he quickly learned he could not raise the money to run for president because he took his orders from his and not from people who had money or the marketing consultants. least, hard for me, at to imagine any career politician being able to do that today. well, i suppose i'd want i worked remember that what i thought was right, followed my own to cious, and i helped some prevent the terrible perspective holocaust of a nuclear war. weekend, hout the american history tv is featuring adison, wisconsin, our city's tour staff recently travelled there to learn about its rich history. about maddyson and

ther stops on c-span's cities tour at c-span.org/local content. american history tv every weekend on c-span 3. monday night on "the ommunicators," tim wong, founder and ceo on the technology that predicts outcome to congressional legislation using data mining and artificial intelligence. analytics get something more granular. on a break down legislative by legislative basis to see how likely they are to bill.or a certain there's a lot of opportunities for attorneys and lobbyists to go in and say let me look at the bill. here are co-sponsors, the people most likely to vote least for the people likely to vote for it. you start to develop a strategy the rms of getting information that you need.

raw industry or intelligence or human intelligence on the ground and able to combine those two things should be able to get to the answers that you would like to. et >> monday night, 8:00's tern on the communicators on c-span 2. >> each week, american history artifacts takes you to museums and historic places. capitol toe the u.s. learn about the history of the representatives page program. the program began in the early until nd continued up 2011 when due to technological changes, pages were no longer critical to the the lative process and program was ended.

one of the oldest parts of the capitol's house wing. >> history going back to the 1800s. know when the first pages served in the house. the tradition of having page is simply an messenger, an errand runner. u.s. legislative practice it usually has involved in the u.s. boys between age

8 and 16. would run all kinds of errands for members of congress, rounding up members, things of that nature. of accounts ple that kind of place it in the 1800s when the first pages -- young boys, served in the house as pages. there was an eyewitness account keeper thomas or crackston on the floor with his nephews. and these were the first pages.s of it developed over a couple of decades. see e 1820s, we began to pages showing up in expense reports in the house where we can say definitely that's a page. that's a floor attendant. it developed over a couple of decades. boys, in were young the house they were a little

older, preteens, and young teens. the idea was that a younger child was much more liable to take direction. had an older teen, you might not get such compliance. and the thing too about the is it was meeting in a chamber which is now modern statuary hall. the old hall of the house was very cramped. desks.filled with it was really packed with early point in its existence. and the idea was that you wanted fleet of foot boys who and he kept a fantastic diary. he had one point is watching

the pages on the floor. diary as to the tripping mercuries, moving about the floor. in his era, it would have been 20 pages who were serving. time the pages tended to be boys from washington, d.c. and its environs. sometimes they were sons of members or sons of federal officials. but a lot of times they would be from s or children destitute families who congress was looking to get a hand up. era aid for pages in that was good. they were paid for $1.50 at the of the 1800s to -- to $2.50 per day. at the end of congress, they could get a large bonus from the members. lucrative enterprise paging in the 19th century. that's f the things

interesting about the visual history of pages is that there's the legislative process that they don't really get noticed in terms of prints until a little later. until you start seeing journals like harper's and leslie's illustrated news. 1850s and ntil the early 1860s that they start engravings.s party in fact, one of my favorite kind about that is they're of used by the illustrators as a commentary on what's going on the rest of it -- the rest of it -- the image. because the images are often -- the chamber. the big space with a lot going story an accompanying that's going tell you all of the etails of what's discussed on the floor and what that image is there.

there. we have an 1861 news print and about howe is talking fractious is chamber is. several folks in here yelling to be heard, trying to make their point. and right in the front there's a looking ge and he's towards where some of the yelling is going on. silhouetted. one of the things that he's for is so we know oh, consternation and confusion as is parthis is happening of what's going on here. it isn't regular. london rding to the illustrated news, its's unusual because it's unlike what they're used to. moves along often just a 1869, thadiaser in stevens is giving what is great speechs last

a lot of heads and suits here. you're an artist, that would be tough. e's got a pair of pages here and they're not just presents sitting on the steps as pages did. by the greatrapped thadias stevens giving one of the last speeches everybody for this not long world. that goes on and on in 1877. pages sitting e down here as part of a really process in 1877 to solve he problems related to the disputed presidential election of the previous fall. it's so lengthy that some of the fellows here on the steps oh it was roster have fallen asleep. plane exhausted. one of the things the artist is letting us know, this is late at it's going on for a long time.

it might feel a little tedious the average joe which is what the page stands in for. ages weren't just in the chamber, of course. they were out and about doing other things. things that the pages would do in the 19th century prior to having a lot of staff on capitol hill, pages performed a lot of that staff ve jobs do now. one of them was to have go out at night and round up members from the oarding houses or from their hotels from a late night vote. memoir by a derful page who served in the early augustus name was thomas. he recalled having to sit to as what he referred sophomore sophomoreific drivel. e said the pages would be sitting on the rostrum nodding

off to sleep. if they could behind the rostrum, they would be playing a game of marbles. but he'd say we always have that problematic member who would demand the call of the house in he wee hours of the morning just to make a point for his colleagues and the pages would have to sift out through the process servers rounding up the delinquents. so pages would do a lot of things. in the 19th century, we didn't have office buildings or members or staff. was there was really bare bones. so the pages performed a lot of not just delivering messages or filling water glasses on the floor or lighting cigar for a member or lighting a lantern. but they would haul firewood in the members in to the old hall of the house in the intertime to feed one of the fireplaces in the old hall.

they also worked in the document folding room. copies of speeches and committee be prepared to distribute it to members and to their constituents in the districts. and this was endless hours of work. pages kept the institution running and kept the legislative process running. of the reminds me, one nifty artifacts we have, some of the other things that pages were doing. of the things you were discussing is how pages -- what pages were paid. pages would be able to supplement their income by doing this.ing like this is a page -- a receipt for to get this naged any people to order up extra copies of a speech by benjamin butler. it was to be printed at the

congressional globe office. there are hundreds. bepg minute butler ordered up copies of his speech to distribute. others ordered 100 apiece. by doing that, you would get a sort of commission if you were a page. example of seeing this in action. we know from memoirs that's something that pages would do. is a great example of exactly how they did it and the that he got for his hard work. people to round up. >> we have a newspaper account, actually made $400 on certain speeches given around the time of the mckinley tariff debate in the 1890s. >> that's a lot of money then. >> it was. aroundthe pages would go

on the floor and collect autographs. banned in the latever 19th century. supplement ways to the income to live in d.c. > it's true the chamber could make it crowded making it great to have little messengers around. another wave of crowdednd in the came into play with the pages is eventually after who seats cram in the back where you couldn't hear anything, they instituted a lottery. the first half of s.e 19th century, the 1940 but certainly by the 1860s, they have the pages drawing the numbers. seniorve one of the most head pages blind folded at the speaker's rostrum. your number came out first, you of seats.ick certainly they already had sort of been sitting by -- in party blocks by then. but where you were going to be

whether or not the magic ball of that was your number was pulled by the blind page. and it became one of those things that was written about a because it apers became a ritual of the opening f congress and people would write about the blind folded page. you can see how crowded everything is and how important would be to get a good desk assign ment assignment. the poor page just holding the lass of water for the member who's speaking on and on. we have artifacts that are wonderful examples of how the pages lived and what they did. one of the ones that's my favorite is a page uniform from 1907. this is roy tasco jr. he was a page in 1906 and 1907. he loved being a page so much

that he kept his uniform. his ust a few years ago, descendents found it. he had kept it so carefully, hey didn't even find it when die die died. kind of wonderful. influenced by military attire. and some point, the -- he becoming rogram were more formal. joe d close connections to cannon, the speaker of the house. it's possible that's why in is of a fancy uniform because his connection there. my favorite thing isn't the military part, it's the fact along the top, in case you missed it, it says, running around, he's easily identified. though, the time, identification wasn't written on your neck. or i a little button think they were a numbers badge. of those early

buttons though it might have their age but om also just sort of cover hemselves with the core of the page brethren. this page fraternity pin is from the 1930s. from a whole raft of information who served as a page not at time who donated other is, but some objects to show exactly how great it was to have the access to the capitol. things like his membership card in the little congress. a ticket to get in to the capitol into the galleries. when herbert hoover was giving a speech. so a lot of things there. learned so much about it than just what's in the artifacts. an oral history with mr. rupp. he at that point he was 90 years old. the memories of being a page

so fresh he lit up when asking these questions. years in the four early 1930s. 1932 to 1936. longer than the typical page wulz. -- was. for him, it was a full time job as a teenager. memories of him coming to the chamber and hearing speeches by fdr. fdr's inaugural. he was up on the platform. it was in 1933 and all anxious to hear the president address the joint session of congress. mccabe was one along with me sitting in front speakers at that time. for a -- there

actually, i was on duty. little at there for a bit. i didn't know they were taking while i was sitting there. also had such a memory and cheatn't need any kind of sheet or booklet. he was put on the door right off of the chamber which is just us.nd he'd be responsible for making sure who was coming and going belonged on that the floor. but also he could run in for a reporter or for someone who to speak to a member and quickly get to them and bring the out on to the -- out to speaker's lobby. he did this for about a year. stories he told s was that he had -- had to from this young staffer

texas. >> he said we're going to have a new door keeper that's going to on the door here. want him to -- you to introduce him to everyone and you. be working for and i said, fine, who is he? what's his name? lyndon johnson. >> oh. johnson? lyndon i said i've known him since he washington. so he came and worked the rest the door with on me. introducedhim in and floor congressman on the and went up and down each aisle. were, m who they introduced him to the reporters and

showed him. >> it exposed him to a living civics lesson that you never from the pages of a book. there's a continuity of stories he would tell that stories later pages would tell in oral histories. it's true that when you look onestifacts, these are the that people saved. it was such an important and ife-changing period in their lives. as adolescence is always, but them, it was. things say, with ards, pens, photos of themselves, yearbooks. of the images they had, it was matted, they saved it forever. pages were all lined up in front of the rostrum and the house chamber with the supervisors in front and the pages look

pretty happy, even though they're being formal. little rvisors look a more severe. i suppose if you're supervising many, you want to look severe. ut you can see how young they were. and how much this would have loomed large in their memories frer. going back to the 19th century, these are young boys, preteens, teens. hard work.lot of but there was a lot of down time too. nd the stories of some of the things they did to entertain look in s, i mean, you this is from the 1930s. this is something called the little congress club. staffers, st pages, secretaries from offices who get basis foror a regular dinner, usually at a local hotel. a meeting ave

afterwards in which they debate current legislation. deal reforms new or neutrality laws. lyndon johnson got involved in this as well. led the little congress club. the pages had precursors to this club. 1920s and 1930s, the pages had a club calmed the itsy bitsy congress. which the pages when the house was are recess to go to members or desks or ating the leadership desks and manage a bill on if floor and they'd debate on i want. 1890s, thomas bracket reed who empowered the pages admired e them so much they started this unior house of representatives and debated the impact of reed's

rules. they would do a lot in the themselves when the house was in recess. o by the 20th century, the house is modernizing. its's becoming the modern institution that it is today. o one of the things that happens is that the pages duties become more defined. 20th cent rip, you see the development of a couple of different page positions. equal.es were but there was one page designated as the speaker's page. page would follow the speaker around and be his of all times. that's the position of high onor if you had distinguished himself as a junior page. but the vast majority of people as pages were what pages.erred to as bench errand runners on the floor. bring in the congressional the d and put them on

member seat. develop messengers to people on the floor. would run members of the juries to the member's office. in a while, they had pages the latter 19th century called riding pages. dispatched on horseback down to the executive departments to deliver messages from the house. once we get a telegraph is theym in washington, d.c., become telegraph pages. they don't need to get on horseback anymore. of o the far ends pennsylvania avenue. some of the other pages in the have entury, though, who more responsibilities are documentarian pages. of the on the rostrum hamber and they're much more involved in the legislative process in terms of delivering clerks,dments, the bill and interacting with clerk staff parliamentarian staff and they also operated the -- later n the 20th century, the bell

system that developed to let members know when the vote was on. pages would have halls ry out into is it of the capitol and shout to members that a vote was going on. need to get to the chamber. >> the belt system is the congress system. it would call people to vote or to the house came about around century of the 20th when you had enough electricity and this magic new technology to thing.t sort of this is from the 1960s, it's one f the light boards that you would find in the house office uilding or in the capitol that changed a lot of that, from embers being called by pages who are running through the restaurant or the office buildings saying what's going on, to lights and an increasingly complicated buzzer that would tell people exactly what was happening. what kind of vote? it quorum call?

all of those things. that,stingly, even before the inlet chamber itself in a used in the ints 19th century, you can see the pages sitting right up there on see ostrum so they could members who want something from them. they would often clap to get or just call n them. but at some point in the end of house h cent rip, the installs a buzzer system. each and every desk and draw a hole in it and looks like a doorbell. we have a desk from 1873 that alteration. the doorbell is still there. we wondered why is there a doorbell there. hen we were able to find out exactly when that came in to play. the things that happens in the 20th century is that pages for the first time formal schooling in

their experience here in washington, d.c. in the 19th cent rip, pages just the house. and when they didn't work in the off.e, they were they lived in local boarding didn't get more fall schooling. begins to change at the same time we have progressives laws in or child labor the u.s. and for a -- for a formal education system. there were some progressives who looked at the pages and said, know a lot about becoming a statesman, a representative for a senator, almost devoid of any ruseful knowledge other than that. push in gin to see the the early 1900s. s, the mid 1920s, parents of some of the pages who increasingly from across the country, they're no longer just washington, d.c., parents

become involved and they a private school in the capitol. man who starts the first formal education system for the in the earnest kendall early 1930s. he establishes the capital page the basement of the capitol. it's both house and senate pages. historiesnderful oral of the capitol page school. to bartlett who would go on become a marine general, he would become a reading clerk in he house and have a very long house career. he was a page in the early 1940s. has reminiscences of his page chool and how primitive conditions were in the capitol basement. >> it was dank. own nerated our electricity.

we brought in a direct current. you could lose it right then. a private school conducted by principal, a very spartan baptist gentleman. liked him but he was straight laced. no question about that. a month for tuition. and the maintenance problems now. leaked. and it was not completely uncommon to go in there and find floor there was a puddle. you would put down blanks so we at our seats. alk in on the plank, take our seats, hold our feet up and study latin. >> there's descriptions of pages their spare time going through the capitol basement ith terriers and pellet guns

hunting the cat-sized rats as part of their -- part of their entertainment. and pellet guns aren't part of everybody's high school experience. but it's not high school if you don't have a yearbook. >> this was not very big. it was a small school. >> the president, the pledge of san ray burne, lots of the other folks involved. democratic chief page. council, the faculty. many, many pages. juniors.rs, the like any year, people were having their yearbook signed. things -- they went

to the white house. these are two varsity letters. 1944 from the basketball team. first s one is the scholastic varsity letter that was awarded. of he sports programs, one the big things the pages did in their spare time, this goes back the school days, in the earliest account is in the 187 0z. the pages put together a baseball team that would travel youth teams and sometimes they'd play adult the hill and on win regularly. house baseball team and senate baseball team. the senate had the house games. d the baseball >> they had snowball fights. all kinds of house and senate page activities. point they were going to sxool together often. but it was sort of an intra rivalry. >> right.

a tnd day started very early. they would typically be in class at 6:30 a.m. be done mic day would by 10:00 or 10:30 because they ad to go to their respective chambers when the house or senate could typically gavel in at noontime. it could be a long day, especially if it went to a late session. >> once it happened and pages from the supreme court, the ouse, the senate were all together. one of the things that was interesting in reading their interviewing people is that changes in uniform in bodies didn't happen at the same time. nicker era ft the earlier. were still wearing nick eres. sometimes you can see that in foes from the 1930ed, butch

he house pages are taking full advantage of the fact that they can wear a slightly zippier suit. people would say great. wonderful. photographs from the 1960s. hey both document the first african-american page in the house since reconstruction. appointment is is of the rival. this is him with his fabulous glasses in front of the article. hey were both newspaper accounts -- not much in the theory of the house, but in interest of the news as well. >> frank mitchell appointed in on the centennial of lincoln's assassination. a lincoln connection, a civil

war connection. e's here among others, ongressman gerald ford and congressmanless aarons. was the whip. we r discussing with them, went to an anti-room and cameras video where they are probably, i don't know, eight or 10 of them and other reporters asking questions and it was whirlwind experience. i want to emphasize. this was 1965. >> frank mitchell the first negro to serve as a page in the the of representatives, clipping from my hometown newspaper. >> for a long time, we thought actually the very

first african-american page to serve in the house. were able to do some research about the reconstruction period because you have african-american serving in the house for the first time. 206.e's a total who served in the latter part of th century. two over in the senate. staff levels. african-americans in appointed positions. 1871, a oifee, was in member who represented a encompassed t couple of the towns south of the james river, he was a civil war veteran who came on. a political carpet bagger.

elected to theas union, he does what he can to district.this they adopt martin q. powell in wisconsin. he comes to the house chamber. we don't know about powell. years old. we know his family came over and theeard reports that he was first african-american page. they ripped and teased him before i came onboard. served for about a year. he's the only instance of a page the house in the 1800s that we know of. leaves, theafter he and snimction era ends

crow were going to place and in ashington, d.c. and the appointment of after write can to 1256 positions subsides after that. 1800s, there the are no african-americans serving in the house. >> one of the great things is lthough we don't have images and little information about what his experience was, we in the records of the treat ooens man bank. he's depoz silling it in his account. think it's fascinating and gripping because it's such an example of something set up in the reconstruction. the war ends. to serve the needs of african-americans. he was born to free

african-americans in manchester. hen used the new programs and resources. i love that alfred powell did too. > talking about pages in the 19th century, 20th century. talking about boys. up.as all boys up to 1939, when, briefly for day, we had a girl by name of jean cox appointed by her phatever who was a representative. she served for the opening day, 1969. symbolic appointment. we don't see girls entering the program really for another more than 30 years. 1973 when karl albert of oklahoma is speaker and he

pals with a young who had come to the capitol, saw these pages, be great. would found they were all girls and he don't feel like this is when the girls should operate. >> i between the annuals of 6 th grades, that's not fair. maybe we can do something about that, he said. school inwent back to the fall, i wrote letters to mr. albert. and wrote letters and letters albert for to mr. many years. finally, one day, when i was highabout to graduate from school, i got a call from the administrative assistant and asked me how i firstfeel about being the woman page. i was ecstatic about this. i said well, i'll have to

ask my parent first. we've spoken to your parents and it's okay with them. i said absolutely. that's how it began. it's the latter 1970s, about half -- half and half females, half males. early 1980s that we based on irst female her grades in the "capitol page elevated to speaker position. to 's a huge accountment this right now. but technology was always job of the pages. it was the ether obviated, which writing payments so many things. so technology by the latter 20th

century, particularly in the computer age, the hand held begins to age, tasks that of the they had overtaken. members of the juries on the floor was not that part of 201staser century. chores thatk on the the pages of old hat had to do. history; that's one of the factors that leads house leadership in 2011 to decide program no longer is central and critical to the legislative process.

>> president and mrs. kennedy, prime minister and his wife pay public o the first appearance of mona lisa, the that do da vinci painting captured the imagination of visitors for 400 years. president expresses the gratification of the nation. minister, we in the united states are grateful for this loan from the leading power in the world in

recent meeting, this ainting must be kept under careful french control. and i want to make it clear that as we are for this painting we will continue to with the effort to an independent artistic force and power of our own. cameramen record the event as the presidential party leads a tribute to the host to many,play many thousands in the next three weeks. the smile acts as a magnet to the curious and art lovers.