Photographic Collection Cataloger | Dallas, TX

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is one of the nation’s leading history museums and the most visited historic site in North Texas. Located within the historic Texas School Book Depository, the Museum preserves and shared the story of President John

F. Kennedy, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the enduring legacy of the 1960s through exhibitions, educational programming, collection and public engagement.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, The Sixth Floor Museum stewards an expanding collection of archival materials, photographs, oral histories, audiovisual media, publications and institutional records that document one of the most significant events in American history and its broader historical context.

In 2025, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Bob Jackson made a significant donation to the Museum of more than 22,000 photographic images and related materials spanning his career as a Dallas Times Herald photographer from 1960 to 1978. The Bob Jackson Collection, the largest photographic donation in the Museum’s history, provides an extraordinary visual record of Dallas during a period of significant growth and transformation.

The collection includes Jackson’s iconic photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, which won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in News Photography, as well as his extensive coverage of Dallas life, culture, politics, social change and major national events.

The Sixth Floor Museum seeks an experienced and detail-oriented Photographic Collection Cataloger to support a major two-year initiative to catalog and expand access to the Bob Jackson Collection, an extraordinary photojournalism collection documenting Dallas and national history from the 1960s and 1970s.

Reporting to the Head of Collections & Registration, the Cataloger will create and enhance comprehensive catalog records for the collection in TMS, conduct in-depth research to identify people, places, events and subjects represented in photographs and document publication and use history. The position will also research copyright and rights information and develop descriptive metadata and authority records that support research, exhibitions, education, licensing and future public access.

Working collaboratively with the Museum’s Collections and Curatorial teams, the Cataloger will help connect individual photographs to their broader historical context and make this significant collection more discoverable to researchers and the public.

This is a full-time, grant-funded, two-year position supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

• Create and enhance detailed catalog records for photographic negatives, slides, prints and related materials in TMS according to professional museum standards and established project guidelines.
• Develop consistent descriptive metadata, subject terms, keywords and authority records for names, places, events and subject to improve discovery and access.
• Develop and apply standardized cataloging conventions and metadata structures in collaboration with Museum staff.
• Review existing documentation and previously created records, correcting or enhancing information as additional research becomes available.
• Maintain detailed research documentation and source citations to support the accuracy and reliability of catalog records.

• Research and identify individuals, locations, events, dates and subjects represented in photographs using newspapers, archival resources, publications, institutional records and other reliable sources.
• Research and document the publication history of photographs, including appearances in newspapers,…