In the 1960s and 1970s, long before he stepped onto the world stage, Barack Obama was a bright-eyed boy with an infectious smile and a big future ahead.
These rare childhood photos capture his early years, showing sweet, everyday moments that highlight the warmth and closeness of his family life.
Growing up between Hawaii and Indonesia, young Barack experienced a unique blend of environments that shaped his outlook long before politics entered the picture.
Barack Obama as an infant, 1961.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii.
He is the only president born outside the contiguous 48 states. He was born to an 18-year-old American mother and a 27-year-old Kenyan father.
His mother, Ann Dunham (1942–1995), hailed from Wichita, Kansas, and had a diverse heritage that included English, Welsh, German, Swiss, and Irish ancestry.
Barack Obama as a toddler, 1962.
Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., was born into the Luo ethnic group in Nyanza Province, Kenya. His early life was spent herding goats, but he was determined to create a different future for himself.
Through hard work and ambition, he earned a scholarship that enabled him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of higher education in Hawaii.
While studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Obama Sr. met Ann Dunham. The couple married on February 2, 1961, and their son, Barack, was born just six months later.
Little Obama is seen playing in the ocean as a child.
As a young child, Obama had limited contact with his father. When Barack Sr. moved to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and work toward a Ph.D., the family dynamics began to shift.
The couple officially separated a few months after Obama’s birth, and their divorce was finalized in March 1964, when Barack was only two years old. Soon after, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya, leaving Ann to raise their son in Hawaii.
In 1965, Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a fellow student from Indonesia attending the University of Hawaii.
A year later, the family relocated to Jakarta, where Obama gained a half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, born in 1970.
Barack Obama is seen as a child with his maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham in Hawaii in an undated family snapshot from the 1960s.
From ages six to ten, Barack Obama was registered in school as “Barry” and attended local Indonesian-language schools for a total of three and a half years.
His time in Jakarta allowed him to become fluent in Indonesian as a child, a skill that would remain with him throughout his life.
Barack walks along Waikiki Beach shortly before he and his mother moved from Hawaii to Indonesia to live with her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, in 1967.
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham.
He enrolled at Punahou School, a private college preparatory institution, where he received a scholarship that enabled him to attend from fifth grade until his graduation in 1979.
During high school, he continued to go by the nickname “Barry,” which he held onto until his visit to Kenya in 1980.
From 1972 to 1975, Obama lived with his mother and half-sister, Maya Soetoro, in Hawaii while his mother pursued her graduate studies in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.
Barack Obama on Waikiki beach before his mother married Lolo Soetoro and moved with Barack and her new husband to Indonesia. Here, he’s in a lifeguard stand next to the famous pink Waikiki hotel, The Royal Hawaiian.
Reflecting on his years in Honolulu, Obama noted, “The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my worldview and the foundation for the values that I hold most dear.”
He has also openly discussed his experimentation with alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years as a means to escape the pressures of self-identity.
Obama was a member of the “Choom Gang,” a term they used to refer to their group of friends who spent time together smoking marijuana.
A young Barack Obama is shown with his mother, Ann, in Hawaii shortly after his father, Barack Obama Sr., left the two to pursue his studies at Harvard. Barack’s mother was given the name Stanley Ann Dunham because of her father’s strong desire to have a son.
Young Barack Obama, shown in an undated photograph provided by Obama’s half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.
Barack Obama rides a tricycle during his childhood in Hawaii.
In this 1960’s photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows the Democratic presidential hopeful, Obama, with his baseball bat in Hawaii.
Barack Obama is shown in a yearbook photo from Mrs. Morioko’s sixth-grade class in Hawaii. Obama was listed as “Barry” in the book.
Barack Obama at age 6.
Barack Obama dressed up as a pirate with his mother in Hawaii, ca. 1960s.
Little Barack with his mom and grandmother.
Child Barack Obama on a chair.
Barack Obama with his half-sister Maya and her nanny, circa autumn 1970.
Barack Obama with his mother, his adoptive father, and his half-sister Maya, circa 1971.
Barack Obama in Ms. Sakai’s kindergarten class at Noelani Elementary School in 1967.
This picture shows the only time that the future president met his father, Barack Obama Sr, after his parents’ separation. The picture was taken at Christmas time in a Hawaii airport in 1971.
Barack Obama with the family of his adoptive father, Lolo Soetoro. The elderly lady is Lolo’s mother.
Stanley Dunham, Stanley Ann, Maya and Barack Obama in Hawaii in the early 1970s.
Barack Obama with his adoptive father, Lolo Soetoro, his mother and his half-sister Maya Soetoro, circa late summer/early autumn 1970, taken in Indonesia.
Barack Obama at a Punahou school event in Hawaii, in 1972.
Barack Obama, back row, second from left, shown in a seventh-grade yearbook photo from the 1973-74 school year.
Obama was “On Strike” during Mrs. Hefty’s fifth-grade class during the 1971-72 school year.
Barack Obama, in chair, pictured as a member of the “Pencil Chewer’s Convention” in Mrs. Morioko’s sixth-grade class at the Punahou School in the 1972-73 school year.
Barack Obama, then known as Barry Soetoro, is pictured at a classmate’s birthday party in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1971.
Obama at a classmate’s birthday party in Jakarta in 1971.
This 1972 photo provided by Na Opio, the yearbook of Punahou School, shows Barack Obama, in the back row, third from left, posing with his fifth-grade class and teacher Mabel Hefty at the Punahou campus. Obama named Hefty his favorite teacher for her power to make “every single child feel special.”
Barack Obama with his friend Scott Inoue. This photo was said to be taken in December 1969, at Noelani Elementary School in Hawaii, when little Barry was supposed to be in school in Indonesia.
Barack Obama with his mother, half-sister, and grandfather, taken in Hawaii, circa 1972.
(Photo credit: Barack Obama Library Archives / Upscaled and cleared up by RHP).