Image of local press photographers in press car during motorcade on Main Street

Bob Jackson was a staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. He covered the presidential party’s arrival at Dallas Love Field and, while riding in a motorcade press car, spotted a rifle in a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. He was also at Parkland Memorial Hospital and Dallas police headquarters that day. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, Jackson captured an iconic photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. His image won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in News Photography. Jackson later covered the 1964 Jack Ruby trial in Dallas. In 2025, Jackson donated to The Sixth Floor Museum more than 20,000 images from his Dallas photojournalism in the 1960s and 1970s.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from March 2025 may be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Bob Jackson Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

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

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

Riding directly in front of Bob Jackson, wearing a trench coat and turned towards the camera, is Dallas Morning News chief photographer Tom Dillard. Like Bob Jackson, Dillard covered the president's arrival at Dallas Love Field, rode in the motorcade, and later photographed scenes at Parkland Memorial Hospital. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Riding to Bob Jackson's left is WBAP-TV photographer Jimmy Darnell.  Unlike the other TV photographers in the motorcade, Darnell used a sound camera, which required extra, and rather bulky, equipment.  Unfortunately, none of the scenes he filmed from the motorcade included a sound track, for it was easier and more efficient to shoot silent.  Except for interviews, sound was not nearly as important for news coverage in those days as it today. - Gary Mack, Curator

From February 2009 to October 2010 The Sixth Floor Museum presented a temporary exhibit titled "A Photographer's Story: Bob Jackson and the Kennedy Assassination."  The exhibit featured the work of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Bob Jackson, pictured here, and included this photo of the Dallas Times Herald staffer at work the day of the president's visit to Dallas.  You can learn more about that exhibit on the exhibits page of the Museum's website. - Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections