Photo of the 2nd floor vestibule in the Texas School Book Depository building

Object number2003.006.0014

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 second floor vestibule in 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 was taken from the doorway leading to the lunchroom with the open door visible at the left of the photo. A table with boxes on top, a white office chair and a desk are visible inside the vestibule room. At the center back of vestibule is an open door revealing a staircase going up. The walls are white with some pipes visible on the ceiling and back wall.

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