Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

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Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Black and white photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in his left hand, two Socialist and Communist newspapers in his right, and wearing a Smith & Wesson revolver on his right hip. This famous photograph was taken by Oswald's wife Marina with her husband's camera in the backyard of their Oak Cliff apartment probably on March 31, 1963. It was collected as evidence the day after the assassination of President Kennedy and was closely scrutinized by investigators. The image is also known officially as Warren Commission Exhibit 133-A.This copy of a photograph was part of FBI Special Agent Lyndal Shaneyfelt's Kennedy assassination file; Shaneyfelt assisted in the FBI investigations of the assassination conducted on behalf of the Warren Commission in 1964.

Object Details
Object title:

Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Date:

03/31/1963

Medium:

Paper

Dimensions:

14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Credit line:

Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

2004.037.0114

Curatorial Note:

Lee Harvey Oswald told investigators this picture was a fake, that his face had been placed on someone else's body, though every official investigation into its authenticity concluded the photo is real. Dallas police officers found several negatives and prints of these "backyard photos" in a search of the Oswalds' belongings. Marina Oswald has always confirmed that she took the pictures, and both she and Marguerite Oswald, Lee's mother, admitted destroying, on the day after the assassination, a print of a fourth pose in which Oswald held his rifle over his head. No copies of that image are known to exist. - Gary Mack, Curator

Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Black and white photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in his left hand, two Socialist and Communist newspapers in his right, and wearing a Smith & Wesson revolver on his right hip. This famous photograph was taken by Oswald's wife Marina with her husband's camera in the backyard of their Oak Cliff apartment probably on March 31, 1963. It was collected as evidence the day after the assassination of President Kennedy and was closely scrutinized by investigators. The image is also known officially as Warren Commission Exhibit 133-A.This copy of a photograph was part of FBI Special Agent Lyndal Shaneyfelt's Kennedy assassination file; Shaneyfelt assisted in the FBI investigations of the assassination conducted on behalf of the Warren Commission in 1964.

Object Details
Object title:

Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle

Date:

03/31/1963

Terms:

Rifles

Mannlicher-Carcano

Pistols

Oak Cliff

Backyard photograph

Photographs

Assassination

Investigations

Oswald, Lee Harvey

The Militant

The Worker

Warren Commission

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dallas

Medium:

Paper

Dimensions:

14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Credit line:

Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

2004.037.0114

Curatorial Note:

Lee Harvey Oswald told investigators this picture was a fake, that his face had been placed on someone else's body, though every official investigation into its authenticity concluded the photo is real. Dallas police officers found several negatives and prints of these "backyard photos" in a search of the Oswalds' belongings. Marina Oswald has always confirmed that she took the pictures, and both she and Marguerite Oswald, Lee's mother, admitted destroying, on the day after the assassination, a print of a fourth pose in which Oswald held his rifle over his head. No copies of that image are known to exist. - Gary Mack, Curator