Image of the Kennedys arriving at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth

Object number2016.046.0029

Date1960 - 1963

ClassificationsPhotographs

Photographer Andrew "Andy" Hanson

ObjectPhotograph (b&w)

Credit LineAndy Hanson Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumPaper

Dimensions8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionBlack and white print of an image by Andy Hanson, staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. The image shows President and Mrs. Kennedy arriving at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the night of November 21, 1963. Texas Governor John Connally is seen behind President Kennedy's shoulder. Also visible are U.S. Secret Service agents Roy Kellerman (far left) and Clint Hill (second from right, facing camera). Written in pencil on the back of this print is the Andy Hanson photo designation "AH.JFK/4.8."

Curatorial Commentary

Object featured in special exhibition, Two Days in Texas, November 8, 2023 through September 28, 2024.

Curatorial Commentary

Construction began on the historic Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth in 1920, with a two-story addition and ballroom completed in 1963. On the night of November 21, 1963, the Kennedys stayed in Suite 850. The hotel, renamed the Sheraton-Fort Worth in 1968, was renovated in 1970 in order to serve as the official hotel for the newly-constructed Fort Worth Convention Center. This renovation, however, did not last long. The hotel was gutted and extensively renovated once again in 1979, reopening in 1981 as the Hyatt Regency Fort Worth. The name subsequently changed to the Radisson Fort Worth in 1995 and, in 2006, to the Hilton Fort Worth (which is still its name as of 2023). The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1979. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

Dallas news and society photographer Andy Hanson was nothing short of a local legend. When he passed away in 2008, almost half a century into his local photographic career, Hanson was called "a beloved institution," while The Dallas Morning News called his images "not just stills of moments in time, but rather…well-composed works of art." As a longtime photographer with the Dallas Times Herald, Hanson covered perhaps the most important story of his career, the Kennedy assassination and aftermath in Dallas.

The Museum’s Andy Hanson Collection includes more than 450 original images covering the 1960 presidential campaign, the assassination weekend, and the Jack Ruby trial in 1964. These photos chronicle the local story with a poignancy rarely found in news photography. They also complement and enhance the Museum’s existing collections of Dallas Times Herald photography by providing unique perspectives from the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, Dallas Love Field, the Times Herald newsroom and other important locations that fateful weekend.

Andy Hanson (1932-2008) started his photojournalism career in the 1950s at the Houston Post before moving to the Dallas Times Herald in 1960. Although occasionally assigned feature, sports, and news photography, he was widely known as the paper’s primary society and party photographer. For the Kennedy visit in November 1963, Hanson was assigned to the Hotel Texas on the night of Thursday, November 21, to photograph the Kennedys’ arrival. Since he did not finish processing his Fort Worth images until the early hours of November 22, instead of a Dallas photo assignment, he managed the paper’s darkroom that day.

Upon learning of the assassination, Hanson rushed to Dallas Love Field in the hopes of photographing Air Force One. Unable to get close enough, he took a series of powerful images inside the terminal as shocked and saddened individuals purchased the first wave of newspapers. Back at the Herald, Hanson was the only photographer to capture the scene inside the newsroom as reporters and editors hurriedly went about their responsibilities. That night, at a Catholic Mass in Oak Cliff, he photographed nuns in prayer. Few in Dallas captured the emotional impact of the assassination on film better than Andy Hanson.

Beyond November 22, 1963, Hanson photographed the Connally family at Parkland Hospital and physicians speaking to the press following the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. He later photographed the gravesite of slain Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit and covered part of the Jack Ruby trial. Some of his Ruby trial images appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.

Although he was capturing breaking news, largely for immediate publication in the Dallas Times Herald, Andy Hanson always photographed with an eye towards history. Today his images provide a timely and meaningful window into the past—exploring tragedy, its impact, and the painful aftermath in the local community. - Stephen Fagin, Curator