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Exhibit To Show Rare Photos Of Former President Kennedy

Rogers Photo Archive

With this year marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 120 rare photos of the president will be on display next month in central Arkansas.

"The JFK 50 Years Later" exhibit will highlight rare and never before seen photos of John F. Kennedy and his family," said John Gaudin, chairman of the Board of Directors for the Argenta Arts Foundation.

The exhibit will be held at various arts locations and will be free to the public.

The images come from the Rogers Photo Archive in North Little Rock, which in recent years has partnered with newspapers and magazines to archive their collections.

John Rogers
Credit Michael Hibblen / KUAR News
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KUAR News
John Rogers, owner of John Rogers Photo Archive, speaking at the announcement.

Owner John Rogers says they’re using photos that show a very personal side of Kennedy.

"This man lived an amazing life.  He did so much good for this world and we selected images not to focus on the horrible day in Dallas, but we wanted to show his life from his youth leading up to that day," Rogers said. 

"The images that were selected, I think you’ll find them when they go on display, you’re going to see a man that was a loving father, loved his children, and you’ll see images of him playing with his children the week he was assassinated, taking them to work with them."

Gaudin says they had a lot of images to chose from.

“The photos are from a number of different news archives, everything from the Miami Herald to the Boston Globe to a number of newspapers that John has the archival rights to.  When we start talking about the exhibition, John mentioned he had over 13,000 JFK images.  He actually has more images of JFK and his family than the JFK Presidential Library out of Boston," said Gaudin.

The photos will be displayed March 25th through the 30th.  There will also be several events related to the exhibition, including Governor Mike Beebe reading Kennedy’s inaugural address on March 26th.

Michael Hibblen was a journalist for KUAR News from May 2009 — December 2022. During his final 10 years with the station, he served as News Director. In January 2023, he was hired by Arkansas PBS to become its Senior Producer/ Director of Public Affairs.