Susan Grace Coolidge was enormously popular as first lady, and influenced the taste of american women by becoming a style icon. Married to a man known as silent cal, she never spoke to the press, but she did use her office to bring attention to issues she cared about. Good evening, and welcome to cspan series, first ladies influence and image. Tonight, well be telling you the story of first lady Grace Coolidge who came into office with her husband, the president , in 1923 after the sudden death of president harding. Here to set the stage for us as we learn about the fiveplus years of their time in the white house is amity shlaes, who is a coolidge biographer, syndicated columnist, author of other books on that period. Welcome to the program. Lets have you just tell us about of the arrival of Calvin Coolidge into the white house. How prepare was he for the job . Amity actually, quite prepared because hed been a politician all his life. President coolidge was one of those men who started
Married to a man known as silent cal, she never spoke to the press, but she did use her office to bring attention to issues she cared about. Good evening, and welcome to cspan series, first ladies influence and image. Tonight, well be telling you the story of first lady Grace Coolidge who came into office with her husband, the president , in 1923 after the sudden death of president harding. Here to set the stage for us as we learn about the fiveplus years of their time in the white house is amity shlaes, who is a coolidge biographer, syndicated columnist, author of other books on that period. Welcome to the program. Lets have you just tell us about of the arrival of Calvin Coolidge into the white house. How prepare was he for the job . Amity actually, quite prepared because hed been a politician all his life. President coolidge was one of those men who started small in city council, a City Solicitor in massachusetts where the coolidges lived, and went all the way up the ladder of the s
Announcer next, an American History tv exclusive. Ou cities tourr to rapid city, south dakota. For eight years now, we have traveled to u. S. Cities, bringing the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. You can watch more of our visits tour. Span. Org cities the cspan cities tour is on the road, exploring the american story. With support from our cable partners, this weekend we travel to rapid city, south dakota, featuring lifesize statues of each of our nations mr. President s. We experience this history of this city of 5000. We will take you into the Black Hills National Forest with a trip to Mount Rushmore national memorial, the states most visited tourist site. In 20 minutes, it is onto one of the most Sacred Places in the world for many native americans. And later, we will visit the Journey Museum to hear about the devastating flood that changed the look of rapid city. We begin with the history of Mount Rushmore. The heart of south dakotas black hills. There it is, the 6
The 60 foot head of george washington. Three other units followed, jefferson, lincoln and theodore roosevelt. When i look at the president s, the first thing i look at is some individual achievements from each of those people. But really what they do for me and what this whole memorial does for me is it reminds me about what they stood for. Democracy,r freedom, republics. I get to think about that every day, i get a share that with people every day. I meet people from all over the world who might not know who they are, but they understand what freedom means. Was by a stateea they had conceived of carving statues. He was going to carve all the way around and have people like lewis and clark, chief red cloud, fremont and when he hired his artist, he said you are not thinking big enough. Selecting the four people up ,here, that was the artist Gutzon Borglum. You can figure out why they were selected. George washington, the first president. He gave up his power. Thomas jefferson, a lot of
Standing for freedom, democracy, republics. I get to think about that every day, i get a share that with people every day. I meet people from all over the world who might not know who those. S are, but they understand what freedom means. The original idea was by a state historian and they had conceived of carving statues. He was going to carve all the way around and have people like lewis and clark, chief red cloud, fremont and when he hired his artist, he said you are not thinking big enough. Selecting the four people up there, that was the artist, utzon borglum. You can figure out why they were selected. George washington, the first president. The person who gave up the power. He could have stayed in power. He was very popular. Thomas jefferson, a lot of people say that is because of the declaration of independence, but that is not why the artist borglum chose him. Borglum chose him because of the louisiana purchase. Doubling the size of the country. Lincoln, you can probably figure