Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Photograph of the rifle location in the Texas School Book Depository building
Photograph of the rifle location in the Texas School Book Depository building

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

Object number2003.006.0010
Date11/22/1963 - 11/31/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Creator Federal Bureau of Investigation
ObjectPhotograph (b&w)
Credit LineNat Pinkston Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions4 x 5 in. (10.2 x 12.7 cm)
Collections
DescriptionBlack and white photographic print of the northwest corner of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building where a rifle was discovered by investigators. The photo was taken in November 1963 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as evidence in the days following the assassination of President Kennedy. A bay of windows is visible in the center background of the photograph with stacks of cardboard boxes in the center of the photograph. There is a support pillar with electrical switches and a "No Smoking" sign on the left side of the photo. A sign reading "Stair Way" with an arrow pointing to the right is visible on a brick wall in the 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