Jacqueline Kennedy in the , photographed by Mark Shaw. (Tumblr)

THE GIFTS THAT JACKIE GAVE: THE ARTFUL GIFT-GIVING OF JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS

From childhood to the end of her life, the world’s most famous woman would rather paint, draw, compose, search out something utterly unique - even regift to her second husband a present once given to her first husband – to ensure that she gave the sort of gift her family, friends and staff would never forget. If it doesn't fit, if it's the wrong color or size, few hesitate to return or exchange a gift they were given for a holiday or on any other occasion.

Unless it was a gift once given by Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

And people who got them kept them not because it came from the world's most famous woman, but because it was often a one-of-a-kind item created or chosen specifically for the person receiving it.

For all the harsh criteria by which her mother Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss was known to have passed judgment on her eldest One of Jackie Bouvier's first known illustrated poems, reportedly given as a gift child, born in to her grandfather. (JFKL) 1929, she made one suggestion that captured her daughter's imagination, encouraged her creativity and shaped her individuality.

When it came time for Jackie and other children in the Janet Bouvier and daughters Lee and Jackie. (Pinterest) family to present their parents with gifts on birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, they were encouraged to initially make a crayon drawing or watercolor, then later to either memorize a lengthy classic poem and perform it for the honoree or write an original one, and eventually to write an original short story.

Inspired by her paternal grandfather's love of poetry and narrative, Jackie Bouvier began turning out original poetry and short stories, which she then illustrated with drawings and caricatures and symbols, then presented as gifts to elders. They soon took the form of small crafted booklets.

2 The most ambitious gift she produced, with her sister, was a full-length scrapbook with a narrative tale of their 1951 first trip to Europe together, rich with characters, the pages illustrated with drawings, watercolors and photographs by Jackie.

They presented it as a gift to their mother, in thanks for underwriting the trip.

With her paternal Two pages displayed from One Special grandfather. (Pinterest) In 1974, they Summer, originally given as a gift to her published it as the mother, written by Jacqueline Bouvier and her sister. (O'Gallerie Auctions) book One Special Summer. And then, the former First Lady gave signed copies of the book out as gifts that holiday season.

Her cartoons, over time, developed sophistication, moving from stick-like figures to fully-developed caricatures, and she began tracing her pencil with black ink, turning out finished, individual pieces with captions reflecting her sense of the ridiculous.

Jackie Bouvier refined her hand, moving on from a high school newspaper cartoon strip to illustrating some of her articles in the newspaper where she worked after graduating from George Washington University.

Jackie Bouvier posing with her high She began to distribute some of her drawings as school newspaper staff colleagues. gifts to contemporaries and classmates. Always (Pinterest) there was an element of satire in the pieces.

By the time she became First Lady on January 20, 1961, when she gave out similar gifts to officials she befriended, she made herself the subject of that satire.

3 She presented Arthur Schlesinger, for example, with a cartoon of herself sleepwalkin g through the White House .

It was a Jackie's Kennedy’s cartoon of herself, a gift to thank you gift, acknowledging how Schlesinger. (JFK Library) efficiently he expedited the text of a book of presidential biographies she wanted to read and edit before leaving for her state visit to India and Pakistan.

To memorialize the grand historical moment that the Twist was first danced in the White House at a private dinner by the First Lady and the Secretary of Defense Robert Jackie Kennedy's handmade card for McNamara. (Goldin Auctions) McNamara, she crafted a pastiche Valentine's Day card for him, using cutout face pictures of him and herself.

4 If she enjoyed deprecating her own image, she could give it to the President as well.

As a gift for her husband, apparently for his birthday in May of 1960, amid the madness of the Democratic presidential primaries, Jackie drew a series of satirical drawings of the stories he brought home to her from the campaign trail.

Eviscerating all ego, she showed him enduring the vagaries of glad-handing voters, kissing babies, and facing blowhards on his way to winning his party's nomination (she eventually re-gifted the set of eight to friend and Look magazine publisher Gardner Cowles, who had planned to publish them in May 1961).

One of Jackie Kennedy's satirical pen sketches of her husband holding a presidential primary season press conference - after just emerging from a shower in a towel. (Wright Auction House)

5

In this caricature, Mrs. Kennedy imagined JFK giving a speech during the Nevada primary, ignored by voters more interested in gambling. (Wright Auction House)

As part of her 1953 wedding gift to John F. Kennedy, Jackie had written a multi- stanza poem about what was already evident to her - his quest for the presidency, entitled Meanwhile in Massachusetts Jack Kennedy Dreamed.

Typical of Jackie's tendency to cast her new husband as a fantastical hero and to reference classic literature, the work references The Quest of the Golden Fleece.

6 The obscure comparison was to the third century B.C. poet Apollonius, which told of a brave young Greek's seafaring adventure into an unknown world to capture a golden ram statue and return it as a prize to his people.

She combined a bit of satire and hero worship with the gift she gave him in July of 1960 when he returned to his family's Hyannis Port summer compound as a presidential candidate.

Going a bit further than ink Figure 1 Jack and caricature, she Jackie. (JFK Library) tried her hand at oil painting, presenting JFK with a naïve-folk canvas. Jackie Kennedy's painting, a gift for JFK upon The painting showed him standing proud his nomination. (JFKL) in a Napoleonic naval hat being pulled into dock - on a rowboat by sailors (and accompanied by political advisers), where Jackie painted herself, their dog Charlie, cat Tom Kitten, daughter Caroline and nursemaid Maude Shaw, along with a band, waiting and proudly waving his triumphant return home to them. It was a bit of a gentle elbow to his ego, but it was a sure sign of sentimental love.

For his 1962 birthday, Mrs. Kennedy gave him another of her creative efforts, a small oil painting of the White House as it looked in the early 19th century, more realistic in style than her 1960 painting.

The President so loved it he displayed it on the wall of the .

The First Lady's painting of the White House for the President. (JFK Library)

7 She wasn't always spot-on with the right gift for Jack Kennedy, however.

In 1957, using some of the small inheritance she received from her late father, she bought JFK a white Jaguar automobile as a Christmas present.

Given to him just as he was preparing his Senate re- election campaign in the new year, he was The 1957 Kennedy-Auchincloss Jaguar. (Ebay understandably ambivalent Motors) about the gift.

Despite her generous impulse, it was an overt symbol of great wealth and huge liability for a man hoping to be president seen driving.

While her stepfather was registered as the last owner of the car, it is unclear whether she initially had him buy it on her behalf or transferred the official title or sold it to him. The car was rarely used, driven a few times apparently by Senator and Mrs. Kennedy and kept at the Virginia estate of her stepfather and mother.

Another time, to mark his May 1963 birthday, which proved to be his last, she gave him a scrapbook detailing his presidential accomplishments up to that point, with clipped newspaper headlines and magazine excerpts while interweaving color photographs tracing the evolving reconceptualization and Page samples of a scrapbook Jackie Kennedy made as a gift; landscaping of the Rose Garden with leaves and petals she picked and pressed from different Rose Garden shrubs, plants and flowers. as it paralleled turning points of (Sotheby's) his presidency up to that date.

8 She crafted a similar one, focused more on the horticulture, for her friend who oversaw the landscaping.

She strove to achieve the same degree of personalization with official gifts as well.

Rather than follow tradition and have the An American mineral paperweight given to Chief of Protocol and Secretary of State the Duchess of Luxembourg by the decide what gifts the President of the United Kennedys. The First Lady created it with jewelry designer David Webb. (JFK States would present to visiting foreign heads Library) of state or bring with him to the leaders of foreign countries he was visiting, it was the First Lady who took the lead in determining what would be given.

As for heads of state scheduled to visit the , she determined to create uniquely American gifts.

After wandering into the Hall of Minerals on a visit to the Smithsonian she was inspired by the vast array of colors and textures in the native stones and commissioned jewelry designer David Webb to create one-of-a-kind

French President Charles DeGaulle gold-based paperweights gifts for foreign with the Kennedys. (Pinterest) leaders.

Those Kennedy Administration gifts that she chose to have presented to individual heads of state were made with a conscientious intent to link their nation with the United States or democracy.

The 1961 gift she chose to give French President de Noailles and George Washington. DeGaulle was a handwritten letter from George (Wikipedia) Washington to Louis Marc Antoine de Noailles, a French aristocrat who fought in the American Revolution and concluded the capitulation of Yorktown by British forces to the colonists in 1781.

9

Before she joined President Kennedy on his state visit to Mexico, the First Lady learned that there was a life portrait by artist José Escudero y Espronceda in a private American collection of Benito Juárez, the Mexican president who instituted progressive reforms, racial equality, federalism and capitalism in his nation.

With the U.S. agenda of creating allies out of non-aligned Latin American nations, rather than with its Cold War enemy, the communism Soviet Union, Jackie Kennedy immediately recognized the opportunity to turn a routine ceremony into a moment that conveyed national pride and appreciation for recognition of it, scoring a point for the U.S.A.

Jacqueline Kennedy stands beside the historic portrait of Making a case of national purpose, Juarez, which she successfully persuaded a private she secured the portrait and was collector into donating so she could present it as the there with the President, making the official state gift from the US during the Kennedy state visit to Mexico; Mexican president Mateo stands at far presentation to Mexican President right. (JFK Library) Adolfo López Mateos at Los Pinos, the official Mexican presidential residence.

Of all the global political leaders with whom she developed perhaps the closest personal friendship it was French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux.

Despite having lost two of his sons in a car accident just shortly before she and the president made their famous first state visit to Paris in May of 1961, he insisted on fulfilling her request to meet him.

Jacqueline Kennedy with her friend, French Minister of Culture Andre Malraux, at the National Gallery of Art, 1962. (Pinterest)

10

When he arrived a year later, honored at a May 1962 White House dinner, Jackie gave him an especially relevant gift.

It was an historical item, Remembrance of a Tour of the Continent, In Eight Coloured Prints, Designed after Nature by an Amateur, and Engraved by G[eorge] Cruikshank. London: Published by The wrapper of the antique portfolio of caricatures, the gift Jacqueline Kennedy purchased and H. Humphrey, June 30, 1821. presented to Andre Malraux. (Heritage Auctions)

The portfolio of eight hand- colored caricatures was a comical overview of Anglo bourgeois making their way through the inconvenience s of France and Italy and unwittingly making it obvious that they were provincial tourists.

“Comparing Notes; or Venus Dei Medici Amongst Others!!!” the caption on this plate, in humorous reference to Malraux’s guided tour of Mrs. Kennedy through the Jeu de Paume art museum when she accompanied the President there on his May 1961 state visit. (Heritage Auctions)

11 When she was in India, however, Jackie Kennedy wasn't just giving out gifts - she was also giving them out - and not just to world leaders.

During her stop in New Delhi, outside the residence of Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, she presented a specifically-chosen gift intended to stimulate the imagination of young children, panels of what were called a "Children's Art Carnival."

In her remarks she explained that she chose the gift, to be used by young Indian art students, she noted that the art produced by children from different cultures was more often than not quite similar, and that "in a world where there's quite enough to Mrs. Kennedy with Indira Gandhi, carrying some of the panels of the Children's Art Carnival gift she presented. (JFK divide people, that we should Library) cherish a language that unites us

all." Whether in Washington or schools in Mexico, or wards in Paris, she used a similar sensitivity in picking out small presents that she would hand out to individual children she encountered. In the capital city's Children's Hospital, while continuing a tradition begun by Grace Coolidge, in 1962 Mrs. Kennedy circulated among those young people who were being treated Mrs. Kennedy at Children's Hospital, Washington. (CHW) in the facility and unable to be home for the holidays.

12

She chose to give out presents of Christmas ornaments that depicted angels as children, perhaps hoping to make them somehow mirror those confined to the sickrooms.

While her schedule in India was packed with one public appearance after the other, Jackie Kennedy decided to just get in shopping the open-air public markets when she could, The Christmas ornament gift Jackie Kennedy distributed at Children's purchasing gifts from native wares and crafts. Hospital. (Washington Post)

While she found gifts to bring home for her husband and children, she also remembered those who worked for her, often sacrificing time away from their own spouses and children to carry out her exacting and detailed instructions in not only her work as First Lady, but in managing Mary Gallagher works with Jackie Kennedy. (Tumblr) her private life.

While she expected nothing but their best, she was also highly conscious of the efforts they made on her behalf, and strived to show her appreciation.

For her private secretary Mary Gallagher, for example, who handled all of her bills and facilitated the minutest details of her highly specific visions of her and decorating, she presented a gift of fabrics and colored scarves from India. Some of the brightly colored silk scarves the First Lady bought in India and presented as gifts to secretary Mary Gallagher. (Hantman’s Auctioneers)

13

It wasn’t just her personal staff that she remembered to find the perfect gifts for. While in India, she also purchased a “little tray” for the dedicated , J.B. West, “for you to be served breakfast in bed on your days off!”

Similarly, to prove her extreme gratitude for practically

Mrs. Kennedy's note with her gift tray for J.B. West. doubling his workload, Mrs. (Shafran Collectibles) Kennedy had a special shadow box made as her 1962 Christmas present to Sanford Fox, who did the painstaking calligraphy of White House cards and invitations.

Its cover depicted Continental Army soldiers in their blue uniforms, walking across the White House , viewed against the backdrop image of the early 19th century White House. Who made it or why she gave it is unknown, except for the obvious connection of the White House.

Even for her daughter's ballet dance teacher, the First Lady managed to make time to find a unique gift.

It was a brightly- The shadowbox Mrs. Kennedy had made to colored wood “pirates give as a gift to White House calligrapher Sandy Fox. (Heritage Auctions) treasure” box, featuring Mexican flags among its decorations, likely purchased on her

The "pirate's treasure" box Jackie state visit to that country, during one of her famously Kennedy gave her daughter's ballet rapid shopping sprees in what little private free time teacher. (Heritage Auctions) she had on official visits.

14

Always enamored with the concept of pirates as lovable rogues, Jackie herself had kept a number of similar "treasure chests" she bought for herself, where she stored and other pieces to make her children up as pirates, and then her grandchildren.

Among the most intimate of friends that Jackie Kennedy Onassis maintained for the entire second half of her life was her personal maid, Providencia Parades, “Provy," as the Kennedys knew her, often travelled with the First Lady and handled all of her personal clothing details - a considerable task.

Mrs. Parades was a lifelong confidante to Jackie, and they often traveled together long after the White House years. She also had an easy, friendly relationship with the President.

Mrs. Kennedy and Provy Parades. (Pinterest) After apparently solving some great challenge, JFK cracked, "Provy, you're smarter than [Secretary of State] Dean Rusk!"

Although it was after his death, Jackie had the remark embroidered on a pillow for her maid as a Christmas present in 1963.

That Christmas she also gave the Chief Usher a pillow embroidered with a quote she coined about her residency in the White House: "You don't have to be crazy to live here But it helps." Mrs. Kennedy had a pillow sewn for Provy Parades embroidered with a flattering quote the President made to her. (Hantman’s Auctioneers)

15 As do all Presidents and First Ladies, the Kennedys presented a Christmas gift to the White House staff. Following a custom set by the Eisenhowers, in 1961 they gave an enlarged photo of pet ducks swimming in the White House South Lawn fountain, a curious choice.

In 1962, perhaps with more thought, she gave a total of one hundred people, including family members, close friends and colleagues, Cabinet members, executive department leaders and staff a limited-edition copy of her own completed work, the book The White House: An Historic Guide.

These rare volumes were bound in red leather.

She was especially proud of what proved to be the first professional publication of text she both composed and edited, illustrated with photographs and historic images she chose and helped design the final layout. The book not only represented Jackie’s own creative vision, in words and images, but furthermore in furniture, draperies, paintings, and other objects.

The content was, of course, a visual Each of the limited edition volumes of Jacqueline Kennedy's 1962 Christmas gift to those close to her record of the famous historical were numbered, this example being number "1." It refurnishing she had conducted in the was given to the President's father, Ambassador mansion’s rooms. Her endeavor led to Joseph P. Kennedy; his initials stamped in gold at lower right. (American Heritage 1 Collection) the creation of the White House Historical Association and the position of White House curator. It was, she later said, “the proudest thing I’ve ever done.”

Jackie Kennedy inscribed most of the one-hundred bound books. Sometimes her husband and daughter did as well. The first of these gifts was given to her father- in-law, who had suffered a stroke the Christmas season one year earlier, leaving him unable to speak. In this gift, the President signed, “For Dad, with love, Jack, Christmas, 1962.” The First Lady signed, “For Grandpa, with admiration, Jackie.” Their five-year old daughter managed to write her own first name, “Caroline.”

16

For a wider circle of staff members and political supporters received enlarged prints of a watercolor painting of the Red Room as it looked after undergoing her historical refurnishing.

The large prints, suitable for framing, arrived in bright red envelopes with the gold presidential seal. Inside was a print of the signature of both Kennedys.

Advertising illustrator Edward Lehman rendered The 1962 Kennedy gift print. the watercolor.

For Christmas 1963, the First Lady had intended to continue her pattern from the previous year and send out a gift of Lehman’s watercolor of the .

Before leaving for his fateful visit to Dallas, Texas where he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy had even signed several of the Green Room prints. Some had already been sent in the mail.

Now widowed Jacqueline Kennedy decided to give out the presents to those it was intended for, despite the tragedy.

The 1963 Kennedy Christmas gift print. 17 She also had distributed the special gifts for close friends, relatives, Cabinet members and senior staff members. It was a beautifully wood-framed aquatint engraving of the White House, drawn and printed by William H. Bartlett during the mid-19th century.

The image showed the north view of what was then often still called “The Executive Mansion” or “The President’s House,” glimpsed in the background, 's equestrienne statue in Lafayette Square in the foreground.

It had not only been a favorite of the President’s and one he had displayed in the Oval Office.

One of the frame 1963 special gifts, the framed aquatint It also conveyed a subtle reference of her effort reprint of Lafayette Square, that Mrs. Kennedy chose earlier that year to save the historical and succeeded in getting the President to sign before they left for Dallas, where he was killed. (Rabb brick-paved square across from the White House. Collection) Jackie insisted that her husband sign each of them, rather than have an autopen signature used; he finished the task a week before the holiday season began and just prior to leave for Dallas.

There was one special gift Mrs. Kennedy presented before leaving the White House. It was a morocco- leather bound edition of all the Inaugural Addresses of The book of presidential inaugural the American Presidents and it had been chosen addresses Jackie Kennedy gave Lyndon especially for Lyndon B. Johnson. B. Johnson shortly after he inherited the presidency upon the of JFK. (LBJ Library) She now inscribed it: "For the President - Jack was going to give you this for Christmas - Please accept it now from me. With deep appreciation, Jackie December 1963."

There is sad irony in the choice of the gift book’s subject, given that Vice President Johnson became President by taking the presidential oath of office with her standing beside him in her blood-stained dress just hours after JFK's assassination. President Johnson outside of Jackie Kennedy's Fifth Avenue apartment, after visiting her there in 1964. 18 (Ebay)

In the frantic days of packing her family's personal items as she prepared to vacate the White House, the widow managed to pull aside many of the late President's accessories.

While a used man's shirts, ties, belts, and shoes might have been otherwise seemingly odd gifts, the items were not intended to be used, obviously.

Instead, the president's widow made personal gifts of the late president's clothing items as a highly personal way to remember him not as a mere public figure but a flesh-and-blood person.

She chose those who had known him as a One of the late president's ties his real person on a daily basis to give these widow gave to loyal aide Dave Powers. gifts, individuals of his office and domestic (Nate Sanders Auctions) staff.

Among these were the late president’s valet George Thomas, and the core of his “Irish Mafia,” Boston Democratic Party operatives some of whom had been loyally at his side since his first run for Congress like Larry O’Brien, Kenny O’Donnell and Dave Powers.

For her two young children

Dave Powers and Mrs. Onassis. Caroline (six (JFK Library) years old at the time of her father’s death) and John (three), Jackie Kennedy put aside some of his most personal items for several years until they were old enough to appreciate them. JFK in the US Navy flight jacket that Jackie later gave their son as a gift. (JFK Library) One such gift was JFK’s U.S. Navy G-I flight jacket with the presidential seal, given to her son on his 21st birthday in 1981.

19 If giving Jack Kennedy a white Jaguar car as a gift was extravagant, Jackie Kennedy was no less lavish in what she gave her second husband, the tycoon Aristotle Onassis who she married on October 20, 1968.

Two such gifts that Mrs. Onassis gave her husband were especially notable, the first because it linked him to her first husband.

Aristotle and Jackie Onassis in On their third wedding anniversary, October 20, 1971, Tehran, Iran, 1972. (Ebay) following the custom Ari started whenever he gave her presents of jewelry on special occasions, Mrs. Onassis left a note and a most unusual gift of gold on his breakfast tray that morning. Her note included a poignant saying of Greek philosopher Theophrastus that Ari liked to quote: "Our costliest expenditure is time." It also hinted at the nature of her gift.

That morning, Ari Onassis discovered a gold Nastrix that was engraved not to him – but to Jackie’s first husband. The watch had originally been a gift presented to President Kennedy in 1963 by a couple that were friends of his, a Mr. and Mrs. Evangeline. On their third wedding anniversary in 1971, Jackie Onassis gave second Contrary to what husband Ari a watch that had once been owned and worn by her first husband - President Kennedy. (Antiquorum Auctioneers) might be presumed, Onassis had known and liked Jack Kennedy, the two men meeting for dinner in when the latter was a U.S. Senator. He too had wanted some keepsake that had been personal to JFK and now Jackie surprised him with one.

On the side of the thin gold frame, Jackie had a smaller engraving made with the simple initials "F A L J." It meant "For Ari, Love Jackie."

20 For their second Christmas together, in 1970, Jackie gave Ari a unique miniature painting, only nine and a half inches by seven inches in size. Intended to recall the escape they found on his private Greek island , it showed Mrs. Onassis and her children tucked just inside in a fantastical tree house, apparently a moment she described from their month of blissful privacy in Hawaii during the summer of 1966.

Depicting her and her children during their 1966 summer month in Hawaii, Jacqueline Onassis commissioned this miniature as a gift for her husband Ari Onassis for their third Christmas together, 1970. (Heritage Auctions)

Mrs. Onassis commissioned Aaron Shikler, the portrait artist who painted her and the late president for their dual official White House portraits, to render this one of her and her children.

21

Certainly, among the most rarefied gifts she likely ever gave was one year's Christmas present to her close friend Rachel Mellon, who went by the nickname of “Bunny,” the Listerine heiress and wife of billionaire banker and art collector Paul Mellon.

Jackie Onassis detailed in a letter to interior design specialist Lee Barrett her intention of presenting her friend with an artistic, unique Christmas gift.

Figure 2 Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and Jackie executed her vision of a handmade quilt Jacqueline Kennedy. (JFK Library) she would herself design, made from swatches in a wide variety of shades of blue recognizable to Mellon's keen eye because it would be composed of the same fabrics used to upholster furnishings in the private rooms of her various homes.

Mrs. Onassis’s letter to Lee Barret reflects something of her creative process.

Although an craftsman would be executing the tactile object, it was Jackie’s vision and concept of colors and textures that would guide it.

Dear Lee –

For Xmas I am going to give Mrs. Mellon a quilt made of swatches of all the different blue material in her houses. Her secretary is sending and gathering swatches.

It has to be so pretty – and you will have to get it made up. I think it should be the size of a throw for a chaise lounge. It should be finished (the edges, etc) with a little galon or ruffle and the underside might be snips of the different blue Porthault sheets. I’ll know better when I see samples. The first page of Jacqueline Onassis's letter planning her Mellon gift quilt. (Ebay)

22 I am trying to invent the design now. Is there any book of quilts you can send me?

Then I can find a design – and show you which swatches to use where - Please have whoever does this (& please get someone who does for work) save the time for it for [it to be done by] Xmas.

Thanks so much, Jacqueline Onassis

Creating the quilt from the vision of Jacqueline Onassis proved to be quite a challenge, as the designer later recalled, due to her exacting standards and insistence that the result be as she visually imagined it.

FThe second page of the Jacqueline As to the inevitably exorbitant bills, the Onassis letter regarding the blue quilt designer was told, "send them to Olympic she would have made as a gift. (Ebay) Airlines," meaning that the costs were to be covered at the expense of the former First Lady's second husband and owner of the airlines – Aristotle Onassis.

The letter was sold at auction but the quilt's whereabouts are unknown; it did not appear among the thousands of the late Mrs. Mellon's items auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2015.

While there are sketches, cartoons, oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, greeting cards, books, cards and other objects that have been preserved over the decades as examples of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’s innovative creativity, originality and artistic Some of the blue shades of furnishings in rooms of Rachel sensibility, this one known item would Mellon's homes that were used in fabric swatch form to craft the quilt that Jacqueline Onassis conceived for her as a Christmas serve to illustrate her effort in the form present. (from various interior images of the Mellon rooms. of a textile, if it even still survives. (Pinterest)

The only way suggestion of what it might have looked like can be conjured is by creating a composite image of the real blues found in the wall coverings, furniture upholstery and other objects from photographs of Mellon’s rooms.

23 Following the 1975 death of Onassis and her return to the work force at 46 years old until her death at age 64, Jackie's time and focus shifted to building her professional career as a commercial book-publishing editor.

As she began to work on books in various editorial roles, her professional pride became increasingly obvious. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, her gifts to family, friends and colleagues were increasingly books she had worked on or her publisher had produced.

One of the earliest editorial projects that Jacqueline Onassis completed was the lavishly Sometimes, however, it would be books that illustrated coffee- book, In the Russian she worked on without Style. She presented signed copies of it to widespread attribution. many friends for Christmas in 1977. (Hantman's Auctioneers) In 1991, even though her employer Doubleday was not the publisher, Mrs. Onassis made several Christmas gifts of my book First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives & Their Power, volume two, which covered the years of her White House tenure.

Privately, without wanting attention brought to the fact, she had not only answered many questions about her work as

First Lady as I prepared the early drafts of the chapters about First Ladies: The Saga of the her tenure, but she also edited portions of the original Presidents' Wives & Their Power, manuscript. 1961-1990, volume two, was this author's book - and one on which editor Jackie Onassis shaped the It might have been due less to her editorial work on it and material about First Lady Jackie more to the fact that it detailed in full not just her Kennedy. (author's collection) contributions to national life in the arts and culture, but also, for the first time, political and diplomatic strategy, and the public relations for her husband and his presidency as well.

Towards the end of her life, she was more willing to reflect with some pride on the various ways she had affected history.

24 Over the course of her sixty-four years, as Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Onassis or just Jackie, she gave what were likely thousands of gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, holidays, graduations. Not all of them were original, creative or remarkable.

Still, she couldn't help herself from making a definitive impression with the enclosed card. Rather than use a holiday card, she simply used a red-felt pen to inscribe a personalized message on a red- bordered notecard.

And when she did, she still indulged that childhood impulse for creating a bit of

Some of Jacqueline Onassis's notes distributed with art, whether it was drawing some hearts Christmas gifts to friends and family in the 1980s and 1990s, or, as in the case of a note she sent to a usually a book she chose for them based on their interests. friend with a gift from the beach, (various online auction catalogs) pouring a bit of sand into the envelope.

For a person often accused of showing a highly acquisitive nature, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis left a record of thoughtfulness in the gifts she gave. And it wasn’t all solemnity. Her self-deprecating and earthy humor never abandoned her.

In 1975, when snapshots secretly taken of her sunbathing nude were published, she had a poster-size image of the scandalous image made, autographing it for her friend artist Andy Warhol: "For Andy, with enduring affection, Jackie Jackie Montauk," referencing his beachfront estate at the Onassis Montauk, Long Island. signed this image of herself. Above all else, from the beginning to the end of her life, Jacqueline Onassis presents the (Pinterest) she was unique and creative in what she gave, whether Municipal Arts Society Award in New York, two years before her the recipient was a billionaire's wife or a maid. 1994 death. (MAS)

As with many aspects of her life, Jackie Kennedy made gift-giving an art.

25