Internationalism, National Identities, and Study Abroad

Jacqueline Kennedy, Frenchness, and French-American Relations in the 1950s and Early 1960s

“…Since food and heat were still scarce in Paris, and few Parisian families were available to host American students, most students lived at Reid Hall, a former club for American women and center for the Association of International University Women. 16 Jacqueline Bouvier was unusual in that she stayed with a family in Paris-a widowed countess and her daughters in the 16 th Arrondissement.…”

“…13 Smith College and the University of Delaware sent some twelve hundred American undergraduates from all over the United States to France before 1939 when World War II disrupted the flow (this figure does not include the several hundred Americans who took classes in France every year during the 1920s and 1930s). 14 After the war both the French government and Smith College were eager to resume the program, and Smith College admitted a few external students, like Jacqueline Bouvier from Vassar. A variety of factors motivated the young women who departed for France in 1949: some had family connections to France, notably fathers who served there during wartime or mothers who had spent time in France or had wanted to; others were inspired by language, art, or dance teachers to go to France; still others sought adventure, an escape from family and the familiar, or a means to improve the world.…”