The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 177
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Exhibitzon Reviews
Will the exhibit change with time? I believe it will. At present there
are no static displays of the actual weapons and paraphernalia involved
in the assassination tragedy. After the remembering generation passes
on, I predict more and more tangible items will be collected. The world
wants to see "things," not just pictures and reproductions. The visitor
already feels a certain sense of frustration that things like the infamous
Carcano rifle Oswald is alleged to have used are not shown, the hand-
cuffs used to take him prisoner, the pistol he killed Officer J. D. Tippit
with, anything President Kennedy wore or carried that fateful day ...
the sponsors of the Sixth Floor may feel these are too harshly realistic,
and perhaps they are, but history will someday demand them, when
the assassination and the Kennedy Era will have become more myth
than memory.
I believe more should have been made of the world's reaction to
Dallas, and Dallas's reaction to world criticism. There is no way to over-
come the fact that the murder took place in Dallas and that violence
had been warned about prior to the presidential visit. Coincidence? So
far as we know it was total, if shuddery, coincidence, but again, history
will demand more be made of it someday.
Perhaps the most interesting single display in the entire Sixth Floor is
the collection of books in which visitors have written (and write) their
sentiments after viewing and hearing the exhibits and sound tapes.
Page after page, from cities and nations over the world, contains senti-
ments, names, tears . . . it is truly touching in a way only real emotion
and honest sincerity can be. On one of my visits I took the time to read
many pages of these recording books (someday historians will find
whole dissertations in these volumes alone, and there will be hundreds
of volumes to be searched). This is an example of the kind of observa-
tions visitors make: Connie Smith of Norman, Oklahoma, wrote, "Lis-
tening again to JFK makes me realize how important education and
knowledge of history are for a leader."
Special films are shown in a small viewing theater, the most powerful
being the funeral of John F. Kennedy, done without comment against a
background of drumbeats, the Navy hymn, the sounds of the horses'
hooves, the rumble of the caisson, the tramp of feet, then the final
"Taps" blown over the grave at Arlington. There are not many dry eyes
left by the end. I was accompanied by a research assistant who observed a
man in the audience crying at the end of the picture, and I suggested he
was crying for his lost youth. "No," she said, "he is crying for all of us."177
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/201/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.