asset to President Kennedy during his administration and she would often accompany him on trips to Central and South America. On the trip to Venezuela in December 1961, President Kennedy introduced his wife as “one of the Kennedys who does not need an interpreter” before she delighted the crowd by delivering remarks in Spanish.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum features 25 multimedia exhibits and period settings from the White House, offering an exciting “you are there” experience and creating a stirring account of President Kennedy’s thousand days in office.
General admission to the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is $12.00. Admission for seniors over the age of 62 and college students with appropriate identification is $10.00, and for children ages 13-17, $9.00. Children ages 12 and under are admitted for free.
The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with the exceptions of Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. The Library is located in the Dorchester section of Boston, off Morrissey Boulevard, next to the campus of the University of Massachusetts/Boston. Parking is free. There is free shuttle-service from the JFK/UMass T Stop on the Red Line. The Museum is fully handicapped accessible. For more information, call (866) JFK-1960 or access www.jfklibrary.org on the Internet.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization.