Boston, MA – More than six million visitors have personally visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum since it opened in Boston a quarter century ago. But with today’s launch of the Kennedy Presidential Library’s new website – www.jfklibrary.org – it is the Kennedy Library’s hope and expectation that tens of millions more worldwide will now have the opportunity to virtually experience the inspiring legacy of President John F. Kennedy via the web.
The new Kennedy Presidential Library website was designed by Edwin Schlossberg, husband of Caroline Kennedy, and principle of ESI Design, one of the world’s foremost experiential design firms whose work includes the Ellis Island Visitors website. The technical development of the site was overseen by BigBad, an award-winning Boston-based interactive agency.
Visitors to the new site can now:
- travel back in time to the early 1960’s and experience first hand each of President Kennedy’s thousand days in office though the interactive White House Diary – a daily schedule of President John F. Kennedy that includes digital scans of his actual Appointment Diary for any given day as well as video, audio, or photographic documentation of that particular day’s events. When visitors log in, the Home Page automatically directs them to that very day in 1961, 1962 or 1963. [Go to February 20, 1962, for example, and watch newsreel footage of Col. John Glenn’s heroic orbit of earth or to June 27, 1963 to see President Kennedy’s homecoming to Ireland];
- take a Virtual Museum Tour and experience many of the Museum’s dynamic 25 multi-media exhibits that come to life through the actual voice of President John F. Kennedy;
- discover through the Interactive Timeline what other major historical, cultural and worldwide events were taking place during the Presidency of John F. Kennedy [When did the Beatles debut at the Cavern Club in Liverpool?]
- make nominations online for the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award™ and the New Frontier Award™;
- listen in on secret White House tape recordings during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, or sing along to the “Chicken Fat” song and learn more about President Kennedy’s commitment to physical fitness for the nation’s youth;
- listen to audio recordings of the Inaugural Address and more than 50 other speeches delivered by President Kennedy;
- download finding guides to the rich textual archives of the Ernest Hemingway Collection, which is part of the Kennedy Presidential Library’s collection;
- explore and download curricula and other teaching materials that bring to life the dynamic history of the early 1960’s;
- access primary historical resources and documents including audio files of President Kennedy’s major speeches; digital scans of actual historical documents such as correspondence from Premier Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis, or telegrams from Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights crisis; photographs and images from the Kennedy White House; and narratives that provide a beginner’s introduction to such topics as the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, Jacqueline Kennedy’s Restoration of the White House, the Peace Corps, the Space Race, and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness;
- make reservations online for the Kennedy Library Forums and read transcripts from past forums;
- submit essays online for the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest™;
- shop online from the Museum Store; and
- make on-line donations to support the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
The cost for the design and technical development of the new website was funded by private donations to the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial support and creative resources to the Kennedy Presidential Library. Individuals and organizations that made generous financial contributions to the design and development of the new Kennedy Presidential website include: Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Jack Manning and Boston Capital, Camrose and Kross LLC, EMC Corporation, Ted Hoff and Kathleen O’Connell, and Dick and Sally Phelps.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and supported by the Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. It is the only presidential library in New England and one of 12 in the United States.