Photo of Dealey Plaza from the Texas School Book Depository building

Object number2003.006.0036

DateNovember 1963

ClassificationsPhotographs

Creator Federal Bureau of Investigation

ObjectPhotograph (b&w)

Credit LineNat Pinkston Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumPaper

Dimensions3 1/2 x 5 in. (8.9 x 12.7 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionBlack and white photographic print of Dealey Plaza taken from the sixth floor southeast corner window, located in the sniper's perch, 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 shows Dealey Plaza with Main and Commerce Streets running horizontally through the center. The pergola at the southwest edge of Dealey Plaza is in the center of the photograph. A crowd of people is visible gathered around floral tributes at the lower right of the photo, and trees and part of the north colonnade are visible in the lower left.

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