JFK Library's Scope Enlarged by Kennedys

The scope of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library has apparently been greatly expanded as a result of a meeting last Wednesday in Mrs. Kennedy's Georgetown home.

The Library will now concentrate on amassing a detailed history of the late President's life and career, as well as of his administration. This will include a program of tape-recorded oral interviews with people who knew Kennedy at different stages of his life.

Pledges towards the goal of $10 million which will be needed to build the Library have reportedly already reached $2-3 million. Among the largest early supporters have been Averell Harrimas, Assistant Secretary of State; Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury; and the AFL-CIO. The Kennedy Foundation has also promised $1 million.

About 25 friends and family of the late President, including six current and two former members of the Faculty, attended Wednesday's gathering.

Among other topics discussed was the role of a public affairs center which is to be part of the new library.

Don K. Price, Dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration, who attended the meeting, said last night that the center would sponsor "various activities designed to bring together the world of public affairs and politics on the one hand and the world of scholars on the other."

Planning Just Begun

Although planning of the center is in the very early stages, its broad purpose will be to encourage men of high caliber to enter the world of politics. Once established and functioning, the center will cause the Kennedy Library to play a far more active role than any of the other presidential libraries.

The search for books, documents, and papers relating to the president which will stock the library has already brought the promises of many former friends and associates to contribute extensively.

Both Seymour H. Harris '20, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, and John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, will make large donations. Close friends of the late President, Galbraith and Harris each attended the Washington meeting.

Harris is planning to transfer more than six rooms of economic books, pamphlets, and other document to the library when it is completed. The personal collection, which covers about 40 years, would give scholars a good "idea of the economic progress in this period," he said.

Galbraith will contribute all documents concerned with his two-year tenure as Kennedy's ambassador to India, in addition to personal correspondence with the late President stretching back a number of years.