A New View of the Aftermath of JFK’s Assassination
This is a still frame of a film shot just a few moments after President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, TX in 1963:
From a NY Times story back in September:
For decades Mr. Carpenter’s 8-millimeter snippets of what transpired in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, have been a family heirloom. When he died in 1991 at 77, the reel, which included footage of his twin boys’ birthday party, passed to his wife, Mabel, then to a daughter, Diana, and finally to a grandson, James Gates.
A family heirloom! I find it fascinating that bits of history like this keep turning up. What’s the thought process of the sort of person who keeps (culturally, monetarily, investigatorially?) valuable objects like this casually squirreled away for 60 years? How much more of this kind of thing exists and how much of it just gets thrown away? Again, fascinating!
Another interesting facet is the process of verifying the film’s authenticity. I’m sure the auction house did their due diligence, but so did the Times. Malachy Browne works on the Visual Investigations team at the paper, which was tasked with verifying that the film was legitimate. He shared part of their process on Bluesky:
Time: The length of the shadow matches what it should be around that time of day on Nov. 22, 1963, Suncalc tells us.
Location: Where on the route was it taken? The angle of sun also helps to narrow that down: most likely this section of the North Stemmon’s Freeway. https://www.suncalc.org/#/32.8014,-96.8277,15/1963.11.22/13:00/1/3
P.S. The film was sold for $137,500 at auction. (via @kokogiak.bsky.social)
