Photo of the rifle location in the Texas School Book Depository building

Object number2003.006.0009

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)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionBlack and white photographic print of the area where a rifle was discovered in the northwest corner of 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. Part of a window is visible at the left side of the photograph with three rows of stacked cardboard boxes in the foreground. There is a support pillar with electrical switches and a "No Smoking" sign on the right side of the photo. A sign reading "Stair Way" with an arrow pointing to the right is visible on a brick wall at the center back of the photograph.

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