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Image of letter from the Communist Party to Lee Harvey Oswald
Image of letter from the Communist Party to Lee Harvey Oswald

Image of letter from the Communist Party to Lee Harvey Oswald

Object number1994.003.0020
Date11/22/1963 - 11/25/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Dallas Morning News Photographer
ObjectNegative (b&w)
Credit LineTom C. Dillard Collection, The Dallas Morning News/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions3 7/8 × 4 7/8 in. (9.9 × 12.4 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 4 x 5 black and white negative on Kodak Safety Film by a Dallas Morning News photographer of a Dallas Police Department evidence photo. Image shows a letter from Arnold Johnson of the Communist Party to Lee Harvey Oswald. The original letter was in Dallas Police Department custody as evidence.
Curatorial Commentary
It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image on the weekend of the Kennedy assassination. A number of photographers were present at various points including Tom Dillard, Joe Laird, Clint Grant, Bill Winfrey, and Jack Beers.  - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager
This typed letter from Arnold Johnson, Director of the Information and Lecture Bureau of Communist Party USA, to Lee Harvey Oswald, dated July 31, 1963, appears in slightly altered form as Arnold Johnson Exhibit No. 2 in Warren Commission Volume 20, page 260. As printed in that volume, the Communist Party USA letterhead with mailing address is covered up and replaced with blank space and a rough handwritten note by Warren Commission general counsel J. Lee Rankin. His notation reads: "Exhibit No. 2 on Examination of Arnold Johnson, 4/17/64 at New York, NY" and initialed JLR. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator