Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert. Click image to enlarge.

In November 2015, the Burns Library acquired at auction a copy of the Commencement speech given June 13, 1956, on Alumni Field—now the site of Stokes Hall—by then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. The acquisition also included the maroon-and-gold hood Kennedy received for the occasion. The text of Kennedy’s speech, which called for “politicians of courage,” occupies five 8 1/2 x 11-inch typed pages. This is believed to be the copy he read from—although the conclusion, what would have been page six, is unaccountably missing. Blue ballpoint edits and underscores reflect a writer’s attentiveness and an orator’s emphases.