BOSTON — The family of a former special assistant to President John F. Kennedy is auctioning hundreds of photographs, documents, gifts and other memorabilia that once belonged to the late president.

David Powers, who died in 1998, was a close personal friend to Kennedy and his wife, Jackie. He was also the first curator of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston until he retired in 1994.

Powers’ family found “an extraordinary collection” of memorabilia locked away last year as they prepared to sell the family home, according to John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury.

Powers, who joined Kennedy for his first political campaign for Congress in 1946 and was with him when he was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, collected keepsakes and documents spanning years of friendship with the Kennedy family. His collection of about 2,000 items will be auctioned in 723 lots on Feb. 17.

The collection includes the president’s Air Force One leather bomber jacket; photos of the baptism of his only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy; pictures of JFK’s birthday party taken in December 1963; and a birthday card that the president sent to his father a few months before he was assassinated. Other items include ephemera, letters, documents and gifts to and from the family. The JFK Library, which is tasked with promoting the life and legacy of Kennedy, says it is trying to figure out whether some of the items belong to theinstitution.

Powers’ daughter, Mary, was not at home and could not be reached for comment Friday.

Dan Meader of John McInnis Auctioneers played down ownership concerns.

“You have to remember they’ve donated so much stuff through the years,” Meader said. “These are their own private things and the Powers family ... loves the JFK Library and they want to do anything they can do to preserve that legacy that their father started.”

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/26/2013