Capitol and saw these pages and thought, wow, what a great opportunity this would be and saw they were all boys and was told, well, we just dont feel like this is the place for girls to operate. And i at that age between sixth and seventh grade said, well thats just not fair. He said, well, maybe we can do something about that. So when i went back to school in the fall, i wrote letters to mr. Albert. And wrote letters to mr. Albert and wrote letters to mr. Al berd for many years, and finally one day when i was just about to graduate from high school, i got a call from charlie ward, who was mr. Alberts administrative assistant, and he asked me how i would feel about being the first woman page. Well, needless to say, i was finally ecstatic about this. I said, well ill have to ask my parents first. He said, well, mr. Albert has already spoken the to your parents and its okay with them. And i said absolutely. So thats how it began. And by the latter 1970s. Its about half and half females,
Farah elliott. Were in one of the oldest parts of the capitols house wing. We call it the new house wing, but it was really built in 1857. And this spot is an ideal place to talk about Historic Events in the capitol and the artifacts the broad sweep of history and the collection we have that matt and i work with and interpret all the time. So today we want to tell you about the history of the house page program. It has a history going back to the early 1800s. We dont actually know when the first pages served in the house. The tradition of having messengers and a page is simply a messenger, an errand runner. In u. S. Legislative practice, it usually has involved, at least in the u. S. Congress, young boys between age 8 and age 16 in the 19th century who would run all kinds of errands for members of congress. On the floor, rounding up members, things of that nature. And we have a couple of accounts that place it at 1800 when the first pages, young boys served on the house floor as pages.
Im fara eelliott. Were in one of the oldest parts of the capitols house wing. We call it the new house wing, but it was really built in 1857. And this spot is an ideal place to talk about Historic Events in the capitol and the artifacts that we have in the collection that matt and i work with and interpret all the time. Zb so today we want to tell you about the history of the house page program. It has a history going back to the early 1800s. We dont actually know when the first pages served in the house. The tradition of having messengers and a page is simply a messenger, an errand runner. In u. S. Legislative practice, it usually has involveinvolved, at in the u. S. Congress, young boys between age 8 and age 16 in the 19th century who would run all kinds of errands for members of congress. On the floor, rounding up members, things of that nature. And we have a couple of accounts that place it at 1800 when the first pages, young boys served on the house floor as pages. Theres an eyewi
Im matthew wasniewski, a historian of the house of representatives. Im farar elliott, a curator. We are here in the historic space. The ceremonial office, one of the oldest parts of the capitols house wing. There was built in 1857. This spot is an ideal place to talk about Historic Events in the capitol. In the artifacts we have in the collection that matt and i interpret all the time. We want to tell you about the history of the house page program, which is a history going back to the early 1800s. We dont actually know when the first pages served in the house. The tradition of having messengers and a page is simply a messenger, an errand runner. It usually has involved, at least in the u. S. Congress, young boys between age 8 and age 16. Who would run all kinds of errands for members of congress on the floor, rounding up members, things of that nature. And we have a couple of accounts that kind of place it at 1800 when the first young boys served on the house floor as pages. There is
How fractious the chamber is. And there are several folks in here yelling to be heard, trying to make their point, and right in the front theres a little page, and he is looking towards where some of the yelling is going on, and he is silhouetted. And one of the things he is there for is so we know, oh, confusion as to why this is happening is part of whats going on here. This isnt regular. According it might well be regular, but according to the London Illustrated news, this is unusual because its unlike what theyre used to. That moves along often. A few years later in 1869 Thaddeus Stevens is giving what is considered his last great speech, and there are a lot of heads and suits here. And if you were an artist, that would probably feel tough to feel like all im doing is circles and torsos. Over here in the corner he has a pair of pages here and theyre not just present sitting on the steps as pages did. But Everybody Knows hes not long for this world, and that goes on and on in 1877,