Where are the Zapruder, Muchmore and Nix films held today and how can scholars access cataloged copies?
Executive summary
The three principal home‑movie records of the assassination—Abraham Zapruder’s film, Orville Nix’s film, and Marie Muchmore’s film—survive today in institutional hands: copies and rights to the Zapruder film are held by the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (which holds the family’s donated copyright and first‑generation materials), the Nix footage is in the Dallas museum/associated foundation’s collection, and Muchmore’s footage was acquired by news agencies (UPI/AP) and circulated through broadcast and archival channels [1] [2] [3] [4]. Scholars seeking cataloged access will typically work with those repositories or with national and university archives that catalogue related film elements and test reels [2] [3] [5] [6].
1. Where the Zapruder film is held and who controls access
The Zapruder film and the family’s copyright were donated to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which today maintains first‑generation copies and curatorial control over exhibition and reproduction rights [1] [2]. The museum describes its holdings in online collection entries and exhibits related material—including broadcast recordings that show Zapruder and other films side‑by‑side—indicating an active archival program for researchers and public display [7] [8]. Sources report the museum as the primary steward and rights holder for Zapruder materials, making it the starting point for scholarly access requests [1] [2].
2. Where the Nix film is held and its institutional custodians
Orville Nix’s home movie has been treated as the second most historically important moving image of the assassination and, according to contemporary reporting, came into the custody of Dallas institutions and was acquired by the Dallas County Historical Foundation/Sixth Floor Museum as part of their motorcade film collections [2] [3]. Historical press accounts and museum announcements document acquisitions of Nix footage and first‑generation copies into the Dallas museum’s holdings, which positions that museum as the primary repository for cataloged copies of Nix’s footage [2] [8].
3. The Muchmore film: news‑agency ownership and archival traces
Marie Muchmore’s 8mm footage was sold to United Press International days after the shooting and later became part of news‑agency film holdings; later reporting attributes ownership or control of Muchmore’s footage to news organizations such as UPI/AP Television News, which managed distribution and broadcast of her film [4] [3] [9]. Because Muchmore’s film entered the commercial news pipeline immediately, scholars seeking original or cataloged elements are directed to the archives of those agencies or to repositories that acquired broadcast copies over time rather than to a single family donor archive [3] [9].
4. Other archives, test reels and university collections that matter to researchers
Beyond the three principal owners, test films and re‑enactment reels made by investigators and the National Photographic Interpretation Center were cataloged into federal archives—some test footage and camera test reels reportedly reside in the National Archives’ holdings—while university special collections and private research archives also preserve copies, analyses, negatives and slides related to the films [5] [6]. Independent archival aggregators and projects such as the Mary Ferrell Foundation maintain catalog lists and reproduce frames or descriptions of the motorcade films, providing researchers with cataloging context and cross‑references to institutional holding records [10].
5. How scholars typically obtain cataloged copies and what to expect
Scholars begin by contacting the primary repository: for Zapruder and Nix materials that means the Sixth Floor Museum/Dallas County Historical Foundation for access inquiries and reproduction permissions; for Muchmore material it means approaching UPI/AP archival services or their depositary partners to request cataloged elements or licensing [2] [3] [4]. Researchers may also consult the National Archives for related test reels and university special collections (e.g., the UMass Dartmouth collection of assassination materials) that hold analyses, slides and copies for study; broadcast tapes and curated compilations (such as recorded television programs held by the Sixth Floor Museum and other archives) can also be requested for scholarly use [5] [6] [7].
6. Caveats, competing claims and limits of the public record
Contested narratives about alteration or chain‑of‑custody underscore why multiple institutional holdings matter—scholars are advised to triangulate Zapruder, Nix and Muchmore elements across repositories because news‑agency distribution, museum acquisitions, and federal cataloging created parallel streams of originals, first‑generation copies and broadcast duplicates [9] [3]. Reporting shows the Sixth Floor Museum as the central steward for Zapruder and a principal holder of Nix material while Muchmore’s footage remains tied to news‑agency archives; however, specific access procedures, reproduction fees, or the precise inventory numbers for every original or test reel are not exhaustively documented in the sources provided here, so direct correspondence with the named repositories is necessary to secure cataloged copies for formal scholarship [2] [3] [5].