{{Short description|Museum dedicated to John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, U.S.}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox museum |name = Sixth Floor Museum |image = |image_size = |caption = |map_type = |coordinates = {{Coord|32|46|47|N|96|48|30|W|scale:500|display=inline,title}} |established = {{start date and age|1989|02|20}} |dissolved = |location = Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, U.S. (411 Elm Street Dallas, TX 75202) |type = Historic |visitors = 400,000 |director = Nicola Longford |curator = Stephen Fagin |public_transit = DART 11,12,19,21,35,60,63,81/82,161,164, 283 |website = {{Official URL}} }} The '''Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza''' is a museum located on the sixth floor of the Dallas County Administration Building, formerly the Texas School Book Depository, in downtown Dallas, Texas, overlooking Dealey Plaza at the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets. The museum examines the life and times of United States President John F. Kennedy, as well as his assassination, and legacy, and the life of Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as the various conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination.
==Background== The seven-story building commonly known as Texas School Book Depository building, was originally built in 1901 on the foundation of an 1898 five-story structure which had burned down after being struck by lightning. Between 1901 and 1963, the building served first as a warehouse for plows and other agricultural equipment and then housed a grocery wholesaler. In 1963, the building was leased to the Texas School Book Depository Company and served as a distribution hub for school textbooks with regional offices for education publishers.
==Museum history== ===Creation=== [[File:Dallas County Admin Building.jpg|thumb|right|The Dallas County Administration Building in 2015, formerly the Texas School Book Depository]] After the assassination, the building remained leased to the company until 1970. Then, after much community discussion, Dallas County acquired the building and undertook a major restoration project. Finished in 1981, the exterior of the building was restored to its 1901 appearance and the first five floors were used for administrative and government functions. During this time, the top two floors, including the infamous sixth floor, remained empty.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Site {{!}} The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza |url=https://www.jfk.org/the-site/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |language=en-US}}</ref>
After a decade of development and community soul-searching, the museum opened on Presidents' Day, February 20, 1989.<ref name="JFKHist2">{{cite web |title=History of the Texas School Book Depository |url=http://www.jfk.org/go/about/history-of-the-texas-school-book-depository |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150812072737/http://www.jfk.org/go/about/history-of-the-texas-school-book-depository |archive-date=12 August 2015 |access-date=3 November 2014 |website=jfk.org |publisher=The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza}}</ref> The Sixth Floor Exhibit opened as a response to the many visitors who come to Dealey Plaza to learn more about the assassination. The museum was founded by the Dallas County Historical Foundation.<ref name="Noland">{{cite news |last=Noland |first=Eric |date=November 15, 2003 |title=Popularity and mystique; Museum in former Texas School Book Depository founded in response to visitors to the JFK assassination scene |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=20031115&id=hLszAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1fIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7056,3379871 |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |access-date=August 13, 2014}} Syndicated from the ''Los Angeles Daily News''.</ref>
The museum's primary exhibit, ''John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation'', provides historical context for the events of November 22, 1963, and the aftermath of the assassination.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE SIXTH FLOOR {{!}} The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza |url=https://www.jfk.org/john-f-kennedy-and-the-memory-of-a-nation/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |language=en-US}}</ref> The exhibit uses historic films, photographs, artifacts, and interpretive displays to document the events of the assassination, the reports by government investigations that followed, and the historical legacy of the tragedy. The museum is self-sufficient in funding, relying solely on donations and ticket sales. It rents the space from the County of Dallas.
===Holdings=== Over the years, the museum has offered exhibits, access to a catalog of some 2,500 oral history recordings<ref>{{Cite web |last=STENGLE |first=JAMIE |date=2023-11-22 |title=JFK assassination remembered 60 years later by surviving witnesses to history, including AP reporter |url=https://www.registercitizen.com/news/politics/article/jfk-assassination-remembered-60-years-later-by-18508148.php |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=The Register Citizen |language=en-US}}</ref> and speaker events with book authors and other prominent figures related to JFK, Oswald and the historic and cultural significance of the infamous presidential visit. The Museum’s collections include more than 90,000 items related to the assassination of President Kennedy and its local and global aftermath, the legacy of the Kennedy presidency, and the turbulent culture of the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Learn {{!}} The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza |url=https://www.jfk.org/learn/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |language=en-US}}</ref>
In December 1999, the Zapruder family donated the copyright to the Zapruder film to the Sixth Floor Museum, along with one of the first-generation copies made on November 22, 1963, and other copies of the film. The Zapruder family no longer retains any copyrights to the film, which are now controlled entirely by the museum. The original camera negative is in the possession of the National Archives and Records Administration.
In 2002, the family of Orville Nix, who filmed the last few seconds of the assassination, assigned the film’s copyright to the Dallas County Historical Foundation,<ref>David Flick, "Family donates JFK film, copyright to museum", ''Dallas Morning News'', Nov. 20, 2000.</ref><ref>U.S. Copyright Office, copyright assignment, document #V3466D144, recorded 5 March 2001.</ref> which operates the Sixth Floor Museum.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dallascounty.org/department/comcrt/committees/committees_index.html#found|title=Commissioners Court - Boards, Committees and Commissions|website=Dallascounty.org|access-date=October 31, 2017}}</ref> In 2015, Nix's granddaughter, Gayle Nix-Jackson, sued the Sixth Floor Museum for the return of the original film or compensation seeking $10{{nbsp}}million. Nix-Jackson said that "it was incomprehensible authorities would lose an important piece of historical evidence. I can understand little clerical issues. I don't understand the loss of evidence like this."<ref name="BBC News; November 24, 2015">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=JFK assassination: Woman sues for return of film |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34907705 |work=BBC News |date=November 24, 2015 |access-date=June 5, 2016}}</ref> In 2017, Nix-Jackson's lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice.<ref name="United States District Court for the District of Columbia; March 31, 2017">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=GAIL NIX JACKSON, Plaintiff, vs. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al., Defendants. Case No: 15-cv-2035-RCL |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/JFKVideoRuling.pdf |work=United States District Court for the District of Columbia |date=March 31, 2017 |access-date=May 11, 2018}}</ref> In 2024, it was overturned in a Federal Claims court.<ref name=":1">Nix v. United States (United States Course of Federal Claims). Retrieved from https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2023cv0704-40-0</ref>
In February 2007, the previously unreleased 8 mm film footage of Kennedy's motorcade, donated to the museum by George Jefferies and his son-in-law, was shown publicly for the first time. The 40-second film, silent and in color, showed the motorcade before the assassination, as well as part of Dealey Plaza the following day. The Jefferies film was described as capturing "a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy," as well as showing Kennedy's suit jacket bunched-up in the back at that moment, about two minutes before Kennedy entered Dealey Plaza.<ref name="Reuters">{{cite news |title=New footage of JFK in Dallas released |first=Ed |last=Stoddard |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kennedy-footage-idUSN1942842620070219 |work=Reuters |publisher=Reuters |date=February 19, 2007 |access-date=June 6, 2012}}</ref>
The Sixth Floor Museum also aroused controversy when it described the Casons (Jack was president of the TSBD in 1963) as "a conservative family, feared for President Kennedy's safety during his visit to Dallas".<ref>{{cite web | title=Gladys Cason Oral History | the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza | url=https://www.jfk.org/collections-archive/gladys-cason-oral-history/ }}</ref> It was noted by others that a document detailed that in 1961, wife Gladys Cason, when drunk, told dinner guests that "someone should shoot President Kennedy".<ref>{{cite web | title=ShowDoc.HTML | url=https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11742#relPageId=55 }}</ref>
===Activities=== alt=|thumb|This is a view from the next window over from the sixth floor shooting position. The yellow line shows the route of Kennedy's motorcade. There is an 'x' on the road marking the location at which the fatal shot struck Kennedy. A museum webcam features a live view from the sixth floor sniper's nest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earthcam.com/jfk/|title=EarthCam - Dealey Plaza Cam}}</ref>
For the 60th anniversary in November 2023, the museum offered some timely speaker programs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goodman |first=Matt |date=2023-11-14 |title=Reporter Darwin Payne Opens Up His Old Notebooks to Tell a New Story About JFK's Assassination |url=https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2023/11/reporter-darwin-payne-opens-up-his-old-notebooks-to-tell-a-new-story-about-jfks-assassination/ |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=D Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> Its "JFK Was Here" banners to highlight the historical significance of places along the 1963 motorcade route from Love Field to Dealey Plaza<ref>{{Cite web |title=60th Anniversary Banners {{!}} The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza |url=https://www.jfk.org/at-the-museum/jfk_banners/ |access-date=2023-11-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> were met with mixed reactions about reminders of the assassination.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-17 |title='JFK Was Here' banners in Dallas met with mixed reaction |url=https://news.yahoo.com/jfk-banners-dallas-met-mixed-233843467.html |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boyer |first=Alex |date=2023-11-17 |title='JFK Was Here' banners put up in Dallas by Sixth Floor Museum to mark 60 years since JFK's assassination |url=https://www.fox4news.com/news/jfk-was-here-banners-dallas-sixth-floor-museum-jfk-assassination |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=FOX 4 |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Sixth Floor Museum neither encourages nor discourages the idea of conspiracy theories.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-22 |title=Memories of JFK's assassination are kept alive by generations who weren't there to see him |url=https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2023-11-22/jfk-assassination-60th-anniversary-remembering |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=KERA News |language=en}}</ref>
===Curators=== The first curator of the Sixth Floor Museum was Gary Mack (born Larry Dunkel, 1946 - 2015),<ref name=Nightingale>Grimmes, William. "Gary Mack, Kennedy Assassination Expert, Dies at 68." ''The New York Times'', July 16, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/us/gary-mack-kennedy-assassination-expert-dies-at-68.html.</ref> who served from 2000 to 2015. Consumed with what happened in Dealey Plaza, Mack started out chasing conspiracy theories and ended up chief historian and archivist of the assassination. He partially discredited some conspiracy theories, and supported the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone.<ref>{{cite web | title=Gary Mack dies at 68; newsman was expert on Kennedy's assassination | website=Los Angeles Times | date=July 17, 2015 | url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-0717-gary-mack-20150717-story.html }}</ref> Mack died in 2015 aged 68 from an aggressive cancer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-07-16 |title=Remembering Gary Mack, JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theorist Turned Historian |url=https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2015-07-16/remembering-gary-mack-jfk-assassination-conspiracy-theorist-turned-historian |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=KERA News |language=en}}</ref>
Stephen Fagin is the current curator of the Sixth Floor Museum. Fagin manages the institution's ongoing Oral History Project and contributes to collections, exhibitions, education, and public programming initiatives. He is the author of ''Assassination and Commemoration: JFK, Dallas, and The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza'', published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2013.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fagin |first=Stephen |title=Assassination and commemoration: JFK, Dallas, and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza |date=2013 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-4358-3 |location=Norman}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite journal |last1 = Cloward | first1 = Tim | date = 2013 | title = Conspiracy-A-Go-Go: Dallas at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Assassination | url = | journal = Southwest Review | language = en-US | publisher = Southern Methodist University | volume = 98 | issue = 4 | pages = 407{{ndash}}436 | issn = 0038-4712 | jstor = 43473316 | jstor-access = | lccn = 17004968 | oclc = 818922501 | df = dmy-all}}
== External links == * {{official website|https://www.jfk.org/}} ** [https://www.jfk.org/the-oral-history-project/ Oral history project] * [https://www.youtube.com/@SixthFloorMuseum Sixth Floor Museum YouTube channel] ** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdRrcvvAhps&list=PL4qqbvpkf-dN0aIBCkrz479-yQridm_Un 60th anniversary playlist] * [https://www.earthcam.com/usa/texas/dallas/dealeyplaza/?cam=dealeyplaza Live webcam], from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor in the former Texas School Book Depository via EarthCam
{{Downtown Dallas}} {{Assassination of John F. Kennedy}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Museums in Dallas Category:Assassination of John F. Kennedy Category:History museums in Texas Category:Museums established in 1989 Category:Monuments and memorials to John F. Kennedy in the United States Category:Presidential museums in Texas Category:1989 establishments in Texas