Image of empty limousines outside Parkland Hospital

The small, white spot to the left of the rear view mirror is windshield damage caused by a fragment of the bullet that struck Kennedy in the head.  This is the only known photograph showing the condition of the limousine's window while it was still in Dallas. - Gary Mack, Curator

No films or photographs are known to exist that show any of the occupants exiting or being removed from the presidential limousine at the emergency entrance to Parkland Memorial Hospital, just as there are no photographs showing President Kennedy inside Parkland Hospital following the assassination. Likewise, while several eyewitnesses got close enough to later describe the graphic condition of the limousine interior, no Dallas photographs are known to exist which clearly show inside the vehicle. The widely circulated color photographs showing the blood-stained limousine interior were actually taken inside the White House Garage by the FBI on Saturday, November 23, 1963. Black and white photographs (including Image AR406-6 in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection at the University of Texas at Arlington Library) which show the inside of a vehicle at Parkland, with scattered roses visible on the floor of the backseat, are frequently misidentified as showing the interior of the Kennedy limousine. They are, in fact, all photographs showing the inside of Vice President Johnson's vehicle, which was a gray 1964 Lincoln four-door convertible (as opposed to the presidential vehicle, which was a modified blue Lincoln Continental convertible with jump seats). The yellow roses belonged to Lady Bird Johnson, as Mrs. Kennedy's roses, given to her at Love Field by the wife of Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, were famously red. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator