tremendously and has grown because of the influence of front tier days. but i think in so many ways the history >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring cheyenne, wyoming. team recently went there. of learn more about cheyenne c-span.org.s at you're watching american history tv. u >> each week on american

history tv, "american artifacts" visits museums and historic places. next, a visit to fraunces tavern at the southern tip of manhattan. to learn the history of the reconstructed 1719 building where general george washington bid farewell to his officers following the revolutionary war. >> fraunces tavern is at 54 pearl street, which is the corner of pearl and broad street in lower manhattan. it was built in 1719 with the delancey family. it was never lived in, it was built at a home, but it was a very mercantile area, lots of sailors coming in and out, lots of ships. so the delanceys never wanted to raise their family here, so it was rented out by different tenants. one of the tenants was mr. holt and he rented a dance hall. in 1762, samuel fraunces purchased 54 pearl street and he opened up the queen's head tavern. and being down here in lower manhattan, you were at the center of commerce. so it was location, location, location. it was a very popular tavern. soon, the politics of the times started really kicking up and

samuel fraunces was a patriot, so having a tavern named after your king and queen was not a good idea, so people referred to it as sam fraunces tavern, which is what it's known as today. the tavern was very popular. he had two kitchens, he had a savory kitchen and a sweet kitchen, which was very uncommon for the time. in the late 1760's, when the turmoil of the politics were happening, many different types of people would meet here at sam fraunces tavern, including the sons of liberty. so the upstairs second floor fraunces tavern was a private room referred to as the long room for private rentals, and women were not traditional a allowed in taverns, but if you rented a room you could have female guests. so there were certain types of things you would find at a tavern, like the pipes to smoke, made of clay. you wouldn't bring your own, you'd come to the tavern and you'd borrow a few of theirs. and they didn't know about germs back then, so you'd share your pipe with the guys before you. they liked to drink a lot of hot

booze back then. so they liked their beer hot and their punch warm. one way to warm up your ale would be with a lagger head, which is a long wrought iron stick they would keep by the fire to heat up. and so this hot rod would be then taken from the fire and put into your pewter mug to start frothing up the beer. but imagine you're a bunch of gentlemen at one point in the night, sitting around the table, eating walnuts, having some oysters, talking politics. and things might get heated after a couple glasses of rum. if you've ever heard the expression "coming to lagerheads," it comes from this time period. you'd have an argument, you might think it going to come to blows, so you go to the fire, you grab that hot lagerhead and you might want to hit the guy sitting next to you. so that's coming to lagerheads, so that may have happened here

at fraunces tavern. samuel fraunces would serve one meal a day, like a family style meal. there were no menus, this was predating restaurant, so you'd come and eat what was served. sam fraunces also is the first documented new york city tavern slash restaurant to do takeout. what they would do for takeout is they would put it in earthenware pots and pour a layer of fat on top and the fat would seal the food inside. sam fraunces also did some canning for the seamen and the ships, the merchants that would be here, canned oysters, canned nuts, pickles, that kind of thing. so he did a takeout business on site as well. now, the british occupiedd new york early on in the war, and sam fraunces saw the writing on the wall, he knew this was going to happen. so he left to new jersey with his family, and he left his loyalist son-in-law to run the tavern. the british captured him in new

jersey and brought him back to new york, where they forced sam fraunces to, as a prisoner of war, to serve one of the british generals at a different location. and so sam fraunces was an entrepreneur. i mean he started this tavern, this fancy mansion, it was very popular. so being forced to work for free really rubbed him the wrong way. and as a patriot, he used this as an opportunity to help the cause. so he would listen in to what the british generals were saying at the dinner table and report that intelligence back to the continental army. he also would save table scraps and any kind of clothing and give them to the prisoners in new york city. not many people know this, but more men died in the prison ships in new york harbor than on the battlefield. so sam fraunces was really helping the cause. and finally, cut to the end of fraunces tavern's history throughout the war -- so, new york was a sad, sad city during the war. it was under british occupation,

there was starvation, there were fires. and eventually we all know the end of the story, the americans won the war, and the british eventually had to evacuate the city. and just like today, when you bring your military in to a new area and you set up camp, it, if the war is over, you don't just get up the next day and leave. you have to disassemble all of the infrastructure that you've installed. so it took a while for the british to actually complete their dismantling and get out, and that was called evacuation day. so washington triumphantly marched into new york city on evacuation day and the british got on their ships and left. and the governor of new york, george clinton, actually hosted the dinner here at fraunces tavern. for evacuation day. and not too many days later, george washington actually hosted a special event here at fraunces tavern, and that's one of the reasons why is this tavern is still here today. it was a famous farewell. so washington invited his

officers to fraunces tavern. to say good-bye. i mean, they had -- they were brothers in arms. this david-goliath story, and they won, they were victorious. it was over, it was time to go home. so he invited them here to say good-bye. and there's a famous, the only primary source document of that farewell is benjamin tallmadge wrote a memoir. so you're looking at the memoir and an en engraving of benjamin tallmadge, who was a spy during the war. this was written just five years before benjamin passed away and in it he documents his life, including his time during the war and his attendance at the famous farewell at the long room in fraunces tavern. in that memoir he quotes washington from that evening, and washington says, i cannot come to all of you, but if you could come to me and shake my hand. and this is a stoic man, this is

the father of our country, and there claims to be tears on that evening. so that happened here in this long room at fraunces tavern, which you can visit today. and it's set up as it would have been back in the colonial times. if you were to rent a room at fraunces tavern for a private event, we have some tallies of what was served at those private events. so if you had a party of 10, there would be about 10 bottles of rum, certain number of bottles of beer, and you would pay for your candlesticks, and obviously the playing cards. so also what they would serve here would have been oysters, they claimed in the hudson river at the time the oysters were a foot long. so these are roast beef sized oysters. you would use pewter ware, some china. if you came to fraunces tavern, not everybody -- there was no public education, so not everybody could read or could count with numbers. so they would use playing cards with symbols, so everybody knew

that this was four because there are four hearts. so it wouldn't say the number 4, it would just have four hearts. so you would use these types of cards here at fraunces tavern if you were a gentleman visiting in the 1770's. so after sam fraunces sold the tavern in the 1800's, it had many different owners, and managers. it was a boarding house, a grocery store. it had three internal fires. and every time someone bought the building they thought, oh, this old building, let's improve it, put another floor on a flat roof, rebricks, a cast iron facade. so it had many changes in the 1800's. and through all of those changes and through this time it was starting to degrade. and it was going to be demoed. fraunces tavern was always recognized as the place where washington said his farewell, so there an uprising and the sons of the revolution in the state of new york found enough money to purchase the tavern in 1904, to save it from the wrecking ball.

so they took this tavern in 1904 and hired an architect to peel off the layers of the industrial revolution. and what they found was the original roof line, where the chimneys would have been, where the original staircase was located, and they rebuilt fraunces tavern conjecturally. so there's no pictures of it from 1719 when it was originally built. but the way it is today is most likely very similar to how it would have been built. so in 1904, there was a movement to save america's history and so that's a colonial revival. so it does have a little colonial revival taste to it as well. but the floors below me are original, so the yellow brick on the exterior we found that, the sons found that when they were doing excavation, so they found that and they put that back on the outside and bought some new ones to add to complete the

facade. so this building is not 100% as it was when george washington walked through these halls. but in the long room, 98% of the objects in this exhibit are from the colonial period. the sons of the revolution in the state of new york still own fraunces tavern. and they actually own five buildings on the historic fraunces tavern block. this society was founded in 1876, as a genealogical society for men who have descended from revolutionary war participants. and this society is still very active with a mission to educate the public about the revolutionary war and that time period. they have a flag day parade, they have an evacuation day event. they have a george washington birthday ball fundraiser for the museum every year, and they're the underwriters for the museum. as they opened the museum in 1907 and they still run it today. welcome to the mcintee gallery on the third floor of the museum.

this tells the history of the sons of revolution in the state of new york. the they had wonderful experience over the last 100 years through fraunces tavern doing many different programming options to educate people about the revolutionary war, including saving fraunces tavern and opening up a museum. flag day parades, tallmadge day, nathan hale day, as well as saving artifacts through the museum and displaying them here for the last 100 years. this case is a small segment of the washington collection here at fraunces tavern museum. what you're looking at right now is a lock of george washington's hair. so this object has been in the museum for close to 90 years,

and in the 1990's the f.b.i. was debuting d.n.a. testing. so as a media stunt, they gathered locks of supposedly george washington's hair from many institutions including fraunces tavern, and they tested this hair to one of george washington's descendants. and this hair here at fraunces tavern is 50% likely to be actually from george washington's head. now, the reason why it's only 50% likely is because over the years the hair has degraded as it does, it breaks down, so it was hard to pull solid d.n.a. from the strand. in this case you'll also find a tooth fragment. now this tooth fragment came to the museum claiming to be a fragment of one of george washington's teeth. it's commonly thought that george washington had wooden dentures, but his dentures were

made of animal and natural materials. in this case you're going to see artifacts that would have been carried by soldiers and officers alike, from their drinking cups made out of animal horn to their bayonets, their swords, their cartridge boxes. leather carry boxes and in the back you see they would have carried that to hold letters and other documents that they would want to keep safe, as well as a cannon ball, shot pouch, which you'd keep your shot in. all made of leather. these artifacts are actually from the revolutionary war. in this case in the gallery you'll see artifacts relating to nathan hale, the martyred spy of the revolutionary war, who was hanged for being a spy, which was a offense punishable by death. and the sons of revolution

actually had a statue, which you'll see in this case, a smaller version, they had a larger version built and installed at city hall park in manhattan. every year, the sons of the revolution in the state of new york host nathan hale day, where they go to the statue at city hall park and lay a wreath to the martyred spy. this case details the restoration of fraunces tavern at 54 pearl street. you'll find newspaper articles relating to the time of the restoration, to things found when the site was dug. the spikes from the original building, and bricks. as well as an invitation from the grand opening of fraunces tavern museum and restaurant in 1907. in this room you'll see exhibited part of the dunnsmore collection. fraunces tavern has the largest collection of dunnsmore painting

anywhere, 42 pieces in this collection. about 10 years ago the museum discovered that these paintings were in disrepair, the frames were cracked, there were holes and tears in the paintings. so in the last 10 years the museum has had a large effort to conserve 37 of the 42 pieces. this conservation effort was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is finally complete. so today can you visit fraunces tavern and see all of these beautiful 20th century illustrations exhibited here. they detail the story of the revolution from fabled events to actual events. and dunnsmore as a painter was an amateur archeologist and historian, also a member of the sons of the revolution in the state of new york. so his paintings are relatively accurate and they give a great glimpse into different pieces of the story that make up the american revolutionary war. this painting is one of my

favorites. it's called going to the hunt, and it depicts george washington at mount vernon, leaving on his horse to go fox hunting, which was his sport of choice. and so a lot of people think that george washington loved horses, and while this may be true, his true passion were for his dogs. so george washington actually is recognized as the creator of the american fox hound, by breeding two different types of hunting dogs together. george washington loved his dogs so much that he kept the kennel close to the main house at mount vernon and he would check on his dogs every morning and night. during the first continental congress, george washington actually brought his favorite dog with him, sweet lips. this painting depicts george washington, and to his left the marquis de lafayette. on horseback at the encampment of valley forge during the hard

winter of 1777-78. visiting the soldiers without shoes, barely clad, yet in this painting you can see a soldier holding his gun and standing in reverence of his leader. this painting of dunsmore's is titled "washington family at mount vernon the library." it's a domestic scene of our father of our country sitting by the fire with his wife and her grandchildren, nellie and washy, as they called him. so george washington and martha never had children of their own, but they did adopt two of her grandchildren, and this is a wonderful domestic scene that people are very fond of. this painting by dunsmore which was recently conserved thanks to the effort of dr. michael wolf, is titled "john adams proposing washington for a commander in chief." and you'll see washington is the only man in this scene in uniform. he's also facing the opposite direction of everyone else. being a humble servant, george washington knew what was about

to happen and he left the room so that he wouldn't sway anyone's vote with his presence. this scene depicts the interior of independence hall in philadelphia. this painting depicts quaker lydia darer in her home being questioned by a british general. he was a quaker and therefore a passivist, and the british occupied her home which they allowed her to stay in. the general told her and her family they had to go to bed early that night because he was holding a special meeting. so lydia actually hid and was able to listen in on the meeting, and she reported the intelligence she gathered from that meeting back to the continental army. and in this scene you can see there's a garbage can that's overflowing, and that's one of the painter's traits is that you

could see the unrest in this scene. so the garbage can with the papers coming out of it is kind of a metaphor for the tension. this painting of dunsmore is titled washington leaving mount vernon for his inauguration april 16, 1789. and you can see washington holding hands with nellie custis as martha stands saying good-bye. this scene is interesting because when this painting was conserved two years ago, there was a x-ray done of the painting and you could see behind martha there was another person painted there that dunsmore painted over and changed the location of. so when you have conservation you learn about the paintings, more than is available to the eye. dunsmore was an illustrator from the late 1800's, early 1900's, and his paintings were painted after the fact of these

revolutionary war events, so they're not primary sources. during his time of painting was a colonial revival movement. and sometimes people would romanticise the revolutionary war, and lots of his paintings depict events fabled events, not ones that actually occurred, but they tell stories about the heroes who served and the tales can be passed down to current generations. so the school kids who come here know the stories that can be told through dumsmore's paintings. welcome to the clinton room, it's right across the hall from the long room. this room is decorated in the federalist style. this room, a room like this may have never existed at fraunces tavern, as it's post-1800. but this room is very popular because of the wallpaper. this wallpaper is from france, it's called joubert wallpaper, you can actually still buy it

today, there's a copy of this type of wallpaper in the white house. so this room is named after the first governor of new york, george clinton, that is also his sword. his descendant gave this wallpaper to fraunces tavern. welcome to the davis gallery, the center for education in the american revolution. this gallery is fondly known as the flag gallery because, as you'll see, it's full of flags. and behind me here you'll see many flags that look kind of similar to the american flag, and that's because they tell the story of how the american flag came to be. you'll see the far left, the st. george's cross, the st. andrew's cross flag. and eventually you'll see how the american flag came to be, including the betsy ross at the top right. the story of the betsy ross is an oral history passed down from

betsy's family members. but there's no primary source documenting betsy ross creating that flag. but it is a well respected and fond symbol of american history. on this side of the room, behind me, you'll see very colorful flags that are a different shape than the american flag. these are french regimental flags. and as you may know, the french helped the continental army win the war with financial support, military support, and supplies. opposite the american flag wall, we have several flags depicting the different regiments of the army, so each regiment would design its own flag and be known by it. the white flag with the bees is in an early north carolina flag. on the far end, you'll see a navy blue flag with two women, and that's the new york third regiment flag. welcome to the lobe gallery, the last gallery at the museum. currently, "rating the attic," a crowdsourced exhibit, is being

hosted. this exhibit put 22 artifacts up for public choice. and over 5,000 votes are received and the top 10 objects are now exhibited here in this gallery. so some of the interesting objects that the people decided to have exhibited are behind me, so follow me. this is the great seal of the united states. and it's not just a painting on wood. it's actually the carriage door supposedly from george washington's carriage. what's interesting about this piece is that the eagle looks kind of like a turkey. and there was a debate about what the national bird should be, and benjamin franklin thought it should be the wild turkey. this is very interesting, it's a caricature of a customs official

being tarred and feathered, which is very common if you were collecting money. so this is from 1774, and it's original to the frame as well. if anybody has ever heard the song "yankee doodle dandy," wearing macaroni in his hat, macaroni is a fashion style from italy, and it was not, it was a negative term to call someone a yankee doodle dandy. so, fraunces tavern museum has been collecting artifacts since the inception of the sons of the revolution in 1876. they have over 6,000 pieces, including a large collection of letters and archives, as well as

chinawear, porcelain, muskets, military items, so it's a vast collection. they have a larger archaeological collection as well from digs around the tavern, resulting in pottery shards and bones and glass glass pieces, to arrow heads. so the collection here at fraunces tavern is not just limited to what you've seen today, but it's very vast, and there are nine galleries in which we exhibit all the pieces from the collection. fraunces tavern museum's collection is open to researchers, and you can contact the museum and we'd be happy to assist you. the collection has been fully digitized, and hopefully in the next several years the collection will be accessible on our website to be sorted and searched through. but people are welcome to come to the museum to have hands-on experience with the primary sources. i was interested in museums from a very early age, i actually wrote a love poem to george washington when i was 9. but i've always loved revolutionary war history, studied that in college, then

graduate school, early american history as well as museum studies and i was lucky enough to get a job here at fraunces tavern with the sons of revolution and the state of new york. >> you can watch all of the over 100 "american artifacts" programs online by visiting c-span.org. type "american artifacts" in the search engine and browse the topics. >> on sunday, barry goldwater's commitment to environmental conservation. how it evolved over his lifetime. goldwater was the republican presidential nominee in 1964, 50 years ago. , allis american history tv weekend every weekend on a 3.>> reachable exclusively by foot bridge on

the virginia side of the river, theodore r. island honors our only manhattan born president. a city boy from the rugged vistas endangered by human exploitation. as a result, there's an a whiff of trough surrounding this 17-foot statue. t.r.'s daughter, was alleged to have called it the ugliest thing she ever saw. publicly, she was graciousness when dedicating the memorial to our 27th president. t.r. is flanked by a series of stones inscribed with roosevelt's quotations.

a raised plaza, and fountains completely memorial. the wilderness backdrop does at least as much to invoke the spirit of the great outdoorsman. in the 17th century -- century, a group of indians reside on the island. for the next 30 years, the hely wooded island was less pristine. today, theodore roosevelt has 400 variety of plants and over eight different species of birds.

next, john roberts discusses the magna carta on its 800th anniversary. he reflects on the need for the magna carta. it's significance today. he spoke at the american bar association's annual meeting. >> the honorable john g roberts, jr. is the 17th and current chief justice of the united states. and has served since 2005 having been appointed by president george w. bush. chief justice roberts attended harvard college and harvard law school where he was managing editor of the "harvard law review." he served as a law clerk for henry friendly and justice rehnquist before taking a position in the attorney general's office during the reagan administration. he went on to serve the reagan