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Tobacco pipe belonging to Judge Joe B. Brown
Tobacco pipe belonging to Judge Joe B. Brown

Tobacco pipe belonging to Judge Joe B. Brown

Object number2004.010.0168.0006
Datecirca 1960
ClassificationsArtifacts
ObjectPipe
Credit LineJudge Joe B. Brown, Jr. Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumWood, Plastic
Dimensions5 7/8 × 1 5/16 × 1 15/16 in. (15 × 3.4 × 5 cm)
Collections
DescriptionTobacco pipe belonging to Judge Joe B. Brown. The pipe has a curved black plastic mouth piece and stem, and a carved wooden shank and bowl made from Algerian Briar. The judge was said to have smoked a pipe in the courtroom during the trial. The mouthpiece has a narrow opening on the end that is badly stained and discolored from use. The shank and bowl have deeply carved irregular gouges throughout the surface of the polished wood; the carved indentations are rough and darker than the raised surfaces of the wood. On the left side of the shank is the following text stamped into the wood: "CHADWICK \ CARVED". Stamped into the wood on the right side of the shank is the following text: "GENUINE ALGERIAN BRIAR".
Curatorial Commentary
This is one of several pipes that belonged to Judge Joe B. Brown, donated to the Museum by his son, Judge Joe B. Brown, Jr. Although no known photographs show Brown smoking a pipe at any time during the Ruby trial, there are anecdotal accounts that he may have smoked a pipe in the courtroom at least once. There are news photographs showing Judge Brown smoking a cigarette in a hallway outside the courtroom, smoking a cigar in the office of Dallas County Sheriff Bill Decker, and with a pack of Salem brand cigarettes on his desk in his courthouse office. - Stephen Fagin, Curator 
This item, along with materials from the DA's Ruby file (which is on loan to the Museum) and from the Museum's permanent collection, briefly appeared in a temporary display on the Museum's seventh floor in 2017. - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections