Children’s party on the South Lawn of the White House, April 4, 1963.
All photos are by Cecil Stoughton (Office of the Military Aide to the President), via the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
If you were wondering whether to put in a super-huge fountain or a swimming pool, please note that you can have both in one.
“Take water. . ., part I,” is here.
Remember summer? Bubbles filled
the fountain, and we splashed. We drowned
in Eden. . .— Robert Lowell, from “The Public Garden“
enclos*ure 
The innocence conveyed in these photos seems almost impossible to imagine happening in today’s White House.
Well, all of Washington. . . . It really is a look at another era.
I hope the tulips survived all the kids running through them. It must have been a warm April that year. (Now this fountain is planted round with clipped yew, which was augmented last summer with red wax begonias and dusty miller — so bad; it would be a great place for a lively mix of native plants.)
Loved seeing these pictures. Sure takes me back…
I really like Jackie’s flowered shift dress, which I just noticed has covered buttons all the way down the back, but not in the center.
I also love — in the last photo — that everyone is sitting on old wooden crates and benches and Jackie is barefoot, yet the tableware is crystal and silver and the waiter is formally dressed.
Love these pics, and the color touch. Jackie’s dress is great and matches the season’s mood! the scenes are elegantly cool. Thanks
I just like the insouciance of putting the children in the White House fountain on an unusually hot April day.