For Immediate Release: September 14, 2006
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
Boston, MA – On Thursday, September 28, the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library will open an intimate display on the life of President Kennedy’s mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, with personal papers and photographs drawn from the private collection of the Kennedy family matriarch.
The new display marks the formal opening of the personal papers and memorabilia of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy that were donated by her family to the Kennedy Presidential Library in 2004. The historical collection dates from 1878 to 1995 and is now available to researchers for the first time.
Among the highlights of the display, Rose Kennedy: In Her Own Words, are excerpts from Mrs. Kennedy’s journals, private family photographs, and letters from world leaders and her children.
Born in Boston’s North End in 1890, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald and Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald, and the wife of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy whom she married in October of 1914. She was the mother of nine children, Joseph, John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean and Edward. In her lifetime she would actively support and participate in the public service careers of her family, all the while remaining a prolific correspondent and keeper of a diary.
“I have always enjoyed living and working, and I believe I have had a great life,” 79 year-old Rose Kennedy wrote in 1969. “I consider myself very lucky. I had a wonderful youth; my father gave me the stimulation of travel [and] zest - curiosity and interest and enthusiasm for life. My mother bestowed on me Faith and common sense. I fell in love young and married the man I loved, and lived a full life with him – from finance to the movies to politics to diplomacy. I have been ideally happy with my children.”
Rose Kennedy had a strong sense of history. She recorded her life in handwritten diaries, her 1914 wedding and honeymoon in “The Wedding Log,” trips in travel journals like “My Ocean Trip,” their 1938 visit to “Windsor Castle” in scrapbooks, and quotations she liked in her “Little Black Book.” When she was in her eighties, she recorded interviews for her memoir. Mrs. Kennedy kept everything she thought interesting including wedding invitations; calling cards and “at home cards;” postcards; letters and telegrams from her family (including her 29 grandchildren), the general public, heads of state, and friends; as well as notes on various subjects including political campaigns, presentation at Court, installation of a Pope, presidential inaugurations, the Bay of Pigs, and even picking blueberries. Rose Kennedy also kept menus from various events including her and Ambassador Kennedy’s dinner for the King and Queen of England, menus from dinners at the White House, as well as the President and First Lady’s 1961 trip to Vienna and Paris. The collection also includes over 15,000 photographs; thank you notes including many from Jacqueline Kennedy; report cards; health records; birthday and get well cards; sound recordings; and even bills and receipts for decoration and other household expenses in New York, Palm Beach, and Hyannisport.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s Archives include 48 million pages of documents from the collections of 340 individuals, organizations, or government agencies; oral history interviews with 1,300 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 9,000 hours of audio recordings and 500 original editorial cartoons. The Research Room is open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm each weekday, and is closed on weekends and Federal Holidays. Appointments to conduct research may be made by calling (617) 514-1629.
General admission to the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is $10.00. Admission for seniors over the age of 62 and college students with appropriate identification is $8.00, and for children ages 13-17, $7.00. 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.