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Anonymous ID: 741e1f Dec. 1, 2019, 4:41 a.m. No.7405059   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5325

>>7405042

Items on the desk

  1. Black Alligator Desk Set

 

Six pieces: Desk Pad; Holder for Paper Clips and Pencils; Note Pad; Rocker Blotter; Blotter holder; Cigarette Holder; Letter Sorter.

Gift from President Charles de Gaulle of France, on the occasion of President Kennedy's state visit to Paris, June 1961.

  1. Presidential Appointments Schedule for Thursday, November 21, 1963

 

Shows the following appointments:

 

9:30 AM Hon. Thomas S. Estes, U.S. Ambassador to Upper Volta.*

Hon. Charles F. Darlington, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Gabon.*

10:50 AM Depart South Lawn for TEXAS

  1. Coconut Shell, Encased in Plastic

 

Although now obscured by the clouded and scratched plastic which encases it, the coconut husk bears the inscribed message:

NAURO ISL NATIVE KNOWS POSIT HE CAN PILOT

11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT KENNEDY

 

The message was inscribed by Lt(jg) John F. Kennedy after his PT Boat, PT 109, was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, the AMAGIRI, and he and his men were marooned on Nauro Island in the Solomons in World War II. (1)

  1. Book-ends

 

The book-ends on the desk are replicas of cannon mounted on the U.S.S. CONSTITUTION ("Old Ironsides"), now berthed in Charlestown. See also article on artist.

  1. Plaque Inscribed With the Breton Fishermen's Prayer

 

"O, God, Thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small."

Presented to President Kennedy by Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, "Father of the Nuclear Navy."

  1. Steuben Glass Etching

 

The etchings are of a PT boat and the Presidential seal. The item was presented to President Kennedy by an organization of PT Boat veterans known as Peter-Tare, Inc.

7. Gold Inaugural Medal

 

The medal commemorating his inauguration was presented to President Kennedy by the Inaugural Committee.

  1. Ashtray

 

The ashtray is of Waterford crystal and bears an etching of the Kennedy coat-of-arms. The ashtray was presented to President Kennedy by Mrs. Dorothy Tubridy of Dublin, Ireland.

  1. Books

 

Among the books that President Kennedy habitually kept on his desk were the following:

 

a. Leather-bound copies of his own publications:

 

As We Remember Joe (personal reminiscences of his brother, who was killed in World War II)

Strategy of Peace

Profiles in Courage (his Pulitzer Prize winning work of biography)

To Turn the Tide

Why England Slept (his honors thesis for Harvard University)

b. Other publications:

 

The speeches of JFK during the 1960 Campaign

Joint Appearances of Senator Kennedy and Vice President Nixon during Presidential Campaign of 1960

Winston Churchill's four-volume biography of Marlborough

Samuel Flagg Bemis's two-volume study of John Quincy Adams

Herbert Agar's The Price of Union

Henri-Beyle Stendahl's The Red and the Black

c. Also on the desk was a pocket Congressional Directory for the year 1963.

 

  1. Telephones

 

One large green telephone with several buttons. Two small black telephones for communicating with his staff and the Mansion. (3)

  1. Other Items

 

Magnifying glass (5" x 2"), letter opener, framed photographs of his children, an ashtray with JFK's fingerprints on it (apparently a gift from J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation), a wooden handle with the die of the Presidential seal, a lamp, and ink and pen holders.

According to a response written on 27 February 1961 by Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary to President Kennedy, located in the White House Central Subject File here at the Kennedy Library, the lamp was a Hercolite Executive (no. 605SB) made by Herco Art Manufacturing of Wallingford, Connecticut. (4)