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Photo printing plate of aerial view of Dealey Plaza
Photo printing plate of aerial view of Dealey Plaza

Photo printing plate of aerial view of Dealey Plaza

Object number2003.061.0001
Date11/23/1963
ClassificationsArtifacts
ObjectPrinting plate
Credit LineJack H. and Jane C. McNairy Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumMetal
Dimensions7 3/16 × 9 1/4 × 1/16 in. (18.3 × 23.5 × 0.2 cm)
Collections
DescriptionCopper-colored metal photo printing plate of an aerial view of Dealey Plaza. The image is reversed to reproduce correctly on paper. The plate includes handwritten additions showing street names, motorcade route and graphics of the bullet trajectory. Labeled "Overhead" with initials, possibly OD or OP, in grease pencil on back. The printed image from this plate appeared in Dallas Times Herald newspapers on November 23, 1963.
Curatorial Commentary
Donor Jack McNairy was a high school student in 1963 and worked part-time at the Dallas Times Herald.  Within days of the Kennedy assassination, McNairy noticed a stack of recently-used photographic printing plates that had been discarded in a bin to be melted down and recycled.  Sensing that these photographic plates had historic value, McNairy saved as many as he could and kept them for four decades before donating them to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.  McNairy also recorded an oral history with the Museum in 2003.  - Stephen Fagin, Curator