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Image of the top floors of the Texas School Book Depository
Image of the top floors of the Texas School Book Depository

Image of the top floors of the Texas School Book Depository

Object number2014.080.0213
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Tom C. Dillard
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
Dimensions1 5/16 × 1 1/2 in. (3.3 × 3.8 cm)
DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by photographer Tom C. Dillard from The Dallas Morning News. The image shows the southeast corner of the south-facing side of the Texas School Book Depository building in Dallas, Texas on Friday, November 22, 1963, taken immediately after shots were fired at President Kennedy. Several windows are opened, and people can be seen leaning out of them.
Curatorial Commentary

The late Tom Dillard, chief photographer at The Dallas Morning News in 1963, took this photograph of the Texas School Book Depository from his position in Camera Car #3 in the motorcade. Dillard was in the front passenger's seat of the vehicle while his friend and professional rival Bob Jackson, a staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald, sat directly behind him. 

In his 1993 oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum, Dillard recalls the moment he snapped this famous image (excerpt edited for clarity):

"When this gun went off, it was loud, and I said, “They’re throwing torpedoes at him.” Why, I guess in my mind [I was thinking of] those things we threw as kids that hit the sidewalk and exploded. Then, in a matter of a second and a half, another shot -- or two seconds, something like that. I said, “No, that’s rifle fire.” The third shot, I said, “My God, they’ve killed him.” To me, three rifle shots. 

Just about in that period of my talking, Bob Jackson said, “There’s a guy with a rifle up in that window.” I said, “Where?” I had both cameras around my neck, loaded, focused, cocked. And I am a trigger reaction-type person. I had my camera in my hand, the wide angle, the one that covered a great deal. 

Bob says, “It’s that top window.” And by that time, I shot a picture with the wide-angle camera. I said, “Which window?” He said, “It’s the one on the right, second from the top.” By that time, I had the 100mm camera up, shot a picture of that window. [The photo shows] nothing other than what looks like maybe something on the window ledge."  

-Stephen Fagin, Curator