Image of the presidential motorcade leaving San Antonio International Airport

Object number2014.080.0171.0006

Date11/21/1963

ClassificationsPhotographs

Photographer Dallas Morning News Photographer

ObjectNegative (b&w)

Credit LineThe Dallas Morning News Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Donated by The Dallas Morning News in the interest of preserving history

MediumFilm

Dimensions15/16 × 1 5/16 in. (2.4 × 3.3 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by a staff photographer from The Dallas Morning News. President Kennedy's motorcade leaves San Antonio International Airport on Thursday, November 21, 1963. At the front of the motorcade, behind police motorcycles, is the presidential limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Governor John Connally and Nellie Connally. In the foreground is a press car full of reporters and photographers.

Curatorial Commentary

The journalist looking towards the camera in this photograph is legendary United Press International reporter Merriman Smith (1913-1970). Smith started covering the White House in 1940 and is today best remembered for his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Kennedy assassination. Smith, moments after the shooting, was the first to publicly use the term "grassy knoll" to describe the grass-covered incline on the north side of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. - Stephen Fagin, Curator