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Photograph of boxes on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository
Photograph of boxes on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository

Photograph of boxes on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository

Object number2003.006.0006
DateNovember 1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Creator Federal Bureau of Investigation
ObjectPhotograph (b&w)
Credit LineNat Pinkston Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions5 x 4 in. (12.7 x 10.2 cm)
Collections
DescriptionBlack and white photographic print of boxes on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. The photo was taken in November 1963 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as evidence in the days following the assassination of President Kennedy. The photograph shows stacks of cardboard boxes in the right and left foregrounds with un-stacked boxes in the center. Visible in the background of the photograph are support columns and larger stacks of boxes. Stamps on the sides of some of the boxes identify the contents as books as well as the associated book publishing companies.
Curatorial Commentary
This FBI photographic print was in the personal collection of retired agent Nat A. Pinkston (1915-2011). Pinkston was a Dallas attorney prior to joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He retired from the Dallas FBI office in 1967 after twenty-eight years of service. Pinkston was involved in the local assassination investigation, notably tracing ownership of the Mannlicher-Carcano found in the Depository to employee Lee Harvey Oswald. He was also dispatched to the Texas School Book Depository on December 2, 1963, after Lee Harvey Oswald's clipboard was discovered in the northwest corner of the sixth floor near where the rifle had been found shortly after the assassination. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator