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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
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
  • "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963"
  • Parkland Memorial Hospital
  • All Online Objects
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
A native of Ireland, Eamon Kennedy was a staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. On the weekend of the Kennedy assassination, he captured images at Dallas Love Field, Parkland Memorial Hospital, the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff and Dallas police headquarters. He later covered the 1964 Jack Ruby trial and the Warren Commission's visit to Dallas.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from May 2014 can be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Eamon Kennedy Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Other objects related to Mr. Kennedy, including several of his images, may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger

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   
This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.