Dallas’ Sixth Floor Museum acquires rare footage of JFK assassination aftermath
.jpg "Film still of John F. Kennedy October 25, 1956, on a campaign stop in Dallas.")
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza’s latest collection features archival NBC 5 footage related to the John F. Kennedy assassination.
“Collection Spotlight: The NBC 5 Archive” began Jan. 13 and runs until March 2. The Dallas museum chronicles the Kennedy assassination and its legacy, all within the former Texas School Depository Building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot the former president.
Archival footage captured from NBC 5, then known as WBAP-TV, was acquired by the museum last summer and includes video on several Kennedy-related events from 1956 to 1983.
“We are proud to have been entrusted with the stewardship of news collections like the WBAP-TV/NBC-5 Archive, which offer key insights into a watershed moment in both U.S. and international history,” museum CEO Nicola Longford said in a news release. “We look forward to continuing to make our collections available for generations to come.”
What’s new in the NBC 5 collection?
Just a few of the highlights from the new collection include:
- News footage from the weekend of the Kennedy assassination
- Footage of the trial of Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who murdered Oswald two days after Oswald assassinated Kennedy
- Footage of the Warren Commission visiting Dallas
- The first anniversary broadcast of the assassination in November 1964
- The Jimmy Darnell film that captured the immediate assassination aftermath in Dealey Plaza
- Footage of a waiter relaying Kennedy’s final breakfast order at Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas
The NBC 5 footage joins the museum’s collection of local news broadcasts from the weekend of Nov. 22, 1963.
This includes footage from ABC affiliate and Star-Telegram news partner WFAA-TV, then-CBS affiliate KRLD-TV (now FOX 4) and then-independent station KTVT-TV (now CBS 11). In total, the museum holds over 220 hours of video, film and audio news footage.
The museum’s collection also includes over 120 hours of audio recordings from KRLD Radio, WFAA Radio and WBAP Radio. Additionally, several home movies from the assassination event, including Abraham Zapruder’s footage, are in the museum’s control.
The museum credits Brian Hocker, the late Gary Mack and NBC 5 with help on the footage acquisition.
Some of the footage is also available on the museum’s YouTube page, including video of a waiter at Fort Worth’s Hotel Texas talking about Kennedy’s breakfast order on Nov. 22, 1963.
Does the Sixth Floor Museum expect anything new from Trump’s executive order about JFK records?
Just a few days into Donald Trump’s presidency, he signed an executive order to declassify records concerning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
While its unclear as to what will come out of the file declassification, the Sixth Floor Museum has shared a statement on the matter.
“The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza does not have specific insight into the content of these documents and cannot speculate on what they might reveal,” the museum told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday.
