IN JANUARY 1961, nobody on earth symbolised the future like John F Kennedy. At his inauguration the youthful president took to the microphone on a raised dais outside the Capitol Building and spoke of change and renewal, and of a ‘torch being passed’ to a younger generation. He was the embodiment of a new beginning.

And yet, when you look back at the official photos from that event, the story they tell is a far more complex one. There is Kennedy, both before and after his speech, dressed in the most old-fashioned attire: a top hat, black morning coat and grey striped trousers. Symbols not just of another era, but of a past he was busy reassuring the American people they had just put firmly behind them.