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Image of floral tributes in Dealey Plaza after the assassination, Slide #6
Image of floral tributes in Dealey Plaza after the assassination, Slide #6

Image of floral tributes in Dealey Plaza after the assassination, Slide #6

Object number2001.004.0003
Date11/23/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Jerry Mainer
ObjectSlide
Credit LineJerry Mainer Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions2 x 2 in. (5.1 x 5.1 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 35mm color slide taken by amateur photographer Jerry Mainer. 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 the afternoon of the day following President Kennedy's assassination. Image shows floral tributes and wreaths left on the south side of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza by mourners.
Curatorial Commentary
The slides are numbered sequentially starting at #4 and going through #36, skipping #20, for a total of 32 slides. They were donated to the Museum like this, and it is unknown what happened to the missing slides from this sequence.   - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager
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