The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
The former Texas School Book Depository frames John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the assassination, investigations, media, memory, and continuing dispute through a place that demands careful evidence.
Artwork inspired by Tom Lea
The permanent exhibition begins with Kennedy’s political moment before moving toward November 22, 1963, the investigations, and the event’s afterlife. Photographs, broadcasts, documents, and witness accounts should be read by provenance: What was known at the time, what was reconstructed later, and which claims are interpretation rather than evidence.
The corner window area is preserved behind glass, and the plaza outside becomes a second gallery where distance and topography can be tested. Resist the marketplace of certainty that surrounds the site. The museum’s value lies in source literacy, media history, and understanding how a national trauma became both investigated record and endlessly repackaged mythology.
- Collection
- Assassination evidence inside the building it changed
- Setting
- Dallas, Texas
- Plan for
- 2–3 hours plus the plaza
Quick guide
- Kennedy’s presidency
- Kennedy’s presidency and Dallas context
- Evidence sequence
- Evidence sequence around the corner window
Explore further
- Establish the timeline
- Separate the presidency, motorcade, shooting, arrest, and investigations.
- Read provenance
- Compare identify who made each image or statement, when, and for what purpose.
- Test the geography
- Walk the plaza only after understanding the building’s measured sightlines.
- Hold uncertainty honestly
- Confirm distinguish documented disagreement from claims unsupported by evidence.
Good to know
Advance timed tickets are required according to the current FAQ; walk-up entry is only a next-available-slot fallback and is not guaranteed. Tickets and vouchers are valid only for the printed date/time. Personal non-flash photography is ordinarily allowed, but the subject is emotionally heavy. Large-luggage storage is $5 by card, and Dealey Plaza vendors are unaffiliated.
Notice these
- Kennedy’s presidency and Dallas context
- Evidence sequence around the corner window
- Dealey Plaza sightlines