JOHN F. KENNEDY CREATES THE PEACE CORPS.
Steel-nibbed pen by Esterbrook, in black plastic and Lucite, stamped in white letters The President—The White House, with original Esterbrook card box, marked "Humphry — HR7500 87293 P.L." Mounted with a Typed Letter Signed ("John F. Kennedy"), to Monsignor William J. Murphy, congratulating him on the centennial of St. Joseph's Church in Ashtabula, OH, 1p, 8vo, April 23, 1962. Also mounted with a photo portrait of Kennedy, matted and framed to an overall size of 535 x 677.
Provenance: John F. Kennedy; gift to Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978; Vice-President under Johnson Administration); William H. Perkins Collection; sold Camelot: 50 Years After Dallas, RR Auction, Boston, October 24, 2013, lot 15.
THE PEN KENNEDY USED TO SIGN HR7500 ESTABLISHING THE PEACE CORPS, presented to Hubert Humphrey, who sponsored the House bill. The idea of a civilian Peace Corps as an instrument of spreading good will and American democratic ideology around the world was conceived and championed by United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther in the 1950s. He met with candidate Kennedy after the 1960 Democratic National Convention to convince him to make the idea part of his presidential platform. Kennedy signed the executive order that created the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961, and appointed Sargent Shriver as the Peace Corp's first director. The writing on the pen's box, possibly in the hand of a White House staff member, refers to the act's House bill number, and its sponsor in the House, Hubert Humphrey (here mis-spelled "Humphry)." Pen was originally housed in the collection of William H. Perkins, Jr. Perkins served on Presidential Inaugural Committees in 1961, 1965, 1969, and 1973. He was a lifelong lobbyist, first for Continental Casualty where he arranged the insurance coverage for President Kennedy's inauguration. In 1964, he was appointed by President Johnson as a member of the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Institution; he was reappointed by Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.
