enough to allow the columnists -- as a result, texas became its own nation for about 10 years. >> watch all of our events from waco today. >> all weekend long, american history tv is featuring waco, texas. university, the oldest institution of higher learning in the state was founded in 1845 in independence, texas. 1886, baylor relocated to waco, and merged with waco university. together with our time warner cable partners, c-span's to these -- city to her staff explored way goes -- waco's rich history.

♪ >> waco is the home of dr. waser, when a pharmacist mixing together some different concoctions in the back of the old corner drugstore. where the pharmacy was located. he came up with a fragrant smelling mixture, that he likes very much. used it in some medicine, but eventually, it was sold as a syrup with carbonated water in it, across the soda fountain counter. at first, it which is called a waco, but later, they gave it the name dr. pepper.

it became very popular in drugstores, and soon, other drugstores in this area were asking -- can we get some of that syrup you are selling in your store to use? sure, people here said for a price, we will make a barrel of it up. send a wagon over, and we will send it to you. the popularity grew as other pharmacies and soda fountains around the area began using the waco syrup, which eventually became dr. pepper syrup. later, as a got beyond wagon range, the rails came into play. waco being a railroad center, it was easy to transport syrup to other areas, as far as oklahoma or maybe over to louisiana. here's the dr pepper museum.

we have several rooms here that are replicas of the old corner drugstore, or the artesian manufacturing and bottling company, which was one of the early production facilities for dark pepper syrup --dr. pepper syrup. you can follow the progression and development of the drink. then you get into the story of the increased manufacturing. at the same time, you are talking about the industrial revolution, in the late 1880's, 1900s. machinery and equipment was being developed, and the bottling industry benefited from that. ways to cap and fill bottles with dr. pepper syrup and carbonated water developed, and increase the potential. we have a whole exhibit on that. bottle washers, high-speed for capping and filling, carbonating machines, and how they developed

over the years. kind of an assembly line production. if henry ford could do it, he could be done in the bottling industry. that developed over time. today, we have plants that can bottle thousands and thousands of bottles of soft drink per minute area. we show that started, and several steps progressing along the way. the industry changed in the early 1950's, as the metal can came in to wider use. canned vegetables and things like that began to appear in the grocery stores years earlier. but the idea of putting a soft drink in a can and selling at, instead of a bottle, appealed to the people of the industry, is canning was cheaper. then glass bottles were to reproduce. by the mid-1960's, it was necessary for many bottling plants to have both canning and

bottling lines. this building was too small for that, and so the decision was made to close this building, and develop a new site with both canning and bottling for future use, which happened in the mid-1960's. when a visitor comes in and visits the dr. pepper museum, we hope they get a little bit of ,ostalgia about days gone by when everything in the world hadn't been invented yet. there were products that were brand-new, and for the first time on the market. a respect for history and the people that put those things together is always interesting here. but also, the second part of our museum, isr. pepper the free enterprise institute. we focus on the growth of small industries. almost all the soft drink franchises were family-owned and operated.

small bottling works, or just small family companies. people who sold ice and other things like that, acquired franchises to produce coke, dr. pepper, other brands like that. they built those from small family businesses into large, regional businesses that covered many counties, maybe even states. where the manufacturer and the purveyor of beverages throughout that area. we focus on free enterprise in our educational classes. we try to encourage invention, entrepreneurship, business ethics, salesmanship, all of those things that small businesses -- which are really the backbone of america's economy, and really make things great in this country. >> the free enterprise portion of the museum was started by a man name debbie debbie a clemments.- w. w. he really worked himself up in

the ranks of dr. pepper. he treasured in value the free enterprise system. dreaded free enterprise for allowing him to work his way up in the company, to become president and ceo of dr. pepper. it was really his vision for the museum to teach children about free enterprise, and opportunities that are presented to them in this country, and how they can use that to maybe start their own business with their small idea, sort of like dr. pepper. we tell the story of the free enterprise system in america by using educational programs at the museum, whether it be a simple tour, showing the roots and history of dr. pepper and how it grew into a company. we also have a program called create a soft drink, where kids work in small groups to make test drinks. we have flavors for them to choose from, 16 flavors, and they get to mix and be their own beverage chemist, mixing

together different flavors. have to market their drinks. one, theyck the best make a marketing campaign, come up with the slogan, logo for their drink, a commercial, and we actually filmed their commercials. they have to act it out. it's a great way for them to see the process of free enterprise at its best. having that small idea that you and your group have come up with , and then turning it into something larger than that. >> dr. pepper is a unique product. it is much loved here in the southwest. waco views the dr. pepper museum certainly as a tourism attraction for people who want to come and see where something started. america's history is full of places all over this country where people want to see where the battle took place, or where something was invented, or see something where this first happened.

this is a unique place from that standpoint. the company has always had an interest in their history. they had several past presidents and employees that preserve the history of the company, and thought that had value to keep those kinds of things. when the museum developed, they saw this as the perfect place to keep the company's history in store that area. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring waco, texas. learn more on the c-span cities to her, at www.c-span.org /localcontent. you are watching american history tv, all we can, c-span3.

project runways tim gunn posts a panel discussing first ladies fashions, and how they represented their individual personalities. the curatorpanel is of the first ladies collection at the national museum of american history. >> hello, everyone. thank you for being here. we are going to have a rousing evening, i hope. it is certainly going to be an interesting discussion. the first ladies wear where is always an interesting topic of discussion.