Can argue every year should be. This is incredibly special for all of us in america, especially at the smithsonian. We are bound together in celebrating the american womens History Initiative throughout the Smithsonian History Museum and online, and all of the activities, and here at the American History museum, we are particularly grateful to have three exhibitions opening. Spurring really from this one. This is democracy in america, the great leap of faith that opened a few years ago. Im in the gallery that takes us through the long and arduous and continuing effort to expand democracy to enfranchise more and more americans. As you might know, early on, only white men with property were able to vote. Throughout the 19th century, the long battle expanding that suffrage to slaves, previous slaves, and women, culminating finally in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment. Not guaranteeing women the right to vote, but barring the federal government and states against voters because. So suffrage wagons like the one behind me were taken out in the field during the ratification andess to encourage states their state legislators, almost all men, the vast majority, i think there were only one or two sitting women in any of those states, to vote for the 19th amendment. Slogans, brightly colored, the colors of suffrage are black and gold originally. That changed into purple, gold, and white. Thats why im trying to represent that here. , icons, howill open we remember womens suffrage on march 6. We will take you through the both therts to craft Regulatory Framework for how women can vote, and the incredible activism of women who throughout thely century and a half to get the vote to happen. The 19thfocus on amendment and womens suffrage, phone lines split up a bit differently this morning regionally. If you want to join the 2027 488n, thousand. In the eastern and central time zones, mounir pacific, 2027488000. You can start calling in. As folks are calling in, i want to focus in on the ratification process. A 14 month process after the 19th amendment was passed by congress. Was it a sure thing . How touch and go was it during those 14 months . Why did it take 14 months . The ratification of the amendments is probably never a sure thing. Its easy us for us to look back on track that. But all of the amendments, the expansion amendments, reconstruction amendments after the civil war, ending slavery, thetrying to work towards abolishment of slavery and equalization of rights for africanamericans. The Womens Movement that had worked actively since 1848. The original sentiments, the declaration of sentiments, pinned by elizabeth caddy stanton, and we have her table on which she wrote that, was ratified at the convention of 1848 by 68 women and 32 men, including Frederick Douglass, the remarkable and powerful abolitionist who believed in the quality and expansion of the declaration of independence. Imagine 16 sentiments modeled after the declaration that said we hold these truths to be these are fabulous. I want to read you one. In terms of the original declaration saying that the king had done this to men, elizabeth and others are saying men have done this to women. He has not ever permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise, and it ended with 16, the powerful he has endeavored in every way that he could to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her selfrespect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. Those are pretty harsh words in 1848. By the time the amendment gets introduced in 1878 and voted on, sent out by an allmale congress to the states, there was really nothing insured about the passage of the 19th amendment. And remember that in order to get this passed, the coalitions that white women built excluded women of color. You have extraordinary women born into slavery, fighting against slavery, and forcibly joining, saying, these are our rights too. Can you imagine how powerful it was for africanamerican women to get the vote . The great thing for me and all of us at the museum, nothing is preordained. It is all of the choices we make and it is those men who walked into their state houses and chose to vote for the 19th itndment that hold pulled through. Host which states lead the way in that process, during the ratification process . Guest it varied. The big states were in favor of it. A lot of it became, if women got the vote and could vote in the 1920 election, became part of the chess game for that, there who granted states the right to vote to women before that. There were already women and men who were used to having women vote. The big states who wanted to swing the election of 2020 to the republicans were among the most ardent supporters. Host you talked about the declaration of sentiments earlier and we showed viewers a picture of that table that you have. Guest wonderful. Host i wondered how you got that table to the smithsonian, and what happened to the original declaration . Guest great story. The way in which the smithsonian acquired this original core collection that we will be displaying as the women wanted it to be displayed in 1919 is fabulous. They knew they were making history, so they had been petitioning the Smithsonian Institution to accept this collection that they had very carefully curated, and they had kind of modeled it off of what they thought to be an appropriate Museum Display of an important american man. So it looks kind of very genteel. There is the tea set and the is fascinating is the smithsonian, led by all men said, no, thank you. You do not turn people like Lucretia Mott and Susan B Anthony away. They persisted. It is a wonderful story. It will be grouped together when we open on march 6, and the declaration next to it. Who has the declaration of sentiments . I believe it is at the library of congress, but we should check on that before the show and we will get that to you. Host i appreciate the realtime fact checking. Phone numbers to join this segment, eastern or central time zone, 202 7488000, mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Today our third stop in our washington journal american series visiting d. C. Area museums. Our guest is the director of the American History museum. The table was brought to the smithsonian that was led by only men. That is not the case anymore. You are the first woman to serve as the director of the museum of American History. What does that mean to you and your vision for the museum . You for asking. It is a true honor to lead this museum. I joke that one of the great things about being the first woman is no other woman will have to say that. It is incredibly important as a wife and a mother and a sister and a daughter, my roles as a woman in society, i think enable me and reinforce the way in which i have seen the world as a historian, as a nonprofit leader, and certainly here is a here as a public historian and public servant, there is no higher calling than to be at the smithsonian at this time in our history, and especially with the exemplary leadership of our new secretary, he himself a historian, creating the africanamerican museum of history and culture. It is a special time, and i am joined and embraced by other incredible women and men directors. Host do you remember when you first visited the National Museum of American History and how the 19th amendment, the Womens Suffrage Movement was then . Guest that is a great question. We came here shortly after the and mynnial as a family mom took us all. We were dressed up, and came here. I will never forget that first time in washington. The museum, which my father had seen in the 1950s when he was here before this museum was built, it opened in 1964, told a pretty traditional story of American History, although it was the 1970s. Of the times, they were certainly influenced by the remarkable energies of the Civil Rights Movement, so i dont remember a lot about how womens stories were told. I do remember being in awe of both this museum, air and space, which was very new at the time, and that feeling that i feel every day i get off the metro and walk across the National Mall, one of awe and respect and participation in this incredible experiment that we call the united states. Host joining us from inside the democracy exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Lets get to a few callers. Linda out of mount laurel, new jersey. Good morning. Guest nice. Goodter caller morning. I am so fortunate to live on the land where alice paul lived and grew up. Guest be still my beating heart. That is wonderful. That was at the National Constitution center in philadelphia on january 16. I just wanted to know if anybody has worked with you at this smithsonian . Guest i am so grateful for your call, and if you had not brought up alice paul, i would have. One of the things that we have, and maybe you can show it to our viewers, is a remarkable pin that alice paul and others who were imprisoned for their advocacy literally trying just to get the vote, sent to prison you know alices story is so powerful but brought attention to the incredible lengths to which women would go. Host you are seeing that on your screen now. Guest isnt that amazing . We have an amazing collection from alice pauls family, including her suffrage bracelet. She lived a long life, so every time a state would ratify the 19th amendment, she would add it to her charm bracelet. It is one of my favorite things here. Thank you. You live on Hallowed Ground for the Suffrage Movement. Host i want to talk about the suffragettes serving in prison, showing a new story from san francisco, touring country in campaign for universal suffrage, 24 suffragettes who served terms in prison and they are getting off the prison train. Explain the story behind that. Guest it was an amazing moment, and the tactics used by suffragists and in the u. S. They called them suffragists and in the u. K. They called them suffragettes, maybe a little more french, who knows. But the tactics were remarkable and powerful, and the Lessons Learned from the Suffrage Movement, you can trace throughout the 20th and 21st century. The Movement Like many movements broke into two different factions. Some were conservative and some were radical and activist. Some like alice paul felt if not then then when would women finally achieve the right to vote . They saw this as a long trajectory lasting throughout the 19th century, and even into the 18th century. They took to the streets. They took to the white house, where they were first of all kind of seen as an oddity. Imagine the silent sentinels standing there day after day throughout 1913. President Woodrow Wilson decided enough was enough, they were getting way too much attention and distracting from the work of the presidency. As they were imprisoned, in a way, they worked against wilson and those who wanted to defeat the amendment and their spirit of advocacy, so they became even more famous. These were very educated, brilliant women, so as more and more were arrested, adding to their ranks, and finally when they were released they realized they had survived prison, which was heroic, and they had a special story to tell. So they went around the nation making sure everyone knew they had just and been released from prison just been released from prison and giving it a sense of urgency, a huge sense of sacrifice that they were willing to give literally, to let themselves after a while they knew they would be arrested so you can imagine what that took. To walk up to the white house knowing you would be arrested. Host taking your calls, asking for your stories and your questions. Eastern and Central United states, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific regions, 202 7488001. This is anne out of cape canaveral, florida. You are on. You with us . Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller two things. Perhaps your engineers could put up a picture of someone in a hobble skirt. My mother paraded for the e. R. A. I am 97 and she was wearing one of those hobble skirts. Guest fantastic, that is great. The a question e. R. A. , please get it through. Guest thank you, maam. Thank you for your long life, i am sure well lived, and for your mothers advocacy as well. The equal rights amendment, technically the last state virginia just ratified it and we are waiting for the legal rulings as to whether that ratification process will be complete, but the long fight continues for equal rights for women, both with the Big Convention in 1977, and as you will see in our exhibition, the womens march of 2017. The long arc continues. I will see what i can do for you, anne indicate natural. In cape canaveral. Host take us back a little bit to the beginning of the equal rights amendment, why it was why the supporters of it felt like it was needed in the decades after the 19th amendment, and that history, when the momentum happened for it. Guest sure, absolutely. Thank you for that question. The reconstruction amendments that were passed in the 19th century and then the 19th amendment are not necessarily enabling amendments that lay out a series of rights that people are assured, so the promise of the e. R. A. For many women and men, many activists, was trying to reach an equality that would be present in the workplace, in the home, and that veered more into reproductive rights and the bundle of rights that its framers believed would ensure an equal place for women. The long battle ensued over the e. R. A. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s and even into the 1990s. You can see that stemming from the advocacy of so many people in the 1950s and 1960s through the Civil Rights Movement, and you can picture it within its context really of the American Indian campaign, civil rights advocates throughout the nation. That is its context. It was always kind of conflict ed, like all of these were, because you are challenging the governing paradigm of how relationships between genders work, the power of women, women in the workplace, and so those are still conversations we have today. Women have not given up as evident by the state of virginia literally within the last four weeks ratifying the e. R. A. Host in terms of conversations we have today, you and i were having this conversation, and callers,s, and the this is a comment from twitter the history of women having to fight so hard to obtain and keep the right to vote is so often ignored. Republicans love to focus only on abortion so they can keep women trapped. It is the only time you will hear comments about women from republican men. I wonder how you and your museum deal with the contentious issue of abortion. Is it talked about in the American History experience . Guest that is a great question, and you are right in that and i love uncle sam too, by the way but the importance of the ways in which history helps us contextualize the modern, ongoing modern battles over a womans right to choose is very helpful. Collectionemarkable in the history of medicine and science which will go on the floor in the next year and a half or so, which takes people through the long conversations about the ways in which womens bodies and mens bodies and bodies of color have been both treated, exonerated, demonized, cured. So we see certainly as historians, we see that in a long history of medicine, the history of reproductive rights, history of family life and of course womens rights. Our jobs in essence are to help people understand themselves, where they have come from, so they can be empowered to make the best decisions they can for themselves, their family, and the nation, using history as their guide. Host about a halfhour to go in our conversation with anthea hartig. Cody is on the phone from galesburg, illinois. Good morning. Caller hello. Guest how are you . Caller very good. In my history class, it is so often forgotten that these women got arrested just for picketing for the right to vote. It is very well said that liberty is not equality. Equality is not freedom, and we need to remember that. Often we take life for granted. People are more proactive, we would make more progress. A lot can be learned from the past. Host thanks for those sentiments. Guest thank you for that. Thank you, cody. Your beliefs are very aligned with ours here, that the past can be put to utility and that it is you said it well that liberty and freedom are something we would like to believe our unalienable rights but we have learned we need to keep fighting for. Thank you for your call. Host i want to talk more about some of your exhibits, some of the items you feature and how you make this history come alive in this centennial year of the ratification of the 19th amendment, and how you do that from Something Like a votes for women umbrella. Guest oh yes, the votes for women umbrella. What could be more fabulously feminine than a parasol . We have a number of those, as you might guess. By now, 110 or 120 years later, they are pretty fragile, but we have amazing conservators who have helped us conserve these beautiful parasols. The animation of thinking about popping open your umbrella, twirling it around and votes for women, it had a great element of surprise, but also when women were marching, if you were looking at the parades from a window up a couple of stories, it was a great way to show off your colors, if you will, and what you advocated for. Host all of these items we are talking about you can see in the democracy exhibit at the National Museum of American History, and you can call in and ask your questions. Steven from huntsville, texas, good morning. Caller good morning. Guest how are you . Caller i am great. I am excited to talk to you. Guest thanks so much for your call. Caller my grandmother was a suffragette. Guest nice. Caller i grew up with hardcore feminists all the way, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s. They were not violent unless you talk against women and then it was a gang. My point is back to what you were saying earlier, grandma was a suffragette in large part because of the depression. Her father had taken the money of the whole family, grandpa and everybody, and he speculated on stocks. When that went down, he was bankrupt. So he took a gun, bought some insurance, went to a train, and committed suicide, trying to make it look like a robbery so that the insurance money would make the family solvent. They he only waited a day between the day he bought the insurance and shot himself so they did not pay off. They were very victorian, had money. A very nice threestory home. She ran around in those little dresses and all of a sudden they are broke. Mom flips out, ends up in a sanitarium and two weeks later hangs herself, so within two weeks, my grandmother, a little girl, goes from happy to destitute living without family. So part of her being a suffragette was in opposition to the excesses and abuse of capitalism. They went hand in hand for her, and she was always trying to protect herself or object to the abuse of capitalism. As you were saying, we have abuse out of medical fields or economics or politics. It is the abuse that leads to the movement. Host thank you for sharing your family story. What do you think . Guest that is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that. I think that is replicated throughout so many families, especially during the depression, the great depression, but even earlier, women were very active in the Prohibition Movement and passing the 18th amendment because of mens drinking and abuse that would come from that. One of the ways in which they advocated for the vote was they would put up an objection. They would carry placards that said objection, women are too pure for the dirty pool of politics. The answer would be, if the pool is dirty, the time has come to clean it. Women have long experienced cleaning up after men. It sounds like your amazing grandmother had to clean up after quite a mess. On a serious note, what you have shared with us, for which i am grateful, goes right to the heart of womens advocacy, advocating for themselves, their children, when they didnt have the kind of voice that they had hoped. They didnt have the capacity to earn a living, and your grandmother sounds like one of those amazing women who probably until the day she died fought for justice, so thank you. Host tacoma, washington, mary. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest good morning. Caller i am 79 years old so my memory isnt what it used to be, so i cant quite place the date, but i remember somewhere in the 1970s talking to a black colleague. I had just joined the army and the black population was integrated before the population in general was, and the Civil Rights Movement was on. I remember making a comment to my colleague, you guys got the vote before we did, and his answer was, yeah, but the bible says the men are supposed to be over women. My question is, do you still encounter that attitude from men today . Guest first, thank you for calling and sharing. One of the tensions in the 19th century you just highlighted was for those who were advocating for the abolition of slavery, the movements were very closely aligned for a while, giving the abolishment of slavery and giving women the vote were held in common in the hearts of many peoples advocacy, certainly people like Frederick Douglass and others who advocated for both. It has been presented in history that some people had to choose which was the worst horror. I think it is a bit more nuanced than that. She human and economic horror of slavery were, i think, were increasingly thought to be one of the key detriments to the promise of democracy and expanding the franchise to africanamerican men newly freed was something that was critical to the abolitionist movement, and was very hard won. Even to this day, is not as extended as we would hope. In terms of dealing with abject sexism, i think every woman in america has some set of stories that reflects the ongoing internalization of gendered roles and of the way that sexism plays out subtly or overtly in our daily lives. I dont necessarily think it is just segregated to religious beliefs. I think it transcends and has a much deeper and ingrained pattern that in many respects, the work we are doing now here at the smithsonian and elsewhere tries to counter that, tries to provide knowledge and new narratives about the ways in which our equality can be played out now and in the future. Thanks for calling from tacoma, because it is early. Host more reaction from those watching. Writing in i absolutely love the objective and answer, if the pool is dirty it is time to clean it. Women have long been cleaning up after men. It is a good slogan for equal rights and elizabeth warren, still they persisted. I want to move through your allections a little more and tin parade bluebird with the words votes for women across the bluebirds chest. Explain what that is. Guest thank you for showing that one. The way in which suffrage was represented extended to colors, to sashes, and then even to animals. The bluebird singing in the morning represented both a new song of freedom, as well as birds kind of historic symbolism of taking flight and being free. Let me see if i know anything else about it from my handy notes here. I dont think so. The reason why we could even have that is a cast metal bird there was all kinds of newer technologies that allowed for campaign buttons, what we tchotchkes, a simmer era, swag, to really be part of the narrative so you can wear your sentiments. Animals were used. Obviously, the donkey and elephant that subscribed to the parties. One of my favorites we have in our collection is a picture of a be an ass,t vote for dewey. There are all kinds of things that were kind of brought into the popular material culture that expressed peoples preferences for candidates and causes. Host having this conversation about the 19th amendment in the centennial year of its ratification live from the National Museum of American History viewed history. Dave from massachusetts, good morning. Guest good morning. Caller good morning. I am noticing on the cart behind you on the wagon, a slogan. I am wondering if it is from the same period. If it is not, is it wise to conflate slogans from different periods . Guest that is a great question. The wagon was used over and over again, so some of the slogans are newer. That is the way we inherited it. Your point is well taken. It is not exactly the way it looked in 1913. It was used over and over again so there are magazine ads other things. Equal pay for equal work is certainly a later sentiment of the 20th century, but became, as you know, especially after world war ii, a rallying cry. Although some earlier suffragettes after the ratification, who as women increasingly entered the workforce into world war ii where defense contractors paid women less than men for doing the same jobs, welding and other wartime related work, were starting the notion of pay equity. Good call, good eyes. Thanks for your call. Host what would be some of the most popular slogans at the time from 1919 and 1920 at this ratification as this ratification process was taking place . Guest so, certainly votes for women was the big easy one. Very simple, very straightforward. Everyone knew exactly what it meant, but they were very up to the time in terms of almost feeling a little bit like social media does today in terms of as soon one state ratified, they would produce slogans and buttons and newspaper articles about what was next. California next, so they were very kind of of the moment. Other ones included time for a change. The ways in which the times were changing was part of it, but votes and women, pretty interchangeable. The beautiful ones that women would hang over their windows, i just voted for the first time. You can imagine the thrill of that. Host we can show viewers some of those badges that came after the 19th amendment was ratified. Barry in center harbor, new hampshire. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest good morning. Caller good morning. I have two questions. I will give you both of them and then maybe i can listen on the phone. Does the opposition to the e. R. A. Come from people who dont want women to have equal rights, or would you categorize them as thinking that the situation is already taking care of by the rest of the constitution and we really dont need to do anything . That is number one. Can you make a comparison, or do you think we can draw parallels between when the subject of abortion comes up, it is womens rights to control their body, which would go to more than just that one item of abortion. There is a movement in the mens group called attacktivism, where men are complaining about being circumcised as infants, having no say over the matter, so the patient was unwilling to consent and the parents were maybe misinformed and the change is irrevocable. Can you see a parallel with two . I will be happy to hear your answer. Thank you very much. Guest thanks for calling. I am going to take the first one first. I havent thought much about the second one, but i will. The question over the need for an equal rights amendment is an excellent question, so thank you. I think it goes both ways and you actually answered it. Some people feel the work of equality of women is undone or not done yet, and needs further articulation, and i think that there are those who feel like the constitution is a living document with its living document with its amendments should suffice. Guest that is a great question. I believe some of them are available at the smithsonian store, so i would check smithsonian. Com and see if in the store you can find them. We will check on that answer, but i am pretty sure there is a number there is an incredible book we published with hundreds of objects about suffrage, and i believe there also is merchandise, so check us out online and see what you can find. Host carolyn is next in washington, d. C. Good morning. Caller thanks so much for taking my call. I wanted to just acknowledge for the callers who are interested in the equal rights amendment that our group united for equality is responsible for the current legislation in congress that seeks to eliminate the deadline for the ratification of the e. R. A. Guest thank you. In 2009we began this and the bill was introduced in the house in 2011 and the senate in 2012, and became the catalyst for the last three states to finish. My question to you is in regards to the Suffrage Movement, what concerns me a lot is suffragettes are framed as racist and white supremacist. I have seen a couple of opeds from the New York Times that were disturbing, and i would love for you to place the Suffrage Movement into the context of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. I think if we place the original betrayal and where it occurred and the fact that women had to fight 50 more years, and that they were originally abolitionists, it gives people a broader picture of what happened. There is a story on both sides. I just want to say that i think the risk you run in not allowing white women to know this Amazing Movement that took place among educated, welltodo women, is we dont know what our place is to currently address and propel the equal Rights Movement rights amendment forward for women. I think we have a place and i do not want white women to feel ashamed and disgraced by this moment in our history. It is a moment, but we have a responsibility to continue the suffragist momentum and their dedication that we would have better lives today forward for the young women coming after us. Host thanks for the call. Guest thank you. Thank you for the work, and helping bring me up to speed. I had forgotten about the legislion that was passed finally in 2011, and the reason the recent advocacy of your group and others around e. R. A. , so thank you for that, and i will go look that up. On the declaration of sentiments, it appears it was at the National Archives but we are not sure where it is now, but we will keep on working on that question and i will check in with my friends. It appears to be lost, which would be incredibly sad. So to your point about the tensions between abolitionists and advocates for womens suffrage in the 19th century, the 19th century for many feels like a foreign land. We kind of know it, maybe we think we have been there before, but taking us back as this exhibition does, democracy in america, it shows the contestations over the extension of democracy came squarely into the efforts that were started by many in the early 19th century and before that, throughout the world in which slavery had ruled and had ruled in a different way in the united states. You can certainly understand the tensions that arose within those advocacy movements. Your characterization of seeing it as a betrayal of women to put forth a strong abolitionist platform, and the reconstruction amendments to the constitution, 13, 14, and 15, is an interesting one. I think historians would complicate that a bit. Many women did feel it was a betrayal and many women didnt. Many abolitionists, white and Black Thought that was the more important because of the moment. Important because important cause of the moment. I think what you are getting to are some of the scars or scar tissue of the ways in which advocacy evolved, and the choices that were made. The women who felt excluded from the standard work of suffrage were many. Poor, white women often felt excluded, and women of color were outright excluded. Your point, we can hold two things in our mind at the same time. We can hold a deep admiration for the sacrifices and diligence and remarkable work of women to get the 19th amendment passed, and we can simultaneously hold the stories that we know from nettie Helen Burroughs of the work that they had to do which was doubly hard. I think you are right, they shouldnt erase each other, if that makes sense. That as complex humans, we should be able to hold them both in our hearts and minds and find inspiration from both, also understanding their context and place in time. I hope that helps. Host we have time for one or two more phone calls. Jerry in somerset, kentucky, good morning. Caller good morning. I asked my granddaughter if she knew how women got to vote. I said they didnt have the right to. Guest what did she say . Caller two wars, equal rights, womens rights, voters rights, the only time you get major change in this country is when people leave their seat and get on the street. They marched on the capital and in 1913, they marched in washington. Guest you are a great historian, grandpa. Caller you march off to war, you parade after you win. I just want to say keep up the good work and help give our grandkids the information that they really need. Host thank you for that phone call. Lonnie waiting in elkton, maryland. Guest hi, lonnie. Caller you are absolutely wonderful. You just are. It comes through the tv screen. Real quickly, i did a video about 20 years ago in a tribute to my grandma. She had a very hard life, raised three children by herself, three daughters, was always happy and a wonderful person. She is on youtube and it is just three words to locate it. Miss lillian remembered. Miss lillian remembered. Guest miss lillian remembered. Ok, great. I will look it up. Thank you, lonnie. That is very sweet. She sounds like an amazing woman and i am sure you are too. Host thank you. Before we leave you today, there are a lot of museums in d. C. When visitors come to look around the National Mall and the city what is your pitch to why they should make the museum of American History one their stops . Guest oh. If you are interested in what it means to be an american, if you are interested in discovering some of the ways in which this incredible, complicated, beautiful nation has evolved. If you want to see some of the very objects that reflect and almost bear witness to the past, you are welcome here. Your family is welcome here. Ages 0 to 100, we tell your stories and we welcome you to experience all we have. Like all smithsonians, it is free of admission. You are welcome to what i like to think of as the nations largest history classroom. Even with recess and lunch. Host director of the National Museum of American History, thank you so much and thank you for having us in today. Guest you are so welcome, john. Thank you. You can track us on amhistory on twitter. Thank you for all that you and your colleagues do to keep democracy alive. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend, featuring museum tours, archival films, call College Lectures and discussions on the presidency, civil war and more. You can watch them on our website, cspan. Org history. Heres a quick look at one of our programs. Miss liberty, hostess to the world. The torch a simple through the years for visitors who seek discovery in this great land. City, for many of whose millions Washington Square contains the arcs of triumph. Here, United Nations meet the talk of the problems of the world. While others, visitors like talllves are awed by sky buildings and this world within world. Towers, green central park. It hides a castle, zoo, a shell for music and a palace for art. An emerald in a pile of rocks. About new york, walt emerson said these words an 60 miles long, numberless streets, vehicles, broadway, the women, the shops and shows, city of spires and masks. My city. Mysterious clift wellings tucked behind the letters lining mesa verde. The ancient indians left behind nothing more than empty shells. Navajo ory discover a hopi today placed in secret in the land of prehistoric gods and knowingly beauty. Lonelyt valley and beauty. Monument valley. In this jet age, a few short hours can take you down Indian Trails that lead to mighty texas. Behind the canyon dam lies more than 100 miles of enchanted lake. That was a short look at one of our many programs available in its entirety on our website, where at the span. Org history. Cspan. Org history. Ago the 19th amendment was ratified giving g women the right to vote. She will take your calls, text, facebook as a just, and tweet. The 100th anniversary of womens suffrage. That is on washington journal and American History tv. In 1976 the u. S. Information agency broadcast a yearlong series of half hour row graham designed to explain the president ial election process to international audience. The electiona, 1976 series focusing on the National Party convention. They show clips of key scenes from both conventions