This new display features documents, photographs, and artifacts from the Kennedy Presidential Library's collections which illustrate key aspects of John F. Kennedy's early life, including: growing up as part of a large and service-oriented family; his education at Harvard University; his foreign travels as the son of an ambassador and as a United States Congressman; his Naval service in the South Pacific during World War II; and his authorship of two books, Why England Slept and Profiles in Courage. (
Why England Slept)
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Among the exhibit highlights:
JFK's notes on government and the presidency, written as a student at Harvard University.
JFK's travel diaries written during visits to Europe and Asia in the 1930's and 1950's.
JFK's notes on the opening session of the United Nations organization in 1945. Young Kennedy covered the event as a journalist for the Hearst newspaper chain.
Draft pages and the typewriter used for his senior honors thesis turned book, Why England Slept.
Draft pages from his Pulitzer-prize winning book Profiles in Courage.
JFK's Navy dress uniform and medals of commendation including his purple heart.
Memorabilia from JFK's early political campaigns for House and Senate.