Wednesday marks 60 years since President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas. An exhibit now open at the Sixth Floor Museum can give visitors a look at his entire trip to Texas.
"Two Days in Texas" uses oral accounts and artifacts to trace Kennedy's trip. He had previously stopped in San Antonio and Houston. He had spent the night at the Hotel Texas, now the downtown Hilton, in Fort Worth the night before the assassination.
After Dallas, Kennedy planned a stop in Austin.
"This really explores the last two days of President Kennedy's life as he made this whirlwind political tour of Texas," says Sixth Floor Museum Curator Stephen Fagin. "We explore that in this exhibit, primarily through oral histories and photographs, including some that are relatively newly discovered that we have not used before."
Fagin says artifacts include a sign held in Fort Worth reading, "Welcome to Texas, Jack and Jackie."
"It's all in sparkling red glitter. It's still so beautiful today," Fagin says. "We have black and white photographs showing signs like that, and it looks like a simple, boring sign in the crowd. When you see the real thing, suddenly it's red and sparkles, and it makes you feel like you're part of that crowd greeting the Kennedys on that trip to Texas."
Kennedy flew from Fort Worth to Love Field in Dallas the morning of November 22, 1963. Fagin says among items on display is the Eastern Airlines banner on the stairs John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy descended when they landed; the same stairs were later used to place his casket back in the plane.
"Every aspect of Kennedy's visit lends itself with a symbolic significance because of what happened here in Dealey Plaza," he says.
The exhibit concludes with a small theater showing home movies shot at Dealey Plaza. On the opposite wall in an alcove is a shirt worn by a doctor at Parkland Hospital stained with Kennedy's blood.
"It's presented in a very reverential space," Fagin says. "You really get a sense of what was lost that day. Kennedy was more than just mythology. He was a man, a husband and a father. To see his blood on the shirt of one of his doctors is just an extraordinary thing to be in close proximity to. It's just such a stark reminder of what happened that day."
More information about the exhibit, "Two Days in Texas", is available here.
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