John Fitzgerald Kennedy (pictured) poses on the lawn outside the Kennedy family home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, circa 1932, at around aged 15
The young boy stands smiling, his grin undeniable: he is often with his siblings, sometimes with his arm slung around them, playing with them at the beach or at their home, and at other times, posing alone in a Halloween costume, suit, with the family dog Bobby or upright on skis.
Newly released photos offer a look into John F. Kennedy's privileged childhood and teen years, growing up with his eight siblings in Massachusetts and New York, and vacationing at the family homes in Hyannis Port and Palm Beach, Florida as well as abroad. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum recently made the Kennedy family photos available for viewing online after completing an 18-month project to catalog and digitize them.
Born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, an area outside of Boston in Massachusetts, Jack, as he was called by his family and friends, was named after his maternal grandfather, John Francis Fitzgerald, a former Congressman and mayor of Boston, who was known as ‘Honey Fitz' for his charm and charisma. From a young age, the future 35th president would follow in his namesake's footsteps: Jack was considered a ‘natural wit' to the point his mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote down things that he would say, according to Nigel Hamilton's ‘JFK: Reckless Youth.'
Jack would parlay that charisma and wit all the way to the highest office in the land, and along the way attend elite preparatory schools where he would win friends and titles such as 'Most Likely to Succeed' but not always academic accolades despite an individualist mind that enjoyed to read. Jack battled being seriously ill off and on throughout his childhood and teens years, but remained amiable and was considered the family's joker. All of the Kennedy kids contended with their parents - Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. - contentious marriage as Kennedy Sr. had several affairs, including with actress Gloria Swanson, according to the book.
Rose Kennedy would have nine children - four boys and five girls - and began a ‘card-index filing system to keep track of the children's medical histories and vital statistics', and had a ‘daily inspection' where she ‘looked for signs of fraying garments,' according to the book. Jack, the second eldest after his older brother Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., ‘seemed unconcerned about dress,' Hamilton wrote, and was at times disheveled with his shirt not tucked into his pants.
Born on May 29, 1917, John F. Kennedy was the second eldest child of the Kennedy clan. Here is seen here pictured as an infant sometime in 1917, being held by an unidentified woman on the on the porch steps of the house the Kennedy family rented on Beach Avenue at Nantasket Beach, Hull, Massachusetts. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum recently made the Kennedy family photos available for viewing online after completing an 18-month project to catalog and digitize them
John F. Kennedy (left) is seen here with his older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (right) sitting in the sand near the shore of Nantasket Beach, Hull, Massachusetts in 1918. Jack, as he was known to his family and friends, and Joe, who was named after their father, were often rivals
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (center) holds his sons, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (left), and John F. Kennedy (right), near the home the family rented on Beach Avenue at Nantasket Beach, Hull, Massachusetts in 1918. Joe, who was born on July 25, 1915, and Jack were about two years apart and were often at the same schools together
Rosemary Kennedy (right), John F. Kennedy (center), and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (left), sit in a wooden coaster wagon at Nantasket Beach, Hull, Massachusetts circa 1918, and the boys wear matching sailor outfits
The Kennedy clan in the 1930s in Hyannis, Massachussetts. Seated from left, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (center in glasses), Eunice Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and Kathleen Kennedy. Standing from left, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy (left next to his father), Rose Kennedy, Jean Kennedy, and Patricia Kennedy
Rose would spend much time sewing and mending and darning, and Hamilton called Rose's mothering style more like management ‘rather than maternal approach to child rearing,' and she ‘never kissed or touched' her children that she ‘rarely saw.' The children had several governesses.
When Jack was two-years-old, he was struck by scarlet fever, and Rose, who had just given birth to Jack's younger sister Kathleen, was in a ‘frantic terror,' Hamilton wrote, not on behalf of Jack but for his siblings. Jack was close to death but recovered, and would face spells of sickness throughout his childhood and his teens, according to the book.
Meanwhile, the family moved to a new home: a ‘colonial-style mansion with two-story, curving bay windows, a wraparound porch, fourteen rooms and a garage for the new Rolls-Royce' in Brookline, according to the book.
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next
Rare Kennedy photos go inside America's most famous family... 'Childlike innocence' of JFK's eldest sister Rosemary is... EXCLUSIVE: How the bitter rivalry between sisters Jackie...
Share this article
Share
Jack and his older brother, Joe, who was named after their father, were rivals, and ‘when not engaged in fisticuffs with his older brother, Jack turned more and more to books,' according to the book. Hamilton surmises that while being ill, Jack took up the habit of reading. By aged six, Jack was promoted to second grade, and the next year to third grade when he was seven - ‘a year if not two ahead of most children his age,' according to the book.
Meanwhile his sister, Rosemary, who was a year younger than him, was a slow learner and was ‘unable to hold a knife and fork at first,' according to the book, and JetBlack Rose spent more time with her than Jack.
By October 22, 1994, while Jack is in third grade at the Edward Devotion School, he pulled out of that institution and sent, along with his older brother, Joe, then nine, to the $400 a year Noble and Greenough Lower School. The Kennedy boys were likely the only Irish Catholic family at the school where most were Protestant and Anglo-Saxon, and as new boys they were the ‘object of derision and taunts,' according to the book.
John F. Kennedy (left) stands with an unidentified boy holding a dog (right) outside the Kennedy family home in Brookline, Massachusetts, circa 1922. When Jack was two-years-old, he was struck by scarlet fever, and would face spells of sickness throughout his childhood and his teens, according to Nigel Hamilton's ‘JFK: Reckless Youth'
John F. Kennedy (pictured), at aged 12, wears a suit for his First Communion and stands outside the Kennedy family home in Brookline, Massachusetts in June 1925. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which recently made the photos available online, notes that the original caption for this photo was 'Jacky First Communion'
Rose Kennedy would have nine children - four boys and five girls - and began a ‘card-index filing system to keep track of the children's medical histories and vital statistics,' according to Nigel Hamilton's ‘JFK: Reckless Youth.' The Kennedy family children sit on a wooden seesaw outside the Kennedy family home in Brookline, Massachusetts sometime in 1924 or 1925 with Kathleen Kennedy (left), an unidentified boy (next to Kathleen), Eunice Kennedy (center) John F.