Museum Fieldwork Assignment
EDCI 4215/EGEN 4100
Methods of Teaching-Social Studies
Jake Skrzypiec
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This museum fieldwork project is on the John. F. Kennedy Library and Museum. This museum
provided a fantastic look into the personal and political life of one of the most famous, and infamous
presidents of the United States. Exploring this museum was a unique and intriguing experience in itself.
First, this museum has a rich history that stems back to the movement to preserve presidential
history during the middle half of the twentieth century. The John F. Kennedy Library is part of the
Presidential Library system, managed and operated by the National Archives and Records Administration.
This management system stems back to the creation of the first presidential library, that being the Franklin
D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. All presidential libraries, including the JFK Library, are funded by nonprofit organizations such as the John F. Kennedy Foundation and Library Incorporated. In September 1961,
President Kennedy asked to establish a presidential library for himself, choosing a location next to Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts for its placement. It is said that President Kennedy wanted a place
where “the records of his Presidency could be kept and where he would have his office when he retired
from public life” In 1963, shortly after President Kennedy’s unfortunate death, plans to establish such a
museum went underway, with the Kennedy family discussing the logistical issues accompanying such a
venture. The family decided that in order to preserve the legacy and legitimacy of honoring JFK through
memorial, the JFK Library and Museum would be the sole national memorial to their fallen president and
son. The family also decided on designing the museum in a three pronged way; as an archive, as a museum
and as an educational institution to educate the world about the connection between academia and the
public sphere. JFK Library Inc. was endowed in December 1963 to construct the facility, and between 1963
and 1975 the Library corporation raised over 20.8 million dollars to build the museum, with principal
advocates of this fundraising being Robert Kennedy, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , Stephen Smith, Douglas
Dillon, Robert McNamara, Jacqueline Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. The library was temporarily
established in the Federal Archives and Records Center in Waltham in 1969, as the location for the
permanent facility was up in the air and finally decided upon in 1975. The final location was established on
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the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts overlooking the old harbor; ground breaking
occurred in 1977 and the building was completed in 1979. An advisory committee, one that had helped to
establish previous presidential libraries, was used to complete the museum, with much of the younger
generation of the Kennedy family sitting in on development meetings giving voice to direction and design.
The museum continues to be managed under the Library Corporation’s new title organization, The JFK
Library Foundation Inc., made up of many prominent family members, politicians and invested officials.
The museum is said to be a prime example of public/private partnership, as the museum balances it budget
from both federal contributions, as well as private funds incurred and philanthropic donations. It is only
through this partnership does the museum continue to be a thriving archive of presidential history.
The museum makes available numerous resources that all patrons, including regular visitors,
teachers, students and all other can take advantage of. Visitors can pick up an array of brochures,
pamphlets and flyers right as they walk into the museum, detailing items such as tour times, exhibit listings,
new displays or exhibits, programs or lectures offered, partnership programs with other museums, and
maps to navigate the city area. Also, there is a brochure detailing the museum’s well-structured
educational program, but its brevity compels anyone to research this programming further online at
jfklibrary.org/education1. On the JFK Library and Museum Education website, there are separate portals for
visitors, teachers and students respectively. Under the teacher section, numerous resources such as
interactive learning programs, curricular resources for all levels, professional development counseling and
offerings, and simple guided visiting opportunities are presented as useful tools for teachers to take
advantage of. In the student portal there are numerous opportunities to engage in fruitful activities and
research, as well as examining crucial primary source material on the Space Race, Civil Rights and literature
during the 1960s. This portal also provides links to other portals and websites that students can utilize for
researching almost any topic in relation to JFK and this particular historical context, as well as a newly
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Education Portal. JFK Library and Museum Website. Accessed: October 29, 2012.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Education.aspx
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established website JFK50.org celebrating fifty years of the Kennedy administration, which contains vital
resources, picture galleries and newsletters students can access as well.
The JFK Library and Museum prides itself on being a facility where all can come to explore the life of
John F. Kennedy, and educate themselves on both the president and his accomplishments. There are
numerous exhibits in the museum that denote the political, personal and social life of President Kennedy.
The first component of the museum is a collection of exhibits denoting Kennedy’s rise to political fame and
Democratic candidate for president in 1960. The exhibits are displayed in a way that show Kennedy in a
very positive light, pushing forth the idea that Kennedy was a candidate that would ensure the continuity of
American exceptionalism. In this section of the museum there are displays that present primary sources
from Kennedy’s political life, such as invitations and pamphlets from Inauguration Day, magazines with
John and Jacqueline on the cover, letters and speeches wrote by Kennedy before and after his presidential
win, newspaper samplings, and other memorabilia items. All of these items support the exhibits and
displays well, but support a very unilateral perspective on John F. Kennedy. In many of these exhibits, other
perspective is definitively absent. For example, there is an exhibit that replicates Walter Cronkite’s studio at
CBS on the night of the 1960 election, with an expansive board of tallied votes for each candidate for each
state. However, in this exhibit and others, there lacks testimony and insight from political analysts, or even
the opposing candidate Richard Nixon, as to his pivotal role in the election. There are multiple video
screens that play video from the debates, speeches, conventions that occurred during the presidential
campaign, but all of this primary source material strictly glorifies Kennedy as saint chosen to lead the
American people into a new generation.
In other parts of the museum, this trend of glorification continues, as the exhibits denote the
political decisions and instances Kennedy endured as well as the more personal and social side to Kennedy.
One of the components I most readily noticed as I explored the museum were the placards explaining each
exhibit. These placards gave a very general, auspicious look into events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis,
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the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the development of the Vietnam War, without giving any information to the
novice museum visitor as to the darker decisions made within the context of these events. These exhibits
hinted at issues such as mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, but at the
same time showed Kennedy and Khrushchev shaking hands and having dinner together. Even in regards to
Jacqueline Kennedy, the museum presented the first lady as a “model woman for all little American girls”,
finding it more important to present her pioneerism in fashion rather than her struggles as a mother, wife
and most critically viewed woman in the world at the time. Although the museum is extremely factual,
presents a great variety of primary and secondary sources, and effectively replicates exhibits, it is very
obvious even to the average museum visitor that the facility presents a very deliberate point of view.
I believe that the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, amidst its flaws, is still a very potent
institution for students and teachers to visit. The museum provides a rich look into the life of President
Kennedy, and elaborates extensively into the many facets of his intriguing career. The structure of the
museum lends itself to school visits, as all visitors follow along a literal pathway through the political rise of
John F. Kennedy, into his presidential career and the decisions he made, then to his personal and family life,
and finally elaborating on the circumstances of his death with a concluding memorial exhibit to the legacy
he set. The museum provides many opportunities for interactive learning for students, and the design of
each exhibit lends itself to “catch the eye” of any middle school or high school student who may not feel
too enthused to visit a museum. I believe one of the most important characteristics of this museum is that
is presents both students and teachers with a wide purvey of content knowledge. Each exhibit is
supplemented by some form of background that gives insight why each exhibit matters, and how it fits into
the historical context of Kennedy’s life. Another key characteristic I find most helpful especially as a
prospective teacher is the primary source material presented in each exhibit; the museum utilizes various
primary source materials such as newspapers, art work, pamphlets etc. I believe these are fantastic
resources to show students, as they not only support the historical evidence presented in each display, but
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also demonstrate to students that what they are seeing is at least somewhat valid. However, despite the
novelty of the museum, I believe it is important for any teacher to discuss with his or her students the
biases of the museum. The museum glorifies President Kennedy neither without any real criticism nor
outside perspective into the darker recesses of his life. The entire complex seems more like a memorial
emphasizing the triumphs of President Kennedy, rather than an institution devoted to an objective
examination of JFK.
I believe any teacher bringing his or her class(s) to this museum is responsible for briefing his or her
students about this overarching characteristic, and work through pre-visit activities that help students to
develop a critical eye and an acknowledgement of this quality. Nina Tisch, an educational specialist I
interviewed at the museum, recommends to all of her visiting teachers that they help students develop this
very important skill in the time before they come to the museum, as she even admits that the museum
lacks in presenting multiple perspectives. However, to counter this, Nina has established numerous
interactive educational programs that allow students to develop their own historical perspectives. One of
the most notable programs I would recommend to any teacher looking to complete activities at the
museum is an interactive debate session. Hundreds of students are brought in on specific days in October
from all over Massachusetts, and engage in small diversified discussions with one another, developing
questions they would ask potential presidential, gubernatorial, or congressional candidates. These
students then have a chance to engage in a simulated yet very realistic town hall debate, where ex-political
officials (Congressmen, Senators, etc.) are brought in as surrogates of the actual candidates running. There,
students have a chance to ask their questions of the candidates as if it was a true town hall debate.2 It is in
activities like these that I believe the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum provides a chance for students
to truly develop their own sense of historical empathy, and truly engage in learning that is substantive and
far removed from the biases presented in an exhibit or display.
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N. Tisch, personal communication, October 26th, 2012.
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Appendix I:
Museum Fieldwork Project Photographs
Jacob skrzypiec
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Lyrics to Official Democratic Party Campaign Song, 1960
This is a pamphlet with the song lyrics for the 1960 Democratic Party Campaign song. I found this to be
interesting because I thought campaign songs were more of a modern phenomenon. I did not realize that
party songs stemmed back to the 1960 election and beyond. This also interested me too because this a
prime example of the skewed perspective the museum presents, as evident by the connotations of the
lyrics themselves.
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Placard-Puerto Rican Musician’s Visit to the White House
This photo interested me because it presents a historical event that most scholars, historians and everyday
people rarely discuss. I found the idea that a musician could hold a personal embargo against another
nation and then broke that embargo to be a fascinating historical precedent. This placard exemplifies the
stunning change in the way people from other nations viewed the United States during the Kennedy
administration, as evident by Casals acceptance of the invitation to play at the White House.
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Gift to President Kennedy-Heinz Wipperfeld
This clock was a gift for President Kennedy from clock maker Heinz Wipperfeld. This item is interesting as it
represents an ideological tension between the Soviet Union and the west in regards to what to do with
Berlin. I found this to be a very intriguing artifact for the museum to present, as it exemplifies a larger
phenomenon of tension between these two powers that the museum tries to assert.
1960 Electoral Map
This map shows the final electoral results of the 1960 election, denoting the states the Republican
candidate (Richard Nixon) and the Democratic candidate (John Kennedy) won. This exhibit gives students a
pictorial representation of how close this election actually was, and provides students with an idea of how
electoral mapping works both then and now.
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Wall Quote From Profiles In Courage-John F. Kennedy
This quote is written on the wall of the atrium of the JFK Library. I took this photo because I found that the
location of the quote, at the end of the tour, was an interesting location to place such a grandiose
quotation. I included this photo because I believe the quote supports everything before it, in that it
reinforces the glorified image of the John Kennedy the museum attempted to portray.
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1960 Democratic Convention Exhibit
I took this photo because I believe it best represent the first exhibit of the museum, that being the
Democratic Convention of 1960. I believe this is a very novel representation of the almost hysteric support
Kennedy received at the convention, and gives insight to someone who had not been to the museum
before what they are to expect by being in the museum for less than five minutes.
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Replica Television Studio-1960 Presidential Debate-Kennedy vs. Nixon
This replica television studio demonstrates the environment Kennedy and Nixon were in when debating
each other in the second Presidential debate in 1960. I included this photograph to demonstrate how
effectively the JFK Library and Museum re-created this scenario, and how any visitor can be transported
back into that same TV station and become an audience member. The video screens played samplings from
the actual debate, allowing visitors to not only experience the environment of the debate, but the debate
itself.
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Example of Information Museum Placard
This placard is one of many that are located around the museum. Each one provides valid contextual
information in relation to its corresponding exhibit or display. These placards are useful tools to any
museum visitor who does not know or many want to gain content knowledge behind what they are seeing
or hearing.
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Rape of the Sabine Women-Picasso Painting
This is the famous Picasso rendering made shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. I found this to be most
intriguing because I have heard so much about this painting, and to see it up close and personal makes this
trip very rewarding. I also believe seeing this painting would be a great experience for school aged students,
as this counters many of the other exhibits in the museum and introduces artwork as a component of
history, which is an aim every teacher should try to accomplish in their curriculum. This is also a fantastic
representation of the past because we see both the history of art (Picasso’s role in creating this) and the
history of the world coming together in a rendering of one of the most pivotal events in 20th century United
States History.
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