When i begin a project, i know very little about my topics. As i begin to do the research, i go on a treasure hunt. That is the way i like to look at it. I use primary sources in order to gather the material i need to write nonfiction books that not only inaccurate but hopefully interesting. When i began to look into a book about George Washington and decided to write this book i began with George Washington in the very same way. I knew very little about washington. I had heard of course that he had chopped down a cherry tree, which he didnt, and i had heard that he worked with which he did it. And i heard that he had wooden teeth, which he didnt. So i found out very quickly the things i thought i knew about George Washington were absolutely not any of them correct. So as i began the book which i described as csis meets the biography channel, as you will see why as we go along, it has been a treat for me to replace all of those myths with the facts about George Washington. The premise of the book is did George Washington really look like his image on the one dollar bill . When mount vernon did some research and found that most americans would describe this image of George Washington taken from the portrait as old, boring and grumpy, and of course they realized they were going to have to change their way of looking at the father of our country. They devised a plan in which they would create three lifesize figures of George Washington and show him at the ages of 19, 45, 57, and to do this they compiled the team from the experts from all over the world. The first one who came to the project was dr. Jeffrey schwartz , a physical anthropologist and , he began the project. From there he gathered other experts say they all began these and these were all done by Jean Antoine Houdon the famous sculpture in washingtons day and he actually came to mount vernon to observe washington. And while he was there, he created the lifesize mask that muslim you see on the right side, and he also created what you see on the left side and gave the bus to washington as a parting gift when he left. When he went back to his studio in paris he created a beautiful model statute is still at the Virginia State capitol in richmond so there is no doubt that these pieces of art show what George Washington look at the age of 53, so these were the gold standards for this whole project. From there, they got the help of a doctor who is with the prison , laboratory in Arizona State university, and they devised a way to scan all of these priceless artifacts in a way that wouldnt damage them. So if you see this is the washington bust being done with a laser scan, and on the bottom left, you see where all of that information that was fed into a Computer System and a sort of made a mesh that was an exact replica of that bust. So they did many of the artifacts this way, and as they did, they were able to study them and they were able then to get all of these various measurements that were from George Washington, because as a master sculptor he would have measured every part of his body. So when they had all the information, the other thing the that was necessary for them to figure out is the one thing that every schoolchild knows about George Washington and that is that he has dentures. He did indeed have dentures and these are actually the dentures that George Washington actually had in his mouth at some point in his life. I like to point out when i do School Visits the one on the , top left is a heinous looking thing so every time now when i , look at the dollar will and i see the picture of George Washington, i envision a denture very much like this one in his mouth and i have a lot of sympathy for him. At the time he would have struggled to keep that in his mouth and he would have been really sort of embarrassed about the way it made his mouth look. But these dentures actually play a very Important Role in this process. What they were able to do with this is determined because of the shape of his jaw and every step along the way they put that information to see if it did to fit perfectly within because within that bust, because this was the gold standard. If it didnt fit their than it wasnt right to read as the project moved along, the science came to a close and they ended up with these three incredible computer files of George Washington as he would have looked at 19, 45 and 57. You can see that there is actually quiet a lot of difference in these images if you look closely. At 19 years of age he would have had a much longer face and he did later in life. As he lost teeth as he did throughout his life, his face would have appeared shorter and shorter. So this and information wouldve been an important part. When the computer files for finished it went to a phone head phone head foam head and then a clay had that once again took the skill of a master sculptor and this is stored williamson. It took him to then take that information and those heads and craft into those heads and expression and a moment in time the wrinkles, the concern that you see on his face it to a master sculptor once again to accomplish. From there as you see on the left, those clay heads within turned into whacks heads, and when the wax heads were finished, the labels were placed in the head because if you think about it, if their eyeballs word were wax, they would never look real. They put in these acrylic audibles and theres no doubt that George Washingtons i color was blue or gray. Many people of the day wrote about the color of his eyes so there is no doubt about that. So as the project sort of move moved along, it went to the peer art pure art of things. I have unfortunate experience when i was doing the work for the book because i had thought an Incredible Opportunity to go to mount vernon when they were during the yearly maintenance of the figures. On the left is diana cord ray the mount vernon education manager, and in the middle is sued day, an incredible artist as you will see, and on the right is stevan, a magnificent wig master. While i was there i was able to see the figures as they were maintained and see what they looked like and what they felt like then i was able to ask of the questions i wanted to ask and, you know, ask all the things i asked when i was a little girl. How long did it take you and what is it made of and why and why and then what happened . So this was a wonderful opportunity for me to see these figures as they were being worked on and see them up close and see how they really went about creating them. Sue day is not only the artist you will see in a moment, but she is also the one that put the hairline into each of the figures of George Washington. You can see in this slide she is putting one human hair at a time directly into the wax so it looks like it is actually growing out of his head. Its critical to get the hairline right on these figures and she is constantly checking against all of these images of George Washington, because if the hairline was not correct then none of it would look right. So one by one she used this tool to put in that hairline and as she did so for each of the figures. Its painstaking work. Also, theres no doubt what color George Washingtons hair was. The reason is there are many lochs of his hair that exist today and i got to see some of it. It is kind of a chestnut color. It is not red or brown. It is somewhere in the middle. And so she is using hair that was purchased from a hair merchant in london and at exactly the color the need to be. This is an image of stevan as he is getting ready to put one of his custom wigs back on and as you can see on the left side this wig is one that goes on general washingtons head. He takes one human hair at a time and makes a custom netting and makes those custom wigs that it fit on those three figures. Steven is also the one who does George Washingtons hair. So as the progress of the three heads continues, i wanted to show you this image which is a young George Washington at the age of 19 as he would have looked when he was the survey a surveyor in the wilderness of virginia. His eye balls are in, his hair long,. The incredible wave is on the back of his head and he has won base coat of paint on his face and then sue day creates magic and she takes that very pale face and she creates George Washington. I write in the book, and i try in my books and when i speak to School Children all over, i try to bring all of this to life for them by saying every time i see this figure, i know that it doesnt feel like stubble when you touch his face but it looks , so real, that 5 00 shadow, it looks like you would feel it. Here is one of my favorite images of young George Washington, and up close and personal look at this incredible figure, and when all i look at this, i remind people that each of eyebrow was inserted one human hair at a time come each eyelash, one human hair at a time, so i think the incredible skill of sue day is clear as she makes these incredible pieces look like they could talk to. So George Washington also needed a body, and the way the experts created what is an accurate representation of the way his body looked is because they studied the textiles that he wore. There are many pieces of clothing that still exist that George Washington wore during his lifetime. The uniform on the left is the at the Smithsonian Museum of natural history. The things on the right or in the collection at mount vernon. A textile expert looked and investigated all of the pieces of clothing and measured each piece exactly, and they were not only able to understand the size of George Washington but also how he fit in those close. So they understood what his body would have been shaped like. Linda is the textile expert at Colonial Williamsburg and i interviewed linda for the book and she gave me the real thrill of going into the vault at Colonial Williamsburg to see authentic 18thcentury closing in their incredible collection. She was able to answer a lot of questions for me. I was able to ask her what part of George Washingtons life and the way he moved had to do with the kind of clothing he wore and the way it made him stand and the way that it made him move and all of those were important to me. I like to say that George Washington came to life from mount vernon. And that the 18th century came to life for me at Colonial Williamsburg. Here are the finished figures as you would see them at mount vernon today. This shows young george as a survey year at 19yearsold and each piece of his clothing was made by hand using 18thcentury methods, and they are an absolutely stunning. This is what general George Washington would have looked like at the time he was at valley forge, and this is what president George Washington would have looked like on the day of his first inauguration. But as i said, to know George Washington is for me when i went to mount vernon. Mount vernon is owned and operated by the mount vernon ladies association, and the first time i went there i wanted to sit on the back porch and watch the sun come up, and i did that. I got up at 4 30 a. M. One morning when it was dark and i made my way there and i sat on the far right side and watched the sun come up over the Potomac River. And for a biographer like myself, theyre has to be a moment when i really connect with my subject and for me the , moment was right here. I saw this incredible sunrise over come over the Potomac River and i realize how many times must George Washington had seen the site and for me it was a moment , he became real. In my research, he really became more and more real the more i researched his life. Heres a closeup of george and in each of these periods of time i talk about in the book all i really like to sum up what George Washington was like. At this point in his life, in these years when he is a man he ended up being about 62 ruddy , complexion with chestnut colored hair who was athletic and strong and have long arms and long legs. He was a survivor of the wilderness. He loved the horse races, box fox hunting, cards, billiards, he was fashionable when he was interested in clothing. He was one of the best dancers in virginia and he was very ambitious. When i talk to school kids on these visits i like to explain George Washington in this way. George washington was such a man at the men admired his athletic ability, and the ladies wanted to dance with him at the ball. I believe when he came into the room, every head turned. He was also by the time he was 22yearsold he was actually already famous not only in virginia but in england and france. He wasnt famous necessarily for something great because of what he was sort of involved with actually began the french and indian war. So he was well known long before he became the father of our country. I really had a very interesting way to connect with George Washington when i found out that george the letters that george wrote to his wife martha, only two of them exist and i was fascinated because the two letters are from 1775 right when George Washington is taking command of the Continental Army, and i love this letter which i found a way to put into the book. Hes telling her from philadelphia and says hes going to have to take command of the Continental Army and hes basically saying, martha, ive got to go. You know i have to do this. And then he says at the end i , shall feel no pain from the toya or the danger of the campaign. My unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness i know you would feel of being left alone. But i had a wonderful experience also at mount vernon that i just was not able to fit this letter, the second letter from george to martha, in the book so i told , myself any time i spoke about this book i would tell the story, so here it is. This was written just a few days after that first letter and he was still in philadelphia getting ready to go to cambridge, and he writes and says they are waiting on me to , leave and i am now going to the camp at boston. But he tells her in the bottom , i retain an unalterable affection for you which neither time or distance can change. So for me this was an important part of understanding George Washington because sometimes i think he and marthas relationship is made into something its not and i think in these letters i see George Washington who had a deep love for his wife. By the time washington is at valley forge he is in a period of time in the war that is difficult. He is being discussed in congress as in whispers maybe we need to get rid of him. Hes not doing so hot in the war. When he leads his men to Winter Quarters at valley forge george , washington had a lot on his mind. You can see that stuarts incredible mastery of sculpture, you can see sue days incredible talent in the face, and you can see the worry in the the stress in his eyes. When hes going into the Winter Quarters, the british are occupying philadelphia, the capital and the are only 16 , miles away, and his men, a lot of them dont have shoes on their feet. And as they walked through the snow they leave bloody footprints. And they dont have enough clothes to keep them warm when its their turn to be on guard and some in Congress Want to replace him. So he has a lot on his mind here. But i tried in this book to show George Washington through the eyes of his contemporaries. And in this place i think is a beautiful statement about George Washington. This was written by a french man who was an aide that came to valley forge to help washington. This is what she said about George Washington the first time he saw him. I could not help i cannot keep my eye is from that not imposing without familiarity prominent through which he could trace the strong feelings of the patriot and discern the father as well as the commander of his soldiers. So i think that is just a beautiful way to look at George Washington through the eyes of someone who saw him at valley forge. After the war was finally won , and it took eight long years which washington spent the , entire time with his troops without going home for the Winter Quarters, he was actually given the incredible honor of being the first person to sign the u. S. Constitution. Now you will notice that it wasnt signed until five years after the war was over. It was a very difficult and unsettling time, and they had to go through a lot to get this constitution, which put into place not only the congress but the presidency and vice presidency, and washington was given the honor of being the first to sign. As the first president ial election came up, George Washington was voted unanimously to be the first president of the United States and in reality , there was no other choice but George Washington. I write in the book and when i speak i like to set the scene, i like to for the readers to feel that moment, see that moment, here that moment, and this is one of those times in the book i built the scene of all active but of course primary source documents, and at this moment when George Washington is going to become the first president to the United States. A crowd is gathered in the intersection of wall street and broad street, both still exist today, and if you had been there that day you could have looked to the left to see the trinity church, which you still can today, and the building that was the inauguration was held in was called federal hall. Its not the same that you see today, but its the one that has replaced it. But as the crowd is waiting for George Washington on that day, he is driven up in a white couch coach with six white horses and is let out onto the cobblestone of the intersection there, and the crowd was silent when he gets out. They remove their hats and he removes his and he bowels to the one side and the other until he makes his way. And then in front of the entire crowd, he takes the oath of office on the balcony of the federal hall, and the crowd just weeps. So, many different people with were there including the , foreign dignitaries, and one of those was a representative of france and this is how she described George Washington on that day. He has the look of a hero united in him. He never seems embarrassed and has the advantage of mingling great dignity with a sense of manner. So i love to see George Washington through the eyes of somebody who was there on that day. As i close my comments today i do love this image that is actually the opposite of the image that is on the book cover. Its of the three georges lined up together and i think they are just absolutely stunning. I would like to mention the amount vernon project to make these three figures was made possible by a grant from the w. Donald w. Reynolds foundation, and it has been an honor for me to have the chance to take part in making the story come to life for a new generation of americans, and its been a treat for me because mount vernon has opened their arms and has been gracious and let me do all the research i needed and its just been a personal thrill for me. So, as we conclude this, i would love to take some questions if you have any. And also, if he would come to the microphone in the center please, so we can hear if anybody would like to ask a question. Hello carla. Hello. Have you considered writing about any of the president in this manner investigating them and humanizing them and if so do you have any particular president in mind the would interest you the most . Ive never thought of doing it because this project is so unique im not sure it will ever be done in this way again, and i always looking for new book am ideas, but i dont have any real plans for that because this , is so unusual, and the reason that works with washington is that he was of course before the days of photography so the , president s that were alive after photography was around getting a true sense of what they look like is not the same, so, you know i like to dig into a new president in the day. Thank you. Anyone else . Hello. My newest patrick. My name is patrick. How do you go about thinking your subject matter when youre selecting the books to write about . Each one of them comes in a different way. The head is connected to the neck but because the technology is and then the book something out of nothing came out of that book. The next one ill was interested in the holocaust so i , found this story of an american holocaust rescuer, then after that came George Washington and after that is about the modern technical guys, so they all sort of find me in a way. Thank you. You started your presentation with some myths that you found out were not true. What did you find out that was particularly interesting in your research that you didnt believe before that is true . I think there are so many things really. Part of what fascinated me in the project with the detail, the links they went to. One of the things is that when George Washington was 19, he went with his brother to the caribbean because his brother had tuberculosis so she caught smallpox while he was there. For the rest of his life, George Washington had smallpox scars on his face. And if you look carefully at the portraits of George Washington if you see his left side, you will see the smallpox scars right there. The two older figures of George Washington have that pockmarked and its interesting to me now , that i know that and i look at the portraits of washington and see that all of these artists it is always there. So it must of been very obvious, so we think it is one little tiny detail. As far as what he did, i had no idea of his involvement in the french and indian war. I had no idea that when he was a had a lot of responsibility and he did a lot for the government for virginia and was in the virginia militia, so there was just many things about him i didnt know, and i think washington for me is one of the better he gets. Sometimes its the opposite when if you research someones life. So he is one of the extraordinary man and i really believe myself that had he not we would not be who we are as a country today. All three of those figures were alive, and you said that each of washingtons life had become personal to you, which of those would you want to hug. . [laughter] young George Washington. [laughter] and i really partial to a young George Washington because i knew absolutely nothing about him in that part of his life and the idea that he was such a rugged man altered my way of thinking about George Washington. I sometimes think about the country song a country boy who can survive. Thats how i feel about him. He could have survived in the wilderness forever and it was extraordinary, so young george really is my favorite. Thank you. Would you talk a little bit about the other research is done on your other books . Because your research has been extraordinary, and you didnt get to do this by have your name drawn out of a hat. You were chosen to do this because of your research, but youve done an enormous amount on your other books. Can you talk about that a minute . Yes, thank you. I do a lot of research. When you write the kind of books that i write, they have to be accurate, and i dont believe you can just throw that together, and so for every book ive written, i really have done the work in a way that i can be proud of having done, and the book that was before this one im especially proud of, which is about an american holocaust rescuer, whose story is very little known and the fact that he volunteered to go to france and rescue more than 2,000 people, i think it is a story that is amazing and i am sad , that very few people know it. So, to do all of that research for the book i went to Columbia University where the papers , are held and went through hundreds and hundreds of letters to him and from him, but it was in those letters and its true for every person that ive ever studied, it is through those letters that you get to know these people. The same is true for marie curie. After a while you start recognizing the way they talk and the way they related, the way they would phrase things. And washington is the same way. After a while they are so , familiar they almost become like a friend, because you know the way they put their thoughts together. And it was in those letters that i found out the color of the the trolley, the smell what he could see and smell, and the fear he saw in the faces of the refugees. It was his words that made him come to life for me. So i think its a very personal research into their own words that really makes the difference, and that is what i try to bring. I try to bring that to life, so that again readers can feel it and hear it and smell it and see. I think that is what a good book should do. Thank you. As much as George Washington is per trade as the father of the country on the dollar bill Martha Washington is per trade as this grandmotherly figure. What did you know what interested you is that you think we should know about . I had to cut martha out of the book in so many places. It is like in great films on the cutting room floor. There is a lot of martha on the cutting room floor here. I wanted her in the look much more. You have to stay with what the book is about, and i did as much as i could. But like i said, my concession prize is that i tell that letter story when im out now. But i think what i learn about martha is that another myth is people kind of think she married he married her for her money and a sort of make it different from what i believe it was. I believe that george was lucky to have martha, and martha was lucky to have george. He was well known already, and he was a good catch. She was a very wealthy widow and all of the bachelors knew all about her and she was a good catch. But i think as time went on, i think they truly loved each other, and i think that she is what kept him grounded in a lot of ways. She went to the Winter Quarters whenever he called, when he wrote to her its time to come she came. She would stay until its time to leave and in that day in case people dont know, they would go in the winter to the Winter Quarters and they didnt fight battles a lot. So she would come and the soldiers loved her, and in absolutely everything people sang her praises. She was just what she looks like in those portraits. And i think for George Washington he had this is an opinion, he had a mother who was difficult, and i think that he had fallen in love with a woman that was not a good diaz and was already married when he was a very young man. So i think that he had a lot of things that martha was like a solace for him. I think she was exactly what George Washington needed. Anything else . You kind captured my attention with those teeth and that big spring. It brought me back to the days of braces, which was worse. I cant picture him at this era so who made these false teeth and what were they made out of and all that . Did you learn all that . I do go into that in the book because it is a fascinating part. The ones that i showed today the , ones from mount vernon that have the metal, the upper teeth are cow and and horse teeth and the bottom were human teeth but probably not george. The others were carved out of hippopotamus ivory. It was common in the 18th century for poor people to sell their teeth. There were dentists who made false teeth. Washington had several pairs of dentures throughout his lifetime, and he was probably buried with one set and so those three that i showed are not the only dentures he ever had. But they are the three that there is no question about. There was quite a bit of industry going on far more than , i ever would have dreamed doing this book. And the fact that he lost teeth was a huge part of recreating these figures. That told them about the shape of his face and the shape of his jaw, which made a huge difference. To me, it sort of a sad thing. Hes not the only one in his day that didnt have a lot of teeth. To be in the public eye as he was and to have dentures like that, it was a struggle. He had a lot of pain with his teeth. It was difficult. Thank you very much for coming to see this presentation tonight and its been an honor and a privilege. Thank you. [applause] on history bookshelf, here from the countrys bestknown American History riders every saturday at 4 p. M. Eastern. To watch these programs anytime visited our website cspan. Org history. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Each week American Historys real america bring to archival films that tell the story the 20 century. Up next, sniper employment is a 1992 are missed training film the previous outlines the history of snipers in the American Military and then shows how snipers should be deployed and used in a variety of combat situations. Some of these techniques may have been used by the late u. S. Navy seal sniper, chris kyle, whose memoir is the basis of the Academy Award nominated film american sniper. The military sniper dates from the revolutionary war. Since then, snipers have been employed in every war and conflict. During our civil war, it helped to protect perfect the techniques that snipers use. World war i saw german shoulders use highpowered rifles with telepathic telescopic sights. During world war ii, they used rifles to conduct sniper operations. World war ii taught us that a sniper is a weapon of opportunity, and at typical rifleman cannot be assigned a sniper mission. Every rifleman is not a sniper. Every sniper is a marksman. In the marine conflict, they failed to appreciate the techniques of snipers. As a result, a Sniper School was founded by the unit the United States infantry school. It was noted, that the sniper is the best protection against enemy snipers. They must be experts with specialized weapons. Their commanders education in this area is vital. The Sniper Program was shortlived, but vietnam revived the need for trained snipers mainly because of enemy forces in vietnam demonstrating the effectiveness of sniper employment techniques. Additionally, United States snipers in vietnam used 2. 3 rounds per kill versus thousands of rounds per kill by conventional use. For these reasons, the army conducted Sniper Training courses and educated commanders at all levels on sniper employment. During the 1983 grenada operation, urgent fear, army snipers were successful against any positions at ranges up to 800 meters. During the recent actions in panama, the longest confirmed kill document it was 925 meters. Snipers in panama accounted for at least 10 of all counties and were instrumental in intelligence gathering and security especially the role of the modern snipers team is to enhance the means of illuminating the enemy. The sniper team is unique. It is the sole means by which a unit can engage point targets beyond the effective ways of the Standard Service rifle. Oneshot, one kill, United States army snipers. Sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern time, former cia chief of disguise recounts the story of two jekyll survived in kgb spies, they infiltrated the cia and gathered topsecret information through the use of sex in the 1970s. He reports that one popular washington dc Swingers Club frequented by the couple counted at least 10 cia staffers and a u. S. Senator as members. Sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv. American history tv is joining our Time Warner Cable partners to showcase the history of