32 Rare and Adorable Childhood Photos of President Barack Obama From Between the 1960s and Early ’70s

Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States, and the first African American to serve as U.S. president. First elected to the presidency in 2008, he won a second term in 2012.

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham, was born on an Army base in Wichita, Kansas, during World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham’s father, Stanley, enlisted in the military and marched across Europe in General George Patton’s army. Dunham’s mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, ended up in Hawaii.

Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. grew up herding goats in Africa and, eventually earned a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of going to college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Obama Sr. met fellow student Ann Dunham, and they married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.

As a child, Obama did not have a relationship with his father. When his son was still an infant, Obama Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and pursue a Ph.D. Obama’s parents officially separated several months later and ultimately divorced in March 1964, when their son was two. Soon after, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya.

In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a University of Hawaii student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born in 1970. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son’s safety and education so, at the age of 10, Obama was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and half-sister later joined them.

Below is a collection of rare and adorable photos show the future President’s early childhood...

Barack Obama as an infant, 1961.

Barack Obama as a toddler, 1962.

Little Obama is seen playing in the ocean as a child.

Barack Obama is seen as a child with his maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham in Hawaii in an undated family snapshot from the 1960s.

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.

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.

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.

Barack Obama in Ms. Sakai's kindergarten class at Noelani Elementary School in 1967.

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.

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.

Obama, as a boy, with his parents Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr.

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.