Signed Photograph of President John F. Kennedy, Presented to Norman Paul, His Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs

When John F. Kennedy was elected president, Time Magazine commissioned photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt to do a photoshoot of the president-elect. Eisenstaedt took the photographs, and the best one appeared on the cover of Time in the November 16, 1960 issue. JFK liked it, and used the photograph to sign and present to notables after he entered the Oval Office. It is the photograph that he presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1961.

After serving in the Navy, Norman Paul started in Washington as an official of the Marshall Plan, which fostered the economic recovery of Europe after World War II, becoming deputy assistant to the administrator for international security affairs. He then became an assistant to Allen W. Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He remained with the CIA until 1960, when he joined the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy. After President Kennedy’s inauguration, Paul was named Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs. In 1962 he became Assistant Secretary of Defense for manpower, and in 1965, under President Johnson, he became Under Secretary of the Air Force.

An 8 by 10 inch portrait photograph of Kennedy by Alfred Eisenstaedt, signed and inscribed on the mount in fountain pen, “To Norman Paul, with esteem and best regards, John Kennedy.” We would conjecture that Kennedy presented this to Paul shortly after his inauguration, when Paul was his Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs.