Medical history from a collection at marylands National Museum of health and medicine. Each week american artifacts takes you to museums to reveal what americans know about american history. Lamar alexander from richard rings onto bill clinton. He recalled his walk across tennessee after part of his 1978 gubernatorial campaign. And he shared stories behind his mementos in his d. C. Office. My walk across tennessee was 1978. I began on january 26th at my parentss home in east tennessee. And then i walked east until march 1st. A big three foot snowstorm. It took me to july 6th. Its 1,000 miles. I shook 1,000 hands a day and spent every week night with someone whom i didnt know. I grew up in the great smokies. Or right next to it. Our scout troop every weekend, we would be in the mountains. And i love the outdoors. And so do most tennesseeans. We have more people with hunting and fishing licenses than vote in republican pry marries, for example. When i ran for governor for the first time
Follow me along. We would set it up. They would get up and play music. A crowd would gather. I would make a speech. Sometimes i would play the trombone or washboard. And then we would go to the next place. It was sort of a throwback to a campaign from 50 or 60 years ago. So i walked across the state 1,000 miles. Spent the night every night with someone in their homes. I went home on weekends. Usually saturday and sunday night. Then i would go right back to the same place. People would give me walking sticks as a symbol of my walk across the state. The first day was january 26th, 1978. And it was so cold and there was so much snow and ice as i stood there on my parentss front porch in tennessee that the trombone slide froze. So i just took off walking. I think my parents were probably pretty embarrassed. They raised me to be a respectable young man. I was standing on their porch announcing i was going to walk 1,000 miles across tennessee. I would rye to shake 1,000 hands a day. Usually
It was a levi shirt that they made right there in that factory. I had to think about what am i going to wear . You dont walk across the state in a blue suit. I had this red and black plaid shirt in my closet. I went to the Friedman Army surplus and bought a dozen more. I wouldnt want to wear the same one every day. Then as i walked across the state i auctioned them off to raise money for the campaign. I knew i was doing better by the time i got to middle tennessee around nashville, one shirt went for 500. And i thought, i may have a chance to win this. I wanted to save the boots. I think one of the boots is in a museum in appalachia. They were l. L. Bean. I already had them. In july it was over 100 degrees. I would carry around a few brochures in my left hand and pass them out to people. And i wasnt paying attention. It was in newport, tennessee. Saturday morning. It was still cold. It was probably february. And i walked right in front of the pickup truck. It knocked me up over the thi
States. They put his casket next to the liberty bell. People coming through to pay their respects. The United States was born and the ghost of the founding fathers, kind of president at that one time. Thats the kind of thing that makes this room so great. And the park Service Comes in, in the 20th century, after world war ii, and unfortunately, the one thing that changed a lot of the walls, they made them fancier. Its a plain room and they wanted their paintings up and our big thing was lets get it back to the way it looked. He kind of stripped it back down to the plainer walls you see today but again, the main structure fortunately, survived the years and we were able to figure out well enough the paint colors and we were able to get it back to what we think is pretty much how it looked. The furniture is from the time, its not necessarily the original furniture, again in the early days nothing would save the british army. Nobodys thinking about the history until we have some and they
Trombone slide froze. So i just took off walking. I think my parents were probably pretty embarrassed. They raised me to be a respectable young man. I was standing on their porch announcing i was going to walk 1,000 miles across tennessee. I would rye to shake 1,000 hands a day. Usually we would plan ahead. Maybe i would stop and have lunch with certain people. By late afternoon, particularly as the weather got better, i would get to a town. And i would have a family to stay with. It might be the local farm bureau head or just were someone from the community. I might go to their kidss softball game, have dinner in their home. They would usually invite some of their friends over for the evening. By that time i was pretty tired. I would go to sleep, get up the next morning. I went to one factory in tennessee where all the women who were working there admired my red and black plaid shirt. Turns out, thats where they made the shirt. It was a levi shirt that they made right there in that fa