Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner

Boston MA – On April 12, 2007 the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library will unveil a new exhibit, Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner. 

This special exhibit will include gowns worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at the White House, including a pink colored silk-dupioni shantung dress worn at a State Dinner honoring the French Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux.   The exhibit will also feature copies of remarks made at dinners by President Kennedy with his own handwritten notes, and examples of table settings used at dinners in the Kennedy White House. In addition, the exhibit will include Mrs. Kennedy's handwritten memos and letters regarding entertainment, guest lists, seating plans, menus, table settings and flower arrangements which will illustrate her personal involvement and attention to detail in planning the events.

When Jacqueline Kennedy became first lady at the age of 31, she brought a new vision of the role the White House can play in the life of the nation.   By 1963, her work to restore the White House rooms and furnishings had transformed it from a place where the president worked and lived into what she called "an emblem of the American Republic."  Under her leadership, The White House became a place of pilgrimage, a place to learn about America's history and culture, a place to showcase America's heritage.  She transformed The White House into a stage to honor American intellectual and cultural achievement, and to celebrate the role of the arts in national life.  

Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner is sponsored by National Amusements.  The media sponsor is WCVB-TV 5.

Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner is just one of the many exciting and inspiring exhibits visitors will find in the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. The Museum’s 25 multimedia exhibits and period settings from the White House offer an exciting “you are there” experience, and create a stirring account of President Kennedy’s thousand days in office. Beginning with 17-minute film narrated by President Kennedy, visitors step back into the recreated world of the early 1960s and witness the first televised presidential debate; accompany first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy on her televised tour of the White House; sit in on press conferences with the President; relive the thrill of Col. John Glenn’s first orbital mission; stroll through White House corridors; witness Cabinet meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and observe the president’s televised address from the Oval Office on the Civil Rights crisis.

One of Boston’s most popular destinations for visitors from all nations, the architectural masterpiece designed by I.M. Pei sits on a 10-acre waterfront site on Columbia Point offering panoramic views of Boston’s skyline and Harbor Islands.