Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Autograph Manuscript Notes for John Jr.’s Birthday Party and Household Instructions.
KENNEDY ONASSIS, Jacqueline [John Kennedy.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Autograph Manuscript Notes for John Jr.’s Birthday Party and Household Instructions.
Rare Collection of Autograph Manuscript Notes by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Regarding John Jr.'s Birthday Party and Domestic Affairs
$4,200.00
In Stock
Item Number: 151906
A rare collection of autograph notes by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis providing instructions for a birthday party for her son, John F. Kennedy Jr., along with additional housekeeping directions. The collection comprises one 8.5 by 11-inch sheet of lined paper and two smaller white notes addressed to “Charley” containing instructions for “John’s party,” together with a small signed Christmas note in Mrs. Kennedy’s hand reading, “Merry Christmas to dear Charlie and much love Jacqueline Kennedy.” The first note, on a single sheet of lined paper, reads in part, “John’s party – table. Put leaves in table for 13 places. Red oil cloth table cloth – at each place: red enamel cup – filled with candy cord from new store, Red paper plate + napkin – on plate, Lottery ticket + flashlight, Paper cup filled with milk… Menu – Milk at each place, Spaghetti + meat sauce, salad, small hot dogs in pastry.” The accompanying notes, on 6.25 by 4.25-inch white note paper, read in part, “Charley 1) Please always check on champagne in wine cellar – & order more when needed – 2) Please put carrots + celery on table at night 3) Please get another white tulip plant for living room manel – when it dies – keep replacing it with white tulips…” and “Charlie 1) Phone fixed – extension 2227 doesn’t work from pantry to my room 2) Get bulb to squirt water on plants – put in Caroline’s room… 4) Charley – will you stay for supper while Panayotti is in hospital recuperating? Come in later if you want – Thanks so much.” Accompanied by a 1981 thank you note to Mrs. Kennedy Onassis and a thank you note to Mr. and Mrs. Aristotle Onassis from Mrs. John V. Lindsay. Although the instructions are undated, they likely originate from the 1960s, the party plainly intended for a young child. They stand as a poignant reminder of the steady family life Mrs. Kennedy sought to provide her children in the years following the assassination of her husband, and offer insight into the keeping of their household. In very good condition. A fine collection offering an intimate glimpse into the domestic life of the Kennedy family.
Following the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, Mrs. Kennedy and her two young children, Caroline and John Jr., departed the White House and eventually settled at 1040 Fifth Avenue in New York City, where she sought to construct a private life shielded from the relentless attention that had come to define her public existence. Her marriage to Aristotle Onassis in October 1968 brought further changes to the household, though her devotion to maintaining a stable and ordinary domestic rhythm for her children remained constant throughout these years. The present notes, with their careful attention to a child's birthday celebration and the small particulars of running a home—the white tulips on the mantel, the champagne in the cellar, the broken telephone extension—reflect precisely the kind of quiet domestic continuity that Mrs. Kennedy worked to preserve for Caroline and John Jr. amid the extraordinary circumstances of their upbringing.
