Boston, MA – The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum announced today that it has processed and made available for research the entire personal papers of John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, educator, author, and diplomat. The papers, a collection of over 500 cubic feet spanning the years 1932-2006, consist of materials documenting Galbraith’s early career, his activities as a Professor of Economics at Harvard University (1949-1975); Ambassador to India (1961-1963); and author of The Affluent Society (1958), The Liberal Hour (1960), and other books on economics and government.
Click here for more information about this collection and to view the finding guide.
Among the items included in these newly released materials are: correspondence; memoranda; draft manuscripts of books and articles; reports, speeches, and other writings; clippings; and other materials covering his early career, early government service, Harvard University, the 1960 Presidential election campaign, and diplomatic papers, which were accumulated by Mr. Galbraith in the course of his career. Notable items include correspondence between Galbraith and various members of the Kennedy family including Robert, Edward and Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as with Averell Harriman, George McGovern, the Bhutto family, President Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Eugene McCarthy, and William F. Buckley.
In 1934 Galbraith began his long tenure at Harvard University, where he became an emeritus professor, though his academic career frequently gave way to public service. After the end of the war in Europe, Galbraith worked with the Office of Strategic Services directing research on the effectiveness of the Allies' strategic bombing of Germany. In 1947 he was one of the founders of the Americans for Democratic Action. After working prominently as a speechwriter in the presidential campaigns of Senator Adlai Stevenson, Galbraith went on to chair the Democratic Advisory Council during Dwight D. Eisenhower's Republican administration. In 1956 he visited India where his fascination with that country inspired his later works.
Galbraith was a close friend, campaigner and early supporter of President Kennedy, and after Kennedy's victory he was named U.S. ambassador to India from 1961 to 1963. An outspoken critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, he campaigned on behalf of the presidential ambitions of
Senators Eugene McCarthy (1968) and George McGovern (1972). Later he worked in the campaigns of Congressman Morris Udall (1976) and Senator Edward Kennedy (1980). Though he eventually broke with President Lyndon B. Johnson over the war in Vietnam, he helped conceive Johnson's ‘Great Society’ program and wrote a major presidential address that outlined its purposes.
A prolific and diverse writer, whose books range over a variety of topics, Galbraith's major intellectual contributions lie in the trilogy The Affluent Society (1958), The New Industrial State (1967), and Economics and the Public Purpose (1973). Along the way he published over 20 other books, including two novels, a co-authored book on Indian painting, memoirs, travelogues, political tracts, and several books on economic and intellectual history.
The John Kenneth Galbraith collection will be added to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s Archives, which include 48 million pages of documents from the collections of over 350 individuals, organizations, or government agencies; oral history interviews with over 1,500 people; and more than 30,000 books. The Audiovisual Archives administers collections of more than 400,000 still photographs, 7,550,000 feet of motion picture film, 1,200 hours of video recordings, over 7,000 hours of audio recordings and 500 original editorial cartoons.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through scholarship, educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.
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 Research Room is open 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. each weekday, and is closed on weekends and Federal Holidays. Appointments may be made by calling (617) 514-1629. The Library is located in the Dorchester section of Boston, off Morrissey Blvd., next to the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston. Parking is free. There is a 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.