First of all, thank you for the most enlightening session. Ae i was wondering if theres something you can share with us, the most outrageous or memorable request that was ever made. Pres ive never had an outrageous request by the president of the United States or his wife. At least none that ill share. Ie your remarks, i think, are yu incredible because they humanize the people in the white house that the American People dont see. You plan to write your memoirs or at least this kind of thing and put it in print for people to read . At this time, no. I was able to get and was probably the only person that spoke to both the president and the first lady on a daily basis. And i believe that their privacy is more important than my telling that part of the story. A most of there things that i related here today, either the president or the first lady have mentioned in casual conversations with friends and r know that that information is out there. Or and i just believe that it is ym their history, w not mine. As i get further away from when i retired in the second bush th administration, i have a memory of historians that have asked sd me, you know, you ought to put this down. And some of these stories ought to be told and i had an and i Incredible Opportunity to see ao incredible amount of history. I owe the thank you to the president s that kept me there. I wondered what your typical day was like as far as how many hours a day you worked and if you have children, did they get to interact with any of the family members . Yes. My typical day was not very typical. Lly i usually got to work at about 6 15 in the morning. To establish the routine for the day, pick up notes that came in overnight. And i never knew what time i was going to go home in the around. It depended on the president and the first ladys schedule, what activities were going on. Certainly if theres a world situation that occurs, i have spent three, four, five days there at a time. At th so i really cant say that thera is a typical day. They were all memorable and i cant say they were all enjoyable, but most of them were very enjoyable but very tiring. D the staff was the same way. Theyw i knew that i could count on them. They had regular hours. They were there from such and touch time to such and such time. But i knew if i said, look, pred something justen happened in th middle east, and the president is going to have a News Conference at 9 00 at night so i need you seven people to stay ta here, you cant go home at 2 30e 3 30, you need to stay here and be prepared for that. They knew that that was their pa responsibility and there was never any question. They knew that was what we were there for. I hope that answers your question. I have a daughter and my wifl could tell you many stories about burnt meals and yelling at me for not et getting there in time to have dinner with she ano my daughter. But we do have a wonderful collection of photographs with my daughter with the president s and first ladies were very kind. Each christmas, they invited the residence staff in for a personal Christmas Party and they always took photographs. So i have photographs of my daughter from the time she was born until the time she went to college and, in fact, when she d was in college the first year, y she called home and said, dad, am i going to be invited to the Christmas Party this year . Any other questions . Could i just add one thing. F i made a couple of notes. Pops in keeping with the first ladys theme here today, there were just some things that i think i need to see about to say about r the first ladies and what they meant to the white house as it related to the years that i was there. Iginal mrs. Nicks crone, she brought ae significant amount of original white house antique American Furniture to the white house. Us mrs. Kennedy, in 1961, 6 3, did a tremendous job as we heard earlier today. But mrs. Nixon, about ten years later, working with the curator of the white house, did a gainin tremendous amount of behind the scenes work gaining original white house items and original white house antiques furnishings. Mrs. Ford, a great promoter of womens rights, breast cancer, e drug and alcohol awareness and she was very involved in the white house tours. Ite mrs. Carter, her efforts to broaden awareness. Not many people know about that, but she did a tremendous effort there. Mrs. Reagan raised private funds for redecoration. Once again, this is ten years later. A 10 y 61, 7 1, 81, there seems to be s tenyear theme on redecorating the white house. The monies that she raised for private funds redecoration and the white house China Service that she was criticized so terribly for. Na servi we hadnt had a China Service for so many years that we didnv even have enough pieces of china from one service to serve a state dinner. In fact, her first question to chiethf usher rick scouton when they were coming into the white house is what does the white house need the most . And he told her a white house China Service for 200 people. Thats what she went about doing and i used the line just say no program on drugs. Mrs. Barbara bush, her promotion of childhood literacy and literacy for adults increased support for the White House Committee for preservation of the white house and the redecoration efforts throughouti the executive residence and establishing the White House Endowment fund, a 25 million fund so that private funds are available to keep the public rooms of the white house the way you see them when you go and visit. Closed and certainly mrs. Clinton was a major supporter of that effort and closed out that effort. Thor 20 million endowment which is handled c by the White House Historical association. And mrs. Clinton expanded on that idea and people who wanted to give money for specific acqu purposes, now there is a white house major acquisitions trust. N so that when major paintings or if theres a piece of furniture, people can give money for a buh specific purpose. A tremendous effort on behalf of the white house. And laura bush, her activities a on literacy and the major renovation of the white house, once again on a tenyear cycle and also a major renovation of the truman bedroom i mean thu lincoln bedroom which hadnt e o been done since the truman administration, which she allowed cspan to come in and d a tour of that room when it was made. I wanted to mention those first lady thats i several and what they did for the white house and for all of us because the white house is our house. Tlung all for being here. Hundreds of years before american colonists revolted against the crown, in england rose the magna cart ya and curtailing the power of the monarch, king john. Wednesday nice, a look at the document 800 years later, first, the magna cartas legal heritage, then a ceremony marking the anniversary and a discussion on how the magna cart ya affected the bill of rights. Thats on American History tv wednesday night here on cspan3. Follow the cspan cities tour as we travel outside the washington beltway to communities across america. The idea behind the cities tour is to take the programming for htv, or American History television out on the road to beyond the beltway to produce pieces that are more visual, that provide a window into these cities that viewers wouldnt normally go to that have rich histories and a rich literary scene, as well. A lot of people have heard about the big cities like new york, h. A. , chicago. But what about the smaller cities, like albany, whats the history of them . Weve been over to 75 cities. We will have hit 59 cities in april 2016. Most of our programming on cspan tv is event coverage. These are not event coverage pieces. These are shorter. They take you to a home, a historic site. We partner with our cable affiliates to explore the history and literary culture of various cities. The key entry into the city is the cable operator who then contacts the city. Because, in essence, its the cable industry bringing us there. Theyre really looking for great characters. You really want your viewers to be able to identify with these people that were were talking about. Its an internet experiential type of program where were taking people on the road where they can touch things, see things. And learn about you know, its not just the local history because a lot of the local history plays into the national story. If somebody is watching this, it should be enticing enough that they can get the the idea of the story. But also feel this is just in our backyard, lets go see it. We want viewers to get a sense that, oh, yeah, i know that place just from watching one of our pieces the. Cspan mission, as we do with all of our coverage, bleeds into what we do out on the road. We happened to build relationships with the city and our Cable Partners and gather some great programming for American History tv and book tv. Watch the citys tour on the representative torres, thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your story with us. We appreciate it. Thank you. American history tv covered a symposium on the modern first lady in july. Speakers examined the style and approaches of first ladies from florence hard to go Michelle Obama. This was the theme of the annual warren g. Harding symposium at the Ohio State University at marion. Its about four hours. And now to begin our first session entitled paving the way, will you please join me in welcoming the moderator for this session, director of education in special events at the the 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 by Grace Coolidge, the representatives will give a brief biography of you how wonderful they really were. And i expect to hear an ooh and ahh from every one. A good friend of ours is is sherry holmes, site manager of the warren g. Harding president ial site. This is very unusual, and i thought about it last night, sherry. Sherry is a former journalist. Once a journalist, always a journalist. She worked with not only the marion star, owned by Warren Harding, but mrs. Harding worked there also. And in canton, ohio. Mckinleys grandfather gone that newspaper. So it is prophetic. It really is. Shes a lecturer and authored and authored the book warren g. Harding and the morningstar. Would you please introduce mrs. Harding. I would be happy to. Our 29th president , warren g. Harding was a native of marion, ohio, right where we are today. Born in 1860, she and her two younger brothers were under the strict rule of their father. An industry jauss and selfmade businessman, it was marions richest man but won no words for compassion. He attended the cincinnati music and shocked her parents eloped at the age of 19 literally with the boy next door. The marriage produced a son, marshall, before imploding in divorce. In 1891, 30yearold florence married 25yearold Warren Harding, editor of the marion daily star. The two had met at a local dance. Florence embraced newspapering as the Family Business and quickly jumped in to revamp the circulation department. She was not a woman to make housekeeping and cooking her lifes focus. For whatever reason, the hardings did not have children of their own. Florence developed Kidney Disease at age 40. And i mention this because this life ht threatening malady seriously impacted her quality of life and her philosophy of how to live her life. As her husband stayed in normal politics, she was warrens most enthusiastic supporter and sounding board. The harding center, the white house march of 1921, following the presidency of woodrow wilson, they spent just 29 months there. Before his first term was over, president harding died of a heart attack and congestive hard failure. Florence died 15 months later. She died of Kidney Disease and Heart Failure in november of 1924. She was 64 years old. Cynthia bittinger, the former executive director of the Calvin Coolidge memorial foundation. She is a lecturer and author, as well as we found out a commentator. And you have a column of your own now and then that keeps you very active. Cindy has authored the book grace cool, sudden star and native americans and africanamericans out of the shadows of history. Cynthia, will you please introduce grace. Grace was born january 3rd, 1879 in burlington, vermont. One of vermonts larger cities. You probably know vermont doesnt have very many large cities. She was an only child. And since she was an only child, her very middleclass parents could afford to send her to the university of vermont for her education. As she graduated in 1902 and immediately set out for north hampton, massachusetts to begin to teach deaf children in the aural method, which is a tough way of teaching. She taught at the clark school for the deaf until her marriage to a lawyer. Her mother wanted her to stay in burlington so she could find a nice doctor for her. But she was going home to Smith College where there werent many men. But she found the one man. They stayed at home raising two sons where her husband commuted to the ledge shaper. When calvin was tapped to run for Vice President and won, they relocated to the Willard Hotel in washington, d. C. And i think well hear through our discussion today what happened at the white house next. Thank you. Annette dunlap, another dear friend of hours, historian lecturer, and author. Her book, one of my favorites near and dear to our heart, americas youngest first lady. And shes also written a book very personal to her, a personal and social history. The busy miss dunlap here, miss dunlap has a few books to come out very soon. 2016 its charles g. Dawes. The other in 2017 that i cant wait to get my hands on. Ill be so busy reading your books is lewis comfort tiffany and the business of art. And lou hoover im sorry. I got the right title today. Shes working on lou hoovers buy agrees entitled, get this, a woman among women. Yes. Would you please introduce mrs. Hoover. Thank you, cindy. Lou henry, no middle name. Not short for louise was born march 29th, 1874 in waterloo, iowa. Her parents were charles and florence henry. And, yes, daddy wanted a boy. And so mama allowed her eldest daughter to be named. Name lou. We all think thats modern. And in many ways lou was raised as a boy. She was taught to hunt, shoot, fish, and ride a horse. But her mother also made sure she learned how to sew, cook, and keep house. And the fact that she was brought up with those twin threads from both of her parents contributed to the unique women she eventually did become. When she was 11, her father took a banking job in whittier, california. They moved there in 1885. And lou pretty much considered whittier to be her home. She entered Normal School that is a teacher college. It is now today ucla. When her family moved to monterey, she transferred to santa fe for a threeyear degree. She wanted to teach the upper grades because of her love of science. And because she was so young and a woman she could not find a position in that field. She was attending lectures that were available there in the monterey area by the recently opened stanford university. She heard a series of lecture on matters related to geology. Stanford, when it was opened, was coeducational and was one of the first private universities founded in this country that was not affiliated with a religious institution. It was also completely tuition free. And so lou wrote to dr. Branner and asked if it would be possible if she as a woman could come to study geology. She was knitted at stanford and became the first woman to receive a bachelors degree in geology from that university. It was there that she met Herbert Clark hoover, whom she is actually older than. But because she had had her previous teachers education she was obviously a freshman when he was a senior. The courtship eventually developed. Burt, as he was known to friends and family, graduated and left for australia, where he found a position in mining. And the two of them continued their correspondence and lou eventually agreed to marry him. She wrote a letter saying here i am trying desperately to find you a job and yet you decided to leave us. And he signed it lovingly your professorinlaw. The hoovers were married february 10th, 1899 and left the very next day for china. Where burt had a mining job. Over the next several years the couple traveled all over the world, lived in many different places. Lou went into the mines with burk. She was what we see so often of women with professional men with the same educational back ground. She was the unpaid employee for these mining companies. They lived in london for a number of years. Lou was instrumental in helping when world war i broke out, which we will get to later. She have involved with Many Organizations here until they eventually came to the white house. Thank you. These ladies were outstanding at a time when really women werent supposed to succeed on that level and they did. The first question i would like to pose