others who lost their loved ones. and so i -- and obviously my rendition may pale to the original, i do believe they are to be heard not just read. i would like to make this attempt of reading those words to you. four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. we are met on a great battlefield of that war. we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here

gave their lives that that nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. but in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. the brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. the world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but if you never forget what they did here, it is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who thought here have

thus far so nobly advanced, it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we feel highly resolved that these dead will not have died in vain. that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. [ applause ]

>> as commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues, join us every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. and sundays at 11:00 a.m. for programs featuring the civil war. for more information about american history tv on c-span 3, including our complete schedule, go to c-span.org/history. and to keep up with us during the week or to send us your questions and comments, follow us on twitter at twitter.com/cspanhistory. each year, "time" magazine selects the person with the most influence on events in the previous 12 months. if the same question were posed in 1862, who would "times" select as person of the year? american history tv will be live next saturday from richmond, virginia, as historians including james mcverson and david blithe present their

candidates. the museum of the confederacy hosts the all-day forum and we'll open our phone lines and take your tweets so you can question historians about their nominations and propose your own candidates. live coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. eastern to 4:30 pm eastern on c-span 3. hosted by our time warner cable partner, american history tv recently visited beaumont, texas. to explore the history and literary culture where the oil industry in texas got its start. for more information on our tour of six south central cities this year, visit c-span.org/localcontent.

>> gladdy city, as we refer to it here locally, was built in 1976 for the bicentennial. and it is a recreation of the boom town that was built when spindle top came in on january 10th, 1901. by 1976, there was nothing left of what was the original gladys city which was just across the highway from us about 1/2 mile. so as a project for the bicentennial, you know, this group of people came together to try to preserve the history and memory of gladys city. it is named for a young lady that was in the sunday school class. i kind of call him one of our main characters. although he probably wouldn't like this, we call him our dreamer. he's the one that came up with a lot of the ideas for gladys city. and her name was gladys stingam and she was in his sunday school class and he was very fond of her and kind of really bestowed an honor on her by naming the city for her.

when it was originally -- when betillow envisioned the city, it was what could be called an industrial utopia. by the time he came in, there was no more time to be perfect. and his other dreams really focused on this manufacturing part. and i think that's probably what some people wouldn't realize is even they didn't know how much oil was under the ground out there. it surprised everybody when it came in. beaumont at the time was rough and tumble and so he wanted something that was pristine and clean and that's actually not what he got. in the end, but that's the way it works sometimes. the gladys city oil, gas, and manufacturing company was the first oil company incorporated in texas. and they are still in operation today. they still have interests out in spindletop field. and so -- they really put the engine behind trying to search for this oil. and we'll go in and take a look

at a couple of things, what higgins' vision was for gladys city. with the photographer plotted out the city and you can see that there was much given to gladys city oil and gas manufacturing company, there were places for homes and schools, and then what he believed would be the oil fields and manufacturing areas. if you look up there at the top, you'll see this is a picture of gladys as a child. gladys bingam. and then right next to it, you can see that the vision was more about manufacturing and industrial area than it was about oil production. i will say that after the lucas gusher came in, their stock

certificates and letterhead changed very quickly to have the oil there out there in the oil field because their purpose changed very quickly when the well came in. >> why didn't this vision ever come to fruition? >> well, when you have so many people rushing in and, you know, everybody wanted to make their dollar on this huge event that was coming. and if you think about it, especially in this area, just a few months prior was the big galveston hurricane in september of 1900. there were people a lot of people came from galveston when they heard about this because they were still trying to recover from that hurricane. and so this was a chance for people to come and set up businesses and -- or work in the field and try to make some money. now it didn't -- as i've said, it didn't turn out that way to be a perfect city. this is a drawing that represents -- from a photograph that was done. and you'll see that it -- those buildings went up very quickly and looked very much like what

we have here today. >> is it a safe place to be? >> gladys city was -- i understand was fairly safe. there were people trying to make their money. there were honest people and dishonest people here. so you did have to watch out for card sharks and confidence men and things like that that would've tried to get money from, you know -- a lot of these men that came here probably came off of farms and so, you know, they hadn't been in the city even the size of beaumont. so they really had to be careful. that was gladys city, out on spindletop hill. where you were really in the middle of the oil field. it could probably get really rough. there are stories that it could get rowdy and, you know, people did lose their lives a couple of times because, you know, just through fights and that kind of thing. so it was more the wild section and then gladys city was kind of off away from the actual oil field. beaumont had its own oil

exchange or stock exchange at the time. this building represents that stock exchange. there were over 600 oil companies that were incorporated after the big boom. and when the gusher came in. and so the trading floor. the actual building was probably much larger than this to accommodate the trading floor. this picture up here gives you some idea of what the original looked like. so they would be trading stock in the front. in the back of the building, you printing stock just as quickly as they could for all of these oil companies. and, you know, some of that stock was good and some was not good, but i was talking to a printer the other day and, you know, that's not the printer's job to decide. so they were churning it out as quickly as they could. while all of these buildings are

replicas, they do represent actual businesses operating at the time in gladys city. and this is gibson's goods store. this is where you would come to get clothing or your sewing needs, that kind of thing. now, many women still made their own clothes at that time. they would purchase their undergarments and that kind of thing. but you could purchase -- most men at this time would come in and purchase their shirt, and you could actually buy jeans, denim jeans to wear to work. and the women would've probably had, you know, a day dress, maybe one sunday dress and then same thing for men. they would have had their work clothes and probably one nice white starched shirt for church

and of course they would have had to get their starched collars to go with that shirt. if you had a little more money, you would have a derby hat or a top hat to wear to church or to nicer functions. i think people would be surprised about how much some of these pieces actually cost back then. for instance, you know, on a cold day in january, you would have had to have your union suit which was like a tighter fitting pair of what we now call long johns. but for $2 or $3, men and women could get their union suits. roebuck catalog just before the boom. this is what people would have been ordering from either through the dry goods store, people could order just about

anything from sears and roebuck. if it was farm equipment or like that, you'd probably go to the generaor shipped in on the train. everything that i've read about higgins and what motivated him was to be somebody. i think he had a real need to find his place in history and to do great things. and sometimes he made it. even later in life, he continued all over texas to find new well sites. many of them are still producing today that he found. and spent most of his life trying to convince people in different parts of texas that for sure there was oil. so he was on a -- i would almost call it a personal crusade to be believed to be taken seriously about his ideas and to be respected.

so while most of our collection fits within the late 1890s, early 1900s, we do dip a bit into the 1920s and '30s with two really special pieces. for instance, this is a 31, 1931 model "a" ford that belonged to higgins. he drove it for nearly 25 years after he drove his model "t" for over 25 years. so he drove this car all over texas as he continued to search for oil and wildcat different wells all throughout the state. i believe it's not on there anymore, but he actually had the steering wheel modified, you know, because he only had one arm. he actually lost an arm in a fight with a sheriff's deputy.

you know, we talk about him being the big dreamer, but in his younger days, he was a little bit of what would have been called a rounder, and he liked to get into fights, he liked to carry guns and shoot guns. one nihe scrape with a deputy sheriff, shot and actually killed the sheriff, and in the process was shot in the arm and lost his arm. he did go on trial for it but was acquitted of the murder. and not soon after he did begin to turn his life around. the story goes that one of the tent revivals was in town. and after going to the revival, he converted and actually became a sunday schoolteacher and then went on to become the man that we know. he came back up in beaumont

probably right around 1951 for the 50th anniversary. and by that time, i believe he was 81 -- in his early 80s. he was about 88, i think, when he passed away. so he got to see the full stretch of all the different things that happened at spindletop over his lifetime. so the spindletop field began to play out after about three or four years. the production started really dropping. so, you know, gladys city kind of remained out there and people still began to build housing, especially here in south beaumont. then by the late 1920s, we had the second boom, and with new technology they came and drilled on the perimeter of the salt

dome which spindletop hill was at one time. that caused the second boom that brought new life to gladys city and to beaumont. then that kind of waned and by the 1950s, companies were mining sulfur out at the spindletop. and after that, that's when it kind of dwindled away. and people -- there was really no major production out there, the booms were over, people began moving away, moving into beaumont proper. and gladys city just kind of deteriorated. by the 1960s, there were some efforts to create a museum and make sure things were being preserved, and by the mid-70s, when they decided to build the replica of gladys city. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. for more information follow us on twitter on c-span history. >> join american history tv on monday for 24 hours of america' interview with eleanor roosevelt at 4:45 p.m. eastern.

>> i think like everything else that we started out expecting that the united nations would solve every difficulty right just by being the united nations. >> tour the white house private quarters with laura bush at 5:00 and lady bird johnson at 8:00. nancy reagan reminisces about her husband at 8:30 and the 1--: at 11:30, the only first lady to run for president, now secretary of state, hillary clinton. lisa kathleen glady is the curator. how did you decide the gowns would be placed and what it would say about the history and role of these first ladies?

>> we picked partly based on what we thought was pretty and what hadn't been out in the world. sometimes it nice to be the curator. you get to choose things. we also wanted an array of color and different styles. it's not chronological. we wanted to maximize the space in the case and really maximize the look and style and the color of each dress against each other to make a more pleasing pictures. and i think that putting things that are far apart in time next to each other as opposed to a slow progression, for example, lucy hays and something like grace coolidge's flapper dresses. if this were chronological, they'd be so far apart, you

gowns or items that are back in storage. >> there are some things that are back in storage. one of the ideas is that we can change things out here. if you're not doing every first lady, it eases is pressure on the dresses. we're trying to make them survive as long as possible. some of them have been standing around for 100 years. they need to rest. they need to be out of light. this allows us to change some things around. it also allows some things that haven't been seen before to be seen by new people. i always think of them as being the type specimen gowns. the ones that everyone expect to see for each first lady the sometimes we have others, and those are interesting too. >> there's a lot of fanfare that goes into the giving of the dress. how did that come about? >> people always think the exhibit looked one way.

it's been about nine different shows. it's been changing. people think the gown presentation always happened one way. in reality it didn't start until lady bird johnson. the tradition was first they enmass dresses to create the show. sort of just a big bulk the first time. they would ask each first lady and the ones to fill in the blank. now, helen taft got interested in the exhibition. she contributed her inaugural gown. she set the tradition of giving your inaugural gown. every first lady since then has given her inaugural gown. >> has anyone every refused or balked at the idea? >> i don't think anyone has refused.

edith roosevelt didn't have a lot of patience for this. she said she didn't save clothing. she cut it up and made other things the out of it. she did not donate anything to the collection. her daughter later did. she donated the inaugural gone. the bodice had been remove frd the dress. it has a prop bodice. >> does that give some context of the that it was a normal thing to do. >> she said they worked very well as tea gowns. it may have been a quirk of hers or a thrifty quirk that she remade her clothes. >> why do we care so much? it seems on every occasion we're looking to see what they're wearing? >> i think we have become a red carpet culture thatlike to look and analyze what people are wearing. people were interested in what

martha washington was wearing. i think it's because we look to these clothes. currently, we probably have more exposure to the first lady than we ever hand we still don't know her. most of us will never meet the first lady. we have to figure her out based on these little clue, snippets of interviews, what she served for dinner. we piece that together to get an idea. we piece it together to create a rounded vurks our own view of the first lady. >> they're supposed to represent a presidential style. if you can explain what that means, and which first lady didn't meet public expectations when it came to that and which ones were really praised for their style? >> i think the first lady sets

the tone, the style, demeaner and tone of the presidency. she's the one that sets the feeling of the presidency. she's the more accessible partner in the presidency. she has to decide, she will be graded on those. her choice will be examined. you got to take a while to figure out, i can't imagine how daunting it must be to come in and have to face your first state dinner. you've never done this before. whap are you going to do. they then set a tone. if they dfollow it, that's fine but did people like it or not like it. the white house has ebbed and flowed between very elegant and more casual. as the country is changed, also the styles have changed with the

tile of each first lady. people have reacted proand con with each one starting with martha washington trying to figure out what is the style for democracy or republic, if you want to think of it that way. how do you demand respect for a new nation but not look like a monarchy. she was addressed as lady washington because no one knew what to call her. >> who really hit it out of the park and met expectations? >> dolly madison is first amazing social first lady. she was the go-to touch stone for years of a successful first lady. she had decorum but there was casual and formal and fun to her events.

if you had a card of introduction you could come to her weekly crushes, her receptions. people mixed and talked. it was said you couldn't tell who her friends or enemies were because she was lovely to everyone. a lot of business got done at her white house. some first ladies have been less successful because they were awkward in the job, and sometimes because they're taste didn't jive with public taste at the moment. some of them have done amazing reversa reversals. nancy reagan came in determined to make a much more formal -- what she thought more appropriate white house. she got some push back for the increase no formality. as that went on people began to admire what the reagans were doing in terms of the tone of their white house. >> does the criticism, the praise sort of reflect the politics of the time, the

culture at the time, maybe the public polling of the president at that time? >> i think it reflects popular culture where we all are as a culture and entertaining. we know it's a more formal style. it can't seem too formal. it can't see tbe showy. >> which dress do you think reflects the time? which really reflects the time. >> i think they are all representative of their time period. eleanor roosevelt is a simple dress that reflects that period of time. she's walking the line because the first inaugural ball extiering the depression.

she has to look elegant and appropriate. she didn't want to look too rich. that's an elegant but simple dress. anyone would carry -- you can visual yourself in that dress in an event to which you might be able to wear it. i think most people could look at the pictures of her and see that they could relate too. jack kennedy is more shaping fashions. the amazing magenta dress, very 50s. an amazing silhouette. that really speex oth formality of the new look and the 50s. when you look at something like the flapper dresses, actually nancy reagan's wonderful suit.

you look at that and you know it's the 1980s. >> it's very '80s. >> they want to be appropriate for their age and their circumstance and a symbol ot united states. we still look at the first hay di as representing women in the united states even when she's not functioning in duty hours, she represents the united states. >> we'll have two photo opportunities. the first is for the still photographers and that will be followed by the television cameras. we ask our guests to please be patient. >> who do you anyas