Jackie's camera used
while employed at Washington-Times Herald
1952-1953 | Before marrying John F. Kennedy and becoming an unforgettable figure in American History, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis displayed a crafty side using her talents as a journalist, illustrator and photographer. Many books and articles have been written about this extraordinary matriarch of the Kennedy dynasty, but as you will read, she made her mark as a creative role model before setting off to make even bigger history as the spouse of a famous president. |
Jackie's creative writing skills earned her attention in May of 1951 when she entered Vogue magazine's world renowned Prix de Paris contest. The contestants wrote essays evolving from the theme, "People I wish I had known." Jackie penned her essay around her desires to meet ballet impresario, Sergey Diaghilev, French poet, Baudelaire, and Oscar Wilde. As the winner, Vogue awarded Jackie a one year term as a Vogue writer which meant traveling between Vogue offices in Paris and New York.
Jackie did not accept the grand opportunity offered by Vogue magazine. Instead, Jackie spent that summer touring Europe with her younger sister, Lee Bouvier. The two sisters cataloged their adventures in a book, titled A Special Summer. Working together, Lee wrote the commentaries for the journal while Jackie added the illustrations. Although the book was a private gift for their mother, Janet, the journal that the sisters crafted to remember their European travels was published for the world to enjoy twenty-three years later by Delacorte.
Upon graduating from George Washington University, Jackie expanded her knowledge of photography when she accepted the position as the Inquiring Camera Girl for the Washington Times-Herald. Jackie toured Washington DC asking insightful questions to passers by. Then she snapped a photo of the person whose answer she selected to be published in her column. some of the questions she published seemed eerily prophetic since she did not even meet her husband when she took this job. Some of the questions included, "Should a candidate's wife campaign with her husband?" "Which first lady would you most likely have been?" "What prominent person's death affected you?" and "If you had a date with Marilyn Monroe, what would you talk about." |
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