Welcome To Texas: Sixth Floor Museum
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DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - As bright as Dallas' future is, its past will forever be shadowed in tragedy, as the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
People still flock to the site at Dealey Plaza and to the Sixth Floor Museum to learn more about the moments that changed the course of American history.
It's been more than 52 years since the days of Camelot and America's innocence were destroyed by a sniper's bullets; bullets believed to have come from the sixth floor of the old Texas School Book Depository building.
Even if you've be to the museum before, chances are things have changed.
"Our collections are incredibly diverse, and they are actively growing," says Curator of Collections, Lindsey Richardson. "So we always have new and interesting things to show people and tell them about."
There are currently 50,000 items in the collection. A few months ago, the museum acquired Lee Harvey Oswald's wedding ring, which he left at his wife's bedside on the morning of the assassination.
Other acquisitions, while possibly less overt, are just as important in telling the history of the time.
"Sometimes people contact us and they say, 'I found something my mother saved or that my grandmother saved from the day Kennedy came to town, would you be interested in that?', and they're often surprised when I say, 'Yes, tell me more," Richardson says with a laugh.
One thing many North Texans may not recall is the museum's seventh floor, which houses temporary collections, such as the new exhibit of political posters dating back to 1844.
Now there is new exhibit in the works: The 1960 Kennedy campaign, which opens in May.
"When we decided to put on an exhibit about the 1960 campaigns, we thought...What's out there that we don't have, what do we have, and we started finding all these treasures," says Richardson. "And a lot of them, because they were designed for a campaign, are ephemera, they weren't meant to survive more than 50 years, so whenever we find them we get very excited."
And she wants North Texans, especially, to remember the wealth of resources the museum has to offer those interested in the history surrounding John F. Kennedy.
"For people here in North Texas, those people often haven't come," says Richardson. "They come when they have people visit from out of state, and we would love to welcome them as well."
If you'd like to see the political posters exhibit, you only have one more week. It closes next Thursday, March 10.
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