and corresponded with wilson prior to the war's conclusion, and prior to our involvement in the war. so wilson, when in rome decided that he would make an official visit and have first american president to have an audience with the pope. to mark the occasion, pope benedict gave wilson this wonderful mosaic that was done in the vatican workshops. painting over the mantel. wilson acted in 1918 and sent american troops to help quell the turkish invasion of armenia. and for this, the people of armenia gave wilson this wonderful painting called hope. the largest object in the room, aside from the piano, is the tapestry. the tapestry was a wedding gift since wilson married edith in december of 1915. he chose not to have a large, elaborate white house wedding. they had a small private

ceremony from eade eth edith's house on 20th street, however, the gifts were certainly quite magnificent. the french ambassador sent this tapestry over to mrs. wilson to chose after she returned from her honeymoon. ike hoover who was the famous celebrated usher, chief usher at the white house for over 40 years called mrs. wilson down and said, madam, the french ambassador is here, and he has some gifts for you to chose as a wedding gift. edith says, oh, well, by all means, escort the ambassador upstairs, and hoover said, no, madam. you'll need to come down to the east room. that should have been an indication that it was no small gift. the ambassador had brought along three tapestries here at the united states at the panama pacific exposition in san francisco in 1915. wilson, we may add, opened the

panama canal in 1915 to trade. in the french pavilion were these works of france including these tapestries. so edith came down to the east room and the usher had rolled out these beautiful full length tapestries, and the ambassador said, please, choose whichever that you like, and she was particularly fond of this one, which actually depicts a marriage scene. the marriage from greek mythology. it's a riotous occasion. and the tapestry would become a little bit of a problem, because edith wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with it. certainly there was not even a place to hang it in the white house, and she quietly asked the ambassador at a later occasion,

well, you know, i'd love to leave this to the national museum, to the smithsonian and perhaps they can display it. the ambassador protested and said, no, madam, the french government gives plenty of things to the national museum, this was a wedding gift. this was a personal gift. so when edith set out to find a suitable home for her husband to move to after leaving office she had the dimensions of this tapestry written down on a little card. she did okay. she was able to fit the width of the tapestry here in the new drawing room. however, the length certainly. she kept it very dramatically puddled on the floor. we have it conserved on an aluminum frame today to protect it for future generations. this tour ever the woodrow wilson house was part one of a two-part program. you can learn more about woodrow wilson at woodrowwilsonhouse.org.

all day today, american history tv is featuring america's first ladies. who do you think was our most influrnt first lady? vote and join the conversation with us on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. >> lisa kathleen graddy is the curator for women's political history here at the smithsonian. tell us where we're at in american history museum. >> you're in the first lady's exhibit. welcome to the newest version of the exhibit, by my count, the ninth version of the first lady's exhibit since it began in 1913. so we're almost 100 years old and the longest lived exhibit at the smithsonian institution. >> and this iteration just opened up. so tell us the concept behind it. >> we tried few new thing.

the challenge the first ladies collection and exhibit is always to balance. to balance the great interest in the dresses and the china with other kinds of stories about the first ladies, and we're always trying to find a way, i hate to say marry, they love to talk about marrying the presidency in the first ladies' exhibit, but to marry the two things so you get a fuller picture of the first ladies but really get a picture of what you want to see when you come here which are the beautiful dresses and the fine china. the idea was to make the object stand out. the only color in the exhibition, a very colorful show, comes from the objects, not from the paint on the walls, and we really feel highlight the gowns and the china for the first time, really, make them the star.

these are socialites, and they wanted to put women in the museum. there really weren't exhibition dedicated to women. so they started really a costume collection. the idea, show women's costumes through that time, but mrs. jay hooves happened to be a descendant, a hook was born, we'll use the first ladies, so they sought out the descendants of the presidents and first ladies, and asked for clothing. by the time they opened the show they'd amass add pretty good amount. by 1932 they had something to represent every former first lady, but it did create what i call the smithsonian's definition of first lady, which is not necessarily the spouse, the wife of the president. it's the person who played the

official role of white house hostess. so that can be usually it's a wife, but it can be a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a niece a family friend, and it's been all of those things over time, and the exhibition was actually called, feech, the clothing of the mistresses of the white house. >> there are examples in this exhibit today of those that weren't the spouse of the president. talk about them a little bit. >> yes.ee who's in this particular exhibition. or in that case. this case is mostly weis. in the china and in the back section, case studies of first ladies you'll see dolley madison. dolly madison served for the widowed -- the widowed thomas jefferson. he also, his daughter would also serve as his hostess periodically, but so did mrs. madison, who was the secretary of state's wife, because in mixed company at the time had you to have a hostess. you could not entertain ladies unless there was a hostess.

there was a real need to have a woman in the white house to perform that function, because so much even now, so much of washington life is carried on not on the floor of the house, not on the floor are of the senate, not in official places but at parties. informal gatherings where you can talk in a calmer more casual manner, and so the first lady helps -- all the women of washington, really, are responsible for keeping those networks open and that life happening. >> so is that sort of the point of showing the dress? that there's much more meaning behind the dress? >> there is more meaning behind the dress. one we show it because it's beautiful and people love them, but it does say something about the woman. a real question. why do we care? why are we interested in what the first lady wears other than if you're a fan of fashion? why do we care what the first lady wears? but we look to her clothing for clues about what she's like as a person. about what the administration

may be like both in its style. is it formal? is it informal? is it extravagant? is it simple? and what their -- something about the administration politics, is it american made? do you proudly say you only wear american designers and american-made clothing? carolyn harrison, beautiful burgundy gown made a point of only wearing american fabrics and american-made clothe. a lot of first ladies have worn american clothing. if you look to the back you'll see a beautiful dress of eleanor roosevelt that's actually her first inaugural gown. eleanor roosevelt had a busy life and made a point of saying busy women also like to buy their clothes off the rack but stressed you shouldn't buy clothes from sweat shops. so her politics also came into her clothing. >> what is the oldest gown? >> the oldest gown in the collection is actually martha washington's. it's not on display right now. it has been on display for a

long sustained amount of time. so it's having a rest right now. in this gallery, when we round the corner, the oldest dress will be dolly madison's. first forward to today. michelle obama. she donated her personally? >> mrs. obama came and presented the dress and the jewelry and the shoes, but they were actually donated, and she -- it's interesting. this is the first time we had the designers donate, and mrs. obama had them donate these pieces. so jason wu and jimmy chu and rory actually donated the pieces. when you see the label it will be donateed by jason lu in honor of first lady michelle obama and mrs. obama came to present this to the museum. >> what goes into deciding which dress to wear, and are they thinking about the influence that will have on their husband's administration? >> i think -- i think we'd like it to maybe be a little more

political than it probably is. when we did -- there's a video playing in this exhibition. we were lucky enough to interview rosalynn carter and laura bush about the dresses that they chose thinking maybe there was a symbolism, and mrs. carter in reality, for center mental reasons wore a dress, again that she had worn when her husband was, made governor of georgia, and mrs. bush just remembers collaborating with the designer michael faircloth, and who wanted a pretty party dress. y first lady wants it to be beautiful. she wants it to be comfortable. she wants it to be appropriate. i think appropriate is the word when first ladies are dealing with clothes. they want to be appropriate for the occasion. appropriate for their age. appropriate for the circumstance, and i think appropriate as a symbol of the united states, because we still do look at the first lady as

representing women in the united states, even when she's not functioning in duty hours, she represents the united states. >> let's take a look at some of the first ladies, about four of them, that you featured here at the exhibit, and talk about their roles. >> wonderful. it's this way. before you walk into this room, though, you have a quote from first lady michelle obama. >> uh-huh. >> where she's talking about there's no formal job description for this unofficial role of the first lady. talk about that quote and how you think that impacts the first lady's decision of how they go about doing this job, if you will? >> the quote itself really wraps up in a lot of ways what this exhibit is about, and oddly we found it very close to the end, but it set so well in here, because it really is an amorphous position.

each first lady remakes the job. we like to say based upon her own interests. the needs of the presidential administration and expectations of the american public, all of which can aid her or hinder her at any point in time. so it's a trial and error kind of thing, and each first lady has come up with her own version of the job. and yet they play off of each other. they build on each example before them, and each one of them creates a new example to follow. >> there are no rules, but are there boundaries? >> no rules but there are boundaries. there's always tension about how politically involved the first lady can be. that sort of, who elected you? what are you talking about? when we can't see you? both i think from the public and we've read in varying books from presidential advise rrs themselves. the first person the president sees in the morning and the last

at night whose words they're hear. an interest in whether the first lady's goals and frequently stories about whether the first lady's goals and ambitions are the same as the president's and if they're running in sync and if she's running the administration. many first ladies have been able to dovetail their interests with the administration's interests and really work hand in glove with the president to put forward the administration's goals with her as part of that administration. >> we'll talk more about how these four first ladies individually walked that tightrope, but tell us why these four, and what were you trying to do in this room? >> well, the four first ladies, you'll notice, as you see the dates as we go through, it's roughly 50 years between. we wanted to show different points in time, because we very much wanted to show the first lady's relationship to that period and to women in that time period. edith mayo, who was my

predecessor as curator and really my mentor as first ladies' curator did a groundbreaking show. first ladies in public image that looked at the first time in first ladies in the context of american history and the roles played by first ladies. so we wanted to take another step with that and this time instead of looking at roles specifically as hostess, as political partner to look at how each different woman summed that all up and combined those roles what they stressed, what they did. so look at all the case studies. we wanted to give you a more intimate view of each of these first ladies. the kinds of things they say. be they a piece of china, a watch, a scrap of fabric. the kind of things we save to remember our lives. we call them the high boys, show memories. like we say things in our bookcase or our credenza or china cabinet. we wanted to show the things

that people say and use each one to sort of link to a memory and to a little bit of a story. you won't come away way full idea of this first lady, but you'll come away with a pretty good idea of what she was like and hopefully will find out more about her and the rest of the sisterhood. >> so dolly madison what kind of first lady was she? what does the story tell us? >> dolly madison is the first, first lady to really establish the role of the political hostess. and she's the friendly face of the madison administration. james madison is a serious and shy man and dolly madison is his front. dolly madison is the person who sets up, has the parties. james is in a corner, and she can have everyone coming who needs to talk to him, coming to talk to him. has a wonderful environment. she stirs up support for her husband. she doesn't create enemies for her husband and she's a real master of that, the sort of -- it's often called the parlor

politics of the time period, where women are setting up their own networks of social links that keep information flowing. dolly madison has her finger on the pulse of what's being said in washington and can bring that information back to her husband. she can bring that information out to other people. she has a series of friends. she finds jobs for friends of friends. it creates a support group for her husband, and for her husband's administration. >> what does her book shelf, if you will, if you're in this part, tell us about who she is jie mean, what are some of the artifacts in there? >> some of the mows amazing artifacts, the one that's resonant, a piece of burnt wood. a piece of timber burned during the ward of 1812 at the white house and came to us from a collector that references while dolly madison didn't save it, it references dolly madison's heroism, the thing we all remember that dolly madison

saved the portrait of george washington and other pieces from the white house that she was the last one there as the british were advancing, and really left just a little in front of the advancing british troops who then burnt the white house. >> in 1814. >> in 1814, although we call it the war of 1812, you that was left, the skeleton of the white house. you can see in the graphic behind the dresses, a period picture of the burnt white house. >> and her action following that to keep the capitol? >> there was talk about moving the capitol to what seemed to be a safer place or easier place -- something that didn't have to be rebuilt. dolly madison made it back to the capitol in four days, rented the octagon house and set up shop there and proceeded to have parties again, gatherings and make a statement that said, we're here. we survived and we're staying here. and began the rebuilding of the presidency. >> the role of women at this

time and political rights for women in dolly madison's era. >> women had played possibly a during the revolution. women's rights began to be curtailed a little bit more after the revolution. a lot of people's rights were curtailed with the constitution. women don't have a legal identity apart from their husbands, married women. so they don't -- they can't vote. and they don't have a, a independent legal standing. so they have to find this parlor politics. they have to find a way to maneuver around that to have influence twhaith sphere which comes through influencing the power players, and creating these back channels and this second network that can influence things that are going on. and really keep washington moving. >> let's move on to mary lincoln. what's her story? >> mary lincoln comes in at a very vexed tile. mary lincoln is probably is prog to someone like dolly madison

and thinking this is what the first lady is supposed to be. i'm going do this. i'm going to be there political hostess and war starts and she has to retool what she's doing now. following this idea of dolly madison and hostess, she believes that she needs to show a powerful presidency, do her part to portray a powerful presidency that foreign government should support in this war, want to be on our side, not the confederacy side, to demonstrate to the union that the government is powerful, the theerful and things are progressing as they normally would. >> when they moved in, the white house was a mess. compared it to a third rate hotel. she did a lot of decoration, rebuilding of the white house. it was considered to be very -- a very successful redecoration but it went over budget.

she bought beautiful new china. you see it in the china section with the purple china with the arms of the united states, seal of the united states. but in wartime this didn't go over quite as well. it was seen as being extravagant. so she retooled. and instead of having large parties she had what they call handshake days. these recessions that the public could come and see the president. but then some people criticized that because it was a little too legal tearian, it wasn't the dignity of the president. poor mary couldn't seem to win. she wanted and had always been an adviser to her husband. this was a new arena. issue, he was facing larger republicans so she didn't have the contact with her husband and the influence that she had wanted to have. so that was a disappointment to her although she did play a role in his re-election. he she wrote letters to state leaders s ts to try and have t support her husband. she tried to have influence. it just wasn't the right

environment for the first lady. she purchased her own freedom. through money she made as a seamstress she moved to washington, d.c. and set up a very successful business. washington davis asked her to go south with them when the confederacy moved to richmond, asked her to go to richmond. she chose not to. she interviewed basically as a position as mrs. lincoln's dressmaker. the two became much more than client and entrepreneur. they really became friends. equal friendship to be sure, but they became friends. and she was really mary lincoln's closest confidante all that time at the white house. >> some of the other artifacts in the mary lincoln section, the watch? >> the watch, we talk about it in the section about mary lincoln and her philanthropy because mary lincoln was an

active supporter of the sanitary commission to raise money for wounded soldiers, she visited hospitals. that watch was actually won by her husband for giving the most contribution to a sanitary fair. one talks about her philanthropy but raises the wonderful images of the organizers, i need you to give the money up. >> anything else about mary lincoln's bookshelf that's notable? >> i think a wonderful piece of the bookshelf is actually references elizabeth cacly as well and it shows their friendship. mrs. lincoln --s will cacly accomplished the contraband aid association which was to raise money and help slaves who had, former slaves who had crossed the lines and made it to washington, d.c. mrs. lincoln gave money and supported almost cacly in her efforts to do this or certainly gave her moral support. and there's a little wooden ink

well, when mrs. lincoln died mrs. cacly asked for a momentum of the president and mrs. lincoln gave her this ink well. the stories one remembers of r mary lincoln are the elegance and spending and possessions. we have beautiful pieces that came flew the family. a wond ul laurenette, a beautiful diamond and golden nam meed wristwatch. china. but also the kind of thing you save, a scrap of fabric from the redecoration of the red room that was saved by the decorating firm. and eventually found its way to museums. so we know -- we get a little bit of an idea of the fabric that was used this that room and what her style was. >> mrs. roosevelt, what was her style? >> eedith roosevelt redecorated the entire white house. edith roosevelt wanted -- and theodore roosevelt, wanted it to

evoke its colonial roots and so it's a very federal, formal white house. the beautiful pillars, the great entry way. the new grand staircase that she put in. it also helps to bolster the roosevelts brought in the imperial presidency. a much more regal formal worldwide presidency. this is when america really moves into the greater world as a power. and the white house was built to command respect for that and to show the power of that presidency. and mrs. roosevelt was in charge of the decoration of that white house. >> she added the first lady's portrait gallery? >> she did. some of the -- she consolidated the portraits of the first ladies. the commissioned hers to be added to it and to be established on the ground floor of the white house. >> politically, policiwise, what is she known for? >> she is a first lady that steps away from policy.

she certainly is someone that can restrain her husband and i'm sure had words to say for her husband to her husband and opinions. but she keeps very private with them. she had a young, large family. and she was concentrating on that family. she wanted time for her family and for her husband. and so she actually -- we think of in a lot of ways as one of the first man jeerial first ladies. start to professionalize the role. mrs. roosevelt wanted time so she decided what things she would delegate to someone else. so she has a social secretary that takes care of press. huge press interest in her family. great cover material and great photographs. she didn't like that prying of the press but she knew she would have to accommodate them. she and her social secretary would release certain pictures, release information and we will release photographs. so she sort of had the first

press secretary. >> nothing like that happened. >> yes. this is really the first time, even something approaching a formal pres press secretary's office for the first lady. she delegates a lot of household duties. she has caters doing the food. she doesn't have the white house do food for large events. she has the cheech ushief usher care of household arrangements. she concentrates on putting the white house back at the center of washington social life. over the last few presidencies it had moved away from the white house. mrs. roroosevelt, with two hand moved it back to the white house and had meetings with cabinet wives to discuss social schedules to make sure nothing is impeding the white house's or conflicting with the white house's particular social agenda. >> was that the impact of all that? >> mrs. roosevelt had a control

over washington that i think some of the more recent prior first ladies had not. she formalized things. she had a definite code of behavior and if you did not follow her code of behavior you didn't really exist in her washington. and she did bring a power and a gr entertaining the visible side of the white house that bolsters theodore roosevelt's forays into political power to the presidency. >> lady bird johnson? >> lady bird johnson is -- i have to say, i am from texas. lady bird johnson is one of my favorite first ladies. she is the first first lady to announce her own political -- not political agenda but her own inaugural agenda. she announces during oh leading up to the 1965 inauguration she goes public with what is going to be her agenda for her time as first lady. she says that she is going to concentrasencentrate on beautif which really now i call

environmentalism. mrs. johnson was not thrilled with the word beautification but it was a doable word. she was going to concentrate on the great society. helping her husband's efforts to promote the great society. working on his presidential library. ms. johnson's east wing really works with the west wing. so she's doing environmental things. she's national park talking about the environment. we have a scarf in here that i love and i have never seen the connection before but the scarf promotes the discover america program if discover america program is something the west wing has put out and it's an effort to put american tourism dollars in america. it's encouraging you to vacation to america, so mrs. johnson can promote that at the same time she's promoting environmentalism. >> is this all part of the great society agenda? >> yin