Sixth Floor Museum

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is a history museum located at 411 Elm Street in Downtown Dallas, Texas. The museum occupies the sixth floor of the Dallas County Administration Building, formerly the Texas School Book Depository, overlooking Dealey Plaza at the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets. The museum presents the social and political landscape of the early 1960s, chronicles President Kennedy's assassination and its aftermath, reflects upon his lasting impact on the country and world, and connects the past to the present for students, families, and visitors. One of the most visited cultural institutions in Dallas, the museum draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the building where, on November 22, 1963, shots were fired that killed the 35th President of the United States.

History of the Building

The seven-story structure commonly known as the Texas School Book Depository building was originally built in 1901 on the foundation of an 1898 five-story structure that 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.

At the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the warehouse, located at 411 Elm Street in downtown Dallas, was occupied by the Texas School Book Depository Company, which distributed school textbooks in Texas and surrounding states. After the Depository Company moved out of the building in 1970, controversy arose regarding whether the structure should be demolished, as it was considered by many to be a symbol of the stigma that befell Dallas in the wake of the assassination. The building entered a brief period of private ownership, and efforts were made to develop a for-profit Kennedy memorial display. An arson attempt in 1972 exacerbated the public outcry to tear down the depository. The building was spared when it was purchased by Dallas County as part of a 1977 bond package.

In a project spearheaded by Dallas County public works director C. Judson Shook, the lower floors of the warehouse were extensively renovated and reopened in 1981 as the seat of Dallas County government. 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. Recognizing the historical significance of the sixth floor, where key evidence was found following the assassination, Shook asked Dallas preservation activist Lindalyn Adams to champion the development of an educational display. Adams and Conover Hunt, a historian from Virginia, led a twelve-year effort to create The Sixth Floor exhibit. The controversial project met with local resistance, fundraising difficulties, and lengthy delays. Fundraising efforts were stymied in part by the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by former Dallas resident John Hinckley, Jr., in 1981.

Opening and Growth

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, located inside the former Texas School Book Depository building, opened as The Sixth Floor exhibit on February 20, 1989. The museum was founded by the Dallas County Historical Foundation. The Sixth Floor exhibit opened as a response to the many visitors who come to Dealey Plaza to learn more about the assassination.

In 1992, the Sixth Floor Museum welcomed its one millionth visitor. The museum's first executive directors, Bob Hays (1989–93) and Jeff West (1994–2004), oversaw an increase in visitation following the Oliver Stone film JFK (1991), as well as the development of archival collections and an ongoing oral history project and the gradual transition from an exhibition to an accredited museum.

An expansion of the visitors center in 1997 provided opportunities for temporary exhibits that reflected current events, including the Elián González controversy in 2000 and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A significant expansion, completed in 2002, added 9,000 square feet of exhibit and programming space on the seventh floor. The Seventh Floor Gallery has hosted a diverse series of national touring exhibits and in-house productions, including partnerships with the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, and traveling shows from such institutions as the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution.

Under CEO Nicola Longford (2005–) and with the goal of reaching a broader, more diverse audience, the museum has increased public programming and education initiatives with sustained community engagement that explores relevant issues within the context of 1960s history and culture. Local partnerships, lectures, panel discussions, gallery talks, performances, concerts, and community programming contribute to this ongoing effort.

Collections and Exhibits

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza has a growing collection of more than 90,000 artifacts, images, documents, audio and visual recordings, and other documentation of the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. Over the years, the museum has offered exhibits, access to a catalog of some 2,500 oral history recordings, and speaker events with book authors and other prominent figures related to JFK, Oswald, and the historic and cultural significance of the presidential visit.

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. 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.

Notable artifacts on display on the sixth floor include an Associated Press teletype machine like those that relayed news of the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald's wedding ring, the hat worn by Jack Ruby when he shot Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters, a collection of cameras used by photographers in Dealey Plaza, military artifacts from the Kennedy funeral, and — on long-term loan from the National Archives — the scale model of the plaza prepared by the FBI for use by the Warren Commission in 1964.

Visitors can stand in the Corner Window area where Oswald allegedly fired the deadly rifle shots, now recreated from crime-scene photographs to accurately reflect the setup the assassin used. Artifacts from the ensuing investigation include a scale model of Dealey Plaza submitted to the Warren Commission and a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle identical to the one used by Oswald.

The museum also maintains an extensive digital presence. The Sixth Floor Museum partners with the Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas Libraries, making portions of its collections accessible online. Visitors can browse additional materials through the museum's online collections database at emuseum.jfk.org.

The Zapruder Film and Film Copyrights

In addition to significant imagery chronicling President Kennedy's visit to Texas in 1963, the museum holds the copyright to three of the four known home movies that captured the fatal shot on film, including the Abraham Zapruder film. 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, which operates the Sixth Floor Museum. In 2015, Nix's granddaughter, Gayle Nix-Jackson, sued the Sixth Floor Museum for the return of the original film or compensation seeking $10 million. In 2017, Nix-Jackson's lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice. In 2024, it was overturned in a Federal Claims court.

Curatorial Staff and Approach

The first curator of the Sixth Floor Museum was Gary Mack (born Larry Dunkel, 1946–2015), who served from 2000 to 2015. 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.

The Sixth Floor Museum neither encourages nor discourages the idea of conspiracy theories. This even-handed stance has allowed the museum to serve as a broadly accessible educational institution, attracting visitors from across the political spectrum and from around the world. The museum is self-sufficient in funding, relying solely on donations and ticket sales. It rents the space from the County of Dallas.

For the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 2013, and again for the 60th anniversary, the museum mounted special programming. For the 60th anniversary in November 2023, the museum offered timely speaker programs. Its "JFK Was Here" banners to highlight the historical significance of places along the 1963 motorcade route from Love Field to Dealey Plaza were met with mixed reactions about reminders of the assassination.

Visiting Information

The museum is located in the original former Texas School Book Depository building, now the Dallas County Administration Building, at Dealey Plaza in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, at 411 Elm Street on the corner of Houston Street.

The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Children aged 5 and under are admitted free. The museum encourages visitors to plan for their self-guided tour to take approximately 90 minutes. Admission purchased online costs $24 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $20 for youth. Online tickets are also charged a $1 per ticket convenience fee. Tickets purchased onsite are available for $27 for adults, $25 for seniors, and $23 for youth. Pricing as of January 1, 2026.

The museum also provides a free walking tour that includes an interactive map where users can explore 17 points of interest and learn about the assassination at their own pace through films, photographs, news broadcasts, eyewitness accounts, and the landscape of the National Historic Landmark District. Museum staff members also lead weekly fifteen-minute gallery talks on the seventh floor about the history of the museum, the assassination, and its aftermath.

Audio guides are available at the museum. In addition to English, audio guides are available in six other languages. The surrounding Dealey Plaza area also offers additional historical context for visitors, with the John F. Kennedy Memorial, designed by architect Philip Johnson, located nearby on Main and Market Streets.