first a look at cemeteries at james madison's montpelier. then a tour of old is it your bridge sflilg massachusetts, a living mooum of early new england. after that, a look at a first ladies exhibit at the smithsonian. >> each week american history tv's american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites from around the country. next, travel with american history tv to james madison's montpelier in orange county, virginia. we'll learn about the madison family cemetery, a nearby save cemetery and james madison's temple. the restored montpelier mansion and estate is owned by the national trust for historic preservation and operated by the montpelier foundation. dedicated to preserving the legacy of the fourth president, often referred to as the father of the constitution.

>> we're now standing at the madison family cemetery. this is where members of the madison family have been buried since james madison's grandfather first settled this land in the 1720s. in fact, it was madison's grandfather am broce mat son, who was the first individual to be buried here. in the 1720s he patented this land. he sent a crew of slaves out to comply with the legal requirements which were that he seat and plant the property,

seat means build a residence, plant means start farming. he followed in 1732 with his family. within six months, he was dead. interestingly enough, it's been only in the past ten years that we have discovered ancient court records that indicate that three slaves were tried and convicted for murdering ambrose madison. we know that one of them was executed according to the court records, and two were punished and then returned to their owners. now, it's interesting how we look at this evidence and how we interpret it because all it tells us is that three slaves were tried and convicted. we don't really know who did it. we know the court system found them guilty. it does tell us, though, that even an enslaved african-american on a plantation was regarded as an individual who was legally responsible for

their actions and could be held accountable. now, again, i don't -- we need to look at this record and realize there are many different interpretations and meanings that could be read into it. a very fascinating aspect about the early history of montpelier is that after ambrose madison died, his wife decided to stay here. she could easily have pulled up her family and headed back to the tidewater of virginia, but instead she decided to make montpelier her home, so she is raising her children by herself, she's running the plantation, managing the slave force, and she really was the mistress of montpelier until her oldest son, james madison's father, reached 21 and inherited montpelier and then himself became the master of montpelier. so, really it's an incredible testament to the women of the madison family that this

remained the madison home and eventually became the lifelong home of james madison. but the reason ambrose was buried at this location is that the home he had built was just 100 yards away. that home is long gone. in fact, the archaeological evidence tells us that the family burned the home to remove it around 1770. but the madison family cemetery remained here. there are over 100 members of the madison family buried here. but you would never know that by looking at it. because, in fact, they're only about 40 tombstones in this cemetery. we know from these records, in fact, that madison's grandparents, ambrose and his wife, are buried in unmarked graves. we know that madison's parents are buried in unmarked graves. in fact, the marker on james madison's grave was not put in place until some 20 years after he passed away.

let's step inside and take a closer look at the marker over his gravesite. as we walk across the land here, this open area, our archaeological excavations have revealed that this entire part of the cemetery is, in fact, filled with burial sites. we've done just enough archaeology to determine where those grave shafts were dug. we've not excavated any of the remains. we don't feel that's an appropriate aspect of our archaeological program, but we have done enough work to understand the full extent that this is the family burial ground. madison's grave is in one side of it. and he was placed here and located so that his wife, dolley, who outlived him, could be buried next to him. however, dolley had moved to

washington and died in washington, and she was first interred at congressional cemetery. and it wasn't until the 1850s that her body was returned to montpelier. at about the same time, this memorial was erected, in 1858, and you see it just simply marks madison giving his last name, his birth date, and the date of his death. however, in building this merpal to mark his burial site, they really -- the builders also used the gravesite set aside for dolley so that when her remains where is brought here about the same time, she was buried behind madison instead of beside him, and she also has a marker on her gravesite. we think today that a grave has to be marked. i think for the family, the marking of the grave was the

cemetery itself. and this was the existence of the cemetery, the walls that enclose it, designated this as the family's burial ground, so that additional marking inside it wasn't necessary. as i said, both madison's parents and his grandparents are buried in the cemetery. we don't know which grave is theirs because their graves are not marked. in fact, the first marker in this grave site, in this cemetery, is dated 1811, and that's 80 years after the cemetery was established in 1732. john willis, you know, a member of the family, buried here in 1811. so, this is the earliest marker in this cemetery. that is the most recent stone, and that actually was placed here to replace an earlier stone. but you see the willis name which is one of the family

names, you know, this included people buried in this site included madison's sisters and their children. there are only two non-madison family members buried here. one of them is the son of winfield scott, great general from the war of 1812, the mexican-american war and even the civil war. he was visiting madison in the 1820s with his son. his son became ill and died, and the family extended to him the privilege of having him buried here in this cemetery. the other individual buried here actually was an owner of montpelier in the later 19th century. there's a madison family association and every three years they have their reunion here at montpelier. we're delighted to have them come. but this is no longer an active cemetery.

so there are no about yourias in this cemetery by the family or by anyone else. my archaeological evidence has indicated that this cemetery is really full. there's no room left. the cemetery had been neglected over the years. and starting about ten years ago, in fact, many of the monuments were no longer vertical. part of the enclosing brick wall had collapsed and vandals had pushed over the monument marking dolley madison's burial site, so we joined with the virginia chapter of the daughters of the american revolution and with the fund-raising abilities of those women and their patriotic fervor, we raised the money to fully restore the cemetery. we've rebuilt the brick wall. we stabilized the monuments, cleaned them, and restored them so that they would continue to mark the family presence here at

montpelier for the foreseeable future. we're very grateful to the virginia chapter of the dar for taking on that project and bringing it to a successful conclusion. a great partner. he did have a will. in fact, it's in the records of the orange county courthouse. they have loaned it to us for exhibit, but he did not address at all his desires for how he is to be buried or how his grave was to be marked. so, in fact, he really left it to family tradition, which at that point was largely unmarked graves. this pathway leads to the slave cemetery here at montpelier, and it really communicates a very important aspect of the montpelier plantation which is

that there were many, many african-americans living here, many more than members of the madison family and that this was their home, as well. they formed a community. they had relations with each other, with slaves in neighboring plantations, and so this was a thriving, self-sufficient community, plantation community. they, too, needed a burial spot. it is markedly different from the madison family burial. it's not enclosed by a brick wall. it's here in an area where trees have subsequently grown up, so it has received less attention by subsequent owners. let's go back and take a look. there are no markers of the grave sites here. and what gave the evidence that presented itself is that as the coffins rotted and collapsed, the ground above them settled, so that a careful mapping of this area, a three-dimensional mapping, and you can actually see that in this computer

schematic here, revealed the ground here is actually pockmarked with the remains of each of those graves. there are about 40 of them here. we think there are many other graves here as well. they likely were filled in when the slave community was still actively taking care of the cemetery prior to emancipation at the end of the civil war. some of the grave sites were actually marked with large stones. big quartz stones which are pretty rare in this area, so they clearly were gathered and brought to this location and placed on the graves as a marker. but there are no names. there's nothing to indicate the specific individuals in each of the burial sites. we have done enough archaeological work to confirm, again, the grave shafts were dug. again, we have not excavated any of the remains, and that's not

our intention. an oral tradition that descendants of montpelier slaves have told us is that the periwinkle you see here was planted intentionally to help mark this area because it blooms in the spinningtime. and so it linked into ideas of rebirth and resurrection that are part of the christian religion that had become part of their lives. this is not the only slave cemetery here at montpelier. there are archaeological surveys we have found evidence of other slave cemeteries at other locations. this appears to be the largest, and because of its location, its proximity to the mansion, it seems likely that it served the nucleus of the slave population and those that worked in the household, the tradesmen that ran the blacksmith shop and cared for the gardens and the

stables. so they clearly emerges at the most important. we also hosted reunion of descendants of montpelier slaves, so we have learned some of the oral traditions about how burials were carried out during slavery and some of the beliefs attached to that. and that's given us some more insight into the meaning and significance of this cemetery. the last reunion we had, which was in 2008, we had over 100 people attend. and really the evidence is all oral tradition. it's an understanding of where they came from, who their ancestors were, and we've worked very hard with many of those members to record those oral traditions and we have started tracing out what became of some of the montpelier slaves after the end of slavery. the best insight we have in to madison's treatment of slaves comes from a man named paul jennings. he was born a slave here at

montpelier around 1800. he became madison's personal valet and he later purchased his own freedom from dolley and around the time, a little bit after the civil war, his recollections were written down and published with the title "a colored man's reminiscences of james madison." and he talks about madison being a very kind in his treatment of the slaves. he probably is the best indication we have of that. during madison's time, there were as many as 100 slaves who lived and worked at montpelier and they really carried out all the jobs, but they also tended to be specialized. this sign tells you about the field slaves. they are the ones who worked the fields, tilled the soil, and

really made montpelier a productive plantation. we've done just enough archaeology to know that we had a tobacco barn and field slave quarters on some of the ridges on this field here. so, it really -- this was a farming center for james madison's montpelier. now, there were other groups of slaves, too. the slaves who supported the household, who cleaned the house, who did the laundry, prepared the food, they were typically termed the house servants or house slaves, and they lived close to where they worked, close to the mansion. there were other slaves as well, because a plantation like this had tradesmen, craftsmen, blacksmiths, coopers, they would have lived in another area near their workshops. so, over the next few years we will be excavating sites that are the homes, the residences,

of all of these slaves and we'll start to do a cross-analysis to understand the different life standards, the different material life standards, of each of these groups of slaves, the extent to which they may have traded with each other. because all the evidence tells us that this was really a self-supporting, functioning community. it existed here for generations just like the madison family, and they had links among each other, they had links with slaves at other plantations, they had links with the white community as well. we do have records of james and dolley buying such things as fresh eggs and vegetables from their own slaves. so all of this arch logical work will help us to understand better and better the complex relationship of the communities that made montpelier their home for a century and a half during the madison's ownership, the madison family owner hip of montpeli montpelier.

we're standing in front of the temple which james madison built here in the opening years of his term as our nation's fourth president. and the temple tells us so much about his interest, his personality, even his education. madison had studied deeply the writings of the ancients and he knew of the classical world, greek and rome, as the birthplace of our modern concepts of democracy and self-government. so, when he built the temple, he was consciously evoking the ancient models on which the american nation was founded. it really doesn't have a practical purpose. it was an adornment of his grounds, but madison was also a very practical man. his contemporaries noted he was a politician and a very effective politician as well as a thinker. so, that he placed the temple on

top of his ice house. usually one of the least attractive structures around the home of a plantation in hidden it and disguised that utilitarian ice house with you this very attractive temple. but underneath its floor is a pit 20 feet deep and in the wintertime his slaves would cut ice from the pond down the hill, cart it up the slope, and pack it into the ice house with straw and sawdust so it would stay frozen well into the summer, providing cooling ice for drinks, ice for dolley madison's favorite dessert ice cream and for the enjoyment of his guests and his family throughout the hot summer months. it has changed very little since his time. later owners did replace the wood floor with a concrete slab, but our investigation showed that the brick ice house below is intact and unchanged.

these are the original columns. the roof has been replaced, of course. but you're looking at it as it was envisioned by james madison. there are several drawings from madison's lifetime that show this temple and madison's concept for us -- for it. now, he placed it in a very interesting location. because if you look from the temple, you'll notice that he's placed it in a very strategic location so it is in sight from the front porch of his home. and he wanted visitors to see this as an embellishment of the grounds, but he didn't want it directly in view, so he's creating this larger expansive and balanced setting that frames his home here in the beautiful virginia piedmont countryside. you know, one of his nieces said that madison talked about using it as a study. that seems a bit impractical for me, to my mind, but i can

envision madison out here in good weather with a chair, studying one of the books of the ancients, working on some of his papers. it would have been a way to escape some of the hot heat inside the house in the summertime. if you look here at the foundation, you can see in recent repairs we have articulated a brick arch, and that we discovered was the original entrance into the ice house portion, so the ground here has actually been filled in for safety reasons and to stabilize the brick structure, but that actually would have been a low hatch in which the slaves would have entered with the ice from the pond below. in our long-term plan, we will be further investigating the ice house and the temple and fully restoring it. our goal is to restore the original wood floor and the original access so you can really understand its functional role here at the montpelier plantation.

we do gain some insight into the importance of the temple to madison. when madison was remodeling the house at about the same time, we have a letter from his builder, james dinsmore, and dinsmore proposes putting a window in one wall of madison's new library so that madison will be able to see the temple. so, we do know, and madison agreed with that, the window was put in as part of the house today, so that does tell us that madison viewed this as a very special element of his land -- of the landscape around his home. you know, the ancient models of temples are where the greek and roman gods were housed and worshipped, but that's not the reference that madison was making. he was really recalling antiquity as a source of philosophy from aristotle to cicero into how the real purpose of life, the purpose of

government, and how people can start governing themselves through democracy and republican forces of government. so, for him, it was the ideas of antiquity, not the religion that was the motivating force. because he really built a lot of his thinking about the american constitution going all the way back to antiquity to find the best ideas that history offered. we've not found madison making reference to any specific structures. we do know, though, that he likely talked over plans for this temple with the man who was architect tech of the capitol hill. his name was william thornton. and we would certainly expect, although we have no letters, that he discussed it with his best friend, thomas jefferson, who is such an architectural expert. i've been here at montpelier for nearly 12 years now. and i came in 1999 with the

excitement and the vision of really restoring montpelier as the home of james and dolley madison and bringing back their presence. james madison has really been lost to america. there is no monument to him on the mall in our nation's capital. he doesn't appear on our circulating currency and his home has been lost to americans for over a century. so, restoring the home was really an effort to make montpelier, james madison's lifelong home, the nation's monument to his achievement as the father of our constitution and as the fourth president of the united states. >> you can watch "american artifacts" every sunday at 8:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span3's "american history tv," for schedule information and to view programs, visit cspan.org/history.

weekends on c-span3 starting at 8:00 a.m. saturday, it's american history t "v." every weekend, american history tv travels to historic sites, museums and archives to learn and what artifacts reveal about american history. watch american artifacts sundays at 8:00 a.m. eastern and again at 7:00 and 10:00 here on krn span 3. american history 3 also examines the presidents through their historic speeches and discussions with leading historian. that's every sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern and again at 7:30 and 1030 p.m. find out more information about our other series including schedules and online video archives at c-span.org/history. between 161 and 1868, clara

barton known as the angel of the battlefield and founder of the mirren red cross, lived in this washington, d.c. building. she employed 12 clerks on the third floor in her missing it soldier's office where they received over 60,000 letters from families searching for lost sons and husbands. in 1996, richard ryons a carpeter for the general services administration was helping to prepare the building for demolition when he discovered this office sign in the attic. american history tv visited the building on seventh street to learn about the missing soldiers office and to hear the story of richard lyon who's worked alone for months to save the building from demolition. >> and. >> this is the original staircase that clara used that that has never been renovated or changed much at all. just a pugh repairs done to it. so when you walk up the staircase and put your hand on the banister, you're walking in

clara barton's footsteps she did this for about years and just later when she operated a missing soldier office in thisable. her health became so poor and she was so exhausted that she couldn't find these three sets of stairs anymore and ended up moving out late in december of 1868. and that's pretty up when the she closed down her operations here in washington. one of the theaternings that we had we found in the space we had replicated is a roll of the missing men. clara home run five of these produced during the war and september out almost 100,000 copies, and we only know of a handful in existence today so one of the goals of my museum su to find copies of each roll, one through five so that we can show

people exactly all the names and exactly what kind of work she was doing during that period of time. she started out in just one room and i have read an account from one of her family members who visited her here who said that sheept had one room. she divided that room in half because she started to collect supplies for soldiers and she needed so much space, that she put this wall up you see in the background and that was her boarding room. half of it was used to store supplies, the other half was her living space. the last time we know anyone inhadn't this space on the third floor was in 1911. that's when the or edward shaw moved out of the building. he had gotten to be rather elderly and he went, left thisable and moved in some smaller space. i'm not sure where yet.

he's one of the very intriguing personalities that we're researching right now to find out exactly what his role was. and his relationship with clara barton. >> my name's richard. i work with the general service administration as a carpenter. and 1996, they sent us out to the buildings that we acquired from pennsylvania avenue development corporation to clean them up, make sure nobody was living in them. it was the date before thanksgiving. in '96. i made my way up the steps. i got up here, just nothing in here no, lights, no nothing. only a little bit light coming through the windows. i came over here and looked around and nothing, nothing was here. so happened to witness, you don't usually witness one but i witnessed the accident out