John F Kennedy Memorial

Public Art : John F Kennedy Memorial

Sculptor : © Raymond Ewers

Description : The John F Kennedy Memorial features a bronze bas relief head of the US president set in a granite boulder. Later a flag pole was added to make it more in keeping with his grave site at Arlington cemetery.

Inscription :

Date Unveiled: The JFK memorial was unveiled on the 25th March, 1965, by Sir Leo Curtis.

Commissioned by : Melbourne City Council

Cost : £10,000

Location : Treasury Gardens , Melbourne, Australia.

Background : In December 1963, the then Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Leo Curtis, suggested to the Melbourne City Council that it would be nice to erect a monument to honour the assassinated US president, John F. Kennedy. A committee was formed including the mayor and Councillors Brons, Holland, Talbot and Sir Federick Thomas. Lincoln White, who was Consul General of the US at the time served as an adviser.

Everyone remembers what they were doing when Kennedy was shot: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29th, 1917 – November 22nd, 1963) was the 35th President of the United States.  He was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on that fateful day in November. While waving to the crowd during a motorcade through Dallas, Texas in 1963, the assassin's bullet ripped through his shoulder before a second bullet hit him in the head. Despite the Warren report declaring Lee Harvey Oswald the lone assassin, the killing of the popular president has remained one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th Century. Added to the mystery was the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by nightclub owner Jack Ruby 2 days later before Oswald could be indicted. 

To say his presidency was uneventful would be an understatement. During his time in power the world would witness the  Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and the early stages of the Vietnam War.

President Kennedy Trivia:

Kennedy so far, has been the only Catholic president of the United States.

He is the only  president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.