if you look at crime rates in the united states, there's a definite spike that takes i ar in the early 1930s, and a lot of social scientistsav to ascribe depressed economic conditions, the fact that you have banking failures, business failures, farm closures, to the point that you could almost blame the great depression for this era of the american gangster, when in fact that's probably the reason that people followed their stories and maybe even associated some nostalgia, perhaps the same way we would the outlaws of the old west, but it really is a very brief period in american history where you see this, the early 1930s. all weekend long, american history tv is in shreveport,

louisiana. next, we visit the louisiana state exhibit museum that opened in 1939 and was one of the most expensive construction projects managed by the public works administration during the great depression. the museum currently displays collection of original signed documents from some of america's earliest political figures. >> the state my seem has on loan a collection from mrs. gloria meyer. her husband acquired the collection during his lifetime, and when he passed away, she wanted to be able to share this collection with the public. it is 54 autographs that are original autographs that center around the founding fathers of the united states. so they're 18th and 19th century autographs that have accompanying images that go along with them, and there are two of them from the 20th century that are kind of like

the beginning and end of it. the very first one that we have was the impetus for the collection, and this is a letter sent to mr. henry rabe and it is a thank you letter signed by the assistant secretary of the navy, franklin roosevelt. and along with this letter was a check that says it is for binoculars. it was a dollar. he gave these artifacts to his grandson when he was 13 years old, said don't ever cash this check, don't ever lose this letter because it is going to be more valuable than the dollar. so he kept it from the time he was 13, and it stimulated an interest in wanting to collect the autographs of major american

patriots. the other 20th century autograph is one that has a picture, the aus graph is actually on the picture. john f. kennedy and his wife, jacqueline, and it is inscribed to someone named brenda crane. i did some research, found there was a physician, dr. paul crane, who was an interpreter, worked for president kennedy as well as president johnson doing some interpretation that he was able to get this autograph on the kennedys. this is also fairly rare. it is not a great photo, you can see it has been folded, but it is a wonderful picture. another one that's very interesting that was particularly of interest to the collector is this one on robert morris. ro known american fure because he

wasn't a military hero, but he was a signer of the declaration of independence. finance ear and floated bonds to help finance the american revolution. that's why this one was of particular interest to the collector because that's what he did.as a financer. one of the of the collection is this one signed by george washington. it talks about issues on his farm. he is writing to his named mr. biddle who also served with him during the american revolution. and it is basically farm management, but is an entire letter and signed by him, which is fairly rare. >> how are each of these pieces selected? >> he had a professional broker and he had a mission to collect autographs, had to do with

american history. a lot of these had to do with the revolutionary battles or signers of the declaration of independence. whether or not his goal was to obtain all the signers, i am not sure. it may have been. since he passed away before he was able to complete the collection, and not knowing, not having the opportunity to talk to him, i'm not exactly sure what his goals were, but we're very fortunate to be able to share in the collection as he has it. my favorite, one of my favorites, is this one signed by john hancock. and it's as the governor. a state paper essentially, a proclamation that he made, and for raising a regiment, i believe, yes. everybody knows john hancock thanks to the insurance company because they did so many commercials. when i asked the national

archives to see the declaration of independent whereof course he signed quite large, and his reason for signing in such a large hand was so that there would be no doubt as to whose signature it was. you have to think that for the declaration of independence, if you signed your name there, you were essentially signing your death warrant because if the americandidn't win and the british did win, that would be the first group that the british would have gone after were the signers of the declaration of independence. so the one at the national archives is faded and rather difficult to see, whereas this one is a nice, bright signature and easily recognizable as john hancock. there were men that participated in the american revolution who signed the declaration of independence, very daring men. they had no money. they had to finance a war on their own signatures

essentially. and i think he was interested in the mechanics and administrative details of how that was accomplished. most people i think when they read about the american revolution and the battles, they get involved in the military strategy and there's quite a lot of that. i mean, he does have quite a lot of information having to do with the war. but also the letters have to do, for instance, washington's letter has to do with administrative details on his farm later in life. i think he was trying to show the american founding fathers were actually people that lived and died just like anyone else did. on the far left we have a piece that is signed by benjamin franklin. and benjamin franklin, among his many occupations, he was a printer. this is a receipt for printing that is signed by benjamin

franklin. and it is a little bit later, 1787, but the receipt is from a man named john dunlap. and john dunlap was the official printer of the declaration of independence when it was issued on the 4th of july in 1776, they sent approval, the approved declaration to john dunlap who would typeset it and he printed 200 broad size, which at that time was the size of a regular newspaper sheet. there are only 25 copies of the original declaration still in existence. another couple of autographs that are interesting, alexander hamilton, aaron burr. they fought a famous dual. the collector framed these autographs together and in the middle of it is a picture of the two of them fighting the dual. one from aaron burr is a letter

of routine legal matters from december of 1800. and the one from alexander hamilton is also a legal paper from 1795. this autograph by john quincy adams where he signed as secretary of state, and it is routine departmental business, from january 16th of 1818. john quincy adams was one of america's great secretaries of state, arranging with england for the joint occupation of the oregon territory, and obtaining from spain the cessation of floridas, which included eastern louisiana. he also formulated the doctrine with president monroe on the monroe doctrine. then he was sixth president of the united states in 1825. the oldest document that we have in the collection is this full letter that was written by

voltare. he was a french philosopher, known as the father of the enlightenment. this letter was written in 1732, and the letter is thanking the author for his criticism or his review of the book of history, the history of charles xii. as the father of enlightenment, the enlightenment movement is sort of the basis of the american revolution, and i think that's probably why the collector included these documents as well as this book as sort of the basis for his collection. and also in the french connection, we have a letter from the marquise delafayette, who was an early supporter of the american revolution. he raised money for the american cause. you can see that this is a very

fine scale point engraving of miss your delafayette. he is a slight man, the best way to describe him. as the collector would accumulate autographs, he would look for pictures or images of the person whose autograph he was collecting, and in some cases he could only find regular print media, not necessarily good portraits. as he would come across better portraits, then he would replace the ones he had initially with better portraits, so he was constantly upgrading the collection. this document is a military appointment of samuel a. russell to second lieutenant, dated august 6th, 1861. and this is signed by the president, abraham lincoln. initially, lincoln would sign his documents with his full name, the way this one is.

as his presidency required more and more paperwork, he began to shorten his signature and just signed as a, initial, lincoln. so this is a fairly rare document from his presidency because it has a full signature. robert e. lee, harvard certificate, st. louis. he worked or two mississippi river projects. one was to work on the rapids at des moines, iowa, the other to remove islands that were threatening navigation and jeopardizing commerce of newly founded town of st. louis, missouri. at that time, captain henry miller shreve also devised a method for removing snags on the red river at shreveport. and sometime prior to 1830, he invented a snag boat for this purpose. from that time on, when water was low enough to permit, shreve

and his assistants would go through the river, scouring the river in search of snags so they could clear it for navigation. so they were working together, robert e. lee and henry miller shreve for whom the city of shreveport was named were working together at that time. he puts together a collection of different people's correspondence and information about them that together provide sort of a cohesive history of the united states. >> a louisiana hayride. ♪ >> it would start with a big roar. who are as logan would come out,

frank, and first thing they would ask, anybody here from texas. of course, a roar would go up in the auditorium, and it would start off with all of that. then who's here from arkansas? mississippi? alabama? >> good evening, everybody! the deep south's own folk music show, the louisiana hayride. >> it was like magic when you walked in this building. the vibes for that saturday night were so exciting. the louisiana hayride is actually known as the cradle of the stars, and it literally was the "american idol" of its day. the louisiana hayride embraced young talent, all of the great stars that were here that became so famous all over the world from louisiana hayride have never been equalled. it actually started april 3rd,

1948. and it was a live show, broadcast from this wonderful building, on this stage. it was brought to us by kwkh. horace logan was the producer, frank page was the announcer, along with norm and several others, and it just became a regular saturday night radio show. this building, it's kind of hard to believe, but every saturday night back in the '40s and '50s, this building was packed with people that would drive hundreds of miles to come to the louisiana hayride. the show was very loose. >> you know, folks, i had a pleasant surprise tonight. an old friend of mine dropped in to visit with me. i talked him to coming out on stage and singing a song for you folks. he says furthermore, if you like

his singing, he'll come back next saturday night and sing all the songs you want to hear. it's been a long time since he's been on the show. come out here. hank williams! >> hello. >> bob sullivan said t louisiana hayride wasn't produced, it just happened. this is a hallway in the great municipal auditorium with a lot of the portraits of the stars of the louisiana hayride, and of course, here's the man in black, johnny cash, who began here with his first record on sun records, back in the early '50s. and here is his beautiful bride, june carter. they both performed on the louisiana hayride many, many

times. june is part of the great carter family, whose mother mabel and sisters, the carter family played here on the hayride many times. and of course, here is little old elvis. of course, elvis didn't have side burns back then. he was a little teenager coming from memphis, kind of sandy headed, and cute as he could be. and of course, stole all the hearts of the fans of the louisiana hayride, and became famous from the louisiana hayride stage when he was still a teenager. and down here is of course the great hank williams. hank williams was actually the first really big star of the louisiana hayride. he was the greatest back then

and is still the greatest. he left here after he became a big hit, went to the grand ole opry. unfortunately, he had a problem, he had a drinking problem, but he was in really poor health, and he was fired from the grand ole opry, and came back to shreveport, and mediately said always be a member of the louisiana hayride, and we continue that. he will always be a member of the louisiana hayride. this is the back door entrance where the entertainers would come up the steps. this is actually where i made my first entrance into the municipal auditorium at the hayride. and we all came in through this back door, and would either go into one of these dressing rooms or go on stage, and there was always a crowd back here of

singers, musicians, song writers, everybody visiting before the show, and all during the show actually. and this is a larger dressing room, which back in its day was very fancy, with its own shower and facilities. they put some photographs in here of elvis. however, this was not elvis' dressing room when he first came here. as you remember, he was not a star, he was a newcomer, he mixed and mingled with everybody, became good friends with a lot of the entertainers that were performers and singers on the hayride, and he loved all the girls, of course. >> he is only 19 years old, he has a new distinctive style, elvis presley. let's give him a nice hand.

♪ ♪ well that's all right, mama, that's all right there were alw been it was very lively. and of course the stage was all set. and the music was playing and we would the person coming on would be waiting about right here. the engineer's both was right over there. bob sullivan, who was the engineer on the hay ride, and the announcer's podium was over here. and so it was just a lot of mingling around back here. but i guess the most awesome thing that when you came out

here the roar of the crowd in this building was just enormous. ♪ >> thank you. nice to be back to the hay ride, shreveport. >> you can hear music playing. it seems to never end in this building and all of great artists that performed here it seems to me their presence is still in this building. the last regular saturday night show was in 1960, and the people that owned kwkh just decided to close it. i guess, you know, there are many opinions on why shreveport did not develop its music industry and nashville did.

a lot of it had to do with leadership. the people in nashville they were very smart people, very kind and loving toward the music community. shreveport really as far as i can understand never embraced their music community. it was something the leadership here did not understand as a value for economic development, for cultural development, it was something that was absent from the mind-set of a lot of people here. and it still is. i mean we've had a big battle fighting for the louisiana hay ride. we actually created shreveport's historic music district plan to revitalize the neighborhood to

restore the old buildings to create a music ground atmosphere here but that will give shriv port what it should have had a long time ago, a music presence. >> all right. elvis has left the building. i told you absolutely straight up to this point, you know that he has left the building. he left the stage and went out the back with the policeman, and he is now gone from the building.by our comcastca local vehicle recently visited many historic sites in shreveport, louisiana's third largest city. learn more about shreeve boport all weekend long on american history tv. >> in 1911, booker t. washington came to shreveport and gave almost an impromptu speech on a

temporary grandstand right to my right where the annex of the courthouse is today. no one was really told because the white establishment was re however, within an hour's notice, 2,000 to 3,000 people came right here. clogged up texas streets and clogged up marshall and wanted to hear it. photographer from the local newspaper, the times, took his picture. the photographs taken that day are typical booker t. washington. he's animated. he's preaching. he's giving a very, very well received speech. and people loved it. he was -- he was a star.

there was no doubt about it. four years later, shortly before his death, he comes back and he could not be here because there were too many people that wanted to see him. so the venue was moved out to the fairgrounds which is where they are today. about four miles west of here. when shreveport had 20,000 people, 10,000 people came out to listen to him. i think the first time the draw was curiosity. this was a very, very vibrant downtown, a lot of people worked here. when they heard about it, people left their businesses and came. if you look at the crowd, there's a lot of black faces of course but there's also a lot of white faces. people wanted to hear what this man who is very famous had to say. when he comes back, both times he's on a tour. when he comes back people remembered the first time. there was advanced notice. and he really spoke to i think the needs of what people wanted

to hear. birth of a nation. it had just come out as a movie. and times were tough for blacks. of course, in the south. but in georgia and alabama, it was a hard, hard time. and so he was on a tour to the western part of the south. and he came here and he was really well received. booker t. washington for his time was one of the two great african-american voices. the other being w.b. debowls. and they did not get along, they didn't see things the same way. they were opposed. and washington i think for southerners struck a chord

because they understood what he was saying. and he still is an important voice today. often marginalized by more heated rhetoric. he is a voice of sanity. he in many ways is an earlier version of dr. martin luther king, jr. he preached hard work. he preached unity. he preached the fact that we are of one people. we may be different colors. we may be different religions. we may be different backgrounds, but we are still americans and we are still southerners. if you look at any picture of him on the stage, he's moving, he's gesturing. he is animated.

he's always pumping his fist. he's always pointing. he's moving and he's not looking up or around. he's looking right at people. and everybody there who was within earshot, i'm sure, thought for at least a while that he was speaking directly to them. he was looking directly at them. and as he looked at them he spoke. he touched a chord. >> all weekend long american history tv is in shreveport, louisiana. to explore the rich history of the city founded in 1836. you're watching american history tv. 48 hours people and events telling the american story. we're in our doctor's office here at the pioneer heritage center. modern medicine as just evolved

over a short amount of time. the pioneer medicine stayed stagnant for a while without a whole lot of changes. it was still pretty archaic. some of the things they were still doing early on in this area, they were doing blood-letting, using leaches, doing things that modern medicine has frowned upon but we know some of those have come full circle as well. but you consider that, the things that we take for granted today when we go to the doctor, things like the instruments being as germ-free as possible or the doctor has washed his hands before he decides to work on us. the tools are sterilized. modern painkillers, anesthetics, a lot of these things were nowhere on the radar for these doctors who were practicing. and we use the term "doctor" loosely when we're talking about early medicine.