Following a few months of major renovations to the museum, the permanent Kennedy exhibit will open in November or December of 2000, says Mathias "Matt" Bergendahl, a museum official.

The Florida International Museum has been visited by more than 2 million people in just five major exhibitions. The previous displays were "Treasures of the Czars," "Splendors of Ancient Egypt," "Alexander the Great," "Titanic: The Exhibition" and "Empires of Mystery (The Incas, The Andes and Lost Civilizations)."

The museum also is trying to become an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute, which would open it to "millions and millions of objects" and allow it to bring in American president "sideshows" to accompany the Kennedy display.

"The Kennedy show is the largest we've ever had," Bergendahl notes. "In the area where people normally are standing and waiting for a show to begin, that area is the opening-show gallery."

That first area is a facade of the Kennedy birthplace in Brookline, Mass., into which guests walk for an introduction to the Kennedy family. The 19 galleries that follow include themes on PT109, Kennedy's early days in politics, his wedding to Jacqueline Bouvier, the life of the former first lady herself, Kennedy's road to the White House and the fateful day of Nov. 22, 1963.

Stars of the show are the more than 500 artifacts from Kennedy's lifetime. They include: A christening ring, a college ashtray and a bathing suit from the early years; PT109 letters from Kennedy's naval career; passports of John and Jackie from his years in the U.S. House; a wallet and eagle bookends from his years in the Senate; a convention hall banner and personal campaign buttons from campaign days; an Omega watch, a rocking chair, a telephone, a pen used to sign the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and an official White House Christmas card from the presidential years; and, limousine flags, a handle from the camera used by Abraham Zapruder to capture the Kennedy assassination and the purse and its contents from his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln.

Many of the artifacts displayed at Florida International came from Lincoln, who worked for Kennedy for 12 years and became an avid collector of the mementos, sensing his legacy some day. Saving documents, doodles and drafts that normally would have been thrown away, she told Kennedy and others of her collection. Kennedy reportedly was amused yet honored by her devotion. Upon Lincoln's death in 1995, she willed a large portion of her collection to the Kennedy Library in Boston.

The Florida International Museum is open daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Last tours of the Kennedy exhibit are at 5 p.m. each day, except Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, when the last tours are at 3 p.m. Admission is $13.95 for adults, $12.95 for seniors 65-plus and active military, $7.95 for college students, $5.95 for children ages 6-18 and free to children under 6. For more information and group reservations (20 or more) for the Kennedy exhibit, call 1-877-JFK-SHOW. The museum's regular phone is (727) 822-3693.