You today by your television provider. Good evening and welcome, everyone. Im tom putnam, director of the john f. Kennedy president ial library and museum. Medical examiner of our foundations board of directors and all my foundation colleagues, i thank you for joining us this evening. Let me first acknowledge the generous underwriters of the Kennedy Library forms, lead sponsor the Boston Foundation and our Media Partners wbur and the boston globe. We considered having this Forum Last Night on the actual 50th anniversary of mrs. Kennedys tour, but did not want to make any of you choose between sharing valentines day with loved ones or or with your frinds here at the Kennedy Library. So were so pleased to have so many of you with us this evening. 50 years ago Jacqueline Kennedy introduced herself to the nation. In many ways, the public already knew mrs. Kennedy through her role as the president s wife, mother of two children, and as the woman who charmed world leaders. But on february 14th, 1962, it was a more substantive Jacqueline Kennedy who guided viewers on a televised tour of the white house and the nation was transfixed. 46 million americans watched that night and an additional 10 million tuned in days later. The reviews described mrs. Kennedy as a virtuoso performer and with subbality and standard. My note relates to the day she spent taping the tour. After dinner she and president with friends. Seeing how his wife had clearly outshined him in her portion compared to the clip in which he appeared the president asked cbs if it is possible to reshoot his segment the following morning. Essentially he followed the same script the next day but tried admirably to match his wifes charm, ease and engaging presence. You could decide how well he does when we watch that clip in a moment. Tonight well watch a portion of the tour and then it will our great honor to hear from the Current White House curator william allman. It is often said that nice guys finish last especially in our Nations Capital but bill allman is a wonderful exception to the rule. He became curator of the white house on august 1st, 2002 serving as assistant since 1976. No one has done more in recent years to preserve the white house and the historic collections and helping to update them to our times. Were delighted hes here with us this evening. After the film mr. Allman will give a brief slideshow presentation about the white house and then ill moderate a conversation with him during which time we welcome your questions. Three quick notes. Well be ending early to ensure mr. Allman catches his plane back to d. C. You could own your own copy of mrs. Kennedys tour, buying it outright in the museum store open after the forum and for a limited time if you make a purchase in the store or our estore were giving away free copies to mark the 50th anniversary. And this coming wb cbs sunday morning will air a story on mrs. Kennedy and the white house tour and i hope you all will tune in to that. Mrs. Kennedy was one of the founders of this library. It was a great hope that we would be a vital center of education and exchange which would grow and change with the times. I believe our forums, programs and exhibits continue to be guided by her spirit and i hope live up to the standard she set in her virtuoso performance 50 years ago. Lets relive that moment now together. A tour of the white house with mrs. John f. Kennedy. Created and produced by cbs news for the Cbs Television network. This is the white house as seen from the south lawn. For the next hour mrs. John f. Kennedy invites you to visit. Good evening, everybody. Do i need to use this . Okay. What id like to do for a few minutes is bring a little color to a black and white tv show. Some color pictures of how these rooms looked when mrs. Kennedy was doing it and then some pictures of how the rooms have changed since that time. Because i think mrs. Kennedy would been the very first person to say to everyone that what she was doing was a first step when she was asking people to donate things, well, maybe the very best things werent being offered at the time but when she had nothing you took a lot of things that were offered. So there have been improvements into the collection and growth in the collection and that is what she expected every first lady, president and first family to do, to contribute to the house remaining a museum and growing and becoming more interesting to the public. You see here the white house. And a picture of mrs. Kennedy during her televised taping, a color still picture taken showing her the blue room. One of the things the president talked about was how many people had come to visit. They had 1. 3 Million People in the year 1961. So it wasnt so much that the tour kicked off the interest in the white house, mrs. Kennedy had already attracted the public attention. She was she got early in 1961 congress to pass the law that she mentioned which didnt just protect the collection but established that the museum character of the public rooms of white house must be maintained in perpetuity and the secret service has a lot of say about the security issues, but the museum character was what she was so interested in grasping. Then she created the Curators Office also in 1961, with the idea that you needed a professional staff there to collect and preserve and interpret and conserve the pieces that she found in the house and the things that she was adding to the house. We actually have the dichotomy in our collection today. We still refer to the old collection, which was the stuff that mrs. Kennedy found that had survived the 19th century auctions and the giving away of official furnishings and then the new collection was everything she was collecting. But, in fact, those things, to a large extent, were older than the things that she already had in the socalled old collection. But she had lots of people coming to the white house because she made the public aware that she was making it into a museum. It increased nationwide the interest in Historic Preservation and old houses and the contents of old houses and so one of her early acquisitions was this little engraving. Well, im not advancing after all of our conversations. There we go. Sorry. Wrong button. This 1840 engraving was acquired as an archival object for the white house collection in 1961. And the engraver entitled the piece all creation going to the white house. Because even as early as 1840 they were envisioning that the public was attracted to the white house. In that period it was attracted because people like Andrew Jackson were living in the building. By 1961 mrs. Kennedy gave the house a whole new level of attraction as a Historic Site and a shrine to the presidency and a great museum of important american objects. So following through her tour route, basically you would see the upper lefthand corner the east room as she found it in 1961. Not too much has changed from what Theodore Roosevelt had done to the room in 1902 with the architects. The chandeliers, the torchiers, the cornices over the drapes dated from the 1902 period. You will see in the picture that the mantels are white and marble but mrs. Kennedy thought white was better and painted them. And that was fine for a long time. They were difficult to keep white. The paint chipped and such. And so you see in the lower righthand corner todays east room, as it was refurbished in the 1990s. The red mantels have been restored to their original color because they match the hearths and the baseboards. There were no carpets in the room in the 19th century but one of the things that First Lady Barbara Bush was asked that it was so reverberant, so these were delivered early in the Clinton Administration but designed using the plaster work of the ceiling, the 18th century english design feature of having carpets and ceilings reflect each other. Something that mrs. Kennedy would have appreciated greatly. So it makes the room less noisy. But it also takes away some of the opportunities that the children once had. The Theodore Roosevelt children were noted for roller skating around the room, and subsequent children have had attempts at recreating the mayhem of the Theodore Roosevelt kids. But the room is still used, is still left largely unfurnished and used for all sorts of parties and entertaining. This would have been where the president and mrs. Kennedy held the famous dinner for the nobel Prize Winners of the americas and president kennedy delivered the famous remark that i never quote quite correctly, but said never has so much talent been assembled in the white house except when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone. Oops. Too fast. There we go. She pointed out the great portrait of George Washington by gilbert stewart. This is our iconic object that was hung on the walls when the house opened in 1800, and then saved by Dolly Madison from the fire. You might know that cbs news misspelled dollys name in the captions, the subscript words. Its dolley. And this is in the house continuously except for periods of construction. But i point out to the right of this, mrs. Kennedy acquired things not just for the public rooms. There were no carpets in the room throughout the 19th century but one of the things that First Lady Barbara Bush asked was that it was a chance we could have some carpets made so these were delivered early in the Clinton Administration. But theyre very 18th century english design feature of having carpets and ceilings reflect each other. Something that mrs. Kennedy would have appreciated greatly. It makes the room less noisy but also takes away some of the opportunities that the children once had that were noted for roller skates around the room and subsequent children have had their attempts at recreating the attempt of the roosevelt kids. She moved down the hall out of our normal tour route and got into the state lining room first. The picture of the upper left is how she would have found it. The black marble mantle piece is what was installed in the truman renovation. It is to surround. The big mantel that had the lions head changed to bison heads was removed and sent to the truman library. Mrs. Kennedy invited them to send the mantel back and it wasnt the curator but president truman said no, thank you, it is mine and im keeping it. What she was alluding to was she was having the same firm, kilmeade and white, create a wight marble version of the stone mantel installed in 1902 and you see that in the picture of the lower right which is after she was finished working on the room. She kept the drapes from the truman era and the table and chairs from 1902. New rug and new mantel. And here is the mantel piece showing the inscription inspection carved and they stalled the mantel in 1902 and he lived with it for six years and before leaving office mrs. Kennedy said the lion is not an american animal, fix it. And they to recarve the lion heads at American Bison heads. She cited the great monroe centerpiece that runs down the center of the dining table during most tours. It extends to 14 1 2 feet long and has 18 classical figures that hold up the candles. One interesting story, most of the time it is only five sections on the table and two sections in storage and it is a little difficult to see in this picture but athe bottom where the lady is in the black and white picture it has the companies name, the makers in france. Somehow this alluded mrs. Kennedys staff. They were only looking at the five sections and they wrote an article for antiques magazine attributing it to the firm because of the quality of the style, not knowing that they have a piece of it down in the basement that was signed by the makers. And she took them into the red room. Here you see the red room as it would have looked when he walked in and said, oh, my. This is a very important looking room. The red cloth was put on the walls in imitation of fabrics on the walls in the parlor since 1902 under Theodore Roosevelt. You could see in comparing these two pictures, a lot of the same furniture remains in todays room in the lower right as was put in by mrs. Kennedy. Probably the most in tact of the public rooms in terms of acquisitions remaining in constant use. Furniture dating from 1810 to 1830. You could see on the lefthand screen the beautiful gary cole is labelled and she cited in the tour that lon veer made spectacular furniture in new york. She saw empire as something worth collecting because the rest of the antiques world it wasnt colonial or maybe not antique yet and we wouldnt be able to find a table of this quality today. She cited the sofa behind it calling it the Dolley Madison sofa. Well that was a mistake at the time. It had no association with mrs. Madison. The paperwork said it was a style of the sofa mrs. Madison had and that got translated into the paperwork coming out of the curators that it was her sofa but the little one belonged to nelly custus which was a granddaughter and was replaced with the sofa on the lower right which has dolphinsar sea serpents carved for the legs an the arms. The blue room, as it looked when mrs. Kennedy took the tour. The heavy blue wall fabric from the truman renovation of 1952. She had the monroe furniture arriving in the room on the right hand screen the table and original chair before it was reup holstered. The table in the middle of the room was made by the carpentry shop and a big plywood disk. With a fabric covering. I think she was still working on the centerpiece of the room. She was looking for something truly more period and you see on the left the striped wallpaper and elements that she felt more in keeping with the monroe period. But it was criticized at the time. People said this drapery fabric running around the corners, it looks like a french ladies boudoirs. But she was more preshent, that is wallpaper snag that is a period document that we found in new york of the Smithsonian Design Museum and was installed in 1995 when the room was done again. What you see in the room is different wallpaper, different upholstery and carpeting but the feeling of the room that she created and she would be thrilled to think that more Historical Research was going into how to keep the room looking historic. She acquired one armed chair and two side chairs for this blue room furniture. And you see one of the two side chairs in its current fabric. This is a fabric mrs. Kennedy chose from a portrait of president monroe with an eagle on it. Thats gone through three different color combinations. It is one of two she acquired and she is marked. It is a little difficult to see but the bottom inscription is the french cabinet maker and it exists, you see what happens when people keep tacking upholstery to a frame that bears the makers name. So what we do today is what we call minimally invasive upholstery where you build up a structure inside of the chair and attach your fabrics to the new materials rather than to the old materials. The peer table that she cited as being in its original location is moved to the Entrance Hall because we acquired in 1979 the sofa from the set and thats the only wall long enough to take a 9 foot sofa. There are several of the 53 pieces back in the original monroe suite. And there is her chair. On the left in the nixon era fabric, on the right is the way the chair looks today. We found this first chair she received was the most in tact of all of the chairs that we know of. There are some in other Museum Collections as well. So for an exhibition right now the at smithsonian gallery about the Decorative Arts of the white house, we were working on restoring the chair to its original appearance and so it would have had red fabric as mrs. Kennedy told us and it would have had this really high sheen polished almost metallike finish to the gold leaf surface. Sorry, my finger is too fast. She was also very interested in adding to the portrait collection. Now when she arrived at the white house, the Art Collection was almost exclusively portraits but she saw about getting real life portraits by some letter artists or copies of gill pert stewart should be replaced so she acquired the Thomas Jefferson by rembrandt peele and then the first ladies have added. Monroe at the upper right and madison at the lower left were acquired in the johnson administration. Monroe by samuel morris, thein venter of the telegraph who wanted to be known as a portrait painter and artist. Madison vander lynn and then the Reagan Administration acquired by john trumbull. So weve been adding consistent with mrs. Kennedys interest in that activity. There is the green room. When she had started decorating it, it still had the heavy green fabric of the color and she started adding this federal style furniture about the period 1800. Two views of that room. Here is a black and white picture of the wall that shows the Daniel Webster sofa that she cited and that is in the upper righthand corner and in front of that is a wonderful baltimore card table. One of my favorite pieces because of the inlays and veneering on this piece. Both of these pieces have not been used in the house for a while and so we selected them as our examples of the perfection of what mrs. Kennedy was doing at the time and they are in the exhibit right now. When she got finished with the room, she installed this silk wall fal fabric with her federal collection and a proper period beautiful fabric on the wall with her federal collection and her period books on style rug. The portrait cited during the tour, over the fireplace when she gave the tour. Other parts of the tour mentioned that other parts were included. Over the fireplace as intended. Then another painting past the chandelier on the left. The green room in the administration it was decided that the furniture in kennedys room would be appropriate to this size and scale. It was replaced with the furniture created in about 1810, it doesnt mean that it was not some of canadas acquisitions. You see the beautiful tears on the left, she scored four of those. They were perfectly added to the collection. In contrast, the great style on the right, and the simple chair on the right, its a curators delight, it was inscribed but the upholsterer, purchased in albany, 2018. Most furniture doesnt get that much curatorial information. Then the green room today is the third set of changes since kennedys time. Fabric was preserved in each case, it was concerted a key element. So what you see in this picture, the lower left picture was required by kennedy in 1947. She wanted it to go to the public rooms. As kennedy thought that the things were nice and interesting were added to the public rooms. She decided to put in the green room. They decided this might be a little bit harsh for miss kennedy. The collection is growing. In all periods its growing. This was a miss kennedy acquisition, she found it to be light and easy and useful upstairs, more abstract as appear for the builders. Above that painting on the wall, you see to the far left of the green room seen theres a beautiful painting the call mosquito net. It was acquired early on in the johnson administration. She was very pleased that several great paintings were going in by great painters that wanted to remember kennedys contributions to the white house. Miss kennedy found the room on the left. A renovation was installed. The mirror and mantle were not period. It was still an interesting room. It didnt change that much. In the early 2000s it was still the 1950 period pieces, some other pieces, wonderful center table. This was one where into thousand four laura bush said can we revisit the room and go back to the period documents and doing as right as we can. I think miss kennedy would have found that enormously gratifying. You saw her using historic documents to put things in their original places and design things correctly. It was all victorian. You see the lincoln bed with the proper recreation of its crown and corn us, well paper based on the carbon based. Upholstery based on period things. Stronger than it was at the time, still one of the nicest get sucked bedrooms in the white house. The moved to the treaty room. Here it wouldve been in the, you can see the soviet she mentioned, there is cleveland meeting around it and the 1890s. When she walked into the room, she said this is the sort of chamber of horrors because there are so many things that werent assembled and finalized. Then a similar picture on the right with what it looks like when it was done. She picked at the murder that came from the peterson house, it was put on a green flat wallpaper, big granite cabinet table in the middle of the room. It stay this way until president george bush is administration. He said you know, i like this sort of Conference Room idea but i really prefer to have a private office in public corduroy could have more intimate meetings. Since then, several iterations, including, you can see the finished room, mrs. Kennedys room on the upper left, and george w. Bush version of the office. Still using the table as his desk. And the grand sofa underneath. A grand painting underneath the desk, ended the spanish american war. President kennedy alluded in the full version of the tape but the fact that they werent going to the west wing but i thought i would bring to your attention that he said in the tape that this was placed in the oval office by mrs. Kennedy. It had been in the private quarters until the time, she thought it would be the best desk he would say that. It was given by Queen Victoria 1980. It came with two interesting photographs from the Kennedy Library, the famous one from young john junior, coming out from the knee hole under the desk as the president is working at. It in more recent photo from caroline, president obama tries to open the door and figure at the desk. On her face its like please mister president , just stop. The only time mrs. Kennedy came back to the white house, was for a private unveiling of her portrait and president nixons portrait. It was done very low key and she had made her mark, and she felt that it was now time to leave her white house to her successors. Thats what we do today. Our office tries to assist as well as National Park service and the National Historic association which is celebrating its 50th anniversary to provide the resources and expertise necessary for each of the first families to leave their mark on the house. So now will have some questions and answers i hope. Thank you. First thank you so much for that wonderful tour. It was wonderful to watch. In a recent New York Times interview you talked about really the challenge of having this museum, but also a home for a family. As a curator, give us a sense of how you balance the home with its function as a museum. You take a deep breath. What we are and what miss kennedy knew we would be is a official home for the president of the United States. She wanted to put great things in the rooms every guest that came whether they be tourists, diplomats, foreign visitors, would see the best things that she could acquire which were made in america. Draw of storage things that she could give new importance to. That had survived the 17th century contents. For us its the idea that the public tour probably does the least amount of damage because theres a regiment to half through the house that doesnt touched many things. Though there are tables threat the green or red room where you will occasionally find chewing gum attached to the table. There was a day when the lady had a baby in the front pack leaned over, i think to read the label off of the mosquito net, to read the label on it at which point the baby reached at the chinese ball on the table and threw it on the floor. The woman was mortified and never anticipated that the baby would be so aggressive with the collection. Unfortunately it was a pair of bills that were no longer here because mumble is great but to or better. So you have those types of things. At parties you would have people who either leave their manners at home where they dont have any. Im not sure exactly what. The butlers told us one night they walked into the room, there was a belong she sofa and a glass of wine in the middle of the sofa. Maybe somebody left it there but it was an accident waiting to happen. Then at midnight there was a man with his feet on the sofa and the butler looked at me and said what do you say . How do you say excuse me sir . Anyway i said is he sick . If hes sick he needs to lie down. We understand. Otherwise its not very good behavior. But its a remarkable tribute i think too early american craftsmanship that the pieces held up. You come to a party and you sit on the chairs, walk on the carpets, eat off the china. We do have glass tops on most of the tables in public rooms because its easier to save a alcoholic beverage if its ruling on a table versus seeking into fine finish. We do what i mentioned the minimally invasive upholstery, we dont tacked to the original frame rather the additional materials of the sofa. Its just sometimes you scratch your head and when something happens you say we couldnt have anticipated that one, could we . You move on. Fortunately the National Park provides us with conservators, they had the upholstery shop where they could do work on site and didnt have to send things out for costly repairs. We have someone who is assigned at our support facility who helped to care for the furniture and mostly furniture but other conservation needs for the house. To be clear this is a difference between the private and public rooms. What are some, one of the comparisons between the obama and Kennedy Family is that there are young people, does that change the white house to have a young family or dogs . Weve been fortunate. These are great kids and a greet dog. There hasnt been one report of the damage of any sort as a result of childhood exuberance or bad dog behavior. But you know, there have been times where you sort of wonder what could you say to a first lady if she picks up a piece from is third and she wants to put it in a childrens room, and youre sitting there wondering cant you pick something less easily damaged . I think that mostly they want good advice. They dont want bad things to happen on their watch. They dont. Thats why public rooms are administered partly by our office and to replace miss kennedys Art Commission with a more formal structured organization. The goal is to preserve the rooms and prevent the families from being blamed for change. We collectively decide on, it it shouldnt be the first ladies responsibility, it should be the committees responsibility to take whatever he comes from the press. But the private quarters are still in the white house collection. We still have to deal with the fact that those things go up, there and in some cases i think the fact that we dont dispose of anything, we dont get rid of anything from our collection now is so that a new first family can come in, and maybe they want to pick a truman hes, but next to the bed next to the water glass. You dont come up with a damage table in the morning. Well begin to take questions from the audience in a minute. If you have them lined up at the microphones. You mention 1. 3 million visitors back 50 years ago. How many visitors do you have now that come through on the public tours . I think the numbers are now 700,000. And that doesnt reflect a loss of kennedys optimism for twice that many. I dont think we can handle twice that many, and really dont. After 2001, the white house closed. We werent open to tours at all. It gradually reopened. So now, the old habit, originally just lined up a defensive line. You lined up and you got into the tour. After that they started to devote timed tickets, so that you couldnt spend your whole morning lining up against the fence. Its required now that you have to go to your Congress Person and submit information to be cleared through the secret service database. So its quite cut down not 50 , but still most historic say the museums would die for 500,000 visitors. I think for the most visited Historic House in the world. Another question here. In the original broadcast miss kennedy showed a shop in which upholstery was done actually on site. I was wondering where the other craftsman where pieces were sent out for work to be done at other locations during mrs. Kennedys overseeing of the renovation . If so is there a way to find out any way to actually research that . My grandparents had a really upholstery business and furniture renovation, and its always been said in my family that they did some work, on a piece, i dont know, says so something ive always been interested in. Its possible. It wasnt exclusively done by one person in the cabinet shop. They would have used outside sources, especially when they were making the reproductive materials in the blue room, that would have been sent to an outside a pollster to do that job. Were welcome to have an inquiry. Well look back at the phones. That doesnt mean that the paperwork back then is not as thorough as it is now. Not that they werent trying, but they were overflowing with things happening at the time. People come to us all the time with a story of how this piece came from the white house. We know that we do sales and that this is possible. We try to answer as possible thoroughly as we can but we cant deny. My grandparents were very good record keepers. Maybe the history detectives can help. We have a question over here. Im interested if you have any stories of vips perhaps trying to take souvenirs hung with them. And how your staff deals with that. Well you stop putting spoons on the table thats a president s house on it. Thats the last course and the butlers want to pick up those spoons until the table is cleared. You cant monitor that. That is one way. There have been some stories that i cant absolutely confirm of political figures putting a tree down their pants to try to is keep with that piece of silver, you know, we are required by law to do and annual inventory of everything in the house. Now, of 50,000 items in our collection 30,000 is table. Where forks, spoon pleat dish. Some are missing. Some could be, breakage some couldve gone into the trash and garbage disposal, and some may have been purloined. It doesnt mean if there are collectors of china that would be fine for them to have because prior to recent times, they would have sowed broken pieces in the 19th century were given it away. I had a collector tell me one time president kennedy tried to give him the cup that the kennedys were drinking. That is a secondhand story. President and first ladies are very careful with things today. But we have a lot of guests. Question here. I have two related questions. One did miss kennedy have a curator such as herself, inhouse when she was there . And to, she mentions a painting that was broken in the dining room, and i know there are a number of other things borrowed from other collections in her time. Is that something that she invaded . And is it being carried on today . She had a curator. It was repeers. Barred from the smithsonian. She worked for about a year, and there were four curators before me after her. That makes me sixth in the line. So there has been some curatorial presence ever since kennedy started the Museum Program and said that there has to be at least one professional. They were receiving letters, objects, offers of donations, and they had to keep the best possible records and research in order to figure if they wanted to keep something or not. She was not the first person. We had loan paintings in other administrations, usually from the national gallery, someplace in washington. I think her massachusetts contacts give her options as well. There is a painting in the state dining room, the only time there was more than one painting in the state dining room. The painting of lincoln is the principal art object in the room. The wall where she hung the paintings, they were hung on the pilot, stirs since been moved to the walls, were the better belong. Now theres room to hang another painting. Sometimes we try to meet the taste of the families. We tried to have our private rooms focused on the white house. The only portrait on the state floor is of monroe. We havent managed to get the family to donate to us so its been on loan since 1970. The same thing was true of Dolly Madison. Our portrait of her was on loan from the pennsylvania county of fine arts from 1970 until 1996, when we finally managed to get the museum to sell us it. The said it belongs in the white house much better than it did in their collection. This administration, president obama is very interested in abstract art. We dont have that rts. So weve borrowed a lot of art that fulfills their desires. I actually have two questions if you dont mind. My first question is under which president since john kennedy has there been the most change in the white house . Actually the Nixon Administration was probably the largest number of objects acquired even more than the kennedy administration. Mrs. Nixon very much require admired what miss candidate dead. She wanted to increase the collection, and didnt want credit for. It shouldnt want people to donate as much, because the candidates set the standard for the relying on public understanding. She hired a curator. The man who hired me for my job in subsequent years. They worked very hard and kept a lot of kennedy things in some rooms, change them out in other rooms. All the pieces are permanent and will come back into use from time to time as president s and first ladies please. My second question is on the Art Collection. It was interesting when talked about the builders and how you paired that building which is more modern with slightly more traditional. As tastes change, and we get further and further away from the modern art period and more into contemporary art, how do you mix in pieces from that time period which may not necessarily match with some of the stars of the room . There were plenty of paintings going in the rooms that were 50 or 60 years later than the style of the room, but because they were traditional paintings, they were sort of accepted as being all right. When mrs. Kennedys portrait arrived, it was exceptionally controversial. It was painted in a impressionist style, full length, and some people, when it first arrived people said it looked like she was wearing her pajamas. She looks like a ghost. It was a new and unusual style for a portrait. I think that we are going to have that day when we hang a president in the green room and decide if its okay. I think its really going to be the skill of modern art versus style, you can hang two to four paintings in the same space as one. It may come. Not in my time, but not because im, leaving but i just dont know im if im gonna be there for that. Are there any hidden secrets that dont truly exist sometimes when you watch National Treasure movies there are secret compartments. The next time we go to the white house what is one small thing that you would tell us before before that a normal visitor about a intricacy of the house that only a curator could get us to see . Its like well, in 9 11 my favorite object would be something that i could carry under my arm when secret service told us to get. Out obviously not the portrait of roosevelt. Thats a tough one. Ill tell a story on the painting that i showed you. Its a great painting. It was insurgents collection until death. Its a friend asleep in a mosquito net. It hangs in a room where most of the portraits were president s and first ladies. Its a depiction of a person with mosquito net on their heads. People would come in and say which first ladies died in that painting . They see it as a shroud or something. If you go in the red room, theres two wonderful scones is on the east wall, and the eagles have the ball on the. And they were need in england. They say you make it with eagles and the americans will buy. It it doesnt matter if we are at war, congress is more important. People always ask what does the ball and chain mean . Casting off the chains of british tyranny in the american revolution. Linking itself to the community. Members of the United States secret service, when asked that question, these are about 12, 13 feet apart, when people say what does this mean, i was in the room at the time, i witnessed him say it, you flush all the toilets in the white house. A room full of tourists went wow. Im in the back of the room going no. Thank you will so much for coming. We the if you enjoyed watching first ladies, pick up a copy of the book first, ladies featured profiles of the nations first ladies, through interviews with top historians. Now available in paperback, hardcover, or as ebook. Tonight on American History tv. Beginning at 8 pm eastern. You look at the lives of ladybird johnson and pat nixon. She spent in cooperation with the White House Historical association produced a series of first ladies, examining their private lives, and the public rules the play. First ladies, influence and image features individual biographies of the women that served in the will of first lady over 44 administrations. Watch American History tv tonight on cspan three. This is a crisis. People are living their lives. With Police Reform taking center stage in congress, watch our live unfiltered coverage of the latest developments. Plus the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic
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