It is 45 minutes. Tonights program is the room where it happened, hamilton jumelctions to the morris mansion. As many of you know it is the oldest house in manhattan. Strongy does it have a connection to Alexander Hamilton , but also to George Washington, aaron burr. We are fortunate to have carol ward the executive director of the mansion is our god tonight. She has been there for eight years. She is an art historian who is an expert bringing contemporary art and to this setting. Her book about this mansion is available or sailed down stairs and she will be signing her book downstairs after the program. She will be available for your russians at the time. Please welcome carol ward. Thank you. I wanted to thank the Historical Society and cap me for inviting me. This is a topic that can fill a room. There are cocktails being served the somewhere. I am glad that you are here in the room with me. We are going to talk a little bit about the history behind the musical as it relates to the mansion. About these amazing people that are part of the history of the mansion. There are sound clips in the powerpoint, one of the technical things that we worked in on is the sound clips start at the beginning. How many people have heard the soundtrack . About half of us. There are a couple that start really loud, just to warn you a little bit. Hands who has been to the mansion before . About half of us again. Thank you to those who have been. I will expect to see you soon at the mansion. Lets start by setting the scene. The mansion with the two men or the one man we are talking about this evening. Hamilton inander his historical and contemporary guys. Howrow from the musical, does the son of a horror in dropped in a forgotten spot in the caribbean impoverished in squalor grow up to be a hero and a father . That is a question tonight. Historically and himself. Hamilton, historic hamilton is 1755 or 1757, 11 we are not sure. Evidence leads us to believe it was 1757. Theies july 12, 1804 after dual with another resident of the mansion, aaron burr. Mr. Maranda is born january 16, 1980. What i want to do is tell you about the history of the mansion related to hamilton and how he factors into the story. This gives you the background here in as kathleen said, the mansion is manhattans oldest house, built in entities tuesday five built in 1765. Was built by roger morris, a retired british colonel at the time billed it as a wedding present for his wife, mary philip morris. Wealthy dutch a merchant family. When you start thinking about the wealth of these families you have to ship think about Washington Heights, the closest neighbor is five miles away. They have 130 acres of land around the house. Morris, her family estate has 52 thousand acres of land. You are talking about the height of society and 18th society. Roger married her for her money. They lived there for 10 years. Hey are loyalists they hightail it back to england when the revolutionary war breaks out. They leave the house abandoned. Mary comes back to get some possessions from the house. When they were in england roger dies and mary would be 95. All the women outlive theirs. Their husbands. It becomes the headquarters for George Washington than the british and the hessians. It becomes abandoned. We will get to that. [sound bite] George Washington sounds a little different than you might imagine. Ist i have on the screen from the musical. That is Chris Jackson in the center as George Washington. We have a 19th century etching as they envisioned it and an amazing website called genius. Com. They have all the lyrics to every song in the musical. If you click on the lyric that you just heard, this is what you will find. T talks about the battle it takes place on september 16, 1776. Most people consider it the first victory in the revolution, the first time the Continental Army gives the british army to retreat. Unfortunately, they come back with reinforcement. Imagine timeline wise the battle of brooklyn, then he goes to white plains. Thelton is there, he is eighth decamp to washington. Him like aconsiders son. He is his right hand man. Him for many things. By this point in the war hamilton is writing 50 or more of washingtons correspondence. Washington cannot be the general he was without hamilton. Other interesting facts which i just found out, during the an entireey saved brigade including mr. Hamilton area. Normally washington would commend an officer after a battle like that. It is the only recorded time that washington does not command the officer. Slight, anderesting you start thinking about the life of burr as it relates to hamilton. I have to be a little bit , so. To both sides video clip] are you ready for Cabinet Meeting . The great thing about the just that it is not pieces of theoric musical are taking place at the house. If you have seen the musical, the first rap battle took place in the dining room. That is an amazing connection. We have the dining room as you see now. We are going to a fiveyear reinterpretation plan. You will be the first group of people who will see get a sneak peek at what the mansion will look like in five years. You have everyone under the portrait of their respective cabinet member. Lynn is underneath hamilton. Under Thomas Jefferson and Chris Jackson all the way to the right under George Washington. Lafayette which lives across the street from the mansion. The interesting thing about the cabinet battle in the shell and historically is it says of the conflict between hamilton and jefferson. It talks about the different views of what america was going to look like. The revolution is over and we want. What are youays, going to do now that you are an independent country . We have to factions. Federalists, which are led by hamilton. Governments, banks, keeping the capital in new york city, controlling government. On the other side, we have republicans with Thomas Jefferson, agrarian society, farmers and common man. We are still having that conflict today. As i mentioned, well jefferson is that dinner party it is a tavern where couple of years. The house is abandoned for 20 years. On it farmers owner and it gets into disrepair. The lady on the right her name liza shee the is my favorite person in the whole story. Elephants to hamilton or burr. She is a super strong woman and lives to be 90. Starts off or in rhode island and becomes one of the wealthiest women in all of new york and ill leave the hertry to she lived with first husband, stephen jumel. Of the house was out of style. He adds things to the interior of the house. Here is a sneak the very below here is a sneak peek. Here is the wallpaper that just got put up at the mansion in the hallway. It is based on a new source we have found in our archives. Marbleized wallpaper to make you think you are in a greek and roman temple area you think she loves the best things in life energy helps stephen triple his fortune. Toy travel back and forth france. In the height of the 19th century decorative art. Why is she important to the conversation . After her first husband passed away in 18 32 in and on accident involving a pitch for. A pitchfork. Mansionback to the bandage up. Sometime in the course of the evening she dismisses the servants and he cries out he is in rain. His wounds and then he he died. Decidesnths later she to marry her second husband. Carol heroes, the villain of our history, this is aaron burr. Ompletely misunderstood guy its balloon that, at the end of the musical every night, he does shoot Alexander Hamilton. It doesnt change, unfortunately. There are some people in the bergkamp that wanted to take the burr camp that wanted to change, but it does it. He is the antagonist. I think lin has created a wellrounded orchard of ehrenberg. He was born in new york, new jersey in 1756. So opposite to hamilton. He was born to a very famous preacher, and his mom is a transcendentalist. She is a super smart woman. In the best of the classics of architecture and art. His parents both die, so they are both orphans. It is a very different scenario. His father genetically. His mom wasnt supposedly a prostitute. He has this legacy already on to protect. S a lot of what the concurrent stories of aaron burr are, are then viewing a legacy in a very different way. Build a legacy, hamilton, and what needs to maintain legacy. That is seen a lot in their life historically, and also in the musical. Theodosia in 1782. They have a daughter, that they have also named the a dozer, the theaters and he is talking about. She is born in 1783. Some people will say that there is one of the first feminists. Im on the fence about that. Do something very different for his daughter. He educates her. She, just like his mother did for him, she knows architecture. Dies, he isfe looking for a new place to live. In 1803, there is a surviving letter from the notion, the daughter, to ehrenberg, telling him about the mansion. She says, you basically should buy it now, because in 10 years, it will become an estate. He had theng that opportunity to purchase a house in 1803, and become the owner of the house about 13 years later. Odosia when about the she is born. His wife died shortly afterwards. This is another thing about hamilton versus burr. If we Flash Forward to the duel, there is the last the last song before the dual takes place. Verse says, it is either him or me, he will not make an orphan of my daughter. Both of these men know what it is like to be an orphan. It is him or hamilton. He doesnt want his daughter, who is it a go that point, to not have parents. In a very weird interesting twist of fate, berg gives all of his documents to theodosia about his time during the revolutionary war. She was traveling from the south on a ship, and we know that she dies in a shipwreck. Orher the ship flounders, possibly pirates board the ship. Dont know. Showing youat i am on this like the vendor with portrait of her, which we have a copy of the mansion, is a piece called lost. We did a whole exhibit on ehrenberg, and all the women that surrounded his life. This is supposed to be the indonesia drowning at sea. This is a really interesting slide that i wanted to move us forward in the history of the mansion before we get to lin and where he comes on the scene. This is a late error jamal on this left on the left. Elizas death in 1865, her granddaughter takes control of the house. You can see her granddaughter on the right and the portrait, allies junior if you will. She takes control of the house until about 1895, and the two last donors of the house in very quick succession. The family on the left is the blueprints family. Blueprints was a very leprince was a very early film maker and photographer. On september 8, we will be premiering a film all about how the mansion would have shown the movie. He mysteriously disappears in france before he can show it. If you want more information, check our website. The last early as are the earl family. The slide on the right is the. Ack of the house if you kind of notice right by the chimney, they have cut out the roof for a skylight. The son of the euro family what ea family, wasrl an art student. The mansion becomes the museum in 1904. The daughters of the American Revolution take it over. It basically is the site of colonial revivalism in america. The more says are not in the story, hamilton is not the story. It is all washington, all the time. They open after a grand renovation in 1907. Something about this photo, see over the balcony is a 1758. They got the date of the building of the house wrong. This is George Washingtons birthday in 1907, when they are grandly reopening the house. Then we get about the staff. We have switched over to museum life. This is William Shelton and andrew bolton. They are the first curator and archaeologist of the institution. Love themagine, we dar, they are an Interesting Group of people. There were 20 spinning wheels not the mansion. There is a letter from shelton, telling the dar, please dont give me any more spinning wheels. He is the first one that goes through the collection and tells the dar we have to tell everyones story, which jumps to the musical, who lives who dies he tells her story. Shelton is telling them you have to tell everyones story. The dining room i showed you where the cabinet battle took place, this is what it looked like in 1907. Lets havea blessed, a plaque, lets have little statues of George Washington. Think about 19thcentury museums, they were kind of keeping that area alive. Youre were not telling the story so much of the room. They are fabulous. What i would tell you is the dar singlehandedly saved houses like this. They went to governments of the time, city elected officials, and said he cannot tear down his house. It has intrinsic historic value. It was before our flaws. These ladies landmark laws. These ladies were doing it the right way. They were doing what was best for the time, and dressing up and looking fabulous as well. You might recognize this woman. Anyone have a guess . She is queen elizabeth. The mansion was the only new york stock on Leno Elizabeth the second bicentennial travels around the united states. February. We lost that lady right there but years ago, but she was on the board of the mansion or 40 plus years. She was an amazing lady. She was one of those people that was in it for the right reasons. I have to give her a shout out because we love her. We will rename the octagon after her. It is an amazing story. Now i have slashed forward 30 years. Lynn and well. We have to talk about him. I started off as the director of education at the mansion. This11, we wanted to do event that brought the community into the mansion. First and foremost, we view ourselves as a Community Arts resource. I said lets create this thing called the culture and Arts Festival. It was to encourage artists and restaurants and performers from the neighborhood to have a space, and it was completely free and open to the public. At that point, i said we need a guest of honor. In the heights already one bank its tony. It was a super big thing. I have a complete broadway fan girl, so out of everyone, i was likely have to get linmanuel. Im emailing, and he says hes working on this new project. A week before the event, his says het owing owen can come. What do you need him to do . As if he could do whatever he wants. Just Say Something up there. In 2011, opening our festival. The beginning of my story is before he spoke, about 10 minutes before this happened, i is showing him around the mansion. He had known about the mansion. His sister had her baby shower there. He lives 10 blocks north. I said, what is your next project . He said im working on this rap spoken word musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton. Without missing a beat as we are standing in front of aaron yous room, i said whenever want to, you can just come and write in aaron burrs budget bedroom. Then i thought about what i said. I didnt know if i should offer that. I was going to have to get permission. I had an out of body. The beginning of the story. Introducing him to the room and inviting him, somewhat surreptitiously to work in the room. Now we will watch a little bit of a video clip. There is a transition. Most of you have probably seen this already. And wrote the white house because i amight actually working on a hiphop album. It is a concept album about the life of someone i think embodies hiphop. Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh, but it is true. He was born a penniless orphan in st. Croix of illegitimate earth, became George Washingtons righthand man, became treasury secretary, caught before every other founding father, and all on the strength of his writing. I think he embodies the words ability to make a difference. Im going to be doing the first song from that tonight. I am accompanied by Alex Macklemore lackamore. I will be playing Vice President aaron burr, and snap along, if you like. If you havent seen that clip, we go backward in time a little bit. That is in 2009. He hadnt told anyone he had gone to do this at the white house. It is the first time he had actually done a piece from hamilton. They wanted him to do something from in the heights. Have 16 bars of this new thing called hamilton. The reaction that the obamas had was the reaction everyone was having, like myself. There is a route spoken word musical about Alexander Hamilton. Have seen, the obamas have invited him back multiple times, and michelle has said it is the best thing since sliced bread. A few years can make a little bit of a difference. Where we pick up our story is an event that we hosted about aaron burr. Ot too bad in our story there is a gentleman named brian harbison. He has a huge collection of aaron burr memorabilia. This fundraiser down at the club, and i thought i to come and lin walk around and see if it. I invite him down, and the gentleman who is the director of hamilton, his name is thomas gale, came with him. Were talking about aaron burr. We given the book. In 2012, early 2013. Same time, 2013, were opening that exhibit i mentioned about ehrenberg. We have more and burr stuff going on. He comes to the opening and sees all this amazing artwork ive camilla. Ask them what is going on with this musical. He said im still working on it. It took him one whole year to write my shot. He is working on it, taking some time. Just keep me in mind. Thats fine. Flashforward two minutes 2013. That is him sitting in aaron aaron burr, writing sir. We should have the south that if it decides to work. Thats still the youtube video. And you saw alex in the youtube clip. He came in and out for about a month, just sitting in aaron burrs room, writing the song. One of the ones that he wrote was aaron burr, sir, which is the introductory song when hamilton the meets burr. I emailed tommy, the director linsilton, about having Freestyle Group performed at your. I knew hamilton wasnt ready yet. Asked if he and a freestyle of supreme guys to come and perform it at the show. Tommy said that gets complicated. Do you want lin to premiere three sons from hamilton . Alex, andn 2013 with they premiere at the time what was the versions of deerfield tha, wait for it dear heodosia, wait for it, and my shot, at the mansion. Were waiting on video on that. [sound clip] carol the clip that i wanted you to hear was that introduction between hamilton and were, and maybe a lifes ghost singing with them. That introduction sets up what i was talking about, the difference between hamilton and burr. That line of can i give you some advice, talk less, smile more, basically sums up their personalities. Hamilton talks that everyone, and it got him into trouble. Back, but what happened at the end of their lives and one of the major reasons for the dual was the fact that no one really knew what burr stood for. Hamilton was saying to people, you cant trust burr. I dont jefferson, but at least you know what he stands for. We are flashing forward ahead. We have culture and Arts Festival in 2000 13. We are starting to set up for 250th anniversary in 2015. Route where it happened. This picture is not just any dinner party. A dinner party be hosted for our board of trustees to watch all of the events for our anniversary. I have been talking with lin and tommy. We do it would be at the Public Theater in february of 2015. I said we have to buy out the theater. Sell because no one knew what it was. He had premiered three songs, free event. This is going to be the major fundraiser for the first half of our anniversary year. We are buying out a 300 seat editor. Theater. Are 250, 375, and 500. No one knew what the musical was at the time. We are sitting around that table, all my board members, lin game. He does a sales pitch about hamilton, and the board approved doing the. Event. Those were the posters that the public had that are different than the roller coaster. That is our pad. It sold out because it was only supposed to be three weeks at the public. It kept getting extended even before it opened. Bought the seeds for was supposed to be the last week of actual performances. It turned into the third week of previous because it kept getting extended. That was our advertisement. To see put it out there what happened. It was up until the day of the show that we were selling tickets. A slow burn. We finally got that theater sold, but it was, what are we buying these tickets for . It is still a little confusing to us that it is a musical about Alexander Hamilton. Great event. It was still to this day is the the most money for the mansion. We make 30,000 on it. Have this amazing talkback afterwards. From left to right, it is the, ramos, lin, and Chris Jackson. They give of their time. ,very time he goes on a tv show we are really happy to have built this relationship. This was cbs sunday morning. Once it caught on at the public, it started rolling really quickly. There is me with the two of them. It is great because he understands that the success of the musical helps us. Our attendance is up 40 , thank you our relationship with him and the musical. The thing that i think is amazing is that it keeps new people interested in history, and younger people interested in history, and people that would never come to a Historic House museum otherwise. Flash will flashforward a little bit again. 2015, october. That is leslie odom junior, who is a recently played aaron burr in the musical. Atwas our guest of honor this past years culture and Arts Festival. We have some special guests in the works for this year, which means you have to come. The nice thing about all of this is it not only gives us more exposure, but also the ability to advertise to groups of people that again would never come. On the left is an ad that we took out in the playbill of hamilton, tapping about our andtionship to the musical, leslies appearance of the culture and Arts Festival. On the right was our farewell to the 250th anniversary. Know, lin is into social media. Do most of thei social media for the mansion, so this is my voice from the mansion. Germanyfriend lives in , which issmall town outside of frankfurt. She is in the coffee shop there, and they are playing hamilton. She was my date to the benefit, so she had been there from the beginning. She looked hamilton two. She texted me and told me they were playing it. Tweet that. Close to 1000. All the people that are related to lin now know about the mansion. He and his father are very connected in the Washington Heights community. They were auctioning off a had signed. Lin they decided all the proceeds from that would come to the mansion. They are really giving back to the organization, which i appreciate. What does all this mean, other than the fact that Alexander Hamilton is cool . The 10 bill. Y on people will say this thanks to lin. I think the really important thing to take away from this talk is that history is still alive. All these people are not, as Chris Jackson said in a really cool quote, they are not just. He statues and a portrait all of the men and women portrayed in the musical are living people. They all have pros and cons to their personalities. Makes it so you understand who these people were. I know theres a lot of conversation about a latino man playing hamilton, and an africanamerican gentleman playing George Washington. The is part of conversation. If that brings new audiences into the museum, like you all today, that is great. I think that is what we should all think about when we think about the musical. Here is your sneak peek. Room where itthe happened, this is George Washingtons office at the morrisjumel mansion. It was kind of this dark green color. This is what it looks like now. This is our phase one of our reinterpretation plan. It is a great wallpaper but this tiny flowers on it from 1770. Were going through a very big rebranding. Our new logo is on the left. Often,me back early and come to see all the really exciting things. There is always something new at manhattans oldest house. We really try to achieve that. We do over 100 different Public Programs a year. 9000 schoolkids. We are really viewing it as our job to keep history going for the next 250 years. I cant and without a plug for our next Public Program. You are the first group of people to see this and this new logo. Our next major Public Program is a new version of alice in wonderland. It will be in interactive version of the play where guests walk with alice throughout the mansion and the grounds of the house. This logo was specially created for us by an artist named maureen. Laure werey really excitedn because it brings together. The historical side and contemporary side. The twist is alice is on a tour of the mansion with her brother, is the American Revolution. The mad hatter is George Washington. The cheshire cat is lafayette. I see a couple people in the background like oh, maybe i should buy tickets. Is on our website. There is a link to get tickets. It is for three weeks in september into october. Theres going to be some really fun programming around it. Were trying to get some hamilton cast members to come and do a symposium with us. We have a launch event coming up on august 27, a week from tomorrow from 3 00 to 5 00 p. M. It will be a Mad Tea Party where we get to talk about history together. Thank you so much. I hope to see you at the mansion soon. I hope this was interesting as it relates to hamilton and burr. Thank you so much. [applause] i think the plan is not to take questions here, but to head downstairs. If you have any questions, i would be happy to answer them. If you want to buy a book, you can buy a book and i will sign it for you. Thank you so much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] websites and found cleaning up to the ceremony eerie we will be alive with president obama and lonnie bunch. This is American History tv. Captain Jeffrey Copeland teaches a class on the use of american jazz musicians in africa during the cold war. He argues the policy was to showcase america in a positive light and counteract the negative global press about equality. You were. Lets get it started. Standby. Please have a seat everybody. Welcome