The "inauguration" Bible that Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, read from during his funeral service in 1963 will be sold at auction this month along with several other historically significant items.
"This is a remarkably significant piece of American history," Don Ackerman, Managing Director of Political & Americana at Heritage Auctions, said of the Bible, which will be offered at Heritage's Americana & Political Signature Auction.
Proxy bidding will be accepted on the Kennedy Bible until April 26, with the auction scheduled for April 26-27, according to a statement from the auction house.
The proxy bidding on the Kennedy Bible is currently at nearly $7,000.
"John F. Kennedy was a beloved president, but to Jackie, this was her husband, the father of her children," Ackerman said. "To anyone who loses a loved one, the funeral is a deeply intimate event, with everything chosen for the most personal of reasons. That she chose to read from this Bible at the funeral says everything about how important it was to the Kennedy family."
The Bible was given to Kennedy's family by Cardinal Richard Cushing, but it is not the same book used when he took office. However, it bears the gold stamp "January 10, 1961," the day he was inaugurated, and its flyleaf has a bookplate that features the Presidential Seal.
Above the bookplate, Jacqueline Kennedy wrote the note, "Bible we used the night Jack died to chose Ecclesiastes to be read at his funeral. JBK 1963."
The auction will feature several other items of historical interest, including a flag recovered from the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. Proxy bidding is also being accepted on the items until April 26.
According to Heritage, only a handful of flags inside the World Trade Center survived the towers' collapse. The flag being sold is a Debris Field Flag, measuring 58 by 34 inches, that first responder Vito Messana recovered.
Most other recovered flags have gone to public institutions, including the Smithsonian, the New York State Museum, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The auction will also feature a pair of George Washington's shoe buckles.
The silver and gold buckles are displayed in a domed, leather-covered wooden box and include the documentation "From a descendant of Martha Washington’s grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. See Annual Report of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1959, pg. 34."
Other top auction lots include a canteen found at the Little Bighorn battlefield, the site of George Custer's last stand, and a Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery" expedition map.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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