50 Years After Inaugural, JFK's Archive Goes Online

Includes a handwritten draft of his 'Ask not' speech
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2011 9:07 AM CST
50 Years After Inaugural, JFK's Archive Goes Online
A visitor at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum looks at the top hat and gloves Kennedy had made for his inauguration 50 years ago in Boston, Monday, Jan. 3, 2011.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

It's been a half-century since John F Kennedy admonished his fellow citizens to ask not what their country could do for them, and his presidential archive is going online today, just ahead of the anniversary, reports the Boston Globe. The $10 million project took four years to complete, but Camelot has gone digital—from key foreign policy speeches to intimate family photos and podcasts describing how Jackie Kennedy entertained at the White House.

In all, the archive contains 200,000 pages, 1,500 photos, 1,250 audio and video files, and 17 1/2 hours of phone conversations. Among the gems: A rough draft, in Kennedy's handwriting, of his aforementioned inaugural address. Click for the JFK Library and Museum.
(More John F. Kennedy stories.)

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