Image of the top five floors of the Texas School Book Depository

Object number2002.004.0012

Date11/22/1963

ClassificationsPhotographs

Photographer Jay Skaggs

ObjectSlide

Credit LineJay Skaggs Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumFilm

Dimensions2 x 2 in. (5.1 x 5.1 cm)

Terms

Collections

Description35mm Kodachrome II color slide, #14 of 20 images, taken by Jay Skaggs of the upper floors of the Texas School Book Depository as seen from near the traffic light pole on the southeast corner of Elm and Houston Streets. This image shows someone in a window on the top (seventh) floor -- probably WFAA-TV photographer Tom Alyea -- and a person in the sixth window from the right on the fourth floor who might have been Book Depository employee Elsie Dorman .

Curatorial Commentary

In his 2002 oral history with the Museum, Skaggs revealed that he took this specific photograph after learning from a police officer or another bystander that shots had likely been fired from the sixth floor corner window. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

Tom Alyea was the only television news photographer already inside the Texas School Book Depository when investigators sealed the building. Since he was known to police and had press credentials, Alyea was allowed to stay as long as he kept out of their way. Among the outtakes of the approximately 15 minutes of black & white news film he shot inside the building are several scenes filmed from the southeast corner window on the sixth floor.

Elsie Dorman, then an employee of publisher Scott, Foresman and Company (which had offices in the Book Depository building), used her husband's home movie camera to film the motorcade from her office window. Although investigators questioned her and she told them she was taking pictures, they never looked at her film. - Gary Mack, Curator