0
2
1
0
An easy day-trip we often recommend to guests is a journey to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA. So recently we took advantage of a cold, but crisp clear-blue-sky January day and made the jaunt with some very dear friends. It is something we have been wanting to do for a long time.
We zipped up the highway to our destination in just over an hour. Unfortunately, we found out when we arrived that all but one of the exhibits is under renovation and closed to the public until late March 2020. Undaunted, we decided to explore the building anyhow and were invited to view the exhibit on the Cuban Missile Crisis for free. What a bargain!
Having written an essay on the topic for a Master’s thesis, I was particularly fascinated by the exhibit. About a dozen multi-media displays document the debate among cabinet members and President Kennedy as they navigated their way through 13 stress-filled days in mid-October 2020. You can listen to the actual discussions that took place among principal foreign policy and national defense officials, see handwritten notes taken by Kennedy during the discussions and typewritten documents marked “Top Secret” and “Classified“. I was particularly struck by the lack of technology available during that critical period of history and marveled that such high level negotiations were reliant on personal letters sent between Kennedy and Khrushchev. 
It took us close to two hours to go through that one exhibit alone, so in retrospect I was glad that the rest of the Library was off limits for the time being. It would have distracted me from truly experiencing the level of detail offered by the Cuban Missile Crisis exhibit. The quality of that exhibit alone whets my appetite for a return visit soon to see the rest of the treasures kept inside the Kennedy Library.
The building itself is magnificent, perched on the edge of the ocean at Columbia Point next to the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts and the new home of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, which will open in March 2020 and house museum exhibits, classrooms, and a full scale replica of the Senate chamber.
Throughout the Library, quotes from Kennedy’s most noteworthy speeches are etched on the walls. I was moved by the passion and emotion of his words and the significance of his message, even now.
The Kennedy Library and Museum is open 7 days a week from 9:00 Am to 5:00 PM. Admission is charged.