As historians and scholars who have had the privilege of working in the extraordinary collections of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, we write to express our deep concern about the current upheaval at the Kennedy Library and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation (“JFK Library chief joins a long list of departures,” Page A1, Sept. 16). We are not privy to the reasons for the recent departures of so many capable and experienced staff. However, we are dismayed by news reports that conflict between the foundation and the library underlies the turmoil.
The loss of Thomas Putnam, the library’s outstanding director, is especially distressing. Under Putnam’s leadership, the Kennedy Library has been a model of innovation in digitizing its collections and offering remarkable programming that combines widespread public appeal and scholarly substance. The library’s outreach to teachers and schools is equally praiseworthy.
The private foundations that support the nation’s presidential libraries can be invaluable partners in enabling the exhibits, archival work, and outreach of the libraries. Indeed, the Kennedy Library’s brilliant digitization program represents that kind of partnership at its best. But the foundations’ expertise and, at times, their focus differ from that of the archivists, museum staff, and other professionals who are responsible for the presidential libraries themselves.
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When foundations, however sincere their own intentions, attempt to interfere with or impede the independence, operations, and mission of any presidential library in the National Archives and Records Administration system, these fine institutions and the historical understanding they seek to promote suffers. We worry that this is what is now happening at the Kennedy Library.
To date, the foundation and the National Archives have given little explanation of events at the library. News reports quote foundation board members as suggesting that the foundation’s commitment to “modernization” explains the many departures of experienced employees. It is hard for us to imagine how the goal of modernization could possibly be at odds with the retention of a staff who collectively have done so much, in our direct experience, to advance historical inquiry, access, and understanding.
The Kennedy Library is, in many ways, among the most modern of the presidential libraries in the entire National Archives system. It is our sincere hope that recent events do not represent any diminution of the library’s commitment to openness, excellent public education, and free historical inquiry.
This letter was cosigned by Thurston Clarke, David J. Garrow, Diane McWhorter, Philip Muehlenbeck, Timothy Naftali, and David Nasaw.
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