The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy

Father Richard J. Casey greets John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States, after he attended Friday Mass at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown the morning of the inauguration, January 20, 1961. According to Richard Tofel, religion was a dominant issue in the primaries and general election and “Kennedy was not above using his faith to political advantage” (12). While according to a Gallup poll in 1956 twenty-two percent of voters said that they would not vote for a well-qualified Catholic from their party, Tofel says in 1960 Catholics who voted “their faith over their politics may have provided the margin of victory in five states” (12). (Courtesy of the Library of Congress LC-USZ62-70671)

Tofel, Richard. Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.

American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963), at the invitation of John F. Kennedy, wrote a new poem entitled “Dedication” for the inauguration. After reading just a few lines, Frost stopped because he could not see since the sun was reflecting off of the snow. Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson tried to shield Frost’s face from the glare, but he could still not see (Tofel 20). Frost then went on to recite his poem “The Gift Outright” from memory and changed the ending from “Such as she was, such as she has become” to “such she will become” noting that he changed it for this occasion (Tofel 21). According to Thurston Clarke, Frost’s performance “turned out even better than Kennedy could have dared imaged” and provided him with an audience that was “emotionally involved in the ceremony” (188). (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph collection, LC-USZ62-120741)

Clarke, Thurston. Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech that Changed America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004.

Tofel, Richard. Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.

Repeating after Chief Justice Earl Warren who has his left hand on the Fitzgerald family Bible, John F. Kennedy takes the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 1961. The onlookers include Mrs. Kennedy and President Eisenhower standing behind Chief Justice Warren and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon standing behind President Kennedy. (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration 111-SC-578830)

Richard,Tofel, Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005), 22.

President John F. Kennedy delivers his inaugural address calling upon Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.” He addresses America’s friends and foes and sets out the goals that he has for America and the world. In finishing, Kennedy calls upon Americans as well as citizens around the world to “ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.” (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph collection, LC-USZ 62-135491)

The Kennedys arrive at the inaugural ball at the National Guard Armory in Washington, DC. This was one of five inaugural balls that President Kennedy attended the evening of January 20, 1961 (Clarke 204). (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Collection JFK-WHP: White House Photographs, 12/19/1960-03/11/1964)

Clarke, Thurston. Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech that Changed America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004.

Comments on the Visual History Project

For me, the first challenge of this project was to think of an event that was on a national scale so that there would be images of it available on the National Archives’ or Library of Congress’s website. On these websites there are not as many images of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as I thought there would be.

I had trouble understanding the copyright information for some of the images that I found on the Library of Congress’s Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. One of the images had a reproduction number but no information about publication and another one said that publication may be restricted. I followed multiple links, but I did not find any of them helpful. When I called the Library of Congress looking for some answers about specific images that I had found, I got a voice message directing me to the website. I was pleased to find that the image of Robert Frost that I found on the LOC website did have information about the copyright restrictions.

Even though the National Archives has fewer images concerning my topic, I thought its database was easier to use. The one image that I did find in its database had information about its use restriction. I liked that I could set the search parameters, that it displayed the images on the search results page, and that I could sort the images within the results.

This project was frustrating because the story that I wanted to tell was limited by images that I was able to find and could use. The most interesting part about this project was realizing that the images that I found shaped the story that I told and thinking about the impact this has on learning about history. Through this project I learned how images and informative captions can be used to tell a story.