Tami Blog 3: November 22, 1963 and Beyond

November 22, 1963 and Beyond

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library has an online exhibition showcasing some of the materials in their collection pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The LBJ Library, established in 1971, preserves and maintains for research the papers and memorabilia of President Johnson. However, the library’s holdings also include materials from Johnson’s entire public career, as well as materials related to his family and close associates. The library currently houses 40 million pages of historical documents. In addition, the library actively collects the papers of Johnson’s contemporaries and conducts an oral history program to supplement the written records contained in its collection.

Collection Principles

This exhibit contains photographs, audio transcripts, downloadable audio, copies of note cards prepared for public remarks, a transcript of his speech to Congress, diary excerpts, oral history interviews, and links to complementary or further information on the assassination. The home page of the exhibit is very simple and straightforward. A list is provided linking the user to sub-collections documenting Johnson’s activities on the day of and following the assassination. The extent and depth of information contained in the sub-collections is different for each. For example, the first link, entitled “President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Daily Diary,” takes the user to a short text explaining how the president’s daily diary was created and by whom. It also provides information as to the abbreviations utilized in the diary. Below the text are links to the diary pages. In contrast, the third sub-collection, links to a single photograph.

Object Characteristics

All of the photographs in the collection are JPEGs and, once you’ve clicked on the thumbnail and opened the file, do not have the ability to click on the photo for further enlargement. (However, there are links in the metadata to enlarged TIF files.)The document scans, such as the diary pages, are PNG files and the note card is a GIF file. The note card can be enlarged by, again, clicking on a link to the right of the document. It would be nice to have larger, more detailed examples of the handwritten or hand-corrected documents because these are essentially useless at the size provided.

Metadata

Extremely good metadata is provided for each photograph, such as Image Number, Credit, Image Date, Event, Location, Description, Rights Information, and links to enlarged TIF files. No metadata is provided concerning the audio files, the note card, nor the diary pages.

Intended Audience

Useful for researchers and biographers would be the diary pages containing minute-by-minute evidence of Johnson’s activities directly before and after the assassination. In addition, the links to additional information could be utilized by students and teachers interested in presidential succession and the assassination, as a whole, not just Johnson’s part in it. The photographs, while providing much detail of the event, are more limited in context, pertaining almost wholly to Johnson’s swearing in ceremony, but would be useful to researchers in that regard.