Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
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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 Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, overlooking Dealey Plaza at the intersection of Elm and
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s. The museum examines the life, times,
death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
, and legacy of
United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
and the life of
Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...
as well as the various conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination. The museum's exhibition area 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. The museum was founded by the Dallas County Historical Foundation. Syndicated from the ''Los Angeles Daily News''. It opened on
Presidents' Day Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879 ...
, February 20, 1989. A museum webcam features a live view from the sixth floor sniper's nest. It is not meant to glorify the shooting in any way.EarthCam - Dealey Plaza Cam
/ref> In December 1999, the Zapruder family donated the copyright to the
Zapruder film The Zapruder film is a silent 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November ...
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 The original camera negative (OCN) is the film in a traditional film-based movie camera which captures the original image. This is the film from which all other copies will be made. It is known as raw stock prior to exposure. The size of a roll v ...
, however, is in possession of the
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
. On February 19, 2007, the previously unreleased 8 mm film
footage In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a ( often special) video camera, which typically must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or ...
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.


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live webcam
EarthCam EarthCam, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, United States, provides webcam content, technology and services. Founded in 1996, EarthCam.com is a network of scenic webcams offering a complete searchable database of views of places ar ...
, from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor in the former Texas School Book Depository {{Coord, 32, 46, 47, N, 96, 48, 30, W, scale:500, display=title Museums in Dallas Buildings and structures associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy History museums in Texas Museums established in 1989 Monuments and memorials to John F. Kennedy in the United States Presidential museums in Texas 1989 establishments in Texas