John Kennedy Presidential Library

The fifth in a series on presidential libraries focused on the life and career of John F. Kennedy through rarely seen film and sound recordings, as well as letters, documents and artifacts collected from the stacks and vaults of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts. Library officials guided a tour of the library and responded to telephone calls and electronic mail. Series historian and consultant Richard Norton Smith participated from the studio in Washington, D.C.

Highlighted film, sound, documents and artifacts featured during the program included Senator Kennedy in 1956 and 1958 as he emerged on the national scene through the medium of television; Kennedy as a candidate and with his family; secretly recorded Oval Office conversations in which he freely expressed his views on the space flight to the moon and on deteriorating racial relations; the mural from Kennedy’s White House swimming pool; his Oval Office television and hi-fi console; and the Dicta close