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Photo printing plate with two images of mourners outside Parkland Hospital
Photo printing plate with two images of mourners outside Parkland Hospital

Photo printing plate with two images of mourners outside Parkland Hospital

Object number2003.061.0004
Date11/23/1963
ClassificationsArtifacts
Photographer Eamon Kennedy
ObjectPrinting plate
Credit LineJack H. and Jane C. McNairy Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumMetal
Dimensions4 13/16 × 7 11/16 × 1/16 in. (12.2 × 19.5 × 0.2 cm)
Collections
DescriptionCopper-colored metal photo printing plate with two images of bystanders outside of Parkland Hospital reacting to the news of President Kennedy's assassination. The images are reversed to reproduce correctly on paper. The two images are separated by a deep groove. Labeled "RIP" and initials, possibly CP or CD, in grease pencil on back. The right side of the plate is slightly taller than the left side. The image on the right is a detail of a photograph taken by Dallas Times Herald photographer Eamon Kennedy and is represented in the Museum's Dallas Times Herald Collection by the original negative. The photographer of the image on the left is unknown.
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