Primary Sources: U.S. Presidents

Audio of JFK's inauguration ceremony provided by the BBC

Information on Kennedy's gravesite, including items such as the funeral prayer card, photographs, and other items.

"The Assassination Archives and Research Center is the largest private archives in the world which is dedicated to acquiring, preserving, and disseminating information on political assassinations. It includes more than 35,000 pages of scanned documents. Most of these relate to the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, and include a mixture of long-published reports and newly declassified transcripts and other documents. Also contained in the Public Library are the reports of the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission, which in the 1970s studied abuses of the intelligence agencies. The collection also contains relevant material from federal agencies such as the FBI and CIA. Reports, transcripts, and other documents are constantly being added to the AARC Public Library." Description provided by the Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/2004540211/

A wide variety of digital collections covering many topics. Highlights include: The Browning Letters Projects; Baptist Collection; Historic Newspapers; collections of materials on JFK, oral histories, and more.

"John A. Morsell, Assistant to NAACP Executive Secretary to President John F. Kennedy requesting the assistance of the federal government in the case of James Meredith,September 21, 1962."

"President Kennedy responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending Army troops to protect Meredith. After days of violence and rioting by whites, Meredith, escorted by federal marshals, enrolled on October 1, 1962. "

NASA provides access to "some documents and other information relating to the decision to go to the Moon and Project Apollo" including Links to full text and audio versions of Kennedy's May 25, 1961 speech, as well as other key speeches and documents; Pdf versions of key original documents.

Excerpt from Lady Bird Johnson's diary about the assassination of JFK

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1961

Creator(s): Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. ca. 1974-5/15/1984 (Most Recent)

"Audio recording of President John F. Kennedy’s radio and television address on civil rights. In his speech the President responds to the threats of violence and obstruction on the University of Alabama campus following desegregation attempts, explaining that the United States was founded on the principle that all men are created equal and thus, all American students should be allowed to attend public educational institutions without the presence of military force, regardless of race. He also discusses how discrimination affects education, public safety, and international relations, noting that the country cannot preach freedom internationally while ignoring it domestically. The President asks Congress to enact legislation protecting all Americans' voting rights, legal standing, educational opportunities, and access to public facilities; but recognizes that legislation alone cannot solve the country's problems concerning race relations. "

JFK TAPE DETAILS HIGH-LEVEL VIETNAM COUP PLOTTING IN 1963; DOCUMENTS SHOW NO THOUGHT OF DIEM ASSASSINATION; U.S. OVERESTIMATED INFLUENCE ON SAIGON GENERALS.

"This audio recording was donated by the Raab Collection to the National Archives and Records Administration. It is a recording of the Air Force One in-flight radio traffic following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. "

Provides access to selected speeches and photos as well as other materials.

Provides information about the Library & Museum along with access to resources on Kennedy. Many items are available online see the digital archive, historic speeches, media gallery, etc.

"Audio recordings and photographs of President Kennedy’s visit [to the University of North Dakota] have been preserved at the Chester Fritz Library Department of Special Collections. The UND JFK Digital Archive was created from these historic recordings and photographs. The White House Press Conferences do not relate to the President’s visit to UND, but were routinely sent to the University’s radio station (KFJM) for airing. They have been preserved as part of the KFJM archives in Special Collections."

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 302

Library of Congress materials related to JFK's Inauguration on January 20, 1961.

"The Library of Congress celebrates Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Herb Block (1909–2001) with a look at his remarkable seventy-two-year career (1929–2001). Herblock! includes eighty-two original cartoon drawings, primarily selected from the Library’s extensive Herbert L. Block Collection. These cartoons represent Block’s ability to wield his pen effectively and artfully, using it to condemn corruption and expose injustice, inequality, and immorality on topics including the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and World War II, communism and the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy, race relations, Richard Nixon, the Reagan era, the 2000 election, and more."

"... the online portal for annotated transcripts of the White House tapes published by the Presidential Recordings Program (PRP). Created by a team of scholars and researchers at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, these transcripts are presented in PRDE alongside the corresponding audio, enabling users to read and listen to these conversations simultaneously. This effort at deciphering the presidential recordings and decoding their meaning allows these extraordinary documents, many of which would remain otherwise inaccessible, to come alive, providing an intimate view of life inside the Oval Office. (Read more about PRP in “The Presidential Recordings Program,” by Philip Zelikow, Ernest May, and Timothy Naftali)."

... consists of more than 5 million pages of assassination-related records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts (approximately 2,000 cubic feet of records). Most of the records are open for research. Description from siteSome items have been digitized.

Includes oral histories, the Zapruder film, documents etc.

University Of Washington's 100th Anniversary Address (17:26)
90th Anniversary Convocation Of Vanderbilt University (18:57)

Commencement Address At Yale University
Address To Nation On Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Receiving Honorary Degree At Amherst College

A selection of some of John F. Kennedy's speeches from across his career.

Web version based on Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1964. 1 volume, 888 pages. The formatting of this Web version may differ from the original.Description from site

"Harold Weisberg was an Office of Strategic Services officer during World War II, U.S. Senate staff member, an investigator for the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties, a U.S. State Department intelligence analyst, and an investigative reporter. He devoted 40 years of his life to researching and writing about the Kennedy and King assassinations."