147. JOHN F. KENNEDY’S HARVARD SWEATER, wool cardigan sweater with shawl collar, mother of pearl buttons and two in-sewn pockets. The sweater is in Harvard’s crimson red with the letter “H” knitted into the left breast in black. A label sewn into the collar is embroidered in red thread, “KENNEDY,” in shadowbox frame.
Sweater 32 inches from shoulder to bottom
Shadowbox Overall 40 ½ in. x 34 ½ in.

Provenance: Sold Guernsey’s Auction March 18 & 19, 1998 to the Present Owner

As quoted from Guernsey’s John F. Kennedy Catalog, 1998:
“In May of 1964 Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy gave her first interview to CBS since the tragic assassination of her husband the previous November. Filmed at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, Mrs. Kennedy was going to publicize the fundraising effort for The John F. Kennedy Memorial Library.

Herman Lang, one of CBS’s top television cameramen, had just finished televising the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, when he was told to meet the CBS Mobile Unit at the Kennedy home where the interview was to be taped. In an effort to imitate a famous photograph of the late President as the introduction to the piece, Mr. Lang was required to shoot for hours on the lawn of the Hyannisport house with the water in the background. Being a chilly day in May, Lang remarked to a Kennedy staff member that he was catching a cold. The woman offered Mr. Lang this Harvard sweater to wear while he was filming outside. Apparently everyone laughed at Lang because the sweater was too big for him, but it was only when somebody mentioned that it was the late President’s sweater and that his name was still stitched to the inside of the collar that Mr. Lang felt awkward wearing the cardigan. He decided, however, that “it was better than freezing to death.”

After completing his filming outdoors he moved inside the house for Jacqueline Kennedy’s interview. When he attempted to return the sweater to a Kennedy insider he was told that he could keep it as a reminder of the late John F. Kennedy.