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35mm b&w negative of President Kennedy's casket en route to the Capitol
35mm b&w negative of President Kennedy's casket en route to the Capitol

35mm b&w negative of President Kennedy's casket en route to the Capitol

Object number2017.062.0003.0002
Date11/24/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer Donald Hughes
ObjectNegative (b&w)
Credit Line© 2013 Donald Eugene Hughes Donald Hughes Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions15/16 × 1 7/16 in. (2.4 × 3.7 cm)
Collections
DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative of the procession taking President Kennedy's casket to the U.S. Capitol to lie in state on Sunday, November 24, 1963, taken by Donald Hughes, who was a high school yearbook photographer. Image shows military personnel from all branches escorting President Kennedy's flag-draped casket down the middle of a wide street lined with dense crowds of thousands of onlookers. The casket is placed on a horse-drawn caisson; two of the horses are rider-less. Other military personnel are visible in the foreground saluting the procession as it passes. President Kennedy's casket lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol for almost twenty-four hours, from Sunday, November 24, 1963, until the morning of Monday, November 25, 1963, when the casket was taken to St. Matthew's Cathedral for the funeral Mass and later to Arlington National Cemetery. These images are not available online larger than a thumbnail to protect the copyright of their creator(s). For a more detailed examination of this item, please schedule an appointment in the Museum’s Reading Room.
Curatorial Commentary
Included in the Museum's temporary exhibit, "Mourning a President," about the funeral and mourning rites for President John F. Kennedy, this item will be on display on the Museum's seventh floor from November 17, 2017 to February 19, 2018. -- Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections
Seventeen-year-old Maryland high school student Donald Hughes took a series of black and white photographs of the Kennedy funeral procession from the White House to the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Sunday, November 24, 1963. Although Hughes was a yearbook photographer for his high school, he was not "on assignment" that Sunday and does not recall any of his funeral images ending up in the 1964 yearbook. In fact, Hughes' photographs were largely unseen until they were featured online by The New York Times in 2013. Hughes recorded an oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum in 2017. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator