UMass Dartmouth Is Home to Robert F. Kennedy Archives
The recent passing of Ethel Kennedy, the matriarch of the famous Kennedy clan, ends a chapter on one of the greatest American political stories. Mrs. Kennedy was the widow of former U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Like his older brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, RFK died at the hands of an assassin.
Born Ethel Skakel on April 11, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, she married Robert "Bobby" Kennedy on June 17, 1950, in Greenwich, Connecticut. The couple had 11 children, including former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The Kennedys lived in Washington, D.C., where Robert worked for the U.S. Justice Department before moving to Boston in 1952. While in Boston, Robert and Ethel Kennedy worked on John Kennedy's campaign for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.
In 1956, the Kennedys purchased a 13-room mansion, Hickory Hill, in McLean, Virginia, and later a home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts at the Kennedy Family Compound.
RFK served as U.S. Attorney General in his brother John's presidential administration and was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964.
On June 5, 1968, while campaigning in Los Angeles, California for the Democrat presidential nomination, RFK was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan.
In 1968, Ethel Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a nonprofit human rights advocacy organization.
Researchers hoping to learn more about Bobby Kennedy's assassination visit the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, home to the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives Collection. The Kennedy Archives is a part of the Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections at the Dartmouth campus.
The library says the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Archives Collection is "the world's largest, most complete compilation of materials relating to this event."
"Established in 1984, the archives contain thousands of copies of government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act public disclosure process as well as manuscripts, photographs, audiotape interviews, videotapes, news clippings, and research notes complied by journalists and other private citizens who have investigated discrepancies in the case," according to the library's website.
The library's website has information about operating hours and access to the Kennedy Collection.
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Gallery Credit: Jolana Miller