Image of Lt. J. C. "Carl" Day holding rifle outside the Book Depository

While taking this picture, Jay Skaggs asked Lt. Day, "Is that the gun?"  According to Skaggs, Day nodded.  For nearly forty years, with his original slides stored in a shoebox at his home, Skaggs was unaware that he had captured the only known color photograph of the alleged murder weapon being removed from the Texas School Book Depository.  Professional photographers at the scene used black and white film. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Jay Skaggs was the only known photographer to capture a picture of the rifle at the scene with color film.  Newspaper and television photographers rarely used color in those days, and with the exception of one motorcade photograph, all color images taken over the assassination weekend were made by amateurs. 

The rifle, at first misidentified as a Mauser, was soon found to be a Mannlicher-Carcano, a basic Italian weapon manufactured in 1940 and considered war surplus.  FBI agents traced the rifle to Lee Harvey Oswald the next morning by examining the microfilm records of Klein's Sporting Goods, a Chicago mail order firm specializing in guns.  The rifle, ordered under the name Alex Hidell (a fictitious name favored by Oswald), had been shipped to Oswald's Dallas post office box eight months earlier. - Gary Mack, Curator