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KENNEDY, JACQUELINE

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
KENNEDY, JACQUELINE
(1929 - 1994) First Lady and wife of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Superb content A.L.S. as First Lady on White House letterhead, 3pp. 8vo., Washington, May 2, 1961, to Dr. Richard C. Howland of the Smithsonian Institution, regarding her historic project of restoring the White House! In part: "...We are not half as efficient in the White House as you are at the Smithsonian -- Your superb 'Remarks on a Philosophy of Proposed Refurnishing of the White House' came to my eyes today, with an attached note thanking you for your it with your name misspelled! All I can say is it is the most exciting and invaluable thing to have. I cannot wait to follow up on all the leads. Someday, when this rash of state visits abates a bit, I would love to look at the First Ladies Hall at the Smithsonian and the armchair in the DAR Museum. Also your idea of a mounted exhibit along north wall of basement is a brainstorm. Perhaps you can help me arrange that...". Kennedy first visited the White House as a young woman 1941, and remembered that she felt frustrated by the lack of historical objects on display. Upon her arrival in Washington in Jan. 1961, she quickly formed a committee to continue a project begun by Harry S. Truman in 1948 to properly refurnish the White House to its nineteenth-century glory. While Truman had overseen work on the exterior of the building, Kennedy set about restoring the interior, and sought to return past White House furnishings, particularly those of Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Madison, to the state rooms. Wary of the political antagonism that using public funds for the project might generate, she established the White House Historical Association, and published The White House Guidebook to fund the project. In Feb. 1962, she conducted a televised tour of the White House, guiding over 500 million viewers -- a record audience -- through the newly-restored executive mansion. Kennedy's work became a model for the restoration of historic houses all over the country, and spawned a wave of interest in the preservation of many historical buildings such as governors' mansions and the like. Penned in blue ink on two separate sheets, both of which are stapled at top left to the original holograph transmittal envelope. In very good condition. One of the best Jackie letters we've seen!