The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Tour [Review]

pO157.

Posted to Etcetera on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 01:23:32 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

While in Beantown on business, I had the distinct pleasure of blowing off several hours of the afternoon conference to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.

John F. Kennedy was not just the 35th President of the United States. His meteoric rise to power catapulted him, and his family, into the highest offices in the land, only to have his reign cut short by an assassin's bullet within two years. He sheperded the country through one of its darkest hours when it came close to the brink. His wife was famous for her open "tours" of the White House, and many felt the Kennedy administration brought "Camelot" to the shores of the US.

After walking in and paying you get an official Kennedy campaign sticker to wear to show you coughed up the admission fee. You also get a 'ceremonial' souvenir admission ticket to commemorate your time at the museum. I was told many people like to keep it to remind them of the experience (you are actually given a receipt to show you paid). Much like the members of the electoral college boosting their 'official' ballots as a token to remember their experience by, and instead writing their vote down on a slip of blank paper.

The tour starts out with an optional multimedia experience. By this, I mean a 17 minute film (on an old school reel to reel projector --- the museum IS almost 30 years old after all). It is largely autobiographical, spliced together with old video and audio from Kennedy's early years. It even includes a brief, but humorous, blooper reel from his Senate campaign race TV ads. I found it quite interesting. I thought seventeen minutes was about right, although I think it could have been a bit longer.

You then get dumped out into the museum which goes in chronological order of JFK's life, starting at his nomination. The first few exhibits are replicas of small town America storefronts, showing campaign materials and other relevant 1960s paraphernalia. It moved on to a replica of the TV studio where the props, cameras, and other material from the famous Kennedy/Nixon debate was set up in the same configuration as the events of that evening. You could watch an edited, condensed version of the debate. This was one of the more memorable parts of the tour for me because I remember being told in high school civics class and other places that Nixon lost the debate (and possibly the election) due to looking 'out of it' and confused, while JFK played to the camera quite well. While I agreed JFK did a good job (his rhetoric explaining why deficit spending was a good idea was excellent, I almost got on board with that one), Nixon really did not look all that bad. Perhaps it was just me, but I thought he did just fine.

There were also replicas of Walter Cronkite's desk and the news set from where the results on election night came in. Most of the materials were original, and I was shocked to see that I was ignorant of the fact that the popular vote was so tight. They had Nixon's 'concession' speech, which was quite hilarious because it ended with the news' anchor's reaction of  something along the lines of "That didn't look like any concession speech I have ever seen. Did he actually concede?" Perhaps he set a precedent for Hillary, who knows.

The hallway then transitioned the patrons past a giant replica of the presidential seal, and into a replica of a White House hallway. It looked like I walked onto the set of the West Wing. Off the hallway were little rooms, each centering on a major issue or event in his short presidency. It was relatively well done, although one of my major concerns was the replica of the Oval Office. They combined the Oval Office with cameras and TV material from when he would give some of his speeches to the nation. Directly above his desk they had monitors talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I felt the tour would be better served by breaking this section up into two rooms, it just seemed confusing and odd. The majority of the people on my tour group seemed to spend little time in this room.

Many of the other rooms were devoted to the classic parties and socials balls held by the Kennedies. They showed all kinds of souvenirs from those state dinners, and had intricate and elaborate place settings. Some of the more amusing exhibits (at least in my opinion) centered around the personal notes of Mr & Mrs K on potential guest lists. You could see who was scratched off by the President or his wife, sometimes with hilarious notes written in like "I can't stand this person" or about how he tried to allow two female reporters to each ball as charity so they could say they got to go to the White House. I poured over these, and laughed a lot. I am sure some of my tour mates thought I was simple or something. One of the most interesting (and emotional) exhibits was not large or attention grabbing at all. It was off to the side, and was a series of letters between a widow and the President as he tried to explain why her husband died in Vietnam, becoming one of the first American causalities. Truly heartbreaking.

Which brings me to one of the oddest 'rooms' branching off from the White House hallway. The Mental Retardation Room. The Kennedy's felt strongly about treating people with disabilities equally, and worked to end discrimination against the mentally retarded. It was a noble cause, but the transition was poorly done and awkward. That whole room really didn't go with the tenor of the rest of the exhibit (how do you talk about how wrong it was to institutionalize mentally disabled people when across the way are two rooms dedicated to the gaiety of a party for the French culture minister?), and the random leather restraints and pictures of insane asylums on the wall didn't do much for me either. Maybe if you were into leather bondage you'd get more out of it, I don't know.

They also had a replica of RFK's office and you were allowed to sit behind his desk and take it all in. I thought that was kind of neat. The archived drawings from his children was a nice touch, and I got shivers when I saw the US Marshall's helmet from the integration riots in Alabama with the gash and giant dent on the side. It is scary to think that a large segment of this country behaved like that just a few decades ago.  

There was also another room dedicated to misc. correspondence and the space program. I chuckled when I read a hand written note from JFK to an astronaut stating he wished all Americans were as 'gay' as the astronaut. That must go over well on middle school tours. Then again, most 7th graders probably don't read through these exhibits in depth. I must say I lagged well behind the rest of my tour group, eventually being included in the folks behind us. It was fine, since the whole thing was self-guided and only limited by the aliquots of people trickling in every 17 minutes from the starting film.

It ended with a sharp right turn down a long all black hallway simply titled "November 22, 1963" where multiple TV screens on loop provided replays of the coverage of his assassination. A tunnel took you into a final chamber where luminaries like President Clinton described the effects JFK had on them. There was a wall dedicated to the gifts and memorials offered from countries around the world.

After you were done with the tour you were ejected onto the ground floor, at the base of a giant multistory atrium consisting of all glass walls looking out onto the water, and a giant American flag. An original of Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage" award had a prominent place in the room, and quotes of his regarding the glory of public service were spotted on pedestals around the area. The atrium was undoubtedly designed to make JFK appear to be a larger than life character, and instill a sense of patriotism and quiet contemplation in the visitor. It did a good job. Plus, it is probably a real hit of a venue for parties and donor functions.

All in all it really was not bad at all. My only concern was that there was a separate mini-film and small room devoted solely to the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, entrance was controlled by computer and you could only go in every half an hour when the doors automatically opened. Thus I was not able to see the presentation on a big event in his presidency.

Initially, I thought the size was a bit small (even the gift shop was subdued!), but then I realized that is probably for the best. With an enormous Presidential library I could see how that could get out of hand and turn into needless hero worship pretty fast. There are other presidential libraries in the system. I would be interested in attending all of them and seeing how they separated the events of a presidency from needless worship of the man itself, if they did at all (the GOP debate at the Regan library comes to mind).

Admission is between $8 and $10 depending on your status and age. Parking is ample, although you may wish to avail yourself of the free JFK shuttle (nothing starts the JFK experience off better than a publicly subsidized, air conditioned shuttle ride) that connects from the T transit subway line. I would suggest you take some time and come early to walk around the beautiful grounds along the river and see his sailboat. Take 2-2½ hours for the full experience, especially if you plan on examining all the exhibits in detail. Any less and you will feel rushed, much more and you will probably be bored.

Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of reviews along the lines of "Tours of Places You Would Reasonably Believe They Serve a Metric Boatload of Comped Liquor." In fact, one of the major detracting points of the JFK library host city is the fact that their liquor laws are preventing me from getting my hands on any booze right now unless I go to a bar. Let's get real, my hotel is within walking distance of a) a prison, b) a mental health inpatient hospital and c) a substance abuse dry out facility (I like to travel on a budget for work). How come a brother can't get any tipple? You can't tell me I'm the first person in this area to have this complaint. All I'm saying is it's an untapped market.