Mem­o­ra­bilia from John F. Kennedy’s brief stint as a Prince­ton stu­dent and items from his polit­i­cal career– includ­ing a 1935 Christ­mas card depict­ing Kennedy with his Prince­ton room­mates dressed in top hats and suits in homage to Fred Astaire from the motion pic­ture Top Hat (which opened ear­lier that year), and pho­tographs and doc­u­ments from the War­ren Commission’s inves­ti­ga­tion into the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Kennedy’s assas­si­na­tion– are part of a new exhi­bi­tion in the Wiess Lounge at the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library. Run­ning through Sep­tem­ber 2, 2011, John F. Kennedy: From Old Nas­sau to the New Fron­tier com­mem­o­rates the 50th anniver­sary of the elec­tion of our 35th Pres­i­dent and his Prince­ton connections.

This exhi­bi­tion show­cases the rarely-seen Prince­ton­ian side of Kennedy, who attended the Uni­ver­sity late in the fall semes­ter of 1935 despite his father’s desire that he attend Har­vard Uni­ver­sity. Unaware of his future in pol­i­tics, Kennedy had declared his intended pro­fes­sion to be “bank­ing” on his appli­ca­tion and stated that the cam­pus envi­ron­ment of Old Nas­sau was “sec­ond to none.” Kennedy was admit­ted to the enter­ing fresh­men class in 1935 and shared a dor­mi­tory with his for­mer Choate high school class­mates Kirk LeMoyne Billings and Ralph Hor­ton, Jr. in #9 Reunion Hall South. How­ever, after a brief few weeks as a mem­ber of the Class of 1939 he left Prince­ton due to health rea­sons and later grad­u­ated from Har­vard with the Class of 1940. The other pres­i­dents to have attended Prince­ton were James Madi­son and Woodrow Wilson.

Curated by Uni­ver­sity Archivist Dan Linke and sum­mer intern Nicole Milano, this com­mem­o­ra­tive exhi­bi­tion high­lights the objects, pho­tographs, and doc­u­ments cre­ated dur­ing Kennedy’s time as a Prince­ton stu­dent and through­out his polit­i­cal career, all of which are housed in the two major col­lec­tions of the Mudd Library. Kennedy’s archival pres­ence in the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives is rep­re­sented through his scholas­tic records, fresh­men year activ­i­ties, and med­ical notes. The exhi­bi­tion also doc­u­ments his pres­i­den­tial cam­paign and pres­i­dency, includ­ing rarely-seen doc­u­ments about the Bay of Pigs inva­sion and tran­scrip­tions of the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the National Secu­rity Coun­cil (ExComm) meet­ings held dur­ing the Cuban Mis­sile Cri­sis. His later polit­i­cal career is detailed through col­lec­tions of his con­tem­po­raries housed in the Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers, includ­ing the papers of for­mer Demo­c­ra­tic pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates Adlai Steven­son and Sen­a­tor George McGov­ern.

This exhi­bi­tion also chron­i­cles the mixed feel­ings of Kennedy’s class­mates toward his polit­i­cal career, includ­ing sev­eral of whom declared in their 25th reunion year­book that their 1960 pres­i­den­tial vote had been for “Any­one but Kennedy,” while a brief para­graph pay­ing trib­ute to him and his con­nec­tion to the class was also included in the book. A few years later, other mem­bers of his class erected a memo­r­ial in his honor in the Class of 1939 Hall dormitory.

“While Kennedy’s time at Prince­ton was abbre­vi­ated, he him­self noted that he would always have a ‘very ten­der spot in his heart for Old Nas­sau.’ With this exhi­bi­tion, all can see that Prince­ton was endeared by his pres­ence,” said Linke. “In addi­tion, we also high­light that dur­ing his pres­i­dency, he was served by many notable Princetonians.”

Kennedy’s Prince­ton class­mates have not been for­got­ten, and a small, related exhi­bi­tion case in the lobby of the Mudd Man­u­script Library doc­u­ments the Class of 1939’s under­grad­u­ate and alumni activ­i­ties through pho­tographs and memorabilia.

John F. Kennedy: From Old Nas­sau to the New Fron­tier is open to the pub­lic free of charge Mon­day through Fri­day from 8:30 to 4:30 until Labor Day, and then from 8:45 to 4:45 Mon­day through Fri­day dur­ing the aca­d­e­mic year. A Sat­ur­day open house will be held on Octo­ber 23 from 9:00 am to noon. If you have ques­tions or would like to learn more about the exhi­bi­tion please call us at (609) 258‑6345, e-mail us at , check us out on Facebook, view the official press release for the exhibition (JFK Press Release.pdf), or leave a comment on this page.