John F. Kennedy — We Choose to Go to the Moon

On September 12, 1962, John F. Kennedy stood in the Houston heat in the football stadium at Rice University. Sixteen months earlier he had asked Congress to land a man on the Moon before the decade was out. The Soviets had put up the first satellite and the first man in orbit. The United States had flown four men in space, none for longer than five hours.

The speech set out why: "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." The poster carries the line in the shortened form most people remember. He also asked the crowd why Rice played Texas.

Kennedy did not live to see it. Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969, with five months of the decade to spare.

Kennedy is a solid red at the right edge — the hair, the brow, the straight nose, the collar and tie — with the lit side of the face cut away in white so the profile reads as light falling on it. He faces into the text. The quote runs down the left in wide-tracked navy capitals, ten short lines, the ellipsis after "MOON" left hanging. A thin navy border holds the page. It is the most direct print in the set.