Thats facing all of the Museum Managers and people that are responsible for generating, producing, and collecting objects that would likely go into a museum sitting such as this is how much do we need to keep . How many things do we need to have to tell the american story and its the great conundrum of our protection. There are those who believe that maybe the time has come to start reducing the amounts of things we collect and be more judicious in how we collect them and what we collect. Is it inappropriate to use representative samples, say at an archaeological site, where things are left at the Vietnam Veterans memorial. Do we need to keep everything . And there are those in the professional field that think we need to keep everything and theres others who think sampling is the more judicious and longterm strategy. Because there is a point of diminishing return. It costs money. There is an inherent cost to storing all of these objects. In many cases the costs can be prohibitive and
Shaped the civil war and reconstruction, and the u. S. Dency focuses on president s and first ladies to learn about their politics, policies and legacies. All this month on American History tv on cspan three. To mark the centennial of the National Park service American History tv is featuring natural and Historic Sites across the country as recorded by cspans cities tour staff. We look at the history of the National Parks. The names engraved on this rock near where i marked my name and the day of the month and year. This morning were going to walk up pompeys national monument, talks a little about the site. Why is this play so important but only to the history of the United States but the history of yellowstone county, montana as well as the west in general. As we ascend pompeiis pillar, i want people to think about what it was like 200 years ago. Clark and his party are heading down the list on river hoping in planning to meet up with lewis. As they are coming down the river theyre ha
Here to america when he was 10 years old with his father who was a very famous architect. He mainly had worked just with his father up to the point in time when an architectural competition was announced for what became the arch that you see behind me. The competition was for Jefferson National expansion memorial. Which was a National Park service site founded by a president ial proclamation in 1935 to commemorate st. Louis role in the westward expansion of the United States. So 12 years after the founding of the park, an architectural competition was held to decide what the memorial itself would look like. And basically, they had about 90 acreoffs land to work with. 40 city blocks had been torn down, completely razed of all their original buildings to make way for the memorial of the st. Louis riverfront. Each architec who submitted a design proposal could really do whatever he or she wanted. It could be a huge sculpture, it could be a series of museum buildings. They did want one cen
They had gotten up, they had hunted. They had seen immense herds of buffalo. He decides to get off the river and walk for a while and see this. This large sandstone outcrop here. I think its just naturally part of Human Interest to want to come to something large, climb up on top of it, and look around. Thats exactly what he did. As part of an explorer, as somebody who was looking to traverse the west, to create maps, to learn about things that are the landscape, the natural history, et cetera, he comes and he ascends the pillar, goes up on top, looks around. Triangulates his position, comes back, and on his way down, he leaves his mark. Right over here, his signature. Thus leaving behind the only remaining onsite evidence of the entire lewis and clark expedition. This signature represents not just the visit of clark, but i think of it as signifying the start of something. But a legacy that had actually in some ways been here before him. Clarks signature on july 25th, 1806 and subseque
The programs youre watching. Tonight on cspans American History tour going west. First to st. Louis to visit the museum of westward expansion. Then a look at the expedition led by William Clark and mary lewis. And well speak with an author who wrote a book about the lewis and Clark Expedition. After that, first Transcontinental Railroad. After that journeys along the mormon trail, the pony express from the National Historic trails Interpretive Center in casper wyoming. Next a tour of the museum of westward expansion. Our tour guide is a historian with the National Park service. Were in the museum of westward expansion which is the main museum here at Jefferson National memorial. It tells the story of the settlement of the American West during the 19th century. Were actually underground directly below the 630foot stainless steel arch. Originally there were going to be surface buildings that would have housed museums and restaurant complexes and things like that but the National Parks se