Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Photo of the stairs in the lobby in the Texas School Book Depository building
Photo of the stairs in the lobby in the Texas School Book Depository building

Photo of the stairs in the lobby in the Texas School Book Depository building

Object number2003.006.0021
DateNovember 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 staircase to the second floor in the lobby 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 open staircase is in the center of the photo ascending from left to right. A decorative wall of glass tiles is behind it. Part of a directory sign is visible in the left foreground and an open doorway to a room with a laundry hamper is visible at the right.
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