JFK Library goes digital

The John F. Kennedy presidential archive goes digital today. It’s a huge archive of everything that passed across the president’s desk, including: the White House photo collection, all the Kennedy audio and video, and Kennedy family home movies. The holdings will no longer be filtered through journalists or historians, instead allowing the public first-hand access to history.

Tom Putnam, director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum describes the process and importance of this digital archive. He shares the recording of a telephone conversation between Eisenhower and Kennedy, in which they discuss whether to attack Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.