Image of the presidential limousine with top attached at Parkland Hospital

Object number1989.100.0018.0008

Date11/22/1963

ClassificationsPhotographs

Photographer John Mazziotta

ObjectNegative (b&w)

Credit LineJohn Mazziotta, photographer, Dallas Times Herald Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumFilm

Dimensions15/16 x 1 7/16 in. (2.4 x 3.6 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer John Mazziotta. This image shows the president's convertible limousine parked outside the emergency entrance to Parkland Hospital on November 22, 1963. The top has been put on. The images on this negative strip were taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer John Mazziotta at Parkland Hospital that day. There were two Dallas Times Herald photographers at Parkland - Eamon Kennedy and John Mazziotta. Bob Jackson, another photographer who was at Parkland earlier, was not at the hospital when the Johnsons left, as is pictured in the last frame on the strip.

Curatorial Commentary

The shooting in Dealey Plaza turned the president’s limousine into a crime scene. Had it been left intact, evidence collected from it may have eventually answered some questions about the assassination. In order to prevent onlookers from seeing inside the car, Secret Service agents installed the hard-shell top – already in place in this picture – which was usually kept in the trunk when the convertible was being used without a cover. Some agents also used buckets and sponges to begin cleaning the interior of the car.

After the assassination, the limousine (also known as X-100) was stripped down, rebuilt and put back into presidential service, where it was used occasionally by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter. Although other presidential parade cars were built in 1968 and 1972, the limousine used in Dallas stayed in service until 1977. Upon its retirement, it was sent to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where it is today exhibited as the “Kennedy” limousine even though very little remains of the car that was in Dallas on November 22, 1963. – Stephen Fagin, Curator