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Image of a crowd gathered along Elm Street minutes after the assassination
Image of a crowd gathered along Elm Street minutes after the assassination

Image of a crowd gathered along Elm Street minutes after the assassination

Object number1989.100.0026.0001
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer William Allen
ObjectNegative (b&w)
Credit LineWilliam Allen, photographer, Dallas Times Herald Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions15/16 x 1 7/16 in. (2.4 x 3.6 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer William Allen Friday afternoon after the assassination - between 12:30 and 1 p.m. This image shows the view from the north side of Dealey Plaza looking south toward Elm Street. A crowd gathered in the plaza after the shooting. Dealey Plaza was not closed to traffic after the assassination - cars are visible traveling on all three streets in this image. The Old Red Courthouse can be seen in the top left corner of the picture. The woman in the foreground who is standing on the sidewalk with her back to the camera wearing a calf-length coat, a head-scarf and a hand-bag slung cross-wise across her body is the woman known as the Babushka Lady. She appears in several other eyewitness films and photographs but her own identity has never been positively confirmed and the film or pictures she may have taken have never been identified.
Curatorial Commentary
The Babushka Lady—so named because of the headscarf she wore that day—is one of the most mysterious and controversial eyewitnesses in Dealey Plaza.  Beverly Oliver, a singer at the Colony Club in Dallas in 1963 who knew Jack Ruby and many of his performers, came forward in 1970 as this mystery figure.  Many researchers have challenged her story due to its inconsistencies.  However, to date, no one besides Oliver has identified themselves as the “Babushka Lady.” - Stephen Fagin, Curator