History centers here at smu can come together and its wonderful for us to chronologically at least the younger partner if you will, the Clements Center has been the leading center for southwest studies for at least a generation. We still in our toddler phase look up to them and they also babysit us. It works out quite nicely. Im thrilled to have you all here tonight for our continuing series looking at history and president ial history especially since this one in particular, our talk tonight has of course such a dallas flair to it. One might say its fundamentally a dallas story and we all know especially having gone through the last 50th anniversary of the fateful day in 1963 how much dallas is continuing to wrestle with what happened here, how much dallas is coming to terms with it and in fact i want to take a moment and point out one of our good friends, Nick Longford here from the 6th floor museum which i said this in front of her before, to my mind the single best Public History M
Is a joint program tonight between our center for president ial history and our Clement Center for southwest studies. Always exciting when the two History Centers here at smu can come together and its wonderful for us, the younger partner, the Clement Center has been the leading center for southwest studies at least a generation. So we as still in our toddler phase, look up to them and they also babysit us. It works out really quite nicely. Im really thrilled to have you all here tonight for our continuing series looking at history and president ial history especially since this one in particular our talk tonight has of course a dallas flair to it, its fundamentally a dallas story and we all know especially having gone through the last 50th anniversary of the fateful day in 1963 how much dallas is continuing to wrestle with what happened here, how much dallas is coming to terms with it and i want to take a moment and point out one of our good friends who is from the sixth floor museum
Announcer American History tv was live on saturday from marion, ohio, for a modern symposium on first ladies, from Florence Harding to Michelle Obama. That was the theme of the annual warren g. Harding symposium at Ohio State University at mary and it is about four hours. Host and now entitled paving the way, we you please welcome the two rector of special events at the National First lady library, lucinda fraley. Lucinda thank you. And thank you, everyone, who was involved in the symposium. You have absolutely no how thrilled we are to be here. Anytime we get a chance to present first ladies, we always look forward to it. Our mission, really good, which is to educate the public about the lives and the activities of the first ladies of this country, and believe me, they were all wonderful, and as i was talking to somebody at the reception we think all of the president s were quite intelligent. Every one of them, because they were smart enough to marry the woman who became their life pa
White house. American history tv features cspans original series, first ladies. Cspan produced in the series in cooperation with the White House Historical association. Through conversations, video tools, and questions from cspans audience, we tell the story of americas 45 first ladies. Next, helen taft. This is about 1. 5 hours. Helen taft was more ambitious by getting to the white house than her husband. Willing to get personally involved in politics to get elected. She overcame a serious illness to directly manage the white house, invite a Classical Musicians to perform, and supported concerts that mattered to her. Helen taft also has a visible legacy. Famouston, d. C. s japanese cherry trees, the ones that frame the title basin in bring visitors to washington every year. Good evening and welcome to first ladies, influence and image, the life of helen taft. He served from 19091913. Here to tell us about her life is her biographer. Is our musical first lady. You open the book making
First ladies library, lucinda fraley. [ applause ]. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, everyone, who is involved with the symposium. You have absolutely no idea how thrilled my colleagues and i are all to be here. Any time we get a chance to present first ladies we always put forth our mission, which is to i cant think of our mission. You can tell im really good today. It is to educate public about the lives and the activities of the first ladies in this country. And believe me, they were all wonderful. And as i was talking to somebody last night at the reception, we think all the president s were quite intelligent, every one of them. Because they were smart enough to marry the woman who became their lifes partner and the first ladies of our country. We want you to be wowed. We want you to be wowed by the first ladies. And as we are every day. So i would like to introduce friends we know very well through the years. As i introduce each one in the order of Florence Harding, followed b