Robert Hughes film

Object number2002.026.0001

Date11/22/1963

ClassificationsFilms

Photographer Robert J. E. Hughes

ObjectFilm, 8mm

Credit LineRobert J. E. Hughes Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumFilm

DimensionsGauge: 8mm; Camera Speed: 18.3 fps

Terms

Collections

DescriptionOriginal 8mm color home movie filmed by Robert Hughes, showing the presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza before shots were fired and the aftermath immediately following the shooting. Hughes filmed the presidential motorcade until just a few seconds before the first shot, then captured some of the aftermath of the assassination, including police searching for suspects in a railroad yard and outside the Book Depository building. Hughes’ film is the only home movie known to include a view of the assassin's window of the Texas School Book Depository taken while President Kennedy was in Dealey Plaza. There is a moving shape visible in the window but unfortunately, because Hughes filmed from a block away, it cannot be identified.

Curatorial Commentary

Object featured in special exhibition, Two Days in Texas, November 8, 2023 through September 8, 2024.

Curatorial Commentary

Robert Joseph Elmore Hughes (1938-1985) worked as a customs examiner for the U.S. Treasury and officed in the Terminal Annex Post Office in Dealey Plaza. On November 22, 1963, he took his Bell & Howell 8mm film camera to the southwestern curb at Main and Houston Streets to capture a home movie of the Kennedy motorcade. His film shows the presidential limousine turning from Main and proceeding on Houston towards the Texas School Book Depository. This sequence, which briefly shows the sixth floor of the warehouse seconds before the assassination, has generated law enforcement and researcher interest over the years, making it one of the most significant home movies taken in Dealey Plaza that day. Hughes later wrote that he stopped filming approximately five seconds before he heard the first shot fired. After hearing the shots, Hughes began filming as he quickly moved towards Elm Street, following bystanders running up the grassy knoll area. Hughes shot several sequences in the aftermath of the assassination showing Elm Street, the rail yards beyond Dealey Plaza and the exterior of the Texas School Book Depository. After developing his film, Hughes promptly delivered it to the FBI in Dallas. The film, sent to the FBI's lab in Washington, was copied and examined, though it was years before optical and digital analysis of the film tried to determine whether an individual or individuals could be discerned on the sixth floor of the Depository. Following her oral history in 2002, Maureen Hughes-Thompson donated her late husband's home movie to the Museum. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

The night of the assassination, Hughes wrote a letter to his parents saying, "About five seconds after I quit taking pictures we heard the shots...".

Earlier scenes in the film show Hughes, his wife, Maureen, and others in family scenes in Dallas. Unfortunately, that section of film was removed at some point before the film was donated to the Museum and is now considered lost. It was not found with the other Hughes family home movie reels. The only known copy of those family scenes was an 8mm print made by the FBI soon after the assassination; that reel is now at the National Archives. - Gary Mack, Curator