A Curated Collection

For Jill

Every morning begins with a vessel.
These hold our rituals, our memories, our warmth.

"The cup is small. The story is not."

Coffee with Kennedy paper cup - white cup with red text reading Coffee with Kennedy, circa 1960
Listen to JFK

The Centerpiece

Coffee with Kennedy

Paper campaign cup, 1960
9.5 × 7 cm (3¾ × 2¾ in)
White paper, red screenprint
Collection: JFK Presidential Library

In 1960, John F. Kennedy's campaign created something simple: politics as conversation. "Coffee with Kennedy" events happened in living rooms, church halls, union basements — anywhere people gathered with cups in hand.

This paper cup is democratic intimacy made artifact. White as hope, red as conviction. Disposable by design, yet here it remains — outlasting administrations, outlasting eras.

Your ceramic echo transforms the ephemeral into the lasting. Every morning, you hold a piece of that hopeful year.

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

— John F. Kennedy, Rice University, September 12, 1962

For When You Want Another

Finding Kennedy Cups

The original paper cups are museum pieces now. But the spirit lives on in ceramic reproductions and Kennedy memorabilia.

Coffee with Kennedy ceramic cup - white cup with red text, reproduction of 1960 campaign cup
Your Mug

Coffee with Kennedy

The ceramic reproduction of the 1960 campaign paper cup. White with red "Coffee with Kennedy" text — the cup from those intimate campaign gatherings.

Status: This specific ceramic reproduction appears to be rare or discontinued. I've searched museum shops and collectors — no luck yet.

Closest alternative available now:

$22.99 Kennedy for President Mug

JFK Library Museum Store · Campaign button design · 15 oz ceramic

Help Me Find Yours

If you remember where you bought your Coffee with Kennedy cup — JFK Library, Sixth Floor Museum, or somewhere else — let me know and I'll contact them about availability or restocks.

  • ✓ In Stock Kennedy for President Mug
    JFK Library Museum Store, Boston
    Ceramic, 15 oz · Campaign button artwork · Distressed vintage finish
    store.jfklibrary.org
    $22.99
  • ✓ Verified The Sixth Floor Museum Store
    Dallas, TX · Kennedy memorabilia & reproductions
    Often stocks items not listed online — call (214) 747-6660
    store.jfk.org
    Varies
☕

Built Around Your Kennedy Cup

The Collection

Every mug here shares something with yours: a story worth telling, a maker worth knowing, a morning ritual worth protecting.

Heath Ceramics Large Mug in Indigo

Craft

Heath Ceramics

Sausalito, CA · Since 1948

California craft heritage. Edith Heath believed useful objects can be beautiful. The glaze pools where it wants — mid-century modern, made by hand.

$48 Shop →
East Fork The Mug in Panna Cotta glaze

Craft

East Fork Pottery

Asheville, NC · Est. 2009

New Southern craft. Glazes with names like "Eggshell" and "Panna Cotta." Designed for daily use. Built to outlast you.

$44 Shop →
Iittala Teema white mug - minimalist Finnish design by Kaj Franck

Design

Iittala Teema

Kaj Franck · Finland · 1952

Kaj Franck believed good design should be democratic. Teema has remained unchanged since 1952 because perfection needs no revision.

$22–$32 Shop →
Hasami Porcelain black mug - Japanese minimalist ceramic

Design

Hasami Porcelain

Nagasaki, Japan · 400-year tradition

Four centuries of ceramic mastery in modern form. Modular, stackable, matte finish. Becomes invisible in your hand because it already belongs there.

$16–$32 Shop →
Handmade Korean Celadon Tea Cup

Cultural

Korean Celadon

Goryeo tradition · Korea

Jade green, crackle glaze. A thousand years of pottery tradition. The color was said to capture "the blue of the sky after rain."

$30–$105 Browse eBay →
Mashiko-Yaki Japanese Studio Pottery Mug

Cultural

Mashiko Stoneware

Mashiko, Japan · Mingei tradition

Wood-fired in climbing kilns. Ash lands where it will. Each cup a collaboration between potter and flame. Wabi-sabi made tactile.

$25–$80 Browse eBay →
Vintage Fire King Jadeite Coffee Mug

Historical

Fire-King Jadeite

Anchor Hocking · 1940s–1970s

Milk glass in that impossible green that only existed in the '50s. Diner counters, grandmother's cabinets, lives lived and remembered. Heavy in your hand. Eternal.

$15–$50 Browse eBay →
Kintsugi Style Ceramic Mug

Historical

Kintsugi Repair

Japanese art of golden joinery

The mug that broke, mended with gold. More beautiful for having been broken. Every crack a story. Every seam worn proudly.

$15–$60 Browse eBay →