For six years we traveled to u. S. Cities bringing the book scene to our viewers. Watch more of our visits at c spab. Org slash cities tour. Back in 2008, the brooklyn anniversary th party that the city of new york threw. And mayor bloomberg presided over it and he said that the Brooklyn Bridge was the icon of new york city. And hes absolutely correct because if you look at television, or read magazines, its very hard to watch tv and not see repeated images of the Brooklyn Bridge. It really is the icon of new york city. And it originated here in trenton. John was born in 1806 in prussia which later became part of germany. The town he was born in is about 100 kilometers southwest of berlin. When he came here, he had a first class Engineering Education in germany by some of the best architects and engineers in europe and he arrived here just as america was taking off in terms of the industrial revolution. And there were very few train engineers here. Trained engineers here. So he showed up with tremendous skills and was able to, you know, really live his dream to designed suspension bridges. The first suspension bridge was an aqueduct to carry a canal over the allegheny river. And that led to other commissions, including to build a canal, a suspension aqueduct, for the delaware and hudson canal, and that aqueduct is still in existence. Its up in pennsylvania on the delaware between pennsylvania and new york, and it is the oldest suspension bridge in the United States. Roebling really loved engineering. That was his passion, but he also as his son said realized that he would never become a wealthy man from engineering, and he decided to go into manufacturing. When he was out in western pennsylvania, he observed what are called inclined planes. O that is a its a Railroad Track that goes up the side of a hill, so the canal boat would come to the bottom of the hill, and it would go over a submerged like flat car, and then it would be tied to the flat car, and then the flat car would be pulled up the incline plane to the top, and then let down. Thats how people thats how people crossed the Allegheny Mountains before totals were built. Emp,original ropes were h but they were fragile and they would break. He got the idea of twisting wires into a wrote. That was his first wire rope. He was a very smart businessman. He wrote an article about his wire rope that he made on his farm for this inclined plane. He wrote an article for the American Railroad journal. That was kind of like the wired magazine of its day. Most of the innovation happening that was happening in railroads. What the people that read this once the people who read this journal read that he was making wire rope, he got all these orders and started manufacturing wire rope on his farm. He did that for about seven years, but completely outgrew the capacity there. So he wrote a letter to peter cooper, who later founded cooper union in new york, the architecture, engineering, and arts school. Peter cooper had a company in trenton called the Trenton Iron Company that made steel beams and wire. He wrote to him and asked, where would you be a good place to locate . Cooper recommended trenton and told him about this particular site. So he came here in 1848, built his house on the property, and then built his factory and was in the wire rope business. Wire rope we dont think of very much today. It is not something that people 100, 150 yearst ago, it was a new technology that was essential for many other technologies. Not only suspension bridges, but ,lso elevators, skyscrapers es to pull, the min coal and or out of the earth, Tall Building construction, and airplanes. Airplanes have small diameter wire ropes that go from where the pilot since on the wheel back to the rudder. So they turn the rudder. Roeblings got into the airplane business and called it a record air cord. They produced the cord that Charles Lindbergh used when he flew the spirit of st. Louis to paris in 1927. Roebling not only designed the bridges and various types of wire rope, but he also had to design the machinery to make the wire rope because you couldnt call up somebody and order a wire rope machine. You had to build it yourself. There are many drawings of his showing his original designs for wire rope machines. The original drawings that he did. After he died, his son washington and his other two sons ferdinand and charles took over this business called john a johns sons company company. Ngs sons as the decades went on, the size of the suspension bridges kept getting bigger and bigger. That required larger diameter wire ropes, and the wire ropes were not used for the top cables. They were laid by individual wires. But the wire ropes were used for the suspenders, suspend a ropes that hold up the deck. As the bridges got bigger, you needed bigger suspender ropes. And the got deeper mining elders wanted to haul out more iron ore, you needed bigger wire ropes. Kepte Roebling Company building a series of wire rope machines. Ins wire rope machine built 1893 is the largest wire rope machine ever built, and at the time, it was the largest in the world. Tall and has4 feet an entire story below where we are standing. That has a really marvelous that of gigantic gears enable the machine to have three different motions. The first motion was that the machine would turn clockwise, the whole platform, and the spindle would rotate clockwise. , each ones happening of these individuals pools on individualsch ls to turn, and that would take the kinks out of the strand. Strands, they went up to the top like this rope hanging down here, and the middle of the spindle is hollow. Another strand came up from the bottom, and at the top the six strands were turned around the middle core strand, and they used a closing head that put a little twist in the ropes, and that enabled the ropes enabled the strands to lay and very closely together. Worked onng Company Dozens of suspension bridges. The biggest one was the golden gate bridge. Secondbiggest was the George Washington bridge. They worked on many others. Betweenti bridge cincinnati and covington over the ohio river, a new york city on the east river you can see Three Bridges with roebling wire rope. What was the Brooklyn Bridge, second was the manhattan bridge, and the third was the williamsburg bridge. Various other bridges around the country. At the height of the roebling era, probably the highest employment was during the first world war. Whole company, including here at the two other factories in trenton and the factory in roebling, new jersey employed about 8000 people. Probably about 2500 wouldve worked on the side. Many family members would work together. Brothers, fathers, sons, cousins. It was very common that there were multiple family members working for the company. I interviewed a man when i was working on my book. In 1939 whenere the depression was on, and it was hard to get a job. He said his uncle knew somebody that worked here, and the man put in a good word for him, and they called him in for an interview. He came in at 18 years old and said, they offered me a job and told me to come on monday. He said, i went home and told my mother i got a job at and my mother said to now youre set for life. during the second world war, there were so much demand for wire rope that a lot of companies in the steel business and other companies started building wire rope factories to supply the war effort. Over, there was an overcapacity of wire rope. Thate roeblings saw that was not going to be very promising for the future. They sold the company, and it was bought by the colorado fuel and iron Company Based in ludlow, colorado pueblo, colorado. They saw it as an opportunity to get the roebling name because they had a stellar reputation for very high quality wire rope, and they can also combine their own wire rope business that they had with roebling and get some economy of scale. Cf i ran the roebling factories until the 1970s, and then we had the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973. Oil, iot the price of think, by a factor of 45 times from what was before four or five times from what it was before. The roeblings steel mill was operating on oil to melt scrap steel to make wire for its wire rope. Embargo, by restricting the supply of oil and making it very expensive, maybe roebling plant very uncompetitive. There were other rope factories and steel mills that used electricity to melt steel. But roebling used oil. Shut down the roebling steel mill in 1974, and or actually, beforehand, they shut down these wire rope shops here, which are all around us now. In 1973t them down because there was too much capacity, and wire rope capacity in wire rope manufacturer. When you think about the legacy of the roeblings starting with john roebling, the legacy is one of innovation. Creativity ishat taking one idea and another idea and smashing those two separate ideas together and coming up with something new. When you think of a bridge, it is really a utilitarian structure. It is not a church or courthouse , a city hall. It is not meant to be a symbol of power or god. It is a utilitarian structure. His job is to get you from one side of a river to another. But when he designed the Brooklyn Bridge, he made it a work of art because he knew these were going to be americas monuments for the future. The relationship between politics and celebrity goes back a long time, at least as far back as andrew jackson, who was known and celebrated as the great general of the battle of new orleans. Modernday call celebrity politics really begins in the 1920s with Warren Hardings front porch president ial campaign. The way they did president ial campaigns for harding is they kept harding at home. Everybody would come and visit a day ofwhich created newspaper reporting as he stayed home and would be focusing there and ohio. The singer councils and the came to thelsen home in ohio, where they paraded down main street and started singing songs in a hardings praise. I think of that as the first time of what we have celebrity politics in the modern age where celebrities are interested in promoting a candidate. It is interesting in the 1950s that celebrity politics becomes a National Kind of episode. Eisenhower was such an interesting case because eisenhower was somebody who was not interested in politics, and really wasnt interested in celebrity. He had been a military man his entire life. In fact, he refused to run for president in 1952, but allowed his name to be entered and nominated. So he spent most of the 1952 primary campaign overseas in paris, where he was Supreme Commander of nato. This made for such an interesting story to me because he had a president ial candidate who was offsite, not produce big in his campaign. What did people do at various rallies and events . They were supporting eisenhower for a republican nomination by replying on people like clark gable or helen hayes to come out and speak on his behalf and support him as a candidate. One of the interesting things about the 1952 campaign. Is that the dip campaign is that the democrats had been in power for 20 years. Roosevelt had taken us through the depression and most of world war ii. , and nowd his own term many people in the country felt that there needed to be a change in government. The republican frontrunner was a man named senator robert , from an old republican family in ohio. His father had been a candidate for president. He was known in party circles as mr. Republican. Eisenhower came in, and the people were immediately concerned about the emergence of this candidate. They called him a glamour candidate. It is a little hard for us to imagine eisenhower as being labeled as the glamour candidate , but to the diehard task people , that is exactly what eisenhower represented. Racehower came into this and there is a big struggle between traditional republicans and many of these people who were not international lists and then people like eisenhower who were very media savvy and good on television and radio, and also had a more Global Vision for the United States. Eisenhower was such a hero of monumental proportions. He was the person who had led the allied forces to victory in world war ii. Many republicans in hollywood, and Many Democrats who had previously supported roosevelt, found themselves being attracted to eisenhower. There was something about the man that exuded a lot of confidence in his supporters. 20 of the things his candidacy represents for a lot of people is that republican candidates are often very good at attracting people from the other party, people who can bring in independents and swing voters, in this case swing voting democrats. This is something that eisenhowers advertising people knew and worked very hard to exploit. You like ike, i like ike and everyone likes ike we dont want john or dean or harry lets get in step with ike you like ike, i like ike, everyone likes ike for president hang of the banners, beat the drum we will take ike to washington commentators were concerned that politics would become an exercise in show business. Their concern was that the politics would turn voters into an audience, and that audiences would just soak up everything that is told to them. People believed that advertising was a form of mind control. There was ahat if totalitarian regime going on in the soviet union where people werent allowed to be independent, that we were creating our own totalitarian environment through mass advertising. There were a lot of people like John Steinbeck or Vance Packard who wont who wrote eloquently about the problems of ofning a nation into a mass tv viewers, that somehow they would all become zombies. That was a word people would use. Thats one thing when youre a bang a breakfast cereal, but another when you are looking at a political candidate. Eisenhower had a very convertible relationship at st with show business uncomfortable relationship at first with show business and advertising. He was uncomfortable when he was initially asked to appear on film and television commercials. He was filmed by a guy named rosser reeves, a very famous advertising executive at the time. He created these First Television commercials for president ial campaign. Eisenhower was very weary of this process, and overheard during the process of taping these shows muttering to himself, to think that an old soldier has come to this. There was a lot of resistance with eisenhower. Untilk him several years he realized this was a very useful way of connecting with the electorate. It was a very useful way of connecting with the american people. Somebody who was uncomfortable with television at first and uncomfortable with show business at first ended up coming around to it and seeing that it would be very beneficial to him and his administration. Celebrity politics has changed and grown tremendously since the 1950s. After eisenhower, we have the rise of jfk and the whole glamorization of the first family and the white house. Havee late 1960s, we celebrities who are very involved in nixons campaign, and extraordinarily involved in the campaigns for the democratic candidates, particularly during the primaries. G mccarthy, Bobby Kennedy being among them gina mccarthy, eneby kennedy g mccarthy, Bobby Kennedy being among them. It was the same Advertising Agency that had controlled many of ikes political appearances that got Ronald Reagan to move from being a film actor to being a television host, and then a spokesman for conservative causes. We can actually trace reagan back to the sort of same promotional scheme that had played such an Important Role in eisenhower. In our age of mass media, and age of television, first radio and then television, and now cabletelevision and social media, celebrity has become, for good or bad, a pretty important ingredient in how people evaluating president ial candidates. It is not that they are looking for somebody who is a star. It is not like they are looking for somebody who has the chops in entertainment. But they are looking for people who have a certain star quality, people who look good on television, who they feel they can live with seeing on their tv screens and newspapers for the next four years. The influence of celebrity is more powerful today than it certainly was in eisenhowers time. I would love for readers to come away from liking ike with a real strong sense of the history of this phenomenon. Too often, commentators would talk about the problem of celebrity politics as if it is something that has just come to us, and as it is just coming from the hollywood left. But in reality, it has been with us for a long time. It raises a lot of questions about what we expect from our democracy. One of the interesting things to think about today is, of course, we have a rather the Television Star a reality Television Star as our president. One of the interesting things reading about eisenhower and the 1950s showed me is how things change very much in terms of what we expect from our entertainment and media. I was saying before, most of the commentators in the 1950s were worried that this influence of show business on politics would create a kind of saccharine, listless environment in which we wouldnt really think critically about our politics. This is what eisenhowers advisors aims to do. They wanted to create a peaceful center that people could find a lot of agreement in as they watched variety shows supporting a president ial candidate. At the same time, there were a few commentators who said, it ission may seem like going to neuter all of us, and it may seem like it is going to make things very peaceful, but in fact, television is going to be better at expressing conflict that it is at expressing or creating peace. I think we can say now in 2017 that television is much, much better at creating conflict and division rather than creating a sense of agreement and consensus. Trenton is very important during the revolution. That is something that people only think about my think about the battle of trenton. They recognize that that was important. That was a major turning point. It actually was a time that saved the resolution the revolution at that point in the war and allowed it to continue. Trenton goes way beyond importance to just that one battle. Washington spent more time in new jersey than any other state during the revolution. His armies spent a lot of time here. As the people of trenton themselves, the craftsman and woundnts who lived here, up playing a role in the war to support Washingtons Army, to support the cause in various ways. Washington wants to avoid at all costs the kind of military action that would threaten the existence of his army. He would fight, but he never wanted to be captured like cornwallis was at yorktown. He wanted to avoid that kind of disaster. That would have ended the revolution. He always was and to fight another day in his battles. The important thing to him was to keep the revolution going and keep the army in the field. That new jersey, in general, and trenton in particular was very instrumental in helping him accomplish that goal. It served the Continental Army as a hospital. Right where were standing here at the barracks, the guards was an Army Hospital during the revolution. Is where washington made one of his major innovations at that time by inoculating all his troops against smallpox and saved his army, which might have been wiped out, around 77 1776. In addition, trenton, because of its location between new york and philadelphia, was a major supply depot. The army needed food, and trenton became, because of its a supplyc location, depot from before the battle of trenton all the way through 1783. It kept the army going. One of new jerseys main contributions to the revolution in this area was the organization of its militia. Functionia was a state , not a Continental Congress function. New jersey had passed a law that required meant to be and it. New jersey, because of Washingtons Army being here at the british being constantly in philadelphia, the northmen were called out very frequently. It was virtually every other month or every third month sometimes, or if they were lucky, every fourth month, that a man might get called up. Strenuous on, very trying to keep the local economy going. One thing that we dont normally think about the militia is, as parttime soldiers, they were fulltime civilians with jobs that they had to leave in order to go out on militia duty. And militia duty was always considered to be kind of a last resort defense, not a first resort. But during the revolution, at almost became a first resort. Men were taken away from homes, taken away from their farms, order to goin against the british and prevent the british from making attacks into new jersey. It got so bad that washington even described and used the complained people that the new jersey militia was not always coming out and being vigorous, he says, it is no wonder. They are a people harassed and exhausted. One of the first books i wrote about the revolution in new title, we use that as the , a people harassed and exhausted. Washington complained about the new jersey militia, but i think the down he knew i think deep down he knew they had sacrificed a great deal in order to help out. The first time he came to new jersey was on his way to cambridge to be commander of the common army. He passed through town on his way there. In terms of bringing his troops here, it was after the new york campaign, after the battle of long island and white plains. Those were all pretty bad issues for the common army. Harlem heights had been so bad, but the others were definitely. He brings his army to new jersey in order to keep it between the british army in philadelphia. He winds up retreating across new jersey 80 miles or so, and he gets to trenton about heember 1 and second a 1776 had been in new jersey from was the month before that. Then he crosses over into pennsylvania in order to keep between him keep between the british and philadelphia his big concern. Philadelphia. His big concern was that there are going to try to take philadelphia before the end of the campaign Reason Campaign season. Hen though it was december, thought they would try to push in a few more weeks and take philadelphia. That was his main concern. But he did go to pennsylvania. The british took over all of central new jersey, including trenton, and established their Winter Quarters here. They decided not to go on to philadelphia until spring. Course, then it is washington coming back and attacking those winter orders Winter Quarters. North ande and lord lord germane and the bridge hierarchy had wanted to finish the war in a year. That by anticipated january 1, 1777, this was going to be they are not going to have to worry about it anymore. They were a little bit unhappy with the generals for not having finished the war off. But in the spring, no problem. Certainly it is going to take more than one more year. But washington was looking at the end of the road instead of the beginning on the british were. He decided he had to make some kind of move. He had been retreating ever since the battle of long island in august 1976. He needed to come up with something that would not only encourage his men to reenlist or extend their enlistments beyond january 1 but also encourage new men to join the army who had been in yet. They were who had been in yet. They were raising who hadnt been in yet. He needed to do something to stimulate recruitment for the cup final, as well as keep the man already and it agreeing to stay. Thats when he decided to go across and attack at trenton. The troops were a little troopsended, but the were some of the crack troops the british had. Haitians and not british troops . Why the contracted troops rather home troops . Rather than the home troops . It was actually a reward and an honor for those haitians to be here. They had done so well in the attacks that the british had. Arried out in new york to move them to another location would have been an insult. The left was a position of honor. He didnt want to insult these guys. He wanted to let them know they had done a good job. Thats why he put them there in trenton. Wereact that the hessians somewhat unprepared, but also washingtonst up success. To that then was that of the weather. The storm on the night of the crossing, while it delayed him from getting to trenton when he wanted to and the surprise before just dawned that he wants to have. Even though he was late getting to trenton, the storm was also part of the camouflage that kept the hessians from notice he was coming. The hessians didnt send out their patrols quite as far as they normally would have that morning because of the weather. There were other factors that made the hessians sure that they werent going to be attacked. It wasnt just because they felt that the american troops were not capable. It was the weather, as much as anything, and the fact that they had been attacked so frequently with smaller groups that any intelligence they got to washington was going to attack. They assumed it was going to be a smaller attack, not the larger one that eventually came. , for many became reasons, a very short, quick action in which washington was the 2 3 or 3 4 of hessians in trenton. But the main thing we remember the battle of trenton for in terms of its outcome. Outcome and influence on the rest of the war is it gave the washington something Washingtons Army to feel good about. Escorting 900 hessian prisoners across the river to pennsylvania had to feel good, particularly since they took almost no casualties. The hessians had many more casualties than the americans did in the battle. Two famous wounded americans. , a being William Washington captain and distant cousin of George Washington, and the other was future president of the United States james monroe, who was a lieutenant under captain washington. Those were the two men who were wounded by gunfire. Munro almost died from his wound, but survived. Those were the primary casualties on the american side. A couple of guys froze to death on the march to trenton, but in the battle itself there were very few american casualties. The americans really felt good about what they had accomplished their. Washington was then able to get a lot of the men to reenlist excuse me, to extend their enlistments for several weeks, which allow them to then be around for the battle of princeton on january 3. It did encourage men to join the Continental Army in those new regimens informed. Everybody on the rebel side or the patriot side a breath of fresh air that maybe we can deal with this thing now. Wass the battle of trenton overcome of the war was certainly not anywhere near over. The war is going to continue until 1783. Its got six and a half years after the battle of trenton and princeton before the war is actually over. There were people who felt after the battle trenton that it was somewhat of a foregone conclusion, that eventually the americans would win. There was more hope that the americans would win, but it was still going to be a long war. Trenton, i believe, is not understood by people as much as it should be. I think that is everybody understood the full role of trenton during the war, a lot more people would want to come visit these barracks and see the places where so much was done that doesnt always make it into the history books, but was final to the survival of the and the ability of americans to carry out that war for six and a half years after the battle of trenton. It, iving researched more haverstand why been made aware of the Country Mission in trenton in the past. Wider havent been more signs around telling people where something happened in trenton. There is, but not as many as i thought there and be there is some, but notis as many as i thought there would be. The ordinary people, the people who were the support for everything that was going on, support people never make it into the history books. But without them, the guys making the history really couldnt have done their jobs. I think that is one of the big stories that trenton during the revolution can tell, that it is not just the heroes that make the history books, but the combined effort of the whole population that leads to their success. The library was founded in 1796 when the legislature assigned responsibility for the collection of books that they had been building since colonial times. They were directed to create a list of books to include the proceedings. Toas further directed, prepare at to procure at the hee of the legislator was also directed to make sure he preserve these materials, and that this early collection of books that actually is the foundation of the Research Collection today. Isi am often asked, which the oldest book in this state larry collection . A pamphlet from 1496, which is our oldest item. As it is only seven pages long, we dont feature it is a book. Lizziest book is history of rome, printed in 1535 in switzerland, and the interesting thing about this book is that it has a legend case,t, as often is the and legends are not true. The legend about this book is by a close owned of thein germany protestant reformation. And what led people to think it belongs to him was these notations that ran all through the book. It was sold by samuel souther by, most likely because he could make more money if it was associated with someone famous. Scholarsthe langston have studied this book and say that the writing does not match his handwriting. So unfortunately, that particular legend is not true. However, it is still interesting to think of this book as being around at the time that the president time of the protestant reformation. It comes from a time when talks about religion were changing, and around the around 100 years later he you get those same people affected by that thinking about religion coming to america, seeking religious freedom. Some of them wind up in new jersey. This is the first book that we know was printed within new jersey. Laws of 1727 printed in 1728. Printingg it out about new jersey has been done in either new york or philadelphia or london up until this point. But in 1728 it temporary Printing Press was set up in burlington, new jersey to print paper money for the colony. The legislature wanted it close they can receive the printing. At the time they did that, they also did this book. This is the first known printed book within new jersey. Here we have what we consider one of the founding books of the new jersey state library. It is a gift to the legislature from the first appointed governor of new jersey, lewis. Orris new jersey and new york shared a governor. Morris was the first time when new jersey and new york were not inextricably linked, although to that point they had their own courts and legislature. One we can see his signature a certificate from his own collection. We have journals of the houses of parliament during the time of queen elizabeth. Maybe he just wanted to remind the legislature who made the laws and where the loss came from, and to bear that in mind. Gave toa speech that he the new jersey legislature. He reminds them of what their job is. Doesays in the speech, moreover to seem to be comprised under the terms of justice and honesty, and it is god only can make men so, it is the business of the legislature to make. Angerous i think that ties in perfectly with the map here in the gallows and the warning. God may make us good, but the legislators job is to make sure that we do not do bad. And the back of this speech, it was printed by another in samaritan. , they imprisoned the printer rather than the author. He went to prison because of printing things in support of morris, who is a political opposition. One of myhere we have favorite stories of new jersey. Again, it is in the colonial period, but a little later before the revolutionary war. The story starts actually in 1768. Was ontime, george iii the throne in england. William franklin, the engine illegitimate the illegitimate son of benjamin franklin, was governor of new jersey. He was thought to be a fair governor, and people respected him. Washe time, new jersey divided into east and west jersey. Waseast jersey treasurer called stephen skinner. He was in the habit of keeping the east jersey treasury in his home. He would put it in his office and a lots chest. The story begins one dark and stormy night, as stories so often do. It was rainy, it was dark. And someone broke into his house via a window and ransacked the house, and stole everything except for 100 pounds. Stole,6700 pounds they which was everything that the new jersey colony owned at the time. The next morning, the theft was discovered by his apprentice. Immediately, skinner alerts his boss. He then issues this proclamation offering a reward of 60 pounds for anything leading to the return of the money. William franklin also taught at that time to the attorney general, the council, and the chief justice, who decided that there has to be an immediate details inquiry into what happened. Skinner, within three days, skinner and the apprentice come down and testify in front of the council. They are closely questioned. The apprentice tells how he came , the doore morning was locked, but the window was wide open. The room had been ransacked. There was only 100 pounds in the chest, and they had laid the sword of skinner upon the table. While they did that why they did that, why they didnt, no one knows. Maybe it was too stormy. Maybe it was very dark. After close questioning, the council decides that it is not an inside job. They say that skinner has not care,sed due and close and they offer him to be to pay it. He balks at this because that is a lot of money he says, this will bankrupt me. Know, i cant repay. Nothing happens then for several years. He continues to not pay the money. In 1772, a new assembly is convened. They take this issue again. This is where we really start to see the change from the colonial mentality to the revolutionary mentality. They start to demand that skinner pay back the money. They demand that the governor replace skinner with a treasurer of fair truth. This is unheard of because the governor is representative of the crowd is his prerogative to appoint new people. The governor says, no. Is dimly the assembly doesnt want a new treasurer. We are not going to fund the government until you give us a new treasurer. Got persuadeder to resign by the governor, and then they put in someone of the skinners choosing never repaid the money. I think there are two things that this story illustrates. Thinking, butn also, if you know anything about politics in new jersey and how we never have any money, sometimes i think, things could be worse. We could have lost everything. It is rumored to be the First Library established in the state of new jersey, and the second oldest in the nation. March 1752, the Library First became established as a subscription library, which means individuals had to pay a small monthly fee in order to take items outside the library. Ben franklin actually played a. Uge role in that he collaborated with individuals from england to have 50 volumes sent to trenton to establish our first collection. The library was open to the public regardless. Anyone was allowed to come in and research and so forth, but in order to physically take out a book and take it home, you had to pay the monthly fee. That is how we were able to maintain some of the volumes today because during the battle of trenton, with the british and the hessians, they actually bert the original actually bu rnt the original library. Individuals had paid their subscription fee and looked at home. There was a plea to those individuals in the newspaper, please bring those volumes back, and the library can boast that we have two copies today. They are not in the best of shape, but we own them. We are still searching our archives to see if there are any more that exist. Toniana room. Ren she has pulled out for me to of the original collection that we can actually locate that were miraculously saved because they missed the fire of 1776 when the actions and british came through and burnt down the library. After the newspaper put out a request for individuals who had any of the original collection to return, they were able to salvage at least these two. We know they are rumored there are rumored to be numerous other copies of the original from ben franklin from his donation. However, the library is going through an infant tory, and we hope to be able to find as many of them as possible. This building was rebuilt in. Une 1900 801970 six, the new edition was built so we can accommodate the public to a greater capacity. His beautiful marble staircase this room used to be used for firstch when it was erected in 1915. The previous director the decided shector wanted to convert it into a beautiful reading room where our patrons would be able to come and enjoy the room. What is really exciting is on the balcony level, there are some aerials where they actually look out as if they were windows onto that portion of the city. Thats what you would see back in 1915. Erect research to long ando hard to find outr what colors would have been in the room in 1915, which is how she decided on these colors. Of the most exciting thing about this is we were placed on the. Allot by referendum vote he placed us in a position where we would never fall under the hands of the public again, fearing we would never be able to exist. By referendum vote, we are secured as a free public library. It didnt rely on whether anyone had the money or not to subscribe. Thaterate out of a budget is appropriated to us by the city of trenton, but we are secure and that we will always be a free public library. Libraries are an amazing institution within our countries. Free libraries even greater. We have the ability to offer individuals things they cannot afford or have access to. What is amazing is here in the free public library, everyone is easily is equal. It doesnt matter if you are the richest person or not a penny to your name. When you come through the door of a public library, you are equal, and everyone has access to everything. Announcer our visit to Trenton New Jersey is a book tv exclusive on cspan cities tour. For six years, we have traveled to u. S. Cities, bringing the book seem to our users. You can watch more at cspan. Org citiestour. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] take book tv and American History tv to hyde story ofe explore the franklin roosevelt, allen, and the extended family. Saturday franklin roosevelt, eleanor roosevelt, and extended family at hyde park. It really was not until my grandmothers funeral that i realized that she was really a special person, and something of a celebrity. We never thought of her in that way. We never viewed my grandmother. She was only a grandmother to us. Thats all she ever wanted to be. Book, tony russo and his fdr and the post office. I found letters in the archives in his handwriting where he quoted stamp collecting with saving his life after he became ill and hated up being confined to a wheelchair. Announcer on sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, we toured the first president ial library and the National Archive system. It was established by president franklin roosevelt. He was looking for a way to preserve the papers of his administration and his personal papers. Thee created a library on grounds of his estate here and hyde park newhe basically whd to do was raise private money to build the library and then he gave it to the government to be operated by the National Archives. Watch cspan cities tour of hyde park, new york. Sunday, working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. Tonight on cspan, President Trump announcing changes to u. S. Policy in cuba. Then an update on congressman steve scalise. And Mitch Landrieu talking about Race Relations and confederate monuments. Miami to trump visited announce changes to u. S. Policy on cuba including restrictions travelers. We hear first from sen. Toomey diazarge senator balart. [applause]
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