Today's blog takes us just north of Quincy, Massachusetts to the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and the famous John F. Kennedy Library, designed by famous architect I.M. Pei. We got to tour the library with our friend Laurie and it was an amazing place in an amazing location, facing Boston Harbor. You'll read fast facts, the architect, and why it's also called a Museum, and not just a Presidential Library!
(Photo: Rob, Laurie and Tom outside the JFK Library and Museum. Credit: R.G.)
ABOUT JFK LIBRARY - The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
FAST FACTS: Cost: $20.8 million; Architect(s): I. M. Pei; Founded: 1979, Columbia Point, Boston, MA; Parent organization: National Archives and Records Administration; Size: 10 acres (40,000 m2). It's located next to the University of Massachusetts at Boston, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and the Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum.
WHAT IS HOUSED THERE? The building is the official repository for original papers and correspondence of the Kennedy Administration, as well as special bodies of published and unpublished materials, such as books and papers by and about Ernest Hemingway.
(Photo: Campaign poster for JFK in his Presidential run. Credit: R.G.)
WHO WAS THE ARCHITECT - After JFK's passing, Mrs. Kennedy selected
I.M. Pei as the architect. Though Pei was relatively unknown at the time, she viewed him as filled with promise and imagination. He later went on to become one of the most famous architects of the 20th century.
Ieoh Ming Pei FAIA RIBA was a Chinese-American architect. Raised in Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the garden villas at Suzhou, the traditional retreat of the scholar-gentry to which his family belonged. Pei won a wide variety of prizes and awards in the field of architecture, including the AIA Gold Medal in 1979, the first Praemium Imperiale for Architecture in 1989, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in 2003. In 1983, he won the Pritzker Prize, which is sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture.
(Photo: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy with I. M. Pei in 1964. He is speaking to the press about funding for the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, which he designed. Credit: Library of Congress)
ABOUT THE BUILDING - The library and museum is part of the Presidential Library System, which is administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) The library and Museum were dedicated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family. Progress on the building began shortly after President Kennedy's death in November 1963. On January 13, 1964, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy announced that a taped oral-history project was to be undertaken for inclusion in the library.(Photo: Ship's mast is located in the yard at the back of the library/museum because John F. Kennedy was in the U.S. Navy, and he loved being on boats. Credit:. R.G.)
WHY A LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, INSTEAD OF JUST A LIBRARY? - Since Kennedy encouraged his administration to save effects of both personal and official nature, the complex would not just be a collection of the President's papers, but "a complete record of a Presidential era." Therefore, the building would have the word "museum" appended to its name as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
NEXT: JFK and his legacy
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