Title: President John F. Kennedy Greets Peace Corps Volunteers, White House, South Lawn

Description

This photograph shows President John F. Kennedy greeting Peace Corps volunteers on the South Lawn of the White House on August 9, 1962. Kennedy first proposed what became the Peace Corps in a speech at the University of Michigan on October 14, 1960, in which he challenged students to give two years of their lives to helping people in countries of the developing world. At the time, Kennedy was a member of the U.S. Senate campaigning for the presidency. Following his election, he signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. This photograph is by Abbie Rowe (1905-67), a photographer for the National Park Service who became an official White House photographer in the Kennedy administration and produced many of the best known pictures of the president and his family.