last phone call, and i reached him and someplace, i think it was ohio state. it was in ohio, and he said to me, well, you know the best cash of pharmacy papers are at the wisconsin historical society. i was like, i did know that. and he said yeah, because wisconsin, the university of wisconsin was the first school to establish a graduate department and pharmacy, sometime back in the 19th century. so i booked a plane ticket and went out, and that's when my historian friends were just really, really laughing. but i found it. i would through the minutes and i found the record of wind, of his entrance, of his graduation, and then 30 years later of his admission to the college as a member of the college, which is like being, like having a

professional membership. ..

>> the big story is of the colored or fined asylum and the way in which it was run by white women seen as the illegitimate act of a part of white benevolent women to undeserving black children. that was destroyed. the home of william powell was destroyed. the home of barbara lyons was destroyed. there is an account three attacks the on in the home and the third attack was

successful burned to the ground. in williamson paper i came across a note that it is down there i will not read it, where a sergeant rates to ms. lyons to say i will try to help you. i do not know what today will bring. me to be at the drugstore at 3:00 p.m. and i will conduct you to safety. so the alliance and fellow quite philips white pharmacy was right around the corner and i speculate that is the pharmacy it is amazing the sergeant thought that was a safe enough place broke to take the family broke i started to read through the

obituaries and i found the story of the preservation of the pharmacy. 1847 at the corner he stayed there until his death and established deep roots and the neighborhood where he went in was mixed and as time went on it they became more i raised. and according to all of the accounts they did not have money and gave medications away for free. he gave away money and clothes. plan the draft riots happened, they did not want to see the drug store demolished or phillip white harmed seven "new york times" reprints a dialogue and who knows how accurate

it is when the businessman of the neighborhood, the area was called the swamp and they said you need to run away. know i do not because as many come down upon me as many as i have well protect that was a goose of the moment. >> hello. i was wondering what makes you read about your history or family tree? i have been trying to research my own lines and it is very hard and difficult to find things that go past the 18 hundreds spin ago we passed the 1800 sparc road

how did you find your is exactly? >> you have to have the passion without that this took me 11 years. we prepared to drive a and the determination and willingness to find nothing then find something. one of the reasons i took the way that i did there is so many ways but it was to encourage people to go to look for the family history. people say you are so lucky. you have a family to write about. i cannot do that. have you tried? they say no. one of the things i want to do is encourage people to go try. maybe i was lucky because i

found enough material but i wish my forefather, i would have found more material on them. you take what you have, and importer on the scrap without going into fiction or making up lies but to look around to give the context. but do not give up. [laughter] >> we have discovered an underground railroad site in our neighborhood the givens underground railroad so instead of being satisfied

that makes us even obsess. said oh looking for a needle in the haystack in my coming to a question? [laughter] >> what sources have you turned to? have you started research? >> i was lucky my a co-sponsor did a lot of research of the quaker abolitionist and lived in the building destroyed by the draft riots but it i kept researching for more letters from the gibbons family and was sent with a hot tip by one historian who said go look at columbia university. i went up there and found a record of fugitives 1855 by sidney howard k. that sent me off on to a real search

because i found the most extraordinary thing. zero more was married to her husband jacob in the previous zero marcos and now i try to find zero more. [laughter] i did find your list and in new haven connecticut but that has taken me two years to find that. >> i will go back to the schomburg but there is one staff member who terrified me and was so mean. we'll get my courage to go back. >> i have had experience with that two. [laughter] i will talk to later. [laughter] and give you the name of somebody who is really, really wonderful and who will help you and i just saw her a couple of nights ago.

>> i just bought your book. [laughter] >> lets me tell you there is the vigilance society so you can look around for that, david ruggles is one name to research we do have a question. >> have you heard of louis napoleon? and i am trying to find him to he helped to rescue and was working with sidney howard who is the editor and secretary of the antislavery society. >> now i know enough. >> charles ray and his

daughter put out a memoir of his life after he died in 1886 this is at the schomburg because it is also part of the vigilance society i do not do very much with that because my family, i could not find any relationship between that and my family. my editors are already going nuts with the book. i would say david ruggles, what about henry ward beecher? >> i just darted to scratch the surface with that's and lou at -- louis napoleon worked with him to. to afternoons in the brooklyn historical society as helpful as they were i was searching in the wrong collection. >> that happened to be to

two at the brooklyn historical society. [laughter] >> i have to stop. >> we canst talk-- we can talk later. [applause] >> we're talking to lynn c. boyd about the coming books coming out. >> a number of exciting new books with two new books being agree released with beyond politics and we will

be releasing backed early april and doing some heavy promotion, it is a classic book something that all students should read 30 and more about free-market principles and the foundations of our democracy with the political atmosphere beyond politics is essential. we just released to the new holy wear out today show the wars of bob nelson who did any event featuring the dichotomy between economic religion and environmental religion. we also have habeas corpus coming out with anthony gregory so we're very excited about that. and we will be investigating new works in the fall so we have exciting projects on the horizon. looking up next year is a

book that we terms of dirty dozen for now but looking at the dirtiest does send government bill years over the past 100 years and that should be keep in mind. >> dizzy as a to have its own press or publish through someone else? >> the institute does publish our own books and we work with outside publishers zero as you see here, some books are self published with constance and leviathan but we have also worked with other publishers with house a america and liberties safety so we do both. >> 8q4 years' time.

>> thank you for being here. i was listening to something somebody says i was coming in. i have been teaching about first ladies over 30 years and occasionally i will tj said mr. long course but i also teach to various groups in my community and other communities and i wanted to show one quick anecdote, one morning i came into a room and barbara bush was

prominently featured. and one woman said to me, i am wondering, icu we'll talk about first ladies i can hardly hear what you have to say about princess diana. [laughter] i said actually she is not somebody i will talk about she is part of the british royal family and she looked at me like i had perpetrated a crime and picked herself up and left the room and i never saw her again soya -- says she never got to hear about barbara bush but this afternoon my topic very happily is known as the silver fox. and has always been known to her family as far -- bar it seems eons ago the book was

finally published in 2008 from when it was started. i was very, very fortunate to mrs. bush was kind enough to see me and made access to every member of her staff available so i do feel but i could share in the book is a pretty balanced interpretation of first-time both in the public eye and in the white house. our time is limited this afternoon. what i would like to do is share some basic biographical information coming just a little bit. if you have questions i am more than happy to address them during our ku and a a -- question answer period. then i would like to share some thoughts to about the advocacy of literacy and her great success as a public communicator and finally her role and reactions to the

campaign of 1992 which in many ways was the watershed to her. as i was prepared there were three questions are really wanted to answer and one was what made barbara bush different and what made her specialty and what was her legacy? perhaps she is one of our best ever liked first lady's. perhaps you see that as an achievement are perhaps you don't but the fact that she was so popular made it possible for her to achieve the things that she did. think of her predecessor nancy reagan very polarizing and think of hillary rodham clinton another polarizing first lady. barbara bush's the still water as these move along.

she had tremendous popularity and seen as straight talking down-to-earth grandmotherly and that was the public purse on a. the private was a little different. i found her to be a political realist, tough, smart, savvy and always had her husband's back and still does. the public never sought any vat and with a great popularity helps to get people to buy into the program and by the book among other things. the daughter of a gentleman who at that point* so later she really enjoyed a life of

affluence and went today school but when she went to high school she went to actually halt in south carolina. and with the important moment in her life but during christmas break of virtue new year but then poppy bush was his nickname and said later by the wonderful quote friday in george bush's the first man i ever kiss they just about throw up. [laughter] this is very typical barbara bush the master of self-deprecating humor and

has never minded pointing at herself to make yourself the but of her own jokes. but she was smitten with young bush and they were married in 1946 when he returned from service in world war ii and was a fighter pilot. mrs. bush always thought she would be settling down with the investment banker in new york but much to their surprise, george bush said to her i would like to have a career in the gas and real business and we're going to texas. interestingly 1948/49 mrs. bush's another was so appalled ever going there and so convinced texas 1949 was just a frontier town

negative used to send berbera packages that contained ivory soap and tissues because she was not convinced that they have stores there that sold those things. they did. however being in the wheel and gas business in the early fifties, maybe was not so much removed from the reality of the frontier town. george bush was born the oldest child before they went to texas. and when they were in texas unfortunately experienced great sadness. following george w. bush, the sun jab was born then a daughter named rabin and she had leukemia. and there is a wonderful interview generally about barbara bush but one part of the interview is george bush and he says we were told by

the pediatrician to come to talk to her and she said this child has leukemia and he said quoting directly "i did not know what the house she was talking about in the early 1950's. what is the key man? the pediatrician said your daughter will not live very much longer. they made a decision to take her to sloan-kettering in new york where she was treated with experimental protocols and died in nine months later and barbara bush to no one's surprise had a very difficult time and had depression for awhile and then eventually emerged with two other bush children another boy than much to the great happiness dorothy bush, either of the daughter born in 1959 lowered at -- known as doro. barbara became the political

wife and observed by reporters at the time that if there was a slight against mr. bush berber joking more seriously and that has always been the case. barbara has been devastated when mr. bush was rejected by the voters. so without going into too much other details, i am happy to answer your questions later. 1980, mr. bush was poised for a run for the presidency. mrs. bush said she realized cents mr. bush would make the run and they better have in mind in project for the national campaign whenever it would be. she took heart for something and 80 bird johnson said before lady bird johnson has

said it is hard to pass up a bully pulpit it is a chance to do something for your country that makes your heart scene and if your project is useful and people notice it then that reflects well on your husband and that is one of the biggest roles of life. and mrs. bush said i would never guess i would end up with cinch the chance to be slow and a return on the modest ever. with a number of possibilities for her project and deciding to focus on literacy come as some people have suggested her son neil was dyslexic and at the time i interviewed her she said no.

that was not correct. she was a lifelong reader and a lover of three being and just felt in quoting again "if people could read she felt everything else could be improved with less drug use come a teen-age pregnancy, she felt it was important. literacy would be her project. mr. bush was getting ready for the presidential campaign and was in the presidential campaign in 1980 and barbara bush went to milwaukee on a campaign stop. she gets off to goes to the collagen milwaukee and the president comes up to her to say we are so glad you are here. i have 40 of our state's top literacy experts here to hear you.

she said i was panicked because at that time i did not know anything. so thinking quickly, when they all sat down barbara bush said to them, tell me, if you were married to the president of united states what would you do? they went around the room and she said before the time was up and only half of them was spokane and i was rescued. but i took copious knows it and -- notes and learned a lot and continue to learn because mr. bush did not win the presidential nomination in that year he did when the vice presidential nomination on the ticket with ronald reagan, she decided she would continue following up in this area because she thought it was a solid project and one to benefit the country. with her own money she hired

two people to help her develops this as an area of expertise. she had breakfast where she invited experts to the price president's residence, she spoke with experts and read extensively and during her time as the wife of the vice president, she was involved in of 537 literacy events. i cannot completely tell you that this is accurate but my account at the bush library was 21925 which is a fair amount of speaking but by the way i want to apologize i have been ignoring passing around photos i will pull these up of mrs. bush i will invite you to have a look as

things move along. thank-you and one of the photos you will see is mr. -- mrs. bush reading too young children which they did many times. and mrs. bush should is own foray into writing are trying to help with the literacy effort to become a writer in her own right and a book in 1984 called c. fred storey. that was her dog and you may think it is odd but actually was a dog by view of what went on in the life of the vice president and a second lady. that earned -- book earned $200,000 of profits which mrs. bush was able to

earmarked for various literacy organizations. but things would intensify when she became first lady and lets everybody know when she was on the campaign trail in 1988 that if mr. bush was elected to the warehouse her particular project would be literacy and she made good on that promise. march 1989 for being the barbara bush foundation for literacy and continues to exist to this day began to publish materials and gave out grants and as of the time when i wrote the book in 2008, they gave away $16 million in net literacy grants and mrs. bush said to me i have nothing to do with the grand selection process they are nice enough to keep me up to date let me know what is going on and interestingly one of the

first grants by the literacy foundation is to the project and the barack arkansas being run by hillary clinton. it is interesting day intersected their. during the time in the white house 18% of mrs. bush's speeches were devoted to the d'arcy and was a voice for the program and a friend who was very much involved with curriculum and development to say they put a human face on literacy and talked about an issue at the time nobody was interested in addressing the whole idea of inter generational literacy. she did talk about it and traveled to school where students were receiving ged degrees and showed up on

oprah and spoke about it there and wrote articles and we know for sure that she affected both the national literacy acted the adult education act this is from a woman who said even when i met her, i had no effect on legislation but i would argue she put that particular issue and made it part of the national conversation and it seems that it was pretty successful. one thing that stands out september 1990 mrs. bush began to read stories on the radio two young children 15 minutes every sunday night and the particular program was called mrs. bush's story time the wal-mart company was very interested in this and tape to the various stories that she read and put them on sale you can

still buy those and the money goes to barbara bush foundation for family literacy and a highly highly successful first lady project moving into another area that i want to share is the efforts as a public communicator this warms my heart because i am a professor of communication in. i have to say looking at burma she was active but also cautious she never wanted to put herself into the position where it would take george bush's political capital to clean up your mess and that is the way she explained it to be. also to say early on in she was barbara bush and not nancy reagan. there is something that i always loved it in the weeks

leading him to the inauguration doing any event in washington and mrs. bush says my mail tells me there are a lot of fat to white-haired ladies better tickled pink i will be first lady. [laughter] and got a kick out of the fact her image showed up on this side of the washington d.c. thus floor and furniture store that said nancy break-in at style at barbara bush prices. berber bush was always very wealthy and aristocratic and probably was more affluent and nancy reagan but nobody seemed to react to that but as i mentioned, she would is quite day great public communicator and fell last

first lady who did not have to deal with 24/7 coverage. that it begins with hillary clinton because cnn gains legitimacy covering the persian gulf for 1991 and off to the race is. not only that there were no blogs, no social etfs who it was a different time. but the first thing mrs. bush did that i thought was brilliant and i believe in this regard barbara perry will speak about this is the reason and jacqueline kennedy gave 1962 budget it really war on terror up and people like tours much better after that. sell both barbara and george bush gave a prime-time tour

of the white house on a program on abc and it was said tour of the family level it was very in tiering. and sam donaldson was one of the reporters going on the tour and says at one point i enter stand during world war ii winston churchill used to visit the white house and he would walk around in the altogether would you permit that? and mrs. bush said i would definitely permit that but i would not look. [laughter] and later she goes out to the balcony on the white house bill by a harry truman and says you know, mrs. bush this particular balcony was built by mr. truman. and she says i would not

know i was not born then. [laughter] she had a good time with that. but it warmed up both of the bushes. george bush walked to one side of the room and shared a toy chest where the kids get their choice when they came in it was very humanizing. man she became first lady mrs. bush elected and the press to have a long history of working on capitol hill to be her press secretary and gave the advice, if i said it, said it. that means if i said something to be favored to not interpret what i am saying and i meant it if somebody needs to interpret it i will do that. please don't do not do it for me. that's is an interesting approach many people will spend things the way that they want them but mrs. bush

obviously felt very strongly she bled represent herself. no regular press conferences but press opportunities and mrs. bush got along well with the press but something in her memoir she said it something that everybody in public life has to understand that the press has the last word. she held occasional press meetings in the family quarters people would be invited and everything was on the record. the reporters have mixed feelings about her and sometimes they found her very outgoing and colorful especially with regard to literacy and other times they found her hard to deal with because she was not willing to open up as much as they would have liked but i am safe to say that probably has been the complaints about first

ladies going back to marvell washington. nothing new but during her time she gave 449 speeches speeches, fair amount of public discourse and did not come easily were naturally to become a public speaker but worked very hard. earlier when she came to washington she developed a slide shows. what about the gardens of washington when they got home from chided she had won about china and would coordinate the speech with the slide show and worked rather well and gave her confidence as a public speaker. she did have speechwriter's but also significant input to in to whatever was being said and this leads me to one of the defining moments of her time in the white house, she was invited to be the commencement speaker at wellesley college june 1990. shortly after it was

announced, 150 of the 600 graduate undergrads signed a petition saying they did not want to hurt as their speaker. they felt she was coming as mrs. george bush is said of barbara bush and had no significant accomplishments on her own and they had been taught to to do something quite the opposite. mrs. bush reacted with tears humor and said even i was 21 one's. they'll look at things a certain way and i look at them another. there are some historians who feel that maybe this reaction camouflage irritation but i did not get that sense at all when i interviewed her. she also said to be, when it all occurred there were many

wesley graduates said never again they would give money to the college and she said we wrote hundreds of letters saying please do not stop giving. this is just the opinion of some. over time as the issue was discussed things began to turn and i just want to quote from herb of bomb beck who wrote to a serious column in the wellesley students could not imagine what barbara bush could contribute to their education imagine your own mother to deny them a voice is to suggest they have not achieved anything of any importance they gave you a voice and acetic commencement how important is that? so slowly things turned around. the young women who had a poster began to recognize that maybe she has something

to tell them and then she flew to mostly on the day of the commencement address they were solidly in her corner and very quickly shares something she said near the end of the speech but she told the women to make three choices to get involved a something that was bigger than themselves and in her case it was literacy and to make sure that life had to weigh which was varying george bush and also not to miss the joy of the human connection and i thought this passage who was very nice and will plant and i know from the six different versions there was significant employ it to say for several years impressing upon to your carrier of

dedication this is true but to her obligation and as a doctor or lawyer you are a human being first and those human connections with spouses, children with friends are the most important investments you will ever make. at the end of your life you'll never regret not winning a verdict or passing one more test of closing the deal but very much time not spent with a husband or a friend or a child or parent. at the end came when it ended up on page of one of every newspaper in the country and said who knows? somewhere out there in this audience maybe somebody will follow in my footsteps and preside over the warehouse

as the president's spouse and i wish him well. [laughter] she was a very good speaker and told me she never made changes in her text wants she got to the podium but that was not the case because i saw lots of comments she must have pencil then so she must have made them which also speaks to a confident speaker sold by the way that speech to my a knowledge is the most anthologized speech about including eleanor roosevelt pro i believe as a public communicator very careful about what she said and how she said it and this comes

to the allot-- the last topic which is in a campaign of 1992. in 1988 barbara bush's role was not the same as 92. her popularity grew immensely and the white house. so in 1988 she gave speeches, spoke to groups but 1992 and again was a different ball game. the president had experienced a precipitous drop in his popularity and the height of the persian gulf war his ratings for in the high eighties by the time of the 92 campaign probably around the 40's and 1992 did not begin well this is also another great berber bush story, they had gone to japan to talk to the japanese surrender of very much our in our minds right

now about trade agreements. the afternoon they were there just as a socially venture get together, the president and our american ambassador had played tennis with the crown prince of japan and the emperor. they were badly beaten. there was a state dinner in honor of the bush family and mr. bush on the way over said i am not feeling very well and she said you think we should go back? he said no. i think i can do it. they got there and he got on the receiving line and said i really don't feel good they sat down and he was sitting down to than japanese prime minister and the commented in the man's lap and passed out.

he'd had of bad intestinal flu. he was taken now by the doctors who said he will be fine. it is nothing serious the prime minister said would you like to say something? she said i cannot explain what happened to george because it has never happened before but i'm beginning to think it is the ambassador's fault. day were badly beaten in tennis today and we're not used to that so he felt much worse than i thought so she did save the day but from that point* down there were questions throughout the whole 92 campaign about president bush's health. something else also i have referred to that surfaced very early in the '92 campaign was barbara bush was way more popular than her husband. some of you may recall there was a campaign button back

and it time of steady for that said i am voting for betty's has been to. all of a sudden there's a button that said i am voting for barbers husband and as the campaign continued, and mr. bush used phrases like barbara and i seeing camp barber and i believe the and that is a strategy that others have used as well whinney he eventually got the republican nomination, barbara was worried they already had to surmount challenges about patrick buchanan and h. ross perot and taking a fair amount of heat for the appointment to the supreme court but then came the

clintons that started off on a strange footing. a magazine concocted what became known as the great cook the controversy. the question was who pay a better chocolate chip cookie? barbara bush or hillary clinton? hillary clinton dismiss this and said i am too busy to bake cookies. but mrs. bush said she thought the whole thing was forgotten. but then in a taste test people like hillary clinton's cookies better and barbara bush said that is interesting because that is not my recipe. i mention that because even though it seems like it is silly, it garnered all of us had been some serious comments from reporters and

columnists she gave a barrel since the jet the republican national convention with the most dedicated man that she knew after that she took to the campaign trail. she gave 61 formal speeches but was busy with the phone bank and cheering on volunteers and involved with the bush rally in texas and said to people we need to george bush texas and as you although the country did not agree and on that particular tuesday in november they sent george bush back to

texas and left barbara bush with a very sour taste in her mouth. she felt the country had not given him a chance and he had earned certain eight a second term as president. so it had to be a bit your day actually when she left the white house january 1993. she did enjoy retirement much to her surprise. she wrote her biography, a memoir barbara bush and another book and became more active with their literacy initiative then and saw the two oldest sons george debut and jab go into politics first he was the governor of florida then george to view the governor of texas. she told george w. bush he

should not run for governor. she was really worried about him and the press treatment of both the person's. but she must have had tremendous happiness when he was elected president. so today she shares said distinction with abigail adams that she was the wife of the president and the mother of the president. the bushes continued to live happily and mr. bush is still jumping out of airplanes and mrs. bush has had health issues but is still pretty well and i would like to conclude my comments by reading the last paragraph from the book. >> barbara pierce bush remains an enigma and few would argue with her celebrity, popularity or influence. schuster considerable energies to improve the lot of americans in the area of

the other six days of receipt is said testament to her tenure and she has earned the title first lady. she became a public face of the george h. to ehud frustration wisconsin travel and ceremonial events using the podium effectively to articulate and was a perceptive politician who knew how to work or been to arm of necessary and during her busy public life she made comments that could tarnish her image but with us service to bush and her family and country while there was the ebb and flow hers is a life well lived befitting many. thank you very much. if you have any questions i

will be more than happy to answer them. [applause] >> with the less the commencement speeches at the time she had reset corporate chef with her? bernanke's. she accompanied her that day and she introduced mrs. gorbachev and she also spoke to the graduates and that offered an interesting counterpoint to nancy reagan because mrs. gerber shafted not get along at all with nancy reagan. so that was different. >> the comment was waiting for is the which comment could you put that into context? >> [laughter] yes. i just ran at a time. i have that here. the comment that the gentleman is referring to came about 1984 mr. bush was

running for reelection and vice president and had a day with geraldine ferraro the democratic number row and in the debate furrow said that he had no idea what normal people we're going through because his wealth insulated him from normal life. said mrs. bush was on the campaign airplane the next day and talking to reporters and was obviously very unhappy about the comment and said geraldine ferraro and her husband probably have more money than george bush could probably buy and sell george bush and said i

cannot say what that woman is but it rhymes with which i am sorry. it rhymes with rich they looked at each other than i am sure they ran for the telephones. by the time they landed the comment was all over and it happened to be halloween. the reporter said when she landed at the next stop did you mean that it rhymes with rich? she said i would never say that geraldine ferraro is a which. [laughter] now as opposed to that some of the reporters said years later that they thought it was a preconceived comment that it was planned that mrs. bush was too much of a

political professional to say something like that to reporters and not understand the application. they thought she meant to get into a jab but then something to retreat into so that was a comment but it follows her to this day. >> how was she as a mother and not especially to laura bush? >> she has tried to have cordial relations with all of her children i have been told from time to time that to the two of them have a respectful but someone distance relationship i cannot attest to that myself. there is a story and i do

not know if it is true or not to that when laura bush was first brought up to kennebunkport to meet the extended family, she met to george's grandmother, dorothy bush the first president bush mother and she said to her what do you do? what is your story? and supposedly laura bush responded i read and i smoke. then there were questions how well did that go down with barbara bush? noboby said. i think it is fair to characterize maybe distend maybe more cordial. certainly barbara bush's relationship with her

children is very warm. she sees them a lot. >> i seem to remember when barbara bush first became first lady a reporter asked her a question involving the name of eleanor roosevelt's to which barbara bush replied is do not talk to me about eleanor roosevelt in my family and i have forgotten the rest of that but i wonder what her family had against that although i have my own opinions. [laughter] it is probably the fact her father and the whole family were not family -- fans of the economic policies but