/internal/media/dispatcher/24875/fullImage of the Kennedys disembarking from Air Force One at Dallas Love Field11/22/196315/16 × 1 7/16 in. (2.4 × 3.6 cm)FilmTom C. Dillard Collection, The Dallas Morning News/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza1994.003.0007.00030Black and white 35mm negative showing President and Jacqueline Kennedy and Governor and Nellie Connally exiting Air Force One at Love Field on November 22, 1963. The image was taken by Tom C. Dillard, Chief Photographer at The Dallas Morning News.
The photograph shows a section of the rear of Air Force One with a flight of stairs connecting the airplane to the ground. The plane's body runs more or less across the middle of the image. On the right side, on the body of the plane, "U.S. AIR" from "U.S. AIR FORCE," is printed. "Eastern Air Lines," is printed in several places on the steps. On the open door, on the left side, is a presidential seal.
Mrs. Kennedy, wearing her pink suit, is three steps from the bottom of the stairs. She is looking in the direction of Vice President Lyndon Johnson and smiling. She holds the strap of her purse in her left hand and the stairs' rail in her right. President Kennedy is a few stair steps behind her also holding the rail. Nellie Connally is behind the president near the top of the stairs and Governor Connally is standing on the landing just outside the plane. There is another man coming out of the plane behind the governor.
Standing on the left side of the stairs is Vice President Johnson; Lady Bird Johnson stands beside him, holding a bouquet of yellow roses (Mrs. Johnson is partially cut out of the image by the edge). On either side of the base of the stairs, there is a man in uniform saluting, but the man on the left side of the image is obscured from view by Vice President Johnson. There are two men in suits standing at the base of the stairs on the right side; the second man can only be seen at the very edge of the image.Photographs650373.60000000002.400000000011830Negative (b&w)0E-10Original black and white 35mm negative by Dallas Morning News chief photographer Tom Dillard. The image shows First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and President Kennedy disembarking from Air Force One at Love Field on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Governor Connally and Nellie Connally follow the Kennedys down the stairs. At the base of the stairs Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson can be seen waiting to greet President and Mrs Kennedy.RosesTrip to TexasAir Force OnePhotographsKennedy, John F.Dillard, Tom C.Connally, JohnConnally, NellieJohnson, Lady BirdKennedy, JacquelineJohnson, Lyndon B.The Dallas Morning NewsLove FieldFort Worth Chamber of CommerceDallasThe man saluting at the bottom of the Eastern Airlines staircase is the late John Polanichka, a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant who served as an Air Force One security guard for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Next to Polanichka, facing away from the camera, is the late U.S. Secret Service agent Win Lawson. -- Stephen Fagin, CuratorObject featured in special exhibition, Two Days in Texas, November 8, 2023 through September 28, 2024.