Today the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum announced that the pale yellow suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy during her celebrated trip to Paris with President Kennedy is now on display in the First Lady Exhibit in the Museum at the Kennedy Presidential Library.
Designed by Oleg Cassini, the silk-and-wool Alaskine suit was a favorite of Mrs. Kennedy’s. She wore it, along with a matching yellow hat by Halston, to a luncheon with President and Mme Charles de Gaulle at the Élysée Palace in Paris on May 31, 1961. The extraordinary warm welcome afforded to the French-speaking Mrs. Kennedy during this visit prompted President Kennedy’s now famous remark, “I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself…I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.”
Mrs. Kennedy wore the suit again on June 28, 1962 when she accepted the first copy of the newly published White House guidebook, which she commissioned and oversaw as part of her White House restoration project. Now in its 22nd edition, The White House: An Historic Guide is available at the Kennedy Library’s Museum Store and on-line at the Museum’s eStore for $10.00. Proceeds continue to support White House preservation.
(Click here for more information about Jacqueline Kennedy in the White House)
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.