The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum  on Columbia Point, Boston, Massachusetts

On this day, October 20, in 1979 the John F Kennedy library opened in an I.M. Pei–designed building at the Harbor Campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston. Kennedy’s memorial stands on the tip of the Columbia Point Peninsula, overlooking the entrance to Boston Harbor.

The JFK Library is dedicated to the study of the 35th president’s life and work and to all those who through the art of politics seek a new and better world.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum collects, organizes, preserves, and makes available primary-source materials in all formats that document the life and times of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

The Library’s holdings include the papers of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, as well as more than 400 other collections of personal papers and institutional records: those of other Kennedy family members; Kennedy administration officials, staff, and associates; and relevant individuals, authors, and institutions.

In addition, the Kennedy Library houses a large audiovisual collection, the Ernest Hemingway Collection, the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History collections, a print materials collection, and the Museum collection.

At the dedication ceremony, JFK’s brother Senator Edward Kennedy said in a speech, “In dedicating this library, we also honor those who helped to make this dream come true”. President Jimmy Carter followed up on those word, saying “This library, this repository of facts and ideas, will feed history with a permanent record of the dreams of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and also the realization of those dreams.”

Learn more about the Kennedy Library and Museum here: http://www.jfklibrary.org/