This Associated Press Photo was recently donated to the Museum. It shows Senator John F. Kennedy standing atop a car while campaigning for the presidency in Libertyville on October 25, 1960. Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois is seen at lower right.
Kennedy's route through the Chicago suburbs was printed in the Chicago Tribune the day of his visit. It listed Kennedy's motorcade leaving O'Hare Airport Inn at 9:20 a.m., and traveling by U.S. Highways 45 and 12 to Libertyville. The motorcade passed through Des Plaines and was scheduled to arrive in Libertyville at 10:20 a.m., and then onto Barrington, Carpentersville, Dundee, Elgin, Aurora, Joliet and so on.
The Tribune reported the next day that Kennedy's reception in Libertyville was "almost as chilly as the day," but you'd never know it from the crowd pressing in on him in this photograph. The Tribune went on to say that "as he went south down the Fox river valley the crowds increased in size and warmth."
The senator's day of campaigning through traditionally Republican territory ended with a rally at the York Township High School in Elmhurst in front of a crowd of 6,000.
