the pedestal on which he stands makes no reference to hamilton's real estate transactions. it pays tribute instead to his financial genius. he smoked the rock of the national resources that reads "abundant streams of revenue. he touched the corpse of public credit and it sprang upon its feet." >> throughout the weekend here on "american history tv" on c-span3, watch personal interview s about historic evens on oral history. our bookshelf features the best known history writers. revisit key figures, battles and events during the 150th anniversary of the civil war. visit college classrooms across the country during lectures in history. go behind the scenes at museums and historic sites on american artifacts. and the presidency looks at the policies and legacies of past american presidents. view our complete schedule at

c-span.org/history and sign up to have it e-mailed to you by pressing the c-span alert button. each week american history tv's american artifacts take viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. the smithsonian national museum of african-american history and culture will open a new building on the national mall in 2015. american history tv spoke with lonnie bunch, the museum's founding director, about the new facility. and later we travel with mr. bunch to the museum's storage site in the washington, d.c., suburb where he shows us some of the artifacts that will be on display in the new building. >> right now we are in the offices of the national museum of african-american history and culture. this is where my staff and i will be until the museum opens in 2015. six years ago i started with a staff of two. no place to know for sure where

the museum was going to be. no sense of what the building would look like. and today we have a wonderful architect who's created this wonderful model that i'm standing next to. this is the model that gives a sense of what the building will look like when it's erected right next to the washington monument. the cost of this building is a wonderful public/private partnership. the building itself will cost $500 million. congress has committed to paying 50%. and i'm committed to raising 50% of those costs. one of the joys of this building is that it's got this beautiful

bronze skin that will be sort of glistening in the sun. but what's wonderful about it is that it has on it a certain patterning, a certain filigree. and what that is, those are patterns based on african-american slaves, craftspeople in charleston and new orleans who in the 19th century created beautiful ironwork. so this in a way is an homage to that usually when you go into a building on the mall, you're inside the building. what we want to do is recognize that you're on the mall. so we want to offer people wonderful vistas because this is going to be right next to the washington monument in the

we want it to enrich a visitor's experience on the mall. we want them to get views they haven't gotten in other places. we want them to understand that they're in washington, d.c., had they visit this mall so we'll tell a little bit of that history as well. the real question one would ask is why is there a need for a museum, especially a museum that looks at african-american history and culture. i would argue first of all the way we're framing this museum is to recognize that on the one hand, it's this wonderful opportunity to understand the african-american experience. so help people understand the stories that they thought they know in new ways, but to really understand the deep richness and importance of african-american culture. but what makes this important is that we want to use this museum as a lens to explore what it means to be an american. so in essence, this is not simply a museum for african-americans, about african-american history. this is an opportunity to create a national museum that allows us

all to understand the role that african-american culture has played in shaping all of our lives. one of the challenges when i came back to do this museum is to recognize that i had to build a collection. that at the smithsonian, you could have wonderful technology, but you've got to have the iconic treasure. you've got to have the greensboro lunch counter or the wright flyer. we're going to go out to our storage area out in maryland to give you a sense of just some of the wondrous collections that we've been able to find. right now we're in the storage units of the national museum of african-american history and culture. in essence, this is the heart of the museum because what's behind me and what we'll see today are many of the objects that are going to be the soul of this museum. so this is an opportunity to

sort of preview some of the materials that the public will see when the museum opens its doors. one of the things that is crucially important, as you'll see, is that so much of the museum's time and resources are spent on the photo collections. that we have amazing experts who know how to preserve and make sure this material will be with us for generations. and we've opened this storage unit. and coming to this wonderful piece of headgear. this is a boxing headgear that was worn by muhammad ali. as we know, in many ways muhammad ali started his career as a boxer, but he then transformed himself into a cultural and political leader. and we all know the story of his gold medal in rome in 1960. his heavyweight championship.

but what was really clear is that ali became a symbol of unrest in america when he began to claim both his blackness and his desire to sort of campaign against the war in vietnam. this piece of equipment was crucial to ali's career, and for us to have this, allows us to interpret muhammad ali from many different lenses. this piece is from the fifth street gym in miami where ali trained early in his career. one of the things that is so important is to realize how much goes behind the scenes in making a museum work. and in this case, because in essence, we had to start from scratch, not only did we have to build a collection, find all of this material, but then build a system to protect it. build the systems to track it. and then build the systems to allow us to exhibit it. so it really is this long complicated process that takes

many years to complete. what happens when you try to build a museum is the notion of getting these collections. and so one of the challenges is the variety of ways you do this. early in my career, it was pretty easy that people sort of felt the desire to give to the smithsonian. but then as times changed, these things became a commodity. you have planet hollywood and hard rock cafe. suddenly people began to see these as a way to make money. so what we have is a variety of ways to build a collection. we still have people who are great donors that we court and we talk to about donating material to the smithsonian. we also get collecting. people just sort of call or say i've got this cool thing. do you want it? sometimes it's cool. sometimes it's a copy. so we have to be very careful about what happens because often when you create a museum, you are so embracive that then 30,

40 years later, you've got material that you really don't need. so we're trying to be careful in what we collect. you also at times go out to auction or purchase things that are really rare. what we try to do is limit that. but to do that in things that are really hard to do. it's hard to get sometimes civil war era material or slavery material. sometimes it's hard to get fine art. so we really do try to go out and judiciously acquire things through auctions and purchase. but the goal is to basically have a variety of mechanisms that allow us to build this collection. one of the joys of this process is realizing just what's out there. is that there are many things that you want that you hope to find that you're convinced you're never going to find it. right here we're looking at two artifacts that i was convinced didn't exist. these are materials that are related to harriet tubman, the

great abolitionist and underground railroad conductor. what you're looking at here is a shawl that was given to harriet tubman by queen victoria of england as a way to honor her resiliency and the work that she's done in terms of being a champion of freedom. and what i love is that not only did we get this from a collector, but he gave us this gosp gospel hymnal. this is a hymnal that harriet tubman owned. what is powerful, if you remember, when tubman would go south often to alert the enslaved that it was time to go, she would sing various hymnals, "swing low sweet chariot" "steal away jesus." tubman couldn't read but the fact she carried this hymnal for a large part of her life was a very moving and very powerful piece. and it seems to me that this museum has to tell what is one

of the most painful stories in america, which is the story of enslavement. and there is -- there are few things as powerful as the shackle. these are the kind of shackles that were used during the period of enslavement. and what people forget is that slavery is also about control and violence and trying to coerce people to do unpaid labor. what i think we want to do is to be able to interpret slavery both as a system that helped the country economically and as a system that was shaped by the people who lived it but also recognizing that the enslavement of people continues to shape the way americans' identity is and the way americans live to this day. and here is a really special artifact, much like the harriet tubman material that we couldn't believe. this is a bible that we think was owned by nat turner.

now, nat turner was an enslaved african who led a revolt in 1831. he led what was considered the largest slave revolt. and when nat turner was eventually captured, he had a sword and was bonded. and the fact that this was passed on in the family and eventually donated so us is a very powerful artifact that allows us to tell a story which is often left out, which is the story of rebellion and the desire for freedom at all costs. but one of the things that is really interesting about a museum is that on the one hand, you tell these grand stories. where on the other hand, what you want to do is personalize it. and right here is really a simple document, a piece of paper, that's hard to read. but what it is, it's a bill of sale for a young woman named polly who was a 16-year-old woman who was being sold from one person to another in the

19th century. and what i think is so powerful about this is to recognize that on the one hand, this is a legal document. on the other hand, this is the story of a people. this is the story of a woman's life. and so for us, to be able to personalize slavery through things like this mean that we're going to be able to help the public not just understand but care. and again,s wi as we say, some these are so priceless and the way they have to be handled by michelle here, this is really one of the prized objects we have. the story of african-americans and the american revolution is often rarely told. and this is a horn that was carved by an enslaved african named prince simbo. and he lived in connecticut. he fought in the american revolution from 1778 to about 1782.

what is powerful about this is first of all, because he carved it, we know a lot about him. but on the other side of it is this amazing sort of symbol. it is the dove. and in the mouth of the dove is the word "liberty." and so the notion of an enslaved african being the person that helps define what liberty means in america is really a very important piece for us. and so this is going to be one of those rare things that people are going to be surprised to see. with this theme of the sort of military experience, one of the things we know is that african-americans from the revolutionary war really through afghanistan used the military as a way to prove their worth, to prove their worthy of citizenship. and this was never truer than during the civil war. and what you see here are two types of civil war soldiers. and as you may know, that by

1863, thousands of african-americans became soldiers in the union army. and so you'll be able to sort of see that they had these images taken, part as a way to document but part of the way to symbolize the making the transfer of being enslaved or even being free but being discriminated against to being able to fight for your freedom. one of the things that's so interesting are the little things you find. so what we have is an ambrotype of sergeant coral's tips. and what is powerful is that they were also sort of informal i.d. badges that were made during the civil war. and this is his little badge that talks about his name and so the fact that we have an image, we have the badge, again, allows us to personalize these stories. and because the story of the african-american experience is a broader story, it is the story about us all, one of artifacts like this.

this is a trunk that was carried by an officer of the 55th massachusetts. remember, regiments were segregated, but the officer tended to be white. this trunk was owned by george garrison who was the son of the abolitionist william lloyd garrison. and he served as an officer in the 55th massachusetts which was the companion unit to the more famous 54th. and i think that being able to make sure that we're telling the full richness of the story through a variety of perspectives, this kind of trunk allows us to do just that. not only is it an historically significant trunk, but it's, to use the scholarly term, pretty cool. and so to sort of get a sense of thinking about army life, what you put in here, you in essence put in all of who you are, your belongings, your clothing. and this is what you carry with you. so this is a great case that's going to allow us to help people

really understand a lot about what life was like during the civil war era. this story of the african-american experience is both a story of resiliency, achievement, but it's also a story of struggle. and one of the hard parts of exploring this history is that often the people who were at the worst tended to be other americans. and so that makes it hard to interpret us because americans aren't used to being the bad guys. one of the things that's powerful is objects like this that convey the sort of strong anti-black sentiment. this is a ku klux klan banner from the 1920s. the four "ks" would be the knights of the ku klux klan. and as you know, the klan really began right after the civil war. it sort of goes underground. and then it sort of bursts new

as a result of the film "the birth of a nation," and the klan becomes not a southern phenomena but a national phenomena in the '20s and '30s. and this kind of banner is the kind of thing that people would sort of use to celebrate their investment and their participation in the ku klux klan. so these are the kind of things that we have to make sure we tell the painful stories as well. and then i think that one of the things that is realteresting to recognize that so much of what shapes a community is work. and so we wanted to make sure that we found things that would give people an understanding of the way black america worked. and one of the most important stories, often a story that's not clearly understood, is the story of the fullman porter. this is a puzzle hat. and we've come to the point where pullman porters were may be signed in a stereotypical way

of people who served, of people who actually worked on the railroad to make the travel of the elite white community comfortable. but the pullman porter played even a more important role. they were in some ways the community of heart of the african-american community. they began to bring to different regions of the country an understanding of what was going on in the south. what was going on in california. and they became one of the earliest black unions so they were very successful in the early 20th century in unionizing and sort of establishing a pattern that many african-american entities and businesses would follow in the future. so for us, the pullman porter is both a story of work. it's a story of the limits of what people were able to do because they were african-american. but it's also a story of how people transcended the limits of their job and created a way to help the entire community. and then in some ways, the whole

notion of struggling against racism, battling segregation is really at the heart of trying to understand this story. these two artifacts that we're about to look at speak volumes about segregation. on the one hand, we have what was something that was ubiquitous throughout the 20th century which were colored drinking fountains, things that were sort of ensured that the separation of the races were enforced. and as we know, that segregation was the law of the land throughout part of the 19th century and all the 20th century. and so colored theaters, colored hotels, colored drinking fountains were part of the way america lived. and what's so fascinating is they're hard to find now. but what really moves me, in addition to things like the colored drinking fountain, is

really looking at the depths one went to segregate america. and one of the things that is so powerful is this lallie-kemp which was a charity hospital in independence, louisiana. what i love about this is that this tells you clearly that race matters. when you look at the schedule of actual hospital services. that on monday the colored could go to the gynecologist. but on tuesday, that it was whites who could go for pediatrics or internal medicine. and on wednesday, whites went to their gynecologist or dental services. so the notion that we were so segregated that hours of the day were determined based on the color of your skin. i think this is really one of the most powerful objects we've collected. and this was an object that is not 100 years old. this is an object that really

was sort of used from the sort of mid-1950s until medicare came in which basically then desegregated many of the hospital facilities. so what we want people to realize is that segregation, while it has long roots, was not that long ago. one of the things we want to celebrate is that one of the most interesting things i think about american history is the struggle to make america live up to its ideals. the notion of people of all races coming together to say, we want to make america a different place. and one of the things we collected is from a woman named joan mulholland who was an early snick worker. during her time in the south,

she collected these buttons and badges that really speak volumes of the 1960s. you've got buttons that say "freedom now" from the congress of racial equality, or buttons that say "support sit-ins" or "support the student on violent coordinating committee," which is a crucially important organization. and what i like about this is that this really tells you about the kind of optimism and hope. there are a lot of buttons of black and white hands together. the notion that we would be able to transcend the kind of discrimination that existed. but also, if you look carefully, there's a button that is upside down on this coat which is a white button that says, "never." this button that says "never" was really the sort of button that many ardent segregationists carried to make clear that never would integration, never would blacks dominate whites. so i think this is a really

important piece. but joan mulholland, in addition to being part of snick, actually brought us something that i think is one of the most moving things that we have. and that is something that looks like simply pieces of broken glass. shards of glass. what these are is these are materials that were collected at the funeral of the four black girls who were killed in september of '63 with the birmingham church bombings. and joan mulholland and many of the other snick workers were there. and she collected these shards from stained glass window of the 60th street baptist church. and also in the street was a shotgun shell. and so in many ways, these shards speak volumes about broken lives, but they speak volumes about the sort of use of violence to control, to battle racial integration. but in some ways, something as o

our audience. and violence is such a part of the way of understanding this. here is a button. and this is a button that is a celebration of the life of martin luther king. these buttons were produced right after king was assassinated in april of 1968. and so in some ways, this button gives the way people to be able to both symbolize their commitment to racial change, but as a way to remember the martyred life of martin luther king. and in many ways, the challenge of the 1960s is really the transformation of america and what's the vision for that transformation. is it a vision of an integrated world? is it a vision of nonviolence sit-ins? or were there other alternative visions? and one of the most important visions of the 1960s and early '70s was the black panthers.

the black panthers were a group that began in oakland, california. and they really called themselves the black panther party for self-defense. they were created in response to perceived police violence and intimidation. and one of the things that's wonderful is that this poster became an iconic poster that was in the rooms of, you know, myriads of high school and college students during the early '60s and '70s. this is hughie leton. what's important is this poster talks a lot about where black america was in 1968 and '69. on the one hand, there's a homage to africa. you have african zebra rug, african materials. you've got the kind of chair that symbolizes the king chair. but you also have the sword -- i mean the rifle and the pike as the way to say that violence will be met with violence.

and so for the black panther party, their notion was that they would do what needs to be done in order to force america to change. and so i think that being able to have this which really has the sort of wonderful quotation that really does speak about the black panther party's commitment to their commitment, their desire to demand police to not violently intimidate the african-american community. and plus, the notion of the black panther, being an animal that is strong and aggressive and will defend itself really sent the message for many people that a nonviolent way of change wasn't enough to change america. when i came back to the smithsonian in 2005, shortly thereafter katrina hit new orleans.

one of the things that i realized, the african-american community bore the brunt of that devastation. up with the things that i realized that was very important for us is to document that. and as we thought about what are the things that were documented, i kept seeing the picture of people being rescued, of the helicopter, the coast guard going down and having people jump into these baskets. so i had a colleague from the museum of american history, david shea, who was going down. and i asked him, please pick up a basket for us. and so this basket was one of our earliest acquisitions. and this is a basket actually used to rescue people during katrina. so what you've seen in many ways is a snapshot of the more than 15,000 objects that this museum has collected. and that these objects really are at the heart of what the smithsonian is. because even if you have the

most amazing technology that's possible, it really is the artifact that really brings the public to the smithsonian. and so for us, the fact that we're able to find these wonderful materials give us the greatest of confidence that we are able to craft a museum that on the one hand will tell great stories, will have wonderful artifacts, will be in a great building, but more importantly, will be able to create an institution that will allow the public to engage candidly over the issue that has divided us more than anything else, that is race. and so our job is not just to build a museum. our job is to build the structure that within it allows a conversation to occur that makes america better. >> you can watch "american artifacts" and other american history tv programs at any time by visiting our website. c-span.org/history.