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

Object number1989.100.0026.0002

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)

Terms

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. Although there are several women in this image wearing head scarves, only one is the figure known as The Babushka Lady, the one in the middle. The woman in the foreground who is standing on the sidewalk with her back to the camera wearing a calf-length light-colored coat, a head-scarf and a hand-bag slung cross-wise across her body 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