Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

The Sixth Floor Museum celebrates a photojournalist's reflection of 1963

Unfortunately for Dallas, despite being a one-time oil boom town and having a popular television drama named after it, its biggest claim to fame (or infamy) is the assassination of the 35th President of the United States.

Fortunately, the city has met the reputation with a dignified decorum that’s reflected in the Sixth Floor Museum – a museum dedicated to the memory and legacy of President John F. Kennedy.

Housed in the Dallas County Administration Building, the museum sits on the sixth and seventh floors of a former warehouse known in 1963 as the Texas School Book Depository- the perch from where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot the President. 

The museum’s exhibitions include two preserved areas – the sniper’s perch on the sixth floor and the staircase where a rifle and clipboard were found – as well as original cameras used by assassination witnesses and a model of Dealey Plaza created by the FBI and used by the Warren Commission.

The permanent exhibition, “John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation,” features hundreds of photographs, documentary films, and artifacts regarding the early 1960s, the events of Nov. 22-25, 1963, the world’s response to the assassination, major investigations, and President Kennedy's legacy.

In commemoration of the museum’s 20th anniversary, it has opened its newest exhibit, “A Photographer's Story: Bob Jackson and the Kennedy Assassination,” which features the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist' work.

Using photos, artifacts and film footage, the exhibit highlights Jackson's personal and professional perspective of three chaotic days in November 1963 — from President Kennedy's arrival at Dallas Love Field to Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby.

That now iconic image of Ruby striking out of the crowd to shoot Oswald won a Pulitzer Prize for Jackson back in 1964. The exhibit includes the famous photo as well as Jackson's coverage of Ruby's Dallas murder trial and other images portraying a city in transition during the 1960s.

Other features of the exhibit include artifacts related to 1960s journalism and interactive stations devoted to "thinking like a 1960s newspaper photographer."
Free with regular paid admission to the museum, Jackson exhibit runs through July 31, 2010.

Admission, which includes an audio guide of the permanent exhibition, is $13.50 for adults and $12.50 for seniors 65 and over and kids 6-18 years old. Kids 5 years and under get in free or for $3.50 with the audio guide.  Groups of 20 or more people can inquire about group discounts.

Except Thanksgiving and Christmas, the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Mondays 12 to 6 p.m.

- by Jenn Emerson, Dallas Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)