Archival Photos Capture Kennedy's Stop at Rentschler Field

The final day of the 1960 presidential campaign included a whirlwind tour of four New England states for John F. Kennedy, with speaking engagements in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The senator's itinerary also included a brief stop at Rentschler Field.

Kennedy made at least seven speeches in the closing hours of the campaign on Nov. 7, with appearances at City Hall in Providence, R.I., City Hall in Springfield, Mass., on the steps of the Hartford Times building in Hartford, Conn., at Victory Park and on television in Manchester, N.H., and at the Boston Garden and at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mass. His speeches in Providence, Springfield, Hartford and Manchester urged voters to visit the polls on Nov. 8.

"I ask your help tomorrow, not merely as the candidate of my party," Kennedy said in Hartford. "I ask your help in a race tomorrow between the comfortable and the concerned, between those who are satisfied and those who want to move ahead."

Click here to read the full text of Kennedy's remarks in Hartford.

While in Connecticut, Kennedy also passed through Pratt & Whitney's Rentschler Field in East Hartford. Archival photos show Kennedy arriving at Rentschler Field in a Ford convertible adorned with "Kennedy for President" bumper stickers and crossing the runway toward a waiting U.S. Army helicopter. A final photo shows Kennedy waving to the assembled crowd.