Skip to main content
Image of presidential limousine outside Parkland Hospital
Image of presidential limousine outside Parkland Hospital

Image of presidential limousine outside Parkland Hospital

Object number1994.003.0011.0002
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Dallas Morning News Photographer
ObjectNegative (b&w)
Credit LineTom C. Dillard Collection, The Dallas Morning News/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions15/16 × 1 7/16 in. (2.4 × 3.6 cm)
DescriptionOriginal black and white 35mm negative by a Dallas Morning News photographer. The image shows the empty presidential limousine outside Parkland Memorial Hospital after the shooting on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Several police motorcycles are in the foreground, and several men stand outside waiting on news of the situation.
Curatorial Commentary
It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image. Tom Dillard, Clint Grant, Joe Laird and Bill Winfrey are the photographers who were present when the photograph was taken. Tom Dillard specifically mentioned being at the back of Parkland Hospital, so it is possible that this is one of his images. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager

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