Brian what makes them so interesting . Betty part of the interest for me is that there are parts of sumners career that are famous and very well known. Everybody who has visited the theyve heardng, infamous caning. But that is often the only thing they know about him. He left the senate for a few years and came back in 1859. The most interesting part of his career came after that. He came back in 1859 and the most important part was when he becomes a dedicated advocate for civil rights laws. He was contradictory and he was ornery. He was difficult and arrogant and most of his colleagues hated him. He has left a Lasting Legacy that i think is quite profound. Brian why Everett Dirksen . Brian he was from a different perspective. Senatory in the 1960s. Nd he died in 1969. He was probably the most effective minority leader weve ever had. This is the time of heavy Party Dominance in the senate. Nevertheless, he managed to shape every bill that came through. Most particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights act of 1965. He was entertaining and clownish. The voters loved him. The press loved him. But behind the clown was this very serious legislator. So like sumner, he just has endless layers that you can keep peeling off. Brian how long have you been the Senate Historian . Betty i came in june of 1998. Ive been the Senate Historian since june 2015. Brian what is your day like . Betty they are very rarely the same. You dont really know what youre going to be working on. You are going into the office thinking, i am going to dig into this or that and then the phone rings and something happens. Somebody said something. Statement. S made a and then you immediately get pulled into other directions. Because people want to know, has that ever happened before . I see ever said that he for . Has this type of bill ever been passed before . So you really go from quickly topic to topic all day. I like that and i think its fun. It is interesting. Although i do long for days when i can dig into a big Research Project and stick with it all day. Brian when did you first get interested in the senate . Betty well, when i was in graduate School Getting my phd in political history. Particularly the workings of congress. So much of the political history is focused on the president ial story so i became interested in how congress had a role to play and that is how i got into the senate. I came into the Senate Historical office with a background in policy history, political history, and congressional history. Not specifically Senate History. From the university of california, Santa Barbara. Brian so as you watch the story andhe president ial campaign historian ofthe say, they hadyou all these promises that everybody was making and they dont have a clue as to what is going to happen once he gets to the senate . Betty i think that is true for the voters and the candidates sometimes. There are so many promises made but when it comes down to the daily nittygritty it is a complicated and often contentious process. And so, you have to come in with lofty goals because it takes goals to achieve any accomplishments at all. But it is a system built toward incremental change rather than massive change. Brian so, i got onto your website. Do you know everything that is on there . Betty [laughter] i wish i did. But i cant of it say i know everything. There is a lot there on history. We have about 10,000 pages of material. Back in 1998, it consisted of a few pages. There were about 10 pages of historical material on the site. My colleague dick baker, when he hired me in 1998, he said one of my first jobs would be to populate the website because it was all brand new. The senate and quickly began to approve these reports and oral history interviews. Everything we could to populate that site and we did a lot of massive downloading the first year or so just to get things on there. But over the last 1617 years, we really looked at how we could fill the holes in the stories. What kind of information could we give to the public to really help them understand how the senate operates. How its members serve in their positions as senators. And also to look at what we know it and do not have. Often when we are looking on a roger it is because we do not know anything about that. So then we will explore it and we will end up some sort of writing posted on the website. Brian what would you say is your best source of information when you need to find out about somebody who has served on the senate or some specific thing that happened . Betty if you are looking for basic statistical information, we would go to senate. Gov, that gives you Service Dates and community chairmanships. It is linked from the history and art pages. It gives you the basic stuff. If youre looking for something beyond that, there is also bibliography our biography for every senator who ever served in the senate as well as a guide to all of research sources, archival sources around the country. That is a tremendous resource for scholars and the public. And then we also have a lot of aids on the site. There are senators that have played a unique role in some way and we keep building that collection. Someday we hope to have a complete biography on everybody who has served in the senate. Brian here is a video of a senator from 1952 that i that you know something about. [video clip] i think it is disgraceful. Almost like these political offices are up for sale. The only way i have two protest is to show that a kennedy can do withoutit can be done such means. Sacrifice, i have because i can assure you that i would like to see a little tv and newspaper as myself once in a while. But i think there must be a time when we get back to campaigning, persontoperson campaigning and a reasonable amount of television and radio. And newspaper. But it is a disgrace that millions of dollars are being spent all of the country to buy a seat. [end video clip] brian so how would her frustration be doing today . Betty that was margaret j smith, a long time serving republican senator. That was her campaign that she ultimately lost to hathaway. She has taken great pride throughout her service which began in 1949 to not using a lot of money in campaigns. She would campaign for election and reelection for less than 500, 1000. Was sort of the oldstyle, here shaking on the corner style of politician. It worked well for her. She was a very popular figure for many years. She was an extremely important figure in Senate History but in 1972, it was changing and she refused to do it. Her refusal to spend money on combinationn in with her hawkish stance on vietnam really brought about her defeat in 1972. Brian first woman to what . Betty she was the first woman to serve in both houses of congress. She was especially elected by her husband clyde smith. He died in office. She was elected to his seat. Times intelected four house. E in the that was a big step in those days. When she ran and 1948, it was out of her balance. She won that election handedly with large margins and did very well up to 1972. And she really broke a lot of the barriers for women serving in the senate. And was extremely forceful in many ways. Very independent. Moderate in her politics although she was very strong on National Defense and very important in the early days of the space program. And she was just a person of great courage and not afraid to speak out. The first woman to ever serve in the house was janet rankin. 1917, elected in 1916. The first woman to ever serve in the senate came in 1922. A very interesting character or who came into the senate after appointment in 1922 and she was then 87yearsold. There is a story. Story . To tell the remember that the women got the vote in 1920 and the governor from georgia had a vacancy to fill in the Georgia Senate delegation. There had been a death in august. He wanted that seat for himself, actually. He decided he needed someone who could serve to hold the seat as a placeholder until the general election said that he could get a chance to be elected to the seed himself. After much thought, he chose a woman named Rebecca Latimer sultan who was as i mentioned, 87yearsold by that time. She was also sort of the grand old dame of politics in georgia at that time. Her husband had been a politician and she had been a prominent figure. She wrote a newspaper column and was a strong suffragist. And so she was very well known across the state. When the governor appointed her 1922, he made history by putting the first woman into the senate, but he was also hoping he was doing something that would help his own election come november. When he appointed her, the senate was not in session. It was october, the senate was out of session until november. It was expected that she would never be sworn into office. That she would never really serve as a real senator. It was purely a symbolic move on his part. It was an attempt to get the vote of the women in georgia. They now had the right to vote and most of them were opposed to him because he had been a very strong opponent of womens suffrage. He appointed her to the seat and her Service Began in october. She did not have a chance to be sworn in, but of the next few weeks, women across the United States began to petition the president to create a special session of congress and they started to call for her to be sworn in so she could really serve as a United States senator and eventually in november, that is what happened. A special session of congress was called. The president said it was to do with military issues but i suspect it had to do with womens voices across the country. Rebecca felton comes to the senate. The governor of georgias plan does not work out. He does not win that seat. A man named Walter George one and served there for many years. But Walter George kindly stepped aside and allowed her to be sworn in on november 22, 1922. She then served for 24 hours and gave one speech on the senate floor. Cast one vote. Says that the time for women had come, and then she leaves and goes back to private life. So it is a very short term. About six weeks officially but only 24 hours as an officially sworn senator but it is an important turning moment because it is the first time a woman had actually served and been sworn into the Senate Chamber. Brian how was janet rankin sworn in before the women had the right to vote . Betty that is a good question. In the western states, a lot of the western states were allowing women to vote. The right to vote for women came incrementally across the country. There were some states that allow them to vote in school and local elections. And the western states, a lot of them were writing constitutions. Untilsnt become National Amendment but some of the states had already established that and montana was one of them. So she came in with the full support of the women in 1916. Brian how many women are in the senate right now . Betty are our 20 serving right now. We have been stuck at 24 the last 45 years now. Brian what changed that god got women into the senate seats . When i came to town, there was smith. Rgaret chase betty throughout margarets career she was able to serve for 24 years. For 15 years, she was the only woman in the senate. She was joined from time to time by short termers. One served a short time. Other than that, it was most women who came in for short term appointments. Not until 1992 do we get more the end to women who served simultaneously in the senate. That was a long time since 1992 to get to that point. There was a few turning points in the story. That was one time when Hattie Carraway gets to be the first woman elected to the senate. Margaret smith has a huge impact. She was a very high profile woman and got a lot of attention, she runs for president for the republican nomination in 1964. That opened a lot of doors for women in politics. You get into the 1980s and 1990s and there is tremendous progress for women all over. It built up to the state. It takes a long time and it takes a long time not only because they have to overcome expectations but also hurdles for Campaign Finance to build the organizations they need. That is a big task and it takes a lot to build that kind of infrastructure that helps them to win statewide elections. Brian a lot of this is random because i am pulling out small items. You have one page items on your website and you also connected to some of the Current Affairs and all. This is not exactly current. Let me read the first couple of sentences and show you some video. This is june 17, 1930. The Senate Passes this and there is a picture of senator smoot. It starts out this way. A memorable scene from the movie Ferris Buellers day off as a High School Teacher vainly struggling to get some response from his students. Lets look at what that really look like from over 30 years ago. [begin video clip] in 1930, the republicancontrolled house of representatives in an effort to anyone . Anyone . Depression. In an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Does anyone know the effects . It did not work and the United States sank deeper into the great depression. [close video clip] brian did you write that by the way . Betty don wrote that one, he loved that movie and remembered it very well. We joke a lot in the office. Particularly when you get rings like holley smoot. You get all these bills with names attached to them and people often get the names wrong and mixed up. We often hear the name wrong. The real stories behind these pieces of legislation have been lost through history. So people just remember the names but they can never get them quite right. In this case, he was trying to take a very serious issue and try to make it sort of approachable and accessible to a larger audience and that is what don was doing with his story. Brian there is another story. The United States constitution establishes three eligibility requirements for service in the senate. Age, citizenship, and residents. Residents. What is the age . Betty 30. And nine years of citizenship and you have to be a resident at the time of the election host . For nine years . Brian why nine years . Betty that goes back to the founding fathers. In the constitutional convention, they were trying to come up with a constitutional system that would be workable. That was before we had our independence and they were looking for ways that they could sort of grandfather people into office. They were also looking for ways to distinguish the house from the senate and so they would have stricter qualifications for the senate. Seven for the house. 30 years versus 20 years for the house so they were trying to separate the two bodies. The president has to be a citizen. In the early days he had to be a naturalized citizen, now he has to be born in the United States. A child of naturalized citizens that have been born in the United States. Brian and isnt there a certain amount of time he has to live dear . Lived here . To have betty there might be. I am not sure about that. Brian the senate decided to add one more. Why was that . Betty because he was from utah and a mormon. By the time utah became a state it had to disavow itself from some of the mormon practices. Including polygamy. But there was a lot of religious bigotry against it. And when smoot came into office, there were a lot of people who did not want to accept them into the senate because of his religious belief. He had been part of the religious hierarchy of the Mormon Church and there were a lot of people that did not accept that. Brian a paragraph i want to read, a bright moment in this otherwise ugly episode came in a floor speech by the committees ranking majority member, who testified that smoot stood out among his colleagues for having no vices. He does not drink or smoke or chew or swear. And so, because he did not do all that, his religion boggled them at times. Betty there were people who would not accept them because he was a mormon. It is not because they dislike him or they thought he was horrible, they just did not agree with his religious practice. Voted toy the senate theirim despite prejudices. Brian here is one from 1954. On the first of september, 1954, South Carolina democratic senator maybank died unexpectedly. Earlier that year, maybank had won his partys primary nomination for a third full senate term. At that point, 51yearold former governor sam thurmond run. Nced his intention to what is the story on that . Betty he started term limiting himself. But with the maybank system, when maybank leaves office and a vacancy opens up, he decides to run for that. But it is too late to get into the normal process so he runs as a writein vote. To this day he is the only senator, up until a few years ago when someone else did. Brian when did you know you were interested in history . Betty as a child i was very interested in archaeology. I wanted to be in archaeologist. I grew up in iowa. Mason city, iowa. Went to high school in colorado and california for college and graduate school. I had a strong interest in ancient history and archaeology. I did not get much encouragement from school and High School Counselors and so want to go into archaeology so i drifted to other things. I studied music. I got my bachelors degree in english. But when i finish college i decided it was history bore the end anything will stop a couple things revved that up. About the time i got out of high school, we were celebrating our National Bicentennial and i got fascinated by that and started to read american history. When i got out of college, we were going into the time of the constitu