but then for historians who are really interested in all the details, it gives you additional details you may not have known. i mean, you may not have known he was at the fulton state hospital if you were beginning your research. you may not have known what he was in prison for here. it also gives you a road map to other records. if you remember that register, it gives you citations to other arrests he had had. so it gives you clues to find other information about him. when they were investigating dr. king's assassination, they came to the missouri state penitentiary and went through every record they had for those details and historians do those same kinds of things. all weekend, american history tv is featuring jefferson city, missouri. learn more about jefferson city and c-span's local content vehicles at

c-span.org/localcontent. next month, louisville, kentucky. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. each week, "american artifacts" takes viewers into archives, museums and historics sites around the country. "uss constitution" was launched in boston and gained fame in the war of 1812, defeating british warships and earning the nickname "old iron sides." eastern tv visited the museum located at the same pier where the ship is docked today. we looked at the lives of sailors aboard the "constitution" during the war of 1812. >> welcome to the "uss constitution" museum. my name is ann grimes rald, president of the museum. i'm pleased to shaush with you our award-winning museum, "all

hands on deck," a look at the life of the enlisted crew who served during the war of the 1812. who were the men at the guns? what was their experience? as we walk upstairs we'll step back into time to boston of 1812 and you'll see how we load provisions on for "constitution," whether it's salted beef stored in a barrel or the live provisions, you might hear billy the goat being loaded aboard to provide fresh milk for the officers. in this exhibit, we meet the enlisted sailors who are coming to "constitution" to join the crew. and it may be someone who served in the fishing fleet, with a blockade, they can't get to sea. or african-american sailors made up 10% to 15% of "constitution's" crew. in the navy in 1812, working at sea, you would be paid the same wages whether you were black or white and that wasn't true onshore. so during the war of 1812, our

research uncovered another crew member who was a four-footed, furry member of the crew. it was a terrier named gerrier. his owner named him after the victory over guerriere. he probably had a job catching rats in the hold but he could travel to any part of the ship. where sailors weren't allowed to officer's country, guerriere the terrier lets us interpret "constitution" throughout all three decks with glimpses into the lives of the sailors. we have paws leading to the decks. our young visitors can follow the paw prints and find the exhibits you like best. as i mentioned we're stepping into boston in 1812. and for the officers, we would load fresh provisions on board like billy the goat here.

how do you get a goat from a small body, trying to load it on to "constitution"? you might use, with our block and tackle, we could bring billy closer to the ship and you would load heavy provisions. think about loading a gun barrel on "constitution." "constitution" is full of simple machines, using block and tackle or pulleys and ropes to lift heavy pieces on board the ship. here we are in boston of 1812. and a lieutenant from "constitution," like lieutenant morgan, would have rented a room on the waterfront. he'd put a notice in the newspaper, maybe get a little music, a drummer to attract attention to recruit sailors to join "constitution's" crew. 200 years ago you signed on for a specific ship and captain, you didn't just join the navy the way we do today. so each ship had to recruit their own sailors. so we'll go inside and see if you're willing to join "constitution's" crew in 1812.

we're here in the recruiting station in our all hands on deck exhibit. here we ask a series of questions to see if you're willing to join "constitution's" crew because the ship needs about 450 men to serve on board. so we ask questions, are you willing to eat a biscuit as hard as a brick? because a ship's biscuit would have been stored in a barrel for months before you get to eat it. do you have all of your fingers, do you have all of your teeth? because we're looking for healthy sailors to serve on "constitution." are you willing to sleep in a hammock next to 200 other folks who haven't taken a bath in a while? at sea it gets pretty smelly and sticky. can you name the lines on the ship? could you still remember their nameth at night or during a storm? so if you're recruiting a crew for "constitution," you want people who are willing and able

to learn the skills of a sailor or else arrive with the skills. depending on your level of experience you'll be paid more money when you sign on board. throughout the exhibit you'll meet many people different who we've taken photos to represent what a sailor looked like in 1812. and this is as accurate as we can be in terms of the clothing they would have worn, what they would have looked like when they joined "constitution's" crew. we also look at the crew as a whole. and we can see how today's visitors compare to "constitution's" crew. we know that the average crew member in 1812 was 5'6" inches tall. the average age was 27, but we know there were many teenagers serving on the ship, some over 50, and we know from these records that about 5% to 10% of the sailors had tattoos, whether it was an anchor or a cross or a heart. these were records kept by the british. british prisoners of war from the war of 1812. they wanted to know if someone ran away, how could they

identify those people? but it gives us a profile of what the average sailor looked like in 1812. when you join "constitution's" crew you'll have to pack your sea bag. you'll be away from home for two years, and this is the amount of space that you have. you've got to have your shoes, your pants, vest, coat, and there is very little room for personal items that you might want to take with you. if you're an enlisted sailor, this is what you bring. if you are an officer, you will be packing multiple trunks. whipple here is someone joining as a midshipman, an officer in training. so he would take navigational equipment like this octant. he'd have to provide his own telescope, his sword, get a new uniform to become a sailor. there's a great investment in money just to become an officer, to dress the role of an officer, because you have your nicely

fitted jacket which cost him the equivalent of five months' pay. as we see the items here, that's the actual sword owned by monte whipple. the case here holds an octant. that's going to help you with your navigation. these are instruments from that period. again, you see the brass telescope, so it won't corrode at sea. that week up and down out to be able to look for ships on the horizon. all of these items are items that we know were owned and taken to sea by sailers. throughout this exhibit we learned about many of the sailors who served on board "constitution," so each person is identified. this is dorthea who worked as a servant in the roberts' household in brookhaven, new york. she was married to william cooper. the roberts' family employed her husband on the farm. they have two daughters, charlotte and fanny, and they have to say goodbye because william has chosen to go to sea for two years.

the reason we know the story, i am afraid he doesn't have a very good fate. we know from the records of the national archives, he dies, so she applies for a pension. the only way you can get a pension from the government is to prove that you were legally married. we have a mulatto servant who married a native american and think they were married by an eye tin rant preacher at the indian camp. the household she worked for, the roberts family wrote this down, and said, "i know them and they have lived together as man and wife, and they had two children and she is deserving of his pension." and it's to bring to life the real people who served on "constitution." we as historians need to find the record, the letter in the national archives to help you see how we bring to life the stories of the men who served on "constitution" and the women and families that they left behind. throughout this exhibit we tried to bring the story to life from the point of view of the sailors themselves, so unlike a traditional museum exhibit, all of the labels are written in the

first person voice as the sailors share their story with our visitors. we invite our visitors to participate in the life of a sailor. we'll with head on deck next. when you're a sailor on a ship like "constitution," the marines are sort of the police force at sea. and the marines will make sure everyone does their job and does it when they should and they're where they should be. some of the people you meet as a sailor may include the purser, he's the one who keeps the ship's accounts. purser chew was the name of the "constitution's" purser during the war of 1812. he's the one that keeps track of your pay, or if you need to buy something, you can buy it from the purser. if you rip your pants or you need a new shirt, he can deduct that from your pay. each day the life of a sailor starts by scrubbing the deck. it wasn't a popular task with the sailors because instead of

starting the day with a hot shower, you have to roll up your pants, get on your hands and knees and scrub the deck. with a bucket of salt water and a holy stone you have to scrub the deck until it shines bright white. they use a piece of sandstone. it's almost like using sandpaper to scrub the surface of the deck. it was called a holy stone. there are a couple of guesses for the reason, either because it looks like you're praying when you are down using a holy stone or some were small and bible size. there were a number of different theories for why it's called a holy stone, but that's what you do. you scrub, scrub, scrub. an officer, the lieutenant, would be proud of the white sparkly decks. the surgeon would be pleased because there would be fewer germs, it would probably be a safer environment. but the sailors who have to scrub each morning with cold salt water probably aren't fond of the job.

"constitution" sailors also work aloft when with they're serving on "constitution." we have a yard here with a foot rope and you can see on the wall you can see folks working aloft on another ship. maybe we'll see if i can get visitors to join me in helping to furl the sail. if you are going to furl a sail on "constitution" in 1812, you have to climb up the mast on those black rat lines and you step out on the foot rope. this is our foot rope and we're each going to step on the foot rope and each time one of us steps on it, it changes the angle for other people. if i climbed up by the mast and i work my way out, i'm going to slide along the foot rope and work out to the end. if you can lean your body on the yard, then when you're furling a sail, you need to be able to use both hands so instead of holding on you reach down and haul that up and tuck it under

your tummy and haul it up and tuck it under your tummy and haul it up and tuck it under your tummy and haul it up until you get it all the way there and then you see two lines there. there's one there and there's probably one over here. we do a square knot there. left over right. right over left. and then if you look at that, we've got the sail furled the way you need to shorten it in a storm. and there's also, you can see a little film clip of a her chant ship there where men are working aloft, actually working aloft 100 years ago. you can see where they're working, they're leaning so much on the yard their feet pop right up there. they're not putting their weight on their feet. they have their feet on the yard. this is footage from mystic seaport museum. so the life of a sailor includes scrubbing the deck in the morning, working on the sails, climbing aloft, whatever the duties assigned, gun drill practice. by the end of the day, you're ready for some rest.

but you don't get eight hours of sleep. it is four hours on, four hours off, so only four hours to rest in the hammock and you can take a look at what it's like to live below decks on "constitution." actually, all of the sailors' hammocks would be higher like this. we've lowered some so that some of our smaller visitors can also climb into a ham book because there's nothing better after you've been working hard than climbing into your hammock and being able to enjoy a few hours of rest before you get called back to duty. if you're a sailor on "constitution," it's just four hours of rest and then back to work. the life of a sailor is not easy. it's not what we're all used to these days. but it is nice to have an opportunity to think about what was it like to be on board "constitution," to eat food that's been in barrels before it comes aboard the ship. because 200 years ago there's no refrigeration. all of our food comes aboard in a barrel, whether it is sauerkraut. this was an attempt to prevent scurvy, the disease you get if

you don't have enough vitamin c, sailors at sea would get sick from scurvy. sauerkraut was one way to try to get some preserved vegetables. we also have dried beans or rice as a part of the diet. as we look at different types of food that came aboard and even in there sailors weren't the only ones who ate the food. if you look closely, you can see a rat in there enjoying some of the sailors' fare as well. here we meet the ship's cook who was responsible for feeding 450 hungry sailors. in this case a sailor who injured his arm and couldn't work as a sailor anymore became the cook doing battle with the food and cooking on a hot stove. you can see each day sailors would get ship's biscuit or what they would call their bread. each day they would get their allotment of rum or spirits, and depending upon the day of the

week, they may get pork and peas. they might get beef and cheese. food that preserves well in a barrel day after day, week after week. it's not a very interesting diet. when you came into port you could get fresh provisions but once you're at sea the fare could be similar day after day after day. one of the provisions we saw every day is what's called ship's biscuit or later on they call it hard tack. we have an actual example of a ship's biscuit that someone took from "constitution" in 1861. "constitution" was already a famous enough ship they took the ship's biscuit home, wrote on the back it was taken from "uss constitution," and it's been preserved in the collection of the mariner's museum ever since. they've been generous enough to loan it to us for this exhibit to bring to life true stories of sailors on board "constitution." the life of a sailor is curious.

they're sailing to defend our rights that are written in the constitution. but at the same time, a sailor at sea forfeits some of his rights because when you're on a ship at sea, the captain has absolute authority. if you were a part of "constitution's" crew, you disobeyed orders you could be flogged which is to be whipped with a cat o' nine tails. this is an example because you take the pieces of the rope and you break it apart into the strands within and that would be used as a whip on the back of a sailor who was being punished for something he did wrong. there are both sides of the life of the sailor. this would certainly help keep sailors on their toes and minding the officers' orders but it's not something we think of as part of serving in our navy, certainly not today anymore. the frequency with which they used a cat o' nine tails varied according to the officers and the captains. there were regulations you couldn't get more than 12 lashes

for a single offense. if a sailor was drunk and neglected his duty and said something inexcellent to an officer, then he might have three different offenses for 12 lashes apiece. it wasn't used every day or as often as people tend to think. with captains like isaac hull who really did a good job of managing his crew, he infrequently used the cat o' nine tails. it is part of the story of being a sailor and always there as a threat. we have incomplete records from the war of 1812. the records of flogging, we only have 11 recorded examples of flogging on board "constitution" during that time period. there may have been more. our records are incomplete. so we can document 11 floggings during the war of 1812. with incomplete records, there may have been more, but that's what we know of. the sailor lived in fear of the possibility of being whipped by a cat o' nine tails. it was always carried by a petty officer in a bag. the thing a sailor never wanted

to see was a petty officer getting ready for a flogging. it's a phrase we still use today. don't let the cat out of the bag. you don't want to see the cat o' nine tails coming out of the bag for a flogging. the youngest crew member we know of to have served on the "constitution" during the war of 1812 was david dobias, only 8 years old. here in our exhibit, we use him to help teach people how to learn the ropes, how to tie the knots they need to shorten sail. having looked at the daily life of a sailor working on the decks of "constitution," we take a look at battle. that is obviously infrequent but it's what you train for every day. we have a battle theater that looks at the anticipation when sailors are called to their battle stations, the thoughts of waiting. there's a wonderful quote, the dart of death hangs and no one knows on whose head it will fall. you can think about being a sailor at their guns waiting for battle to start.

during battle it's just what you've practiced for and trained for. it's the teamwork that makes the ship an effective fighting crew. but the aftermath of battle, when you go to the decks of the enemy ship and you see what your guns have wrought, that's really powerful. and the words of the sailors describing that are very potent. here we take a look at the impact after battle. you have the surgeon who will do his best to save as many sailors as possible. the key when there's blood loss is amputate and bind a wound as quickly as possible to keep the sailor alive. so when "constitution" fought guerriere, there were only seven dead and seven wounded on "constitution." when they brought the injured over from guerriere, the surgeon, the british and the american surgeons worked together as quickly as they can to help the injured from the british ship. this is a medical case that was used by a surgeon during the war of 1812.

so you can see the tools of the trade and they're very simple, but very powerful, and we have here the bone saw. richard dunn served aboard "constitution" during the war of 1812 and he is one who lost his leg during battle. when he came down to the surgeon's cockpit and they got out of the bone saw, the only thing he said to the "constitution" surgeon amos evans, you're a hard set of butchers. he was popular amongst the crew. after that he left "constitution," but the sailors took up a subscription and amongst the crew they contributed about $1,000 to help richard dunn. when you go into battle, you never know if you will come out a hero or prisoner of war. that was true of "constitution's" crew when they went into battle three times in the war of 1812. each time they ended up victorious. if you look in this case you can see this amazing silver urn presented to captain isaac hull. after his victory over the "guerriere" the people of philadelphia took up a subscription, contributed funds,

and the silvermaker made this enormous, beautiful urn which created their reputation as silversmiths for the nation. isaac hull gets the urn where the british prisoners might have ended up in shackles on "constitution's" decks. so this urn was made by the silversmiths fletcher and gardner and it became their signature piece. it really made the reputation as a company. they put it on their trade cards. and it became their example of the fine craftsmanship they were capable of. in the final gallery here, we follow the crew members that we've met throughout the exhibit and learn a bit more about what happened to them. you met david dubias who was serving aboard "constitution" at the age of 8. he was part of the final victory over cyane and levant and he was then assigned as

part of the prize crew to take one of the captured british ships back to boston. but along the way, they were recaptured by the british, so instead of coming home as a hero, he was then imprisoned in the caribbean. he ended the war as a prisoner of war. eventually, he was exchanged, returned to the united states, continued to serve in the navy, and in the merchant service. serves again on "constitution" in the 1820s. we see him here as an older man, because in the 1830s, he was serving on a merchant ship in a southern port. we still had slavery in the united states. he was walking without his papers and he was arrested as a runaway slave. he told the local judge his story, and the local magistrate wrote down his whole story, that he was david dubias born free here in boston on beacon hill. he sent the letter to the secretary of the navy and asked them to confirm his naval service. so we were able to find a letter at the national archives from the treasurer, saying, yes, david dubias was paid in 1814 for his service on "constitution."

what we don't know, the local records at the courthouse burned. so we don't know if that letter was enough to free david from prison, or if he was sold into slavery. and here you see richard dunn, who we learned was injured during the battle and lost his leg. we've just recently learned that another museum in portsmouth, new hampshire, actually has his sunday leg, the wooden leg he would have worn on special occasi occasions, on sundays. it's displayed there now while their house is open in the summertime. but in the winter, we look forward to displaying it here at the "uss constitution" museum. in this exhibit, we hope that visitors will have an opportunity to meet the sailors, to think about what was it like, if i had lived 200 years ago, what would i have done in a similar situation? because the men who served aboard "constitution" 200 years ago were ordinary men, but they served aboard at an extraordinary time.

and what they did together had impact on our nation as a whole. so here at the "uss constitution" museum, we appreciate the opportunity of sharing the rich stories of "constitution" because it's a formative time in our nation's history when we were still a young, untested nation. but the men who worked aboard "constitution" accomplished great things that helped our nation to become more of a nation, through the war of 1812, we came out feeling more united, more of a national entity. and the ship really did sail in defense of the words in the document "constitution" and helped to prove we could live on as a nation with this new form of government. when you visit boston, "uss constitution" is still an active duty navy vessel with our active duty navy sailors giving tours on board ship. it's housed within the charlestown navy yard, which is a part of boston national historical park. so you see park rangers giving tours in the park, and of the

caisson young, a world war ii destroyer. but here in the "uss constitution" museum, we are a private, nonprofit museum. we welcome all visitors. there's no set admission fee, but we welcome donations, since we're not funded by the government. the museum is open seven days a week, 362 days a year. we hope you will take the time to come to visit boston, see old ironsides, walk on her decks, and come over to the museum and try your hand as a sailor in 1812. you can watch this program again at any time by visiting our website, c-span.org/history. also there, you'll find another american artifacts program from the "uss constitution" museum that looks at the full history of the ship including details about her three sea battles during the war of 1812. and watch american artifacts every sunday at 8:00 a.m., 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern. here on c-span3.

from your perspective as a journalist and a historian, a writer, has the press gotten better, worse, or stayed the same since the 1790s in terms of coverage of presidential and other elections? >> well, it's a -- i don't think you'd necessarily say better or worse. i mean, what i do think, and i'm not a particular fan of fox news, but fox news is a kind of a return to what it was like back in the early republic. you know, where you had a sort of -- outlets, and they did report news, and they did provide information, but it was always with this point of view. and there was no sort of ability -- there's no sort of attempt, it never occurred to them to try to pretend they weren't involved. right? so it was a press that was directly involved to the point of, they financed a lot of their newspapers through printing

contracts they would get, friendly office-holders would steer them. so they get it by printing contracts. it literally means if they don't win the election, they might lose their newspaper. so it's like they had a dog in the hunt. >> doesn't that sort of indicate we have a rich history of a partisan press in this country? >> we do, yes. and it's more -- it's really, actually, more of a history of the press than people -- than even you learn in journalism school. in some ways -- i don't know what's going to happen in the future, but in some ways the modern -- the objective press, it's really only the late, very late 19th, 20th century. and fox news is the indicator of the coming world, then it might go back. >> where does that concept begin, in your view? where did the concept begin of an independent press covering elections? >> it starts in the 1830s with the so-called penny press where

they -- basically, they were able to have a business model, essentially, where the newspapers can pay for themselves. you know, where they can have -- they can print enough copies, sell them directly to readers. the old ones were done mostly by subscription. a lot of the actual sort of funding of them tended to come from these other sources. that's when it begins. but they're not objective either. those are the more sensationalist papers, where they take positions, too, and take more extreme political positions. it's really -- it's after the civil war and especially after the turn of the century. william randolph hearse. one of the unknown incidents to most people is the mckinley assassination, right? >> that year was what year. >> i was afraid you would ask me that.