JFK’s crutches, school desk displayed in new Boston exhibit

Museum visitor Edmilson Da Cruz, of Hayward, Calif., center, is silhouetted in front of a World War II era photograph of John F. Kennedy in an exhibit titled "Young Jack" at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, in Boston. The new exhibit is devoted to the 35th U.S. president's early years. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Museum visitor Edmilson Da Cruz, of Hayward, Calif., center, is silhouetted in front of a World War II era photograph of John F. Kennedy in an exhibit titled "Young Jack" at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, in Boston. The new exhibit is devoted to the 35th U.S. president's early years. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

By Associated Press November 5, 2015 3 min read

BOSTON (AP) – There’s a set of his crutches, and his old wooden school desk still bears his initials – “JFK.”

Those two items are among many never before displayed in “Young Jack,” a new exhibition at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that celebrates the president’s early years.

The exhibition focuses on Kennedy’s military service – a transformative time in his life – and his years at boarding school, where he exasperated his teachers and parents with his lack of discipline and penchant for causing trouble.

“As a young person, some of those personality traits – his style, his elegance – weren’t there yet,” Museum Curator Stacey Bredhoff said at Thursday’s exhibition opening. “But we see the seeds of his personality here. His keen intellect, his enormous charm – all of those are here in his early life.”

At Choate, a private boarding school in Connecticut, the young Kennedy was the ringleader of a group of troublemakers. Nevertheless, he charmed the school’s strict headmaster, who later said Kennedy would get away with some things “just on his smile.”