Transcripts For CSPAN3 National Park Service 100th Anniversary 20160906

Thank you very much. Youre looking at a live picture of arlington house, the robert e. Lee memorial. This is the National Park services most visited historic home and it was on this day in 1916 that president Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation that created the park service. Were here this evening at arlington house to talk about the park service and its history. We will also learn more about this special house and the people who lived here and how its being preserved and interpreted by the National Park service. Were joined tonight by robert stanton, former National Park service director, and brandon bies, the former site manager here at arlington house, and obviously, park Service Employee who is also overseeing a yearlong rehabilitation of the estate. Let me start with the story of how the National Park service began. As the National Park service was authorized by an act of congress, signed into law by president Woodrow Wilson, august 25, 1916. Therefore, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park service today. And that legislation came about through the stellar efforts of many conservationists and civil leaders throughout the country. Were very proud to have that agency with us for 100 years. Was it at all controversial at the time it was signed into law . It was in the sense there was sort of a misunderstanding in terms of some of the constraints that may be imposed by having one federal agency to administer our National Parks, but i think the American People had developed an understanding and appreciation of the parks by the fact there were 35 parks that had already been established before there was a National Parks service. So it was an educational process. And at the time of 1916, the American Public had a pretty good understanding of what the parks were about and what their responsibility would be as well. Who was the earliest president to preserve National Lands . Well my recollections are that president lincoln signed legislation in 19 pardon me, 1864, passed by congress, designating Yosemite Valley and many of the large groves as a preserve to be maintained by the state of california, although it was federal ownership. It was transferred to the state of california. Then after a period of time the area returned to the jurisdiction of the federal government. And today we know it as yosemite National Park. Well, brandon bies, this particular house is an interesting one because it merges the history of our first president , George Washington, and robert e. Lee, who was the leader of the confederate army. People would be surprised to know that these two had a relationship through marriage, and id like you to tell that story and how that all happened. Sure, absolutely. Arlington house was built begin in 1802 by a gentleman named George Washington parke custis. He was the grandson of Martha Washington. He was essentially raised by george and martha as his parents. His father died when he was very young. He was raised at mount vernon and saw George Washington and Martha Washington as basically his parents. He built the home begin in 1882 as a memorial and home but a memorial to our nations first president. He had one daughter who survived to adulthood, mary, and that daughter mary married a young u. S. Army officer, robert e. Lee, and that is how robert e. Lee comes into this picture. Again, this is arlington house, the robert e. Lee memorial. It has his name but there is so much more than went on here than just robert e. Lee. When i first came to this town a long time ago, i referred to this as the custis lee mansion. It was known as that for quite some time. It was established as a memorial, a historic home in 1925 by congress, then became part of the National Parks service in the early 1930s. But it was an act of congress in 1955 that actually established this firmly as the robert e. Lee memorial as arlington house. The reason it became a memorial to lee was not because of his duties and what he did during the civil war, but for what he did after the war. He had a pretty spectacular view. But washington, d. C. Was really nascent in 1802. It was a big swamp. It wasnt a wonderful place to look at. But George Washington parke custis thought it was important to overlook this federal city, knew there were great things to come here. And it is an incredible view and that view changed quite a bit other the 55 years that George Washington custis lived in this house. And to really a booming federal city by the mid19th century. Bob stanton, to give people a sense of place, so many people watching have been to Arlington National cemetery. And this is the house on the hill above john f. Kennedys grave is that right . As you stand in the front, you can see the grave from that location. It is a prominent location and interestingly enough is that the estate, i think, included was it 11,000. 1100. 1100 acres which is now under the Park Services, jurisdiction, i believe is 19 acres. So the Arlington Cemetery is situated on lands that were originally owned by the custislee family. But that isnt accidental that this is Arlington National cemetery. Im going to have you tell the story about this property, which was owned by robert e. Lee at that point, then became a grave site for soldiers from the civil war. Right. So during the war the property its a fascinating story because when it became a cemetery, it was deemed to be owned by the federal government. Of course the lees owned the property. It was actually in his wifes name, in marys name. And of course the lees had to flee here at the beginning of the war, first robert went to richmond and then the rest of the family left in may of 1861. As the war went on, Quarter Master general Montgomery Meigs had a real issue on hand, which is what to do with the thousands of Union Soldiers who were dying in the hospitals here. And up here on this hillside, arlington house had actually by then been confiscated. In the early part of the war an obscure law was passed that required certain people to pay their taxes in person. And there was really no way for mary lee, wife of the now famous confederate general to come here and pay the property taxes. The property was confiscated by the federal government, it was Government Property at that time. Then in 1864, montgomery decided this would be the place to start burying Union Soldiers. Some of the first burials are located mere feet away from the mansion. When people think about the National Park service, they think about those grand vistas and these beautiful parks around the country. But really theres a lot more inventory that are Historic Places like that. Can you talk about how the merger happened between big outdoor spaces and Historic Places . The first National Parks or areas administered by the park service were primarily located in the west, and they were created out of the federal domain as it were, especially through legislation and subsequently by the president , particularly president Theodore Roosevelt using the authorities of the antiquities act. And that situation continued up through 1933 when then our second director albright was able to convince the secretary of the interior and president Franklin Delano roosevelt to transfer many of the areas to the jurisdiction of the park service. President roosevelt bought into that and did in fact approve with the blessings of congress as it were with, the reorganization of the executive branch. Through that act roughly 60 areas were immediately transferred to the jurisdiction of the Parks Service, including the civil war sites, revolutionary war sites, war of 1812, statue of liberty and the parks and the Nations Capital were transferred plus the lee estate was transferred in 1933. This is the time of the civilian conservation corps. Did people in society go to work to establish the parks and build them . Im not quite sure of the particular work project here. My colleague might be able to respond to that. Certainly, if you were to visit william park in virginia or go to the home of camp david or to the great smokies or to yellowstone, to any of the large parks, you can see the extra work that was performed back in the late 30s and the early 40s. After the reorganization, what would be the most critical park in the Park Services history from that point and today . Oh boy. The most critical part of the park Service History . Thats tough. I mean we went through some pretty significant changes. 1960, the 50th anniversary of the National Park service, what we call the mission 66 time period, there was an awful lot of Infrastructure Improvements that went on, new Visitor Centers that were built. An influx of money that went into the Parks Service. I would say the mission 66 time period had a really significant impact. I would fully concur with that. Interestingly enough, mission 66 was authorized by congress in terms of funding, but it was the initiative of the secretary of the interior at that time and president eisenhower to celebrate the 50th anniversary through a major rehabilitation of all of the park areas. And it was known as my colleague says, from 1956 to 1966, is known again commonly as mission 66 program. One of the things we must recall, subsequently to 1933 to the major transfer of areas to the jurisdiction of park service, we shortly entered the world war ii, followed by the korean war. So many of the nations resources with directed towards the war efforts and consequently many of the parks did not have the kind of resources for the quality of care. So this was a major effort right after the korean war to rehabilitate the parks to the standards that all of us were seeking. Lets bring us up to today. Now the Parks Service has 413 sites. As of yesterday, yes. As of this week. Yeah, a new one added. And the funds are always tight. How is this centennial year being used by the National Parks service to help advance its mission . Well theres a number of ways. One way that were really trying to advance our mission is by increasing not just the numbers of people who go to National Parks but the diversity of people who come to National Park. And you know, we are really trying to reach a younger more diverse generation. Weve seen leading up to the centennial the grain of our visitors, if you will. And so really trying through new technology, through reaching out to different groups trying to get a more representative population of americans into these National Parks. Thats really been one of the big thrusts of the centennial. No question about that. Its critically important to really discharge the full responsibility of the park service, which is to touch or to connect with all america. And there unfortunately are some communities that are not truly connected with the richness and diversity of which is really our collective heritage. So through a number of efforts that is continuing i might add that congress, this administration and Prior Administration have given the park service some tools to achieve some of those objectives. One is through the employment of young people, given them handson experience through the youth conservation corps authorized in 1970 as a part of the celebration of our 75th Anniversary Congress enacted a bill signed into law that authorized the park service to transport through its own or donated resources. Young people from neighboring communities into parks for educational and recreational purposes. So again trying to make the connections and those self generated relationship with the parks. On this centennial of the National Park service, American History tv is coming to you live from arlington house, the robert e. Lee memorial. High on a hill overlooking washington, d. C. , one of the National Parks services most visited historic sites. Coming up next, a ranger is going to give you a little bit of a tour of this place. Well be back life in about ten minutes. So here we are in the main hallway at arlington house. The center hall was designed to impress. Remembering that George Washington parke custis wanted this house for a memorial to George Washington. He had the house designed to be like a gallery. To be monumental, to impress what he thought would be some of the most important people in the country who would visit. And then over the years president s, congressmen and senators would visit him here at arlington house to learn more about George Washington. The regional architect of the mansion is a man named George Hadfield whom George Washington personally invited to america from england to do design work on the nations capitol, the capitol building. And so George Hadfield was one of the most prominent architects of his day. This house has a great history of architecture in the history of the country as well. Its not just the people that lived here and the events that took place here, but the structure itself had great meaning. Its one of those places, sometimes a Historic House or a structure takes on a meaning because of the events that happen there or the people who live there. But this house was built to be consequential. So it has that history to it as well. And robert e. Lee married into that. In this parlor, june 30th, 1831, under the archway where you can see the uniform and the dress on display, 24yearold lieutenant robert e. Lee of the u. S. Army married 22yearold Mary Randolph custis, the only surviving child of the family, the owner, the heiress to the property, a great granddaughter of Martha Washington. But this wasnt the only wedding that took place here. In fact it wasnt even the first wedding. The first wedding took place here ten years earlier when a woman named Mariah Carter married charles syphax. What made that wedding important is that mariah and charles were both enslaved here, and mariah was in fact believed to have been the daughter of the master. So she was an enslaved woman from some type of relationship that existed in which George Washington parke custis fathered a child by one of the enslaved women here, a woman named arianna carter. And this is forcing us in many way to reexamine how we interpret the history of arlington. Because here we have the story of slavery. And this place represents the founding ideals of this country. This home built to honor George Washington and to celebrate the values and beliefs of the father of the country, the house itself built by slaves. But then you have the family as well, the family relationship. And George Washington parke custis in essence had two daughters. One was white, his heiress, she married robert e. Lee. One was enslaved. Both great granddaughters of Martha Washington. So in that regard George Washington mark custis as a representative of the first first family of the country who spent 55 years of his life promoting and celebrating that, was in essence also representative of another aspect of the history of this country. And the simple truth is the first family in this country was biracial. So we recently reenacted that wedding with descendants of the syphax family in attendance, representing both mariah and charles. There was also another wedding that took place here and that was the wedding of Selena Norris and thorton gray, also enslaved. Selena, a maid in the house, and thornton gray, who worked in the mansion as well. So that was arranged and this wedding took place in this parlor. And selena gray and her family would live in one of the two historic slave quarters that we maintain, that still exist and that are going to be restored as a part of this big project as well. Now you can see this room is somewhat empty of furnishings and thats representative of the fact that right now we are in the process of removing furnishings with artifacts from display so by the end of the year well begin the restoration project. But all of the furnishings have to be removed before we can do that work. You can see the boxes in place and preparation being made. As we walk down the hallway, you also see empty places on the walls. There are numerous historically there were numerous portraits hanging in this hallway. Family portraits, historic ones of the washingtons and other members of the family. However, some of those have been removed. But at the same time, there are holes in our collection. And our new restoration project, through this generous donation by David Rubenstein will allow us to acquire more original artifacts and reproductions of original artifacts including paintings so that we can represent the true appearance of this house as it was when the lees and custises lived here. But there will be examples that we will leave like this, this bare patch of plaster on the wall. This plaster, its not just something we chose to leave exposed for no good reason. What we discovered about seven years ago, a restoration project where we stripped down paint down to the plaster and we repainted different rooms, we found writing, graffiti. And some of this writing, its very hard to see, very faint on the walls. But this we think even predates the civil war. House and so its something that were leaving exposed because it is representative of that history and we want to be able to preserve it and perhaps in the future find a way of even interpreting it. Were not exactly sure what the writing says so it is a mystery that is going to be left to us to solve in the future. We at arlington house are very excited that our recent donation and our ability to restore the mansion and create new exhibits is not only possible but that it coincides with the centennial of the National Park service. It gives us an opportunity to examine and reexamine what this place meant over the last several decades since the National Park Service First took it over in 1933 and what it means moving into the future. Because as a country we always need to examine and reexamine our history in order to decide where we want to go forward. And arlington house is an amazing place to be able to do that. So we can examine the meaning of the civil war. We can examine the meaning of the life of robert e. Lee, the lives of the enslaved people here, the consequences of that war. Surrounding this mansion, Arlington Cemetery was created. Both as a means to honor the dead but, again, as a way of gaining revenge or justice, perhaps, if you want to call it that, against robert e. Lee. But how do we as a country view the events of that war and its after effects. The period of reconstruction . Well, arlington house is determined and the National Park service is determined to seize the opportunity to move forward and perhaps lead the nation here in an effort to come to terms with that period and time and to make more of it. To make something of it that can help us move as a nation around a culture into the future. The theme is division and reunion. Well division perhaps is easier to define but reunion . What does that really mean . We know the country was reunited north and south. But in many ways this country remains divided so what can be learned here at arlington house, the robert e. Lee memorial that will help americans and people from other parts of the world, too, to examine that, examine their own believes and see what they can make of it moving into the future. Arlington house, one of the National Park Services Properties on this centennial of the park service that we are talking about tonight live from this most visited site here overlooking washington, d. C. Brandon and bob are two guests for our live program tonight and the full tour of arlington house if youve never been fortunate enough to get here will follow our live program tonight. Well talk about that last thought that matt penrod had about learning and interpreting. But i want to give statistics to our audience, this is from the wall street journal. Part of what were learning about our park service on its anniversary. Estimated market value of nps lands and properties 62 billion and theres 84. 6 million total acres, 2. 85 billion is the congressional appropriation for this year. Total revenues the parks take in from sites, 591 million. And as we said earlier, the park service is responsible for 413 sites as of this week. The president announced a new one in the inventory. So bob stanton, over the course of our lifetime, the last part of the the last century, americans became more aware of the need to not sanitize our history, to tell our complete and complex story. And that job fell largely on the park service to do that at our historic sites. How did that evolution in telling the story happen inside the park service . Well, it happened inside in terms of employees understanding that they need to be more factual with respect to telling the full dimension of the American Experience drawing up the organization of american story and college universities, independence college, using the best of scholarship to reveal to the American Public as they visit their National Park the full story of the events of the individual involved with that nation pal park but i must tell you also that the American People felt it was time to reflect on all the circumstance s that brought us into the 21st century in terms of the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today. As a result through the efforts of the American Public congress enacted bills signed into law by president s giving the park Service Responsibility to commemorate areas that reflect some of the difficult, controversial periods in our history. So American People want to know what is the experience in its totality. So twofold is acquiring new properties that help tell the story differently but also rethinking about the properties that we already had. What is it like for interpreting for the public . Here at arlington house its a fascinating example. Were very, very fortunate because of the generous donation from David Rubinstein that we have the opportunity to take another look at the interpretation and how we tell that story and many generations who have visited here certainly early in this sites history when it was first established they learned about certain occupants and certain people who lived here. They learned about robert e. Lee, George Washington, parke custis, their wives around children. But this was not a place where six or ten people lived, this was a place where 80 people lived. And the majority of them, at least 63 on this plantation, were enslaved africanamericans. And we have to do a better job telling that story, that inclusive story, about what it was like for those people, what their experiences were like and how the groups lived and worked together because you cant just tell one story, you cant just tell the if lee and the custis story inside the house and tell the slave story and black story out back because they were in both places. And its important to tell that story as one story. One thing people may not know is how much scholarship goes into the work of the staff and volunteers who work at these sites. Can you talk about the training that people go through before they meet the public in places like this . Sure, absolutely. Our interpreter is right. As much as some people might like to, you dont want to go out to go out and Start Talking to the public. Its good to have experience to shadow other park rangers. For new rangers and volunteers at arlington house we have an extensive library, we have hundreds of books here on everything imaginable and a dozen or so mustreads that our staff and volunteers look at so they can be well versed of the occupants, the history that went on here and we have the folks doing this research for us. Sometimes its staff but sometimes were fortunate, we have great relationships with certain universities around here. Marymount, howard university. We have folks coming in sending a great deal of time and effort helping us perform the research. We have worked with the park service a lot, you work with people who are getting their masters and ph. D. Theyre doing a fantastic job and they recognize they need to stay abreast with new scholarship as it were and there have been many more use of primary materials that are revealing unknown or Untold Stories and historians and interpreters and preservationists stand fully abreast of those changes