Image of flower arrangements in Dealey Plaza after the assassination
Object number1999.034.0007
Date11/25/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
ObjectSlide
Credit LineRobert Russell Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions2 x 2 in. (5.1 x 5.1 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 35mm color slide on Kodak Kodachrome Transparency Film taken by an unknown photographer. Immediately after the assassination and in the following days and weeks, people left flowers and mementos in Dealey Plaza in honor of President Kennedy. This picture was taken on Monday afternoon, November 25, 1963, around the time the president's body was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Image shows flowers, wreaths, and notes left by mourners on the south side of Elm Street. The Texas School Book Depository building is partially visible in the background.
Curatorial CommentaryThe photographs donated by Robert Russell were purchased at a yard sale. The photographer is unknown, although details in the pictures, including the rope barrier, suggest they were taken on Monday, November 25, 1963. - Gary Mack, Curator (2000 - 2015)
Dealey Plaza was transformed into a memorial shrine during the weekend of the assassination as mourners left wreaths, floral displays and notecards in memory of President Kennedy. One plaza visitor, George Reid, recalled in his Museum oral history: "People were starting to leave things and then, by Sunday morning, there was quite a bit of stuff there--quite a lot of flowers.... And people were coming down there, and people were standing there crying. People just bawling and just talking to each other, hugging each other, you know. It was an emotional scene that day." - Stephen Fagin, Curator
The printed sign beneath the large white cross in this photograph read in full: "In Prayerful Memory of Our Beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Men of St. Bernard's Church." St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church is still located in the Little Forest Hills section of Dallas near White Rock Lake on the site where it was originally established in 1947. The founding pastor, Monsignor John M. Wiewell, was still at St. Bernard's at the time of the assassination, serving the church from 1947 to 1968. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
