>> interested in what the first lady wears, other than if you're just a fan of fashion. why do we care what the first lady wears? but we look to her clothing for clues about what she is 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 they're -- possibly something about her politics or the administration's politics. is it american-made? do you proudly say that you only wear american designers and american-made clothing? carolyn harrison, who is the beautiful burgundy gown, made a point of only wearing american fabrics and american-made clothes. a lot of first ladies have worn american-made clothing. if you look to the back, you'll see a beautiful dress of eleanor roosevelt which is actually her first inaugural gown. eleanor roosevelt had a busy life, and she made a point of saying busy women also like to buy their clothes off the rack.

but she also stressed that you shouldn't buy clothes from sweatshops. 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's been on display for a long sustained amount of time. so it's having a rest right knew. in this gallery, when we round the corner, the oldest dress will be dolley madison's. >> fast forward to today. michelle obama, she donated hers personally? >> actually, mrs. obama came and presented the dress and the jewelry and the shoes. but they were actually donated, and she -- it's interesting. she says this is the first time we had the designers donate. and mrs. obama had them donate these pieces. so jason wu and jimmy choo and lori rodkin actually donated the pieces. and they're donated. when you see the label, it will be donated by jason wu in honor of the first lady michelle obama. and mrs. obama came to present

the pieces to the museum. >> so 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 would like it to maybe be a little more political than it probably is. when we did -- there is a video playing in this exhibition. and 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 sentimental 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 you wanted a pretty party dress. and i think what women -- the 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 is not functioning in duty hours, she represents the united states. >> this is c-span 3 with politics and public affairs programing throughout the week, and every weekend 48 hours of people and events telling the american story on american history tv. get our schedules and see past programs at our websites. and you can join in the conversation on social media sites.

former first ladies barbara bush and laura bush sat down for a conversation about their time in the white house. historian and biographer doris concerns goodwin moderated the one-hour discussion. we hear barbara bush's thoughts about the 1992 and 2012 presidential campaigns, and laura bush speaks about her work on behalf of women in afghanistan, and influence first ladies possess. [ applause ] ♪

>> hello, my name is mark langedale. i'm president of the george w. bush foundation. i want to welcome to you the final panel of a great event we're having today with the national archives and records administration. in my job, i get asked a lot, how do get the chance to work on building something as interesting and significant as the george w. bush presidential center? and i go, well, i have experience building complex real estate projects. i served in government. i'm interested in presidential history. i even like to watch c-span3. but the -- the big reason and the real reason that i have this really great job is 23 years ago, george and laura bush moved to dallas, texas and bought the house next door to me and we became friends, and if there is one thing i can testify to, it's true then, and true today. is that george and laura bush are true partners in life.

and george w. bush truly and deeply loves his wife. so it is an honor for me to introduce a man who truly and deeply loves his wife, the 43rd president of the united states, george w. bush. [ applause ] >> thank you all for coming. so it seems fitting to me that for the america's first ladies conference, we actually have first ladies. and it's my honor to introduce them. before i do so, i want to thank mark langdale for his leadership of the george w. bush foundation. i want to thank anita mcbride for conceiving and sharing what has been a fascinating

discussion, actually watching some streamed over the internet. i want to thank gerald turner of smu and the smu folks. smu is an awesome university, by the way, and we're honored to be associated with it. and neil kerwin, president of american university and his wife ann have joined us. thank you so much for being here. i want to thank the library directors, alan lowe, of course, of the bush president 43. warren finch, bush president 41. i'll be the funny guy. [ laughter ] and mark updegrove of the lyndon baines johnson's library right down the road. first i want to say something about doris kerns good win. we're fortunate to have her

here. she is an awesome historian, she really is. i read a lot of history when i was president. i can hear people saying, we paid you all that money and all you did was read? sit around reading? it was fascinating. i didn't watch much tv. it was fascinating to read history while i had the honor of making history. and no better historian to help a president understand the past and future by the way, than for doris kearns goodwin. so we're honored you're here. [ applause ] and so the other thing that impressed me about doris kearns goodwin, she raised a son who became a united states marine. volunteered to be a united states marine after september the 11th. [ applause ] i have the honor of introducing the best first lady ever. [ laughter ]

mom, would you take a tie? obviously, i don't mind being surrounded by strong women. i was raised by one, i married one, and i believe we're raising two. welcome former first ladies, barbara and laura bush. >> thank you very much. >> i thought it was me. [ applause ] >> well, for me, this is such a great honor. you can imagine having spent my life trying to bring presidents and first ladies who were no longer alive to life? i've got live ones here! much more fun. >> we hope. >> i always worry -- i worry that in the -- >> careful.

>> i worry that someday -- i worry that someday in the afterlife there will be a panel of presidents that i ever studied and everyone will tell me every single thing i got wrong. the first person who yell out will be lbj. how come that damn book on the kennedys was twice as long as mine. but let me begin, because i love to tell stories from the beginning with what it was like when you first get to the white house. you have this great line where you said "i woke up with the president-elect." what's it like to wake up with the president in the morning? and know you are in a place with 132 rooms and you have to make it a home? how do you do that? >> the house really i think was very easy. we brought furniture for the one family room, which was beautiful. and our own curtains came, matched the couches that we brought. it's -- first of all, 90-some people who work for you are family. they really are. and when we went back all those

years later, eight years later, when george and laura were there, there was our family. they were still there. there are some of them still there. not many anymore. old age got them. >> did you have a favorite place in the white house where you liked to go? >> well, i loved my little office, because it was -- besides being nancy reagan's beauty parlor, which she didn't like me to say, but it was. the dogs were born there, and you could look out the window at jackson place and the -- what's that park? >> lafayette square. >> lafayette square and see all sorts of wonderful things. nobody else faced that part of washington, but i saw more people protesting us and some people who loved us, and i saw people at weddings. they would back up and have a wedding picture taken. i saw my first black bridesmaids dresses backing up to have their pictures taken by the white house. i mean their dresses were black,

which i thought was amazing. but it was -- i loved looking out at the people. >> i can well imagine. how about you? how did you go about -- and you had already been there. >> i had already been there. i had a huge advantage that nobody else had had except louisa adams. i had been there so often. having been there with my father-in-law president bush that is really is a home and i knew bar had made it into a home. it was a home where our little girls when they were 7, when their grandfather was president, could slide down the ramp from the conservatory, the solarium that you saw in several of the photos earlier, the wooden ramp, slide down on their bottom or make the running jump to the one big antique bed that was so tall that it required steps to get into. but barbara and jenna could run and jump on it at that age. they also, when the obamas came

for the tour, they showed sasha and malia all of those tricks from their childhood. at the white house, sliding down the ramp and jumping on the beds. so i really knew. and because i knew there was this really magnificent collection of white house furniture, i didn't move anything with us. we had just moved into our ranch house which is where all of our furniture went. so i brought one chest of drawers for my dressing room that was george's grandmother's, just to have that there, just to remember her. and then i brought some of our books, a few of our books. i also knew that we would get lots of books. so i didn't bring our whole library, and just brought personal photographs, and then had a wonderful time going to the big warehouse. you can't call it a warehouse, because it's really climate and temperature controlled with a conservator, storage space where all the white house furniture was and bringing back different pieces to the white house. >> to what extent are you aware of other presidents and their --

their first wives or first -- maybe. and their first ladies being there in different rooms? >> i think very much. i think there is a place in the white house that later became closets for ladies clothes, that's where i hung my evening clothes and things, that if you walk down looking out at lafayette square where presidents made great pronouncements to people, and we brought a historian up. lincoln historian up, and he said i can't believe i'm here. now, granted, they had redone the white house, but he felt he knew it. so he went right to the closet. down the corridor, and i think the girls' rooms opened. >> on both sides. >> but he ran right down there and he looked. and there wasn't the portico or something there. and he could feel lincoln giving the speech. >> wow. i can imagine that. >> and it was very exciting with him. one thing i forgot to mention,

the thing i love most was i could hear jenna and barbara, and i could hear marshall and walker, giggling and laughing and riding bikes and swimming and who knew what? anyway, and george loved that. they would swim and come in -- and neil's children. but they lived in washington. dora's children, and jenna and barbara, they all came to visit. but it was so cute. it made it home. >> i can imagine that. >> and beside that, your own house when your grandchildren come, they work. when they come to the white house, there are 90 some people who will take care of them. >> when did you think of restoring the lincoln room? speaking of lincoln. i was able to see that, and you just did an amazing job. >> really, do you think of presidents the whole time you are there, and there is great comfort in that. you think of all of the other challenges that other presidents faced and that our country faced and how we overcame all of those

challenges. and especially in a time when we had troops in iraq and afghanistan. it was very comforting after september 11th to know we can overcome this too and that we'll move on and while peace may not be forever, neither is war, and there is a great continuity of living in a house where all of the presidents, every one of them, except for george washington had lived before you. so one of the things you do, you live with these effects of all the people that lived there before you. you live with their decorating, with their taste, their choice in -- in furniture, or in china or in decorative arts. all the things that were acquired by the white house during other terms. and slowly, i moved different pieces from the storage and set up each room and at one point during the second term, we determined it was time to redo the lincoln bedroom.

it had last been done during president ford, i believe. actually set up as a bedroom after truman renovated the white house. the bedroom, the bed, had been in a room that's now the upstairs dining room across the hall from the presidential bedrooms. the room that's now set up is the lincoln bedroom, was lincoln's office before the west wing was built. obviously all the offices down at that end of the residence hall and it was the room that lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation in. and we owned one of the five original copies of the gettysburg address, written in lincoln's hand and that was in the room and our guests, who would come stay in the lincoln bedroom, would look at that copy of the gettysburg address and read it and weep. it was very moving to see. and so i worked with the white house historical association with the furniture curators and historians that are part of the

advisory board, and we had little -- a little remnant of the wall party that had been on the wall of his room. we had photographs of the lincoln bed with the gold corona with purple and gold drapes that hung down from the corona. we knew from white house records that the corona had been sent away from the white house in 1927, so we reproduced all those things. so it's not a real reproduction, because it's neither an office or a bedroom, but instead both. we went back to the same mill in england that had run the carpet for him on the 27-inch loom. >> wow. >> and we knew from the records that the carpet was "g" and "o," which the curators think meant green and oak, which is green and brown. and we went to the same mill, and they didn't have records of what they had actually sold to the white house, but we used a pattern that we think was the

pattern. so it was really, really very fun. >> so exciting just to know that lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation in that room. it's a great story. he had shaken so many hands on new year's morning, his own hand was numb and shaking. he put the pen down. he said if ever my soul were in an act, it is in that act. and if i sign with a shaking hand, posterity will say he hesitated. so he waited and waited until he could sign. and it's a really big, bold hand for him. it's great. >> do you remember the first guest of the bush family who stayed in that bed? we immediately sent is a new mattress for the lincoln bed. the most uncomfortable bed. it may be historic, but bucky and patty bought a new, our brother and sister. said nobody could sleep on this bed. >> i'll never forget one night i

was able to sleep in churchill's room, and no way i could sleep. i was certain he was sitting in the corner drinking his brandy and smoking his cigar. that's the theme of a favorite story in world war ii, and he churchill came after pearl harbor and roosevelt was supposed to sign this document putting the allies against the axis powers. but roosevelt didn't like the word associated nations and wanted to call them united nations. comes wheeling in to churchill's room to help him the news. but churchill is just coming out of the bathtub and had nothing on. but churchill said oh, no please stay. the prime minister of great britain has nothing to hide from the president. so anyway, speaking of churchill, sticking his stomach out, i recognized there is no regular ritual day in the white house, but what amazed me about you is number one, the athleticism of you. number two, that you wrote a diary. we historians are so sad to

think that in the future 200 years from now, people are not going to have diaries. it's my favorite. time when you wrote in the diary? >> i wake up very early. i woke up at 6:00 this morning. >> and wake up lively? did you wake up lively? >> i don't talk to anybody. no, i wake up, put the dogs out, get the coffee, pick up the paper. but in those days, i really woke up pretty lively, and i just learned how to use a computer, and i -- i wrote a diary and actually jon meacham has been given permission only, because they're not to be open for 50 years because i'm pretty naughty. frank. >> frank is a good one. >> who would guess? >> not to my precious daughter-in-law. anyway, i wrote a diary, and he is allowed to read part of it. but i didn't -- i'm ashamed to

say i did not write too much about we have a war going on. i really wrote more about i don't know what. i haven't read my diary in years. it's in the library and anyone who reads it other than john meacham just a certain number of years will be shot. >> i guess as an historian, i i'm not going to be reading that. >> well, barb is so unbelievably disciplined. it takes a lot of discipline to write in a diary, and then she would go to the white house pool and swim laps. every morning. >> now i can't. since i have new knees, they sink. i'm in real trouble. >> what fun it must have been to live with you. >> i don't know as george thinks so. >> i think he does. >> so speaking of routines of the day, when i read your memoir, the funniest thing was when you talked about at the

white house correspondent's dinner your nightly routine. will you tell these people about that? i loved it so. >> well, the white house correspondents dinner, have you probably seen it every year on television, but it's the evening when all of the white house correspondents, the press that are assigned to the white house and their guests, and they always try to outcelebrity each other and invite lots of celebrities come to roast the president. as george said, everyone makes fun of the president, and then he stands up and makes fun of himself. so george was always very funny at every one of the white house correspondents dinners. but finely he said i have run out of ideas. why don't you surprise everyone and speak? so i had a very funny speech, i think. and george got up to speak to the crowd and kind of laughed and started telling a joke. and i sprang up and pushed him out of the way and said no, no, not that old joke again. and people gasped. i mean the people i was sitting

with thought that i really had just jumped up. but then i talked about being a desperate housewife and how mr. excitement here was already in bed at 9:30. and i said that one night lynne cheney and condi rice and karen hughes, who i think is here and i had gone to chippendales and i wouldn't even have mentioned it accept sandra day o'connor and justice ginsburg saw us there. but, you know, that sort of humor doesn't really translate to most countries, because most countries you can't roast the president like that. so for a year after that at least on foreign travel, heads of state when we were somewhere else would take me aside and say are you really a desperate housewife? >> humor is such an important thing. >> those things sometimes

backfire. i can't remember which dinner, but there is a white tie dinner. >> the gridiron. >> the gridiron. >> where they take themselves, pardon me, so seriously, you press. i decided it was on april 1st. i decided ah-ha, so i worked with my hairdresser. and i wore a red wig and came out in my evening dress. and george says you're not going like that, are you? i said, yeah, i am. so we went to the dinner. some people thought i had cancer. some people said who is that woman with the president? nobody thought it was funny. i had gone through great trouble to get this wonderful wig. any way, it backfired. people were saying how are you for days after that. >> and you were just fine. to what extent do the first ladies get involved in preparing

the meals or menus that will be eaten just for your ordinary nights? >> none. >> ordinary night, no. but the state dinners, they give you choices of different menus and actually, everything they cooked was so good. i do wish i was there again, only for the meals. >> we did have tastes for state dinners. we usually invited congressmen who weren't going to be invited to the state dinner over. >> you were much smarter than we were. >> to be the guinea pigs. but the white house chef would give us a weekly menu. if there was something on there we didn't think we would want, we would call and say don't fix that but they were pretty terrific. >> it was unbelievable food. and lovely people. >> i can imagine. one of the things i remember, of course, that your husband didn't like broccoli. and that became a famous moment. do you know fdr hated broccoli, too?

>> oh, good. >> and his chef at the white house who was a woman, and she was really tough, would constantly serve him broccoli, because he should eat it even if he didn't like it. >> i read that in your book. >> exactly. >> i did. >> and then every morning he served her oatmeal every single morning. he finally cut out cornflakes, 19 cents. post toasties. couldn't i have something other than oatmeal? he said he was getting chicken six nights a week. he said his stomach was rebelling so much that he bit a foreign power. so texas is so fortunate to have had three first ladies in recent history. tell me about your feelings for lady bird johnson who i had such enormous respect for and so lucky to have known her when i was 24 years old. >> we adored her, truthfully, both george and i. and i felt so badly, probably shouldn't say this. when we went to washington i was so offended by the attitude of

the kennedy people who would say to you oh, i wish you had been here in the good times instead of these awful texans. and finally at a dinner one night i said, you know, i'm a texan. and they said no you're not. you're from the east. i said well, then my five children are. we stopped doing that, we stopped going to those dinners. they ridiculed her accent. she was the most wonderful lady. she did more for beauty in this country, and she was so generous and genuine. i loved her. and until laura, she was my favorite first lady. >> i also really admired her. i was at graduate school in texas. when president johnson died and his body lay in state at the lbj library. and i lined up. they were there, lady bird and linda and lucy, greeting every single person that came through. but i did get to take her on a tour of the white house the last

time she came to the white house, linda brought her and she was in a wheelchair. and she had lost her speech by then from a stroke. she was still so expressive with her hands. if she saw a painting, i showed her president johnson's painting again. and she put her arms out to him and when we met her at the door, the doorman was -- had been the mater d, he had come back from retirement when the johnsons were there, and he sort of fell into her arms and they hugged. so it was really a wonderful pleasure to get to show her the white house that last time. >> she came to the white house when we there were too. and told me a story about the picture of the little grumpy girl. >> thomas aikins? >> that's right. a group standing look agent it, and someone said, maybe lady bird, said, isn't she grumpy? and a voice in the back said she wasn't always. i married her.