BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Newseum -- Exhibits -- (C) Creating Camelot

DC -- Newseum -- Exhibits -- (C) Creating Camelot:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe
"Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe" features intimate, behind-the-scenes images of John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their children, Caroline and John. Lowe was 28 when he met the Kennedys in 1958 and was hired as the family's personal photographer. Lowe's photos span from Kennedy's 1958 U.S. Senate re-election campaign through his early years in the White House. The iconic images helped create the legend of the Kennedy presidency known as Camelot.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.118.200.86 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] NEWCAM_130416_002.JPG	[2] NEWCAM_130416_007.JPG	[3] NEWCAM_130416_012.JPG
[4] NEWCAM_130416_017.JPG	[5] NEWCAM_130416_023.JPG	[6] NEWCAM_130416_028.JPG
[7] NEWCAM_130416_037.JPG	[8] NEWCAM_130416_041.JPG	[9] NEWCAM_130416_050.JPG
[10] NEWCAM_130416_058.JPG	[11] NEWCAM_130416_064.JPG	[12] NEWCAM_130416_078.JPG
[13] NEWCAM_130416_086.JPG	[14] NEWCAM_130416_093.JPG	[15] NEWCAM_130416_098.JPG
[16] NEWCAM_130416_107.JPG	[17] NEWCAM_130416_114.JPG	[18] NEWCAM_130416_119.JPG
[19] NEWCAM_130416_122.JPG	[20] NEWCAM_130416_133.JPG	[21] NEWCAM_130416_139.JPG
[22] NEWCAM_130416_144.JPG	[23] NEWCAM_130416_152.JPG	[24] NEWCAM_130416_165.JPG
[25] NEWCAM_130416_178.JPG	[26] NEWCAM_130416_186.JPG	[27] NEWCAM_130416_196.JPG
[28] NEWCAM_130416_200.JPG	[29] NEWCAM_130416_207.JPG	[30] NEWCAM_130416_216.JPG
[31] NEWCAM_130416_220.JPG	[32] NEWCAM_130416_230.JPG	[33] NEWCAM_130416_239.JPG
[34] NEWCAM_130416_246.JPG	[35] NEWCAM_130416_261.JPG	[36] NEWCAM_130416_266.JPG
[37] NEWCAM_130416_276.JPG	[38] NEWCAM_130416_284.JPG	[39] NEWCAM_130416_303.JPG
[40] NEWCAM_130416_310.JPG	[41] NEWCAM_130416_321.JPG	[42] NEWCAM_130416_334.JPG
[43] NEWCAM_130416_339.JPG	[44] NEWCAM_130416_349.JPG	[45] NEWCAM_130416_359.JPG
[46] NEWCAM_130416_363.JPG	[47] NEWCAM_130416_368.JPG	[48] NEWCAM_130416_377.JPG
[49] NEWCAM_130416_382.JPG	[50] NEWCAM_130416_395.JPG	[51] NEWCAM_130416_400.JPG
[52] NEWCAM_130416_406.JPG	[53] NEWCAM_130416_410.JPG	[54] NEWCAM_130416_424.JPG
[55] NEWCAM_130416_432.JPG	[56] NEWCAM_130416_449.JPG	[57] NEWCAM_130416_453.JPG
[58] NEWCAM_130416_461.JPG	[59] NEWCAM_130416_473.JPG	[60] NEWCAM_130416_479.JPG
[61] NEWCAM_130416_500.JPG	[62] NEWCAM_130416_506.JPG	[63] NEWCAM_130416_515.JPG
[64] NEWCAM_130416_526.JPG	[65] NEWCAM_130416_532.JPG	[66] NEWCAM_130416_541.JPG
[67] NEWCAM_130416_545.JPG	[68] NEWCAM_130416_553.JPG	[69] NEWCAM_130416_560.JPG
[70] NEWCAM_130416_566.JPG	[71] NEWCAM_130416_581.JPG	[72] NEWCAM_130416_590.JPG
[73] NEWCAM_130416_595.JPG	[74] NEWCAM_130416_605.JPG	[75] NEWCAM_130416_613.JPG
[76] NEWCAM_130416_621.JPG	[77] NEWCAM_130416_630.JPG	[78] NEWCAM_130416_639.JPG
[79] NEWCAM_130416_645.JPG	[80] NEWCAM_130416_648.JPG	[81] NEWCAM_130416_655.JPG
[82] NEWCAM_130416_663.JPG	[83] NEWCAM_130416_673.JPG	[84] NEWCAM_130416_678.JPG
[85] NEWCAM_130416_686.JPG	[86] NEWCAM_130416_690.JPG	[87] NEWCAM_130416_698.JPG
[88] NEWCAM_130416_702.JPG	[89] NEWCAM_130416_710.JPG	[90] NEWCAM_130416_717.JPG
[91] NEWCAM_130416_724.JPG	[92] NEWCAM_130416_728.JPG	[93] NEWCAM_130416_735.JPG
[94] NEWCAM_130416_745.JPG	[95] NEWCAM_130416_751.JPG	[96] NEWCAM_130416_758.JPG
[97] NEWCAM_130416_763.JPG	[98] NEWCAM_130416_768.JPG	[99] NEWCAM_130416_778.JPG
[100] NEWCAM_130416_784.JPG	[101] NEWCAM_130416_796.JPG	[102] NEWCAM_130416_805.JPG
[103] NEWCAM_130416_811.JPG	[104] NEWCAM_130416_819.JPG	[105] NEWCAM_130416_825.JPG
[106] NEWCAM_130416_827.JPG	[107] NEWCAM_130416_835.JPG	[108] NEWCAM_130416_844.JPG
[109] NEWCAM_130416_849.JPG	[110] NEWCAM_130416_856.JPG	[111] NEWCAM_130416_863.JPG
[112] NEWCAM_130416_870.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NEWCAM_130416_012.JPG: Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe Jacques Lowe's photographs of John F. Kennedy and his family helped create the legend of the Kennedy presidency known as "Camelot." Lowe's photos of John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their children, Caroline and John Jr., helped shape Kennedy's image in the news media, enhance his popularity and capture the public's imagination. Kennedy -- just 43 when he was elected -- was the first president born in the 20th century. He embraced the growing power of television and the importance of image in politics. Kennedy gave Lowe unprecedented access because he knew that supplying the news media with carefully crafted photos was an increasingly important tactic in the art of influencing voters. Lowe's photographs documented the use of one of the country's most unforgettable presidents and fed America's fascination with the Kennedy family that lingers to this day.
2. NEWCAM_130416_023.JPG: Jackie! Jackie! Jackie! Queen of Camelot From her early days in the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy was a celebrity of Hollywood proportions. Her nationally televised tour of the White House in 1962 attracted a record audience of 80 million viewers. That same year, Variety named her the "world's top box-office femme," despite the fact that she had never appeared in a film. Her glamorous public image, which Jacques Lowe had helped shape, now took on a life of its own. People around the world idolized the first lady and attempted to emulate her tastes, fashion and lifestyle. "A picture of Jackie on the cover of a magazine, a world or glimpse of family life in the White House sent circulation soaring," said Time correspondent Hugh Sidey.
3. NEWCAM_130416_028.JPG: "If you want to take her apart there are many things wrong here," said Lowe of Jacqueline Kennedy in these Hyannis Port photos. "The eyebrows are not even, her nose isn't perfect and her jaw is too broad. It doesn't matter, she looks stunning. The whole bearing is almost royal."
4. NEWCAM_130416_037.JPG: One of Lowe's photos from this session was featured in Look, below, with the caption, "When husband Jack is away, Jackie concentrates on painting and playing with daughter Caroline."
5. NEWCAM_130416_050.JPG: Paris Match chose a similar photo from this sitting for its April 15, 1961 cover, with the title "Adorable Caroline." The magazine, left, reversed the image.
6. NEWCAM_130416_064.JPG: Caroline laughs during a photo shoot with her mother at Hyannis Port. "Jacqueline Kennedy does not concern herself much with the intricacies of political life," said Lowe. "She doesn't see herself as a politician, but as a wife and mother."
7. NEWCAM_130416_078.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy poses during a photo shoot at her home in Georgetown. "She became a woman of mystery, Greta Garbo-like," recalled the first lady's social secretary, Letitia Baldrige. "The more she said 'no' to interviews and photo ops, the more the public wanted to see her and read about her."
8. NEWCAM_130416_086.JPG: This contact sheet is from the same session as the image on the left
9. NEWCAM_130416_098.JPG: This photo of the Kennedys at home with their daughter, Caroline, appeared on the cover of Paris Match, right, after Kennedy's election with the words, "Youth in control in America. The history of the world turns a page."
10. NEWCAM_130416_107.JPG: Photos from this session with Jacqueline Kennedy in Hyannis Port were featured in several magazines, including Paris Match, Ladies' Home Journal and TV Guide, left.
11. NEWCAM_130416_114.JPG: "Don't let is be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot." -- Title song from the musical "Camelot"
12. NEWCAM_130416_119.JPG: Kennedy's Personal Photographer: Jacques Lowe was John F. Kennedy's personal photographer, from his campaign through his early years in the White House. Lowe's extraordinary access to the Kennedy's allowed him to capture public and private moments that others could not. His insider status "produced the most amazingly intimate photographs of a president every taken," said The New York Times. Lowe took 40,000 photographs of the president and his family before he returned to freelance work in 1961. He later produced several book about the Kennedys. After Lowe's death in May 2001, his original negatives, which were stored in a World Trade Center bank vault, were lost during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Only 10 negatives, out on loan at the time, survived. The photographs displayed here were digitally restored and reproduced by the Newseum from Lowe's original work prints and contact sheets, on exclusive loan from the photographer's estate. "Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe" was created in collaboration with the Jacques Lowe Estate.
13. NEWCAM_130416_122.JPG: The Myth of Camelot: A week after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy suggested the story of Camelot as a symbol for her husband's presidency. In an interview for Life magazine, Mrs. Kennedy said that Camelot -- the mythical kingdom of the legendary King Arthur featured in a popular Broadway musical -- was the ideal metaphor for Kennedy's time in office. "There'll be great presidents again," said Mrs. Kennedy, "but there'll never be another Camelot again." Promoted by the press, the Camelot myth continued to grow in the years following Kennedy's death, despite revelations about the president's health and private life. Few people had a greater role in shaping the early draft of the "Camelot" mystique than Jacques Lowe, whose photographs reflected the hope and energy the youthful president inspired in the nation.
14. NEWCAM_130416_133.JPG: Lowe, in dark shirt, stands beside Kennedy in a throng of reporters on a Missouri airstrip at the height of Kennedy's presidential campaign.
15. NEWCAM_130416_139.JPG: The First Photo Session: Hyannis Port Mass., 1958 Kennedy patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. -- a former ambassador, millionaire banker and Hollywood studio chief -- understood the power of image. He groomed his second son, John F. Kennedy, for a career in politics that would take him from the House of Representatives to the Senate and the presidency. In the summer of 1958, Kennedy Sr. asked Jacques Lowe to photograph Sen. Kennedy's family after admiring Lowe's photographs of his son Robert Kennedy. These early photographs, taken at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass., helped define what would become the public image of one of America's most powerful families.
16. NEWCAM_130416_144.JPG: Lowe's first portrait of John F. Kennedy was taken during one of Kennedy's rare days off from his 1958 Senate re-election campaign. Pressured to do the photo shoot by his father, the road-weary senator was "mad as hell," said Lowe. "I couldn't reach him at all."
17. NEWCAM_130416_152.JPG: Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. holds his eight-month-old granddaughter Caroline at his home in Hyannis Port.
18. NEWCAM_130416_165.JPG: Kennedy's affection for Caroline comes through in this photo. When Kennedy saw the photos, "he was delighted," Lowe said. "Recalling his mood at the time they were taken, he found it hard to believe that he had photographed so well."
19. NEWCAM_130416_178.JPG: Lowe struggled to overcome Kennedy's bad mood, "but he perked up whenever I asked him to sit with Caroline," remembered the photographer.
20. NEWCAM_130416_186.JPG: Kennedy was unhappy to be posing for photos in a suit on his day off, Lowe said. "Jackie, on the contrary, was very happy to see me and was quite wonderful that day."
21. NEWCAM_130416_196.JPG: At Home in Georgetown: Washington DC, 1959 At the Kennedy's Georgetown home in the spring of 1959, Jacques Lowe took his first widely published photos of the senator and his family. Kennedy didn't announce he was running for president until January 1960, but with Lowe's help, he was already crafting the public image that he would project during his campaign. Both John and Jacqueline Kennedy understood how the news media worked and how photography could shape this images in the press. He had worked briefly as a correspondent for Hearst newspapers, and she was a photographer for the Washington Times-Herald when they met. The Kennedys counted many journalists among their friends, including Georgetown neighbor Ben Bradlee, who was Newsweek's Washington bureau chief and later became editor of The Washington Post.
22. NEWCAM_130416_200.JPG: Jacqueline and Caroline Kennedy bid Sen. Kennedy goodbye as he heads to work on Capitol Hill.
23. NEWCAM_130416_207.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy plays with Caroline in the nursery of their Georgetown home. "Mother and daughter spend a great deal of time together," said Lowe, "as much as, or perhaps even more than most parents and children in a nonpublic life."
24. NEWCAM_130416_216.JPG: The Kennedys spend time at home in their Georgetown living room. A speed reader with an avid interest in the news, Kennedy would read more than half a dozen newspapers a day. After Kennedy was elected president, some of Lowe's photos from this session appeared in Paris Match and Ladies' Home Journal, seen below.
25. NEWCAM_130416_230.JPG: Kennedy tosses Caroline into the air in the backyard of their Georgetown home. Back problems made physical play like this difficult for Kennedy, but he projected a healthy, athletic image for the camera.
26. NEWCAM_130416_239.JPG: It's not what you are that counts, but what people think you are
27. NEWCAM_130416_246.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy sits at a desk in her Georgetown home. "The house unmistakably bears the touch of Jacqueline Kennedy," said Lowe, "with art books piled high on most every table and here and there a French newspaper or magazine. But the first thing you notice is flowers. Fresh flowers are everywhere."
28. NEWCAM_130416_261.JPG: An elegantly dressed Jacqueline Kennedy, then 29, stands in front of her N Street home in Georgetown. "It is a comfortable house," said Lowe, "but, in the way of Washington houses, most unpretentious."
29. NEWCAM_130416_266.JPG: "As long as they want to talk to me. I want to talk to them. Maybe longer." Kennedy Wins the Nomination Los Angeles July 1960
30. NEWCAM_130416_276.JPG: Legendary CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow interviews Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention, which Murrow co-anchored with Walter Cronkite.
31. NEWCAM_130416_284.JPG: Kennedy scans the newspaper headlines the morning after winning his party's nomination on the first ballot.
32. NEWCAM_130416_303.JPG: Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver and sisters-in-law Joan and Ethel Kennedy rally on the convention floor. Look magazine wrote that if Kennedy won the election, it would be due "in no small measure" to the efforts of the Kennedy women.
33. NEWCAM_130416_310.JPG: Kennedy addresses members of the press at the Democratic National Convention. "A photo sometimes catches the lines in a man's face and telltale expressions more revealingly than the most detailed history books," said Lowe.
34. NEWCAM_130416_321.JPG: The day after he won the Democratic nomination, Kennedy met privately with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson to offer him the vice presidency, a bid to appeal to Southern voters. Kennedy's brother and closest adviser Robert F. Kennedy, who opposed the choice, looks at Johnson with icy disregard. Lowe was the only photographer allowed in the room to document the historic moment.
35. NEWCAM_130416_334.JPG: Kennedy Wins the Nomination Los Angeles, July 1960 After key victories in Wisconsin and West Virginia, John F. Kennedy arrived at the Democratic National Convention as his party's front-runner. His charismatic image -- enhanced by Jacques Lowe's photos -- now commanded major media attention. "An incredible stampede of rolling TV cameras, lights, reporters, photographers and microphones would roar after him," said Lowe. After Kennedy clinched the nomination, Lowe was the only photographer in the room when Kennedy offered Lyndon B. Johnson the vice presidency. "I had not only been an eyewitness to a moment in history that would change the world forever, but I had actually photographed it," said Lowe.
36. NEWCAM_130416_339.JPG: In Pekin, Ill., "a veritable mob threw themselves onto Kennedy's open car," said Lowe, "tearing the buttons off his coat and causing his hands to be sore at night from relentless pressing of the flesh."
37. NEWCAM_130416_349.JPG: Five Kennedy women -- Joan Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Ethel Kennedy -- pose in Hyannis Port. Jean and Eunice were Kennedy's sisters, Joan was Ted Kennedy's wife, and Ethel was Robert Kennedy's wife. The photo appeared in Look magazine, below.
38. NEWCAM_130416_363.JPG: The Race to Election Day: Fall 1960: After the convention, John F. Kennedy's campaign took off. Throngs of eager supporters greeted him at campaign stops. "The campaign built and built," said photographer Jacques Lowe. "Each morning it was like waking up and finding that a skyscraper was 10 stories higher than it had been the night before." In televised debated with Republican Richard M. Nixon, Kennedy's command of the new medium triumphed. Image was a critical factor in the close race. After the polls closed, Lowe captured behind-the-scenes glimpses of the tense Kennedy clan as they awaited the election results in Hyannis Port, Mass. Kennedy won by fewer than 120,000 votes, less than 1 percent.
39. NEWCAM_130416_368.JPG: Kennedy speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Burlington, Vt., the day before the election. As the campaign peaked, his rhetoric became "more powerful, his gestures more purposeful," recalled Lowe.
40. NEWCAM_130416_377.JPG: Press photographers cover a campaign appearance from the back of a car. "The working press, the campaign contingent, were pulling for Kennedy," remembered Time correspondent Hugh Sidey. "They admired his intellect, his humor and his unconventional campaign techniques, which above all included an easy access to himself."
41. NEWCAM_130416_382.JPG: At bottom, Lowe took this photo of Kennedy debating with Republican presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon through the window of a private screening room. The 1960 presidential debates were the first to be nationally televised. After winning the election, Kennedy remarked, "It was TV ore than anything else that turned the tide."
42. NEWCAM_130416_406.JPG: Lowe's Cameras: Jacques Lowe used many cameras during his career, including this 35 mm Nikon, top, shown with Lowe's custom-made camera strap. His medium-format Hasselblad, above, produced square images.
43. NEWCAM_130416_410.JPG: As the family awaited results in Hyannis Port, "the tension was palpable," remembered Lowe. "Kennedy, his eyes uncomprehending, the usual twinkle gone, kept twisting a pencil round and round, oblivious to all but the television drama unfolding."
44. NEWCAM_130416_424.JPG: Overcome by the news that her husband was the new president, Jacqueline Kennedy fled for a solitary walk on the beach. "She was in a terrible state of shock as she now realized she was the first lady -- and although she very much wanted to be first lady she also had a lot of fears about it," said Lowe.
45. NEWCAM_130416_432.JPG: With Kennedy victorious, Lowe wanted to take a family portrait to mark the historic occasion. After much pleading, he got everyone assembled except Jacqueline Kennedy, who had gone for a walk on the beach. The president-elect went out to fetch her. "When Jackie came in, everyone stood up and applauded," said Lowe. The photo appeared in Newsweek, below.
46. NEWCAM_130416_453.JPG: The president-elect gave his acceptance speech at the National Guard Armory in Hyannis Port. "So now my wife and I prepare for a new administration, and for a new baby," said Kennedy. Their son, John Hr., would be born just two weeks later.
47. NEWCAM_130416_461.JPG: Lowe captured Robert and Ted Kennedy tossing a football in Hyannis Port the morning after the election. The Kennedys' energy and athleticism were key ingredients of their public image.
48. NEWCAM_130416_473.JPG: The Inauguration: Washington, January 1961: The snow was thick on the streets of Washington as the United States prepared to welcome a new president to the White House. The night before the inauguration, Hollywood's biggest celebrities took the stage at John F. Kennedy's inaugural gala, giving the nation's capital added sparkle. Nut the real stars of the evening were the incoming president and first lady. "I've never cared for the name Camelot as an accurate description of the Kennedy years," wrote Kennedy's press secretary Pierre Salinger. "But the festivities on the night before the inauguration were, in fact, the stuff of which myths, and also dreams, are made." The next day -- Jan. 20, 1961 -- Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States.
49. NEWCAM_130416_500.JPG: A snowstorm on Jan. 19 stranded participants in the inaugural gala and delayed the start of the event. When the president-elect and his wife finally arrived at 11pm, the hall erupted in cheers.
50. NEWCAM_130416_506.JPG: In this rarely seen photograph, Jacqueline Kennedy prepares to make her grand entrance at the Jan. 19 inaugural gala.
51. NEWCAM_130416_515.JPG: Above left, the Kennedys leave their Georgetown home the morning of Jan. 20 to attend the inauguration. Jacqueline Kennedy wore one of her trademark pillbox hats; her husband, who did not like hats, wore one briefly for the occasion. "During the campaign, a time when most men and women still wore hats, the American hat manufacturers had become extremely nervous about this charismatic figure who refused to wear one," said Lowe. Above right, Kennedy delivers his inaugural address, with the memorable words, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."
52. NEWCAM_130416_526.JPG: Performers take the stage at Kennedy's inaugural gala on Jan. 19. From left to right: Pat Suzuki, Joey Bishop, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante (behind Sinatra), Helen Traubel, Ella Fitzgerald, Alan King, Gene Kelly, Janet Leigh, and Tony Curtis.
53. NEWCAM_130416_532.JPG: A radiant first lady smiles at the first of five inaugural balls on Jan. 20. Having giving birth to son John Jr. only two months before, Jacqueline Kennedy attended only the first three balls. The president, after attending all five balls, "turned up at a party at columnist Joe Alsop's house, where he stayed until after 3:30am," said Lowe. "At 8:50am, he arrived at the Oval Office ready for work."
54. NEWCAM_130416_541.JPG: Introducing the First Family: When the Kennedys entered the White House in January 1961, Americans were hungry for photographs of the new first family. Thanks to Jacques Lowe's unprecedented access during the campaign, he was able to supply photos of the Kennedys to newspapers, magazines and television programs. "Such candid and intimate images had never been used before in high-power politics," wrote former Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey. "The Kennedy legend was daily put out on film and dispersed worldwide." Particularly popular were images of the Kennedy children, which became a source of tension in the White House. John F. Kennedy and his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, believed that these photos created good news stories during difficult times. Jacqueline Kennedy wanted to protect her children's privacy, which cause conflict with photographers, including Lowe.
55. NEWCAM_130416_545.JPG: Caroline Kennedy rides her toy car next to cousins Christopher Lawford, left, and Bobby Shriver, driving a go-kart with a "Kennedy for President" bumper sticker.
56. NEWCAM_130416_553.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy, her hair in a kerchief, stretches out on the couch of the Kennedys' Hyannis Port home with Caroline on her lap. Mother and daughter were often pictures together relaxing or at play. "Often Mrs. Kennedy holds Caroline on her lap when looking at a book of paintings," said Lowe.
57. NEWCAM_130416_560.JPG: The rhyming caption for this photograph, published in Newsweek, below right, reads, "What's all the talk about recessions and such -- of missiles and atoms to scare ya? When Caroline's mother is sitting right there, the world is a undepressed area."
58. NEWCAM_130416_566.JPG: "Jack Kennedy loved the water," said Lowe. "He was a superb swimmer, a fine sailor." Here, during a campaign break, "Jack and Jackie enjoy themselves immensely, navigating a tiny boat in Hyannis Port, Mass."
59. NEWCAM_130416_581.JPG: Caroline kisses her father on the porch of their Hyannis Port home. "Sometimes he calls her 'Buttons' and sometimes she calls him 'Jack,'" reads the rhyming caption in Newsweek, below. "She comes for a kiss every morning and then she gives it back." Kennedy usually avoided photos depicting hugging and kissing, but made an exception here.
60. NEWCAM_130416_595.JPG: This contact sheet features the Kennedys at their home in Hyannis Port in August 1960, after Kennedy's nomination and before the general election campaign kicked into full swing. "I don't think he ever had a time that was so carefree," said Lowe.
61. NEWCAM_130416_605.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy relaxes on the lawn of the Kennedys' home in Washington, DC, the summer before the election as Caroline plays with two kittens. "There were moments of peace and reflection, the last for some months, perhaps years to come," recalled Lowe.
62. NEWCAM_130416_613.JPG: Lowe captured this image days before the start of the Democratic Convention in July 1960. Kennedy asked, "Why are we taking these pictures, Jacques?" Lowe responded, "Because there are a hundred million voters out there and you're running for president."
63. NEWCAM_130416_621.JPG: Caroline and her mother sit on the lawn of their home in Washington. "Jacqueline Kennedy spends little time that doesn't include her daughter," said Lowe.
64. NEWCAM_130416_630.JPG: This contact sheet is from the same session as the color image on the left.
65. NEWCAM_130416_639.JPG: The Presidency, 1961
66. NEWCAM_130416_645.JPG: The Presidency: 1961: In the White House, John F. Kennedy used live televised press conferences and photo sessions to maintain his connection to the public. For the first time in history, an official White House photographer, Cecil Stoughton, was hired, after Jacques Lowe had declined the job. Still, Lowe photographed the Kennedys in their new home and on their first official trip abroad. The Kennedys' arrival in Europe in May 1961 heralded a new era in international relations. The people of Paris were charmed by the young president, but his French-speaking wife was a media sensation. Lowe's photographs of the radiant first lady countered news stories of Kennedy's tense summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna. "Mr. Kennedy's grand tour has not been a waste of time," reported The New York Times. "Much has been made of the theatrical success of the handsome young Kennedys, and of course, it was a success."
67. NEWCAM_130416_648.JPG: Kennedy reacts to the news of the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in these images taken in the Oval Office. "I was alone with the president," said Lowe. "I heard him groan, 'Oh, no,' and his hand went to his head in despair."
68. NEWCAM_130416_655.JPG: In the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy limited access to her children. But the president persisted in ordering photos of Caroline, seen here playing in the White House, for release to the press. When Lowe balked, citing the first lady's wishes, the president said, "Take the pictures and I'll sort it out with her." Said Lowe, "He was the president of the US, so you really didn't argue with him."
69. NEWCAM_130416_663.JPG: Parisians lined up to greet the first lady and president at a reception at the Elysee Palace. Lowe escaped the restrictive photographers' area and mingled with the guests to take this photo. When the president spotted him, Kennedy jokingly warned Lowe not to ask for his help if he was caught by the French authorities.
70. NEWCAM_130416_673.JPG: The first lady descends the stairs of the Elysee Palace in Paris flanked by the Republican honor guard. The French newspaper France-Soir reported that "every Parisian had fallen in love with her."
71. NEWCAM_130416_678.JPG: On his first day in Paris, Kennedy accompanies French President Charles de Gaulle to honor war dead at the Arc de Triumphe. "There were a great many official occasions," recalled Lowe. "But the most glamorous part was the reception the people of Paris, normally cynical, gave the president of the United States and his first lady."
72. NEWCAM_130416_686.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy rides through the streets of Paris with French first lady Yvonne de Gaulle. When the Kennedys drove into the city, "the streets were lined by Parisians," recalled Lowe. "And they were all screaming 'Jackie! Jackie! Jackie!' "
73. NEWCAM_130416_690.JPG: An attentive first lady sits next to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at a reception in Vienna. Although her husband's summit with the Soviet leader was a Cold War standoff, Jacqueline Kennedy charmed him. "He was like a little kid," said Lowe. "It was very funny."
74. NEWCAM_130416_698.JPG: In London for the christening of Jacqueline Kennedy's niece, the president and press secretary Pierre Salinger review news coverage of the failed meeting with Nikita Khrushchev. "Few commentators were complimentary," remembered Lowe, "most describing the meetings as a defeat for the president."
75. NEWCAM_130416_702.JPG: Kennedy's press secretary Pierre Salinger corrals United Press International's White House correspondent Merriman Smith, left, and another reporter outside the London home of Lee Radziwill, Jacqueline Kennedy's sister. The Kennedys were attending a private christening party, yet "some 2,000 newsmen had come to London anyway, clamoring for a press conference and a photo opportunity," said Lowe. He was the only photographer allowed inside.
76. NEWCAM_130416_710.JPG: At the reception in Vienna, Kennedy was seated next to the Soviet premier's wife. Nina Khrushchev "hardly spoke all night and when she did, she whispered remarks to her interpreter, who squatted behind her," recalled Lowe. "Kennedy looked slightly lost."
77. NEWCAM_130416_717.JPG: In this rare photograph, which was not released by the Kennedy White House, the first lady relaxes with a cigarette and a drink at a christening party at her sister Lee Radziwill's house in London.
78. NEWCAM_130416_724.JPG: Kennedy's Early Campaign: 1959-1960: When John F. Kennedy began his campaign for president in the fall of 1959, he fought distrust about his youth, lack of experience and Catholic faith. As the official campaign photographer, Jacques Lowe captured moments that would help to define the candidate's image. Lowe's photographs showed Kennedy's energy, enthusiasm and his efforts to connect with voters. Meanwhile, Kennedy's friendly attitude toward the press was paying off with growing media attention.
79. NEWCAM_130416_728.JPG: A handful of supporters greet the Kennedys on an airstrip in Oregon. "There are few lonelier ordeals than the primary campaign of a presidential hopeful," said Lowe. After Kennedy was elected, he told Lowe that this was his favorite photograph, because "nobody remembers that now."
80. NEWCAM_130416_735.JPG: "We're doing to sell Jack like soap flakes." -- Joseph P Kennedy, Sr.
81. NEWCAM_130416_745.JPG: The Kennedys sit unrecognized in an Oregon diner during a campaign stop in the fall of 1959. "Here they were, 10 months away from the nomination, and nobody cared," Lowe said. "Six months later, Jackie couldn't walk out in the street without being clawed."
82. NEWCAM_130416_751.JPG: Kennedy autographs campaign posters featuring an image captured by Lowe earlier in the campaign. The original photo can be seen above right.
83. NEWCAM_130416_758.JPG: Lowe's favorite photo from the campaign was taken after Kennedy had received a hostile reception from a group of longshoremen in Coos Bay, Ore. The photo captured Kennedy's dark mood as he reflected on his failure to reach the men. "He very rarely reached this point of depression," said Lowe.
84. NEWCAM_130416_763.JPG: Campaign buttons and sticker featuring photo by Jacques Lowe
85. NEWCAM_130416_768.JPG: This photo of Kennedy at a 1959 press conference in Omaha, Neb., was widely used on campaign materials, including the campaign buttons and sticker displayed in the case at left. Jacqueline Kennedy later chose this image for her husband's memorial card.
86. NEWCAM_130416_778.JPG: Aboard his private airplane, the Caroline, Kennedy enjoys his favorite fish chowder as his wife reads Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums." "She is an avid reader," said Lowe, "and her taste ranges from the classics to modern American writers including such offbeat authors as Jack Kerouac."
87. NEWCAM_130416_784.JPG: Kennedy stands next to a lone voter in Ona, W.Va. "The search for votes and hands to shake was difficult in the early days of the West Virginia primary," recalled Lowe. Even so, Kennedy won the state by a landslide. "This small state finally gave Kennedy the credibility he needed to reach the pinnacle at the convention."
88. NEWCAM_130416_796.JPG: Kennedy, in sunglasses, talks to a reporter aboard a helicopter while campaigning in California. Kennedy held formal press conferences at most of is campaign stops, but his specialty was informal press interviews on the run.
89. NEWCAM_130416_805.JPG: En route to Charleston, W.Va., Kennedy spotted a group of grade-school students waiting for a bus and climbed up on a tractor to address the group. "It seemed a desperate search for votes," said Lowe, "since there was only one to be had -- the teacher's."
90. NEWCAM_130416_811.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy takes a cigarette break during a campaign stop in California early in 1960. "Through much of the early campaign, Jackie shared the rigors of the road," said Lowe. "The loneliness of that effort becomes very apparent here."
91. NEWCAM_130416_819.JPG: Jacqueline Kennedy gives a radio interview in La Grande, Ore., during an early campaign stop. After she became pregnant with John Jr. in the spring of 1960, she cut down on her campaigning.
92. NEWCAM_130416_825.JPG: The Last Photo Shoot: Summer 1961: By the summer of 1961, Jacques Lowe was easing out of his role as John F. Kennedy's personal photographer. A final photo shoot of Caroline, John Jr. and relatives of Hyannis Port, Mass., that summer completed Lowe's portfolio of the first family. Lowe returned to his career as a news and commercial photographer. A year and a half later, the president was assassinated in Dallas. Kennedy's children, his siblings and their children would carry the Kennedy name and image forward, through success and tragedy, as their name became intertwined with the American story.
93. NEWCAM_130416_827.JPG: John Kennedy Jr. lies on the grass in Hyannis Port next to nanny Maud Shaw, with cousin William Smith sitting in the foreground. "Children dominate the proceedings at Hyannis Port," said Lowe. "They outnumber the adults." This photo also can be seen on the contact sheet at right.
94. NEWCAM_130416_835.JPG: Caroline Kennedy picnics on the beach with her nanny, Maud Shaw, and cousins Michael Kennedy and Stephen Smith, Jr. in the summer of 1961. "Summer picnics were the favorite outings of young and old alike during these wonderful Cape Cod days," said Lowe. This photo also can be seen on the contact sheet at bottom right.
95. NEWCAM_130416_844.JPG: These contact sheets capture moments from the summer of 1961
96. NEWCAM_130416_856.JPG: Caroline Kennedy stands on the beach with cousin Stephen Smith, Jr. "There on the beach a barbeque would be set up, baseball hats and footballs would come out, and the children and the grown-ups would partake in the simple joy of living," said Lowe.
97. NEWCAM_130416_863.JPG: Caroline Kennedy sites in the sand in Hyannis Port with cousins Michael Kennedy and Stephen Smith, Jr.
98. NEWCAM_130416_870.JPG: This iconic image of John, Jacqueline and Caroline Kennedy was taken in July 1958, during Lowe's first photo shoot at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].