Dallas Municipal Archives to Re-Introduce Kennedy Assassination Photos through Portal to Texas History (February 2010)
By John H. Slate,
CA-City Archivist, Dallas Municipal Archives
The Dallas Municipal Archives, City Secretary’s Office, City of Dallas, Texas, is re-opening for research its Dallas Police Department photographs taken the day and week of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through a Rescuing Texas History grant, funded by the Summerlee Foundation, the Portal to Texas History of the University of North Texas Libraries digitized 420 images comprising the first-day evidence photography made by the police department during its investigation of the president’s murder, as well as documentation surrounding the murders of Officer J.D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald. The photographs series is part of the 11,400 documents making up the collection that is the cornerstone of the Municipal Archives, acquired in 1989.
This event marks the widest possible access to the collection to date, since it was the subject of a pioneering digitization project in 1992 by Wang Laboratories. Beginning the week of November 16th the virtual collection will be open for research through the Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu/), where viewers can see 4x5 inch format images of the Texas School Book Depository Building and Dealey Plaza, the Texas Theater, and other sites.
The only known color image of Lee Harvey Oswald while in custody of the Dallas Police Department.
Courtesy of Dallas Municipal Archives, City of Dallas
Photo from a 4x5 black and white negative, made the same day as the color photo. Note the lighting equipment, which is frequently cropped out in derivative versions. Courtesy of Dallas Municipal Archives, City of Dallas.
Besides the photographs, the other 11,000 paper documents in the collection are scheduled to be available through the Portal to Texas History in 2010. Other Dallas Municipal Archives collections that will soon be available through the Portal include an illustrated 1924 Trinity River water quality survey, Love Field images from 1918 to the 1990s, and the Dallas Police Department Historic Cases files (including Bonnie and Clyde materials).
