alzheimer's moment then. if you want to know about wilke and that era, there are two books, you have to read them both. one is the book on roosevelt and the depression. i have the book. i have it signed by eric. i don't have the title in my mind, but you can find it. and the other one is "the forgotten man." and you read those two books. they come from different standpoints. you'll understand roosevelt and wilke and understand the environment. >> need to remind the audience this program is called the contenders on 14 different friday nights starting september 9th. you teach where? >> in baltimore, maryland. >> what kind of school is it? >> it's a coeducational liberal arts school? >> and your favorite course you teach in history?

>> women's history. >> carl, you write for realclearpolitics.com. >> it's the best videos of the day and we have our special sauce, if you will, as the real clear politics polling average that as this campaign gets going, all the political junkies and everybody is interested will get on our site and read. and we do original content. we have two great political writers. we have our own concept as well. >> and richard, i don't know where to start. i could ask you how the rockefeller book is going, or i could ask you -- this series was partly your responsible and you'll be involved in it. why do you think it matter. s? >> well, i'll go back to what i said. it's an alternative way of looking at our history,

generally. but it's also -- it's great fun to have the opportunity week after week after week to make the acquaintance of historical characters and some of these characters the odds are you don't know very much about. and i think you'll enjoy the experience. >> thank you all three of you, and our producer for putting all this together. we look forward to 14 weeks of the contenders. >> thank you. this weekend on american history tv, presents the contenders, our series on key political figures who ran for president and lost, but who nevertheless changed political history. on sunday we feature former house speaker henry clay of kentucky known as the great come p promiser. the contenders airs each sunday

at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. this year c-span's local content vehicles are traveling the country, exploring american history. next a look at our visit to wichita, kansas. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. >> looking at a small building located in riverside park in wichita. the building is most well known as the girl scout little house because for 75 years, the girl scout council used it as a troop meeting house and council activity place and also a summer day camp site. and it has an interesting origin, though, and hence, the historic name is now the wichita fresh air baby camp.

in the early part of the 20th century, physicians, scientists, were beginning to be aware of how illness was spread and the importance of sanitation and in 1906 congress created the pure food and drug act and in 1912 the president created the u.s. children's bureau. and this brought governmental possibilities for funding and raising wareness for sanitation, particularly aimed at children. so new kinds of programs were instituted. among them were education programs for mothers and also health care programs for children at risk. in wichita, this building was built to become a summer

hospital. about a mile east of here is a residential area that also contained wichita's two earliest hospitals. there was a pediatrician dr. howard norton at the wesley hospital who was beginning to be interested in this idea of infant care. they actually put up a ent in the yard of the hospital building. it was a platform tent with screen sides and a canvas roof. they moved very ill infans for the summer out into that little tent building and they were taken care of by nurses and student nurses. the idea was to get those infants out of the confines of the stuffy hospital, remembering that this was an age before air-conditioning and understanding how germs were spread where other ill people were being taken care of. that summer was so successful that they then moved to a more natural setting here in the park. their second summer was held in

those two tent buildings. in the third year, the tents burned to the ground just before the season opened in june. the women who had created the board of directors immediately began to rally the community to raise funds to build a new fire-proof building. that's the building that you see with us here today. the building, its architectural style was built in 1920. and this park and the building in its setting is in the middle of a large bungalow neighborhood that was built in the 1920s. so the architecture of the building fits right into the residential area. the architect designed this building with very special windows, which are now boarded up because we have repaired a lot of them and we want to protect them from vandalism until the building is put back into use. these are triple-hung windows,

meaning they have three sashes, top, middle, and bottom. the function is to be able to open two sashes and to create a draft but the building. of course, they have screens on them also so flies and other insects would be kept out of the infant's hospital room. there are windows on all four sides of the building to create cross ventilation. the building is about 2500 square feet. it has one main room that was the crib room. it's been reconfigured somewhat. they had a small isolation room. they had a small bedroom for the overnight nurses because they served the patients 24 hours a day. this building is not the first one to be built in the united states by any means. kansas followed a national initiative. one of the first was located in

new york city on land that was contributed by the rockefeller family. that was a very large camp with platform tents and they had many different programs. they had mothers, education programs, and they had summer programs for older children also. part of the background of the creation of a program here in wichita was the fact that in kansas, our secretary of the department of e health whose name was dr. samuel combine issued a statewide campaign to promote the idea of sanitation as well as child can welfare. he had some pretty interesting campaigns. one was called swat the fly because people needed to be aware of them. and he had another one called don't spit on the sidewalk. in many cities, they actually

imprinted that slogan on various paving bricks and put them on the sidewalks to remind people. i found news articles here in wichita about campaigns on our streetcars that conductors were to watch for people spitting in the streetcars. this was -- it sounds kind of silly to us now, but it was a very serious campaign to educate people. the fresh air baby camp was in operation from 1920 in this building until 1926. at that time, wesley hospital had built a brand new modern facility further away in the city. so they were able to create an infant ward. and the board of directors for the baby camp solicited the hospital and were able to move the camp program into the hospital in a special ward where they could operate it year round. and so they no longer needed

this building. so they turned the lease over to the girl scout council at that time. it's due for rehabilitation. to begin that process we listed it in 2007. that does not guarantee funding or anything. the national register status is mainly an honor. it honors the significance of the building as far as the social history goes. it also honors the architecture. the first phase is to repair the roof because obviously if the roof falls in, the building will be totally lost. second phase, which we kind of already started, would be to repair the structure of the building including these important windows. we removed 14 windows from this building. took them to a warehouse setting where we could lay them out on work tables.

we took out the caulking. we reglazed the glass and reinstalled the windows. we also painted them. so they are all now in working order. they are boarded up because we want to protect them from vandalism and weather until we can get the whole building back in working order. in the end, the fact that it's a physical reminder of a time when wichitaens all over the community, those who could afford any kind of contribution, all came together to help solve a social problem and help those who were in need. this weekend american history tv is featuring wichita, kansas. our local content vehicles recently visited wichita to learn about its rich history. learn more about wichita and c-span's local content vehicles

at c-span.org. next month will feature jefferson city, missouri. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. the battle of mid-way was fought between june 4th and june 7th of 1942. six months after the japanese attacked pearl harbor. it was a decisive u.s. victory over the japanese and is considered a turning point in the war in the pacific. next, a brief film produced by the u.s. navy about the battle of mid-way.

a navy patrol plane. routine patrol. only behind every cloud may be an enemy. mid-way island. not much land, but it's our outpost, your front yard.

these are the natives of midway.

there's something in the air. something behind that sunset.

excite me excitement this morning. the dawn patrol has sighted an enemy fleet. during the night, forces have landed in midway. an historic council of war is held. >> yes, ma'am, it is. >> he's not going to fly that

great big bomber. >> yes, ma'am, that's his job. he's a skipper. >> 38 years on the old railroad as an engineer. and his mother. she's just like the rest of us mothers in springfield or any other american town. she's about as pretty as they come. >> i'll say so. good luck. god bless you, son.

>> from behind the clouds, the j japs attack.

>> is this really happening? gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ [ sundsounds of gunfire ] [ sounds of attacking airplanes ]

[ sounds of explosions ] [ sounds of airplanes attack attack and explosions ]

meantime, our warships fought the jap fleet. >> then suddenly -- >> navy planes roar from the depth of our carrier, navy,

marines, over 300 miles of the battle area. [ gunfire ] [ gunfire ] [ sounds of airplanes attacki attacking ]

>> the ip vags invasion forces were hit and hit again. ♪ >> men and women of america, here come your neighbor's son, home from the day's work. you want to meet them. there's jimmy thatch. seven meatballs on his plane. ♪ >> how many more today, skipper? ♪ [ playing "anchors away" ]

♪ >> back at midway, swore he'd liberate the navy. >> they're just as free as they ever were. ♪ ♪ >> the battle of midway is over. our front yard is safe, but a big job is still to be done. day after day, searching for survivor survivors. every tiny coral reef,

adissideadistanevery distant mile of sea. to the depths where men crashed into the sea. eight days. nine days. ten days without food or water. his first cigarette. >> boy when i first drank, that sure tasted good. >> 11 days. >> well done, matthew hughes. logan ramsey -- frank fessler. that's 13 for frank.

♪ [ playing "onward christian soldiers" ] ♪ >> get those boys to the hospital. please, do, quickly. get them clean cuts and cool shade, get them doctors and medicine. the nurses saw to that. get them to the hospital. hurry, please. >> there was a hospital, cleaned, orderly. 100 beds. on its roof, the red cross plainly marked. the symbol of mercy, the enemy was bound to respect. >> the next morning, divine

services were held where there had once been a chapel. [ bell tolls ] at even tide we buried our heroic dead. ♪ sweet land of liberty, of thee i sing ♪ ♪ land where my fathers died land of pilgrim's pride ♪ >> captain of the navy. the colonel. ♪ let freedom ring ♪

♪ author of liberty to thee we sing ♪ long may our land be bright ♪ with freedom's holy light ♪ ♪ protect us by thy might great god of thee ♪ ♪ amen