President John F. Kennedy greets the first group of departing Peace Corps Volunteers, leaving for Tanganyika and Ghana, in the the Oval Office.

Photographer: Robert Knudsen/White House, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Thirty-nine Americans were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers in Tanzania on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. The new Volunteers were sworn in the same week as President John F. Kennedy’s historic White House Rose Garden ceremony for the first Americans to depart for Peace Corps service in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Ghana 50 years ago on Aug. 28, 1961.