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

Object number2003.006.0016

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 looks south and shows a closed door leading to the lunchroom at the center. A table with boxes on top and a white office chair are in the foreground. A safe with a wire waste-paper basket on top are to the left of the door. Part of a white wall with a pipe in front is visible at the right side 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