during this holiday season, we are showing american history programs. ahead, a number of programs from our american artifacts series. first, a look at the history of women in congress. then, a discussion about the battle of platsburg in 1814. and later, what was fort mchenry like in the years after the "star-spangled banner" was written? american artifacts, all day today on c-span3's american history tv.

this is the first of a two-part program. story of women in congress begans with janet ranken, ele elected in the house four years before women had the right to vote nationally and in a way, she is really a bridge from the suffrage movement to women attaining full political rights really a bridge from the suffrage movement to women attaining full political rights. she was active in a national women suffrage organization, helped women get the right to vote not only in montana but a couple states west of the mississippi and she runs in 1916, she is elected to one of montana's two at-large districts. part of her platform is she is a

pacifist. she is sworn into the house april 2, 1917 and the house has come into special session, extraordinary session because the president that night, woodrow wilson, delivers a message to congress asking for a declaration of war against germany, the u.s. entry into world war i. and rankin, with hen that vote held is one of a group of about 50 members who votes against u.s. intervention in world war i. she served a term in the house. she was on the women's suffrage committee. she was on the public lands committee, which was an important assignment for a woman from montana and with so much of the lands being held by the federal government so it was an important position. she -- she serves only a term in the house and she tries to run for senate from montana. she doesn't get the republican nomination but she runs as an

independent, an uphill battle, she gets about a fifth of the votes though and then she goes back to private life and she is involved in women's rights issues. she is a driving force behind the shepherd towner maternity and infancy act, which the house eventually passes in 1921 and then she is also involved in international peace organizations. well, fast forward to 1940, she runs for congress again and she runs on a platform to keep the u.s. out of the war in europe. and she's faced on december 8, 1941, with a tremendous vote. this is the day after pearl harbor, fdr has come to the house chamber. he has addressed a joint session of congress. >> yesterday, december 7, 1941,

a date which will live in infamy. >> the senate goes back to its chamber and very quickly, unanimously passes a war resolution and the house begins debating and the house members know that janet rankin is a pacifist and she is gonna vote her conscience, so we have some oral histories of people who were in the chamber who recall members going up to rankin and asking her just to vote present, don't vote no. she votes her conscience in the end, the lone vote against entry into world war ii with the declaration of war against japan. that effectively ended her political career. she goes back into private life. she is a force in the anti-war movement for another couple

decade because remarkable career. >> in 2004, we commissioned a new portrait of janette ranken, a person so important in the history and expansion of rights and representation in congress. so, when we commissioned it, we wanted to sort of show -- we wanted to show what it was like to come into congress as the first woman, when women don't even have the right to vote nationally. and because it was the 20th century, 1916 and 1917 when she was elected and entered congress, a lot of newspaper coverage of it. because she is a woman and something of a novelty of it, a lot of newspaper coverage of what she's wearing so we know exactly what she was wearing so the portrait itself shows her in that navy blue dress and know she was wearing a big hat and know exactly what the "washington post" said that morning and so the portrait has her in those clothes holding the "washington post." and one of the things that's most interesting is that she is wearing the hat and she is placed in that portrait just outside the chamber doors. if we were to enter into that

space with her, she would just -- she would just be to turn to her right and enter the chamber at which point, she would take off her hat, because hats were not worn in the chamber, even though there was much discussion, as a woman, should she wear a hat, because that is form a.m. attire, or is she not a woman but a member of congress and, therefore, shouldn't wear it, and indeed, decide she is a member of congress more than she is her gender millionairely, so she takes it off. all those things we wanted to put in that portrait, as well as a sense of the fact that she was in the house but much more a creature of her other interests as well, passivism, suffrage, all of the issues that were important to her. and so it was a somewhat lonely spot to be in, to be the only woman and also to be taking these stands of conscience that put her very much at odds with

other people. >> she comes from an activist background, a suffrage background. if you look at the first two decades of women who were elected, there is roughly about 20 women who were elected to congress from rankin into the mid-1930s a good number of these people don't have political background. they haven't held elective office. and instead, they are, a large number of them, are widows who succeed their late husbands in congress. and later, political scientists would describe this as the widows mandate, which was the route for a lot of early women into congress and this really persisted up through the 1960s and even into the 1970s. a large number of women followed their husbands or maybe they had a prominent political father who they followed into congress. so, there was a real kind of familial connection. that wasn't rankin's experience.

it was for this woman here who we are looking at in this picture on the rostrum, this wonderful picture of edith norris rogers. now, rogers was a widow from -- she was from massachusetts, represented a district from northern massachusetts and she succeeded her husband, john rogers, who was a high-ranking member of the foreign affairs committee, the ranking republican. and she actually had a lot of experience helping him with administering the committee and as ministering his personal office. and so, she knew what his legislative agenda was. she kind of knew the rhythms and the contours of life here on capitol hill. and one of the things that happens when a senior member passes away like that, the house has to have a special election. no one can be appointed to the

house. and depending on state laws, that election has to happen in a fairly short amount of time. so, what would happen is local party leaders would often turn to the widow and say, will you run for the partial term, because you have name recognition? rogers is gonna be on the ballot. and the expectation was that the wife would serve out this term and then she would retire and the party leaders would find a suitable male candidate to succeed her. well, rogers had different ideas. she actually ends up staying in the house for 35 years. she is still the longest serving woman in the house and she was for a very long time the longest serving woman in congress. she was recently surpassed by barbara mckulski of maryland, who has both house service and senate service. but she not only had longevity, she was very influential in terms of veterans affairs. prior to her experience in the

house, she also had volunteered for the red cross. she had become an advocate for servicemen returning from world war i. and when republicans in the 1940s briefly regained the majority in the 80th congress, she becomes one of the very first women to chair a major congressional committee. she chairs the veterans affairs committee in the 80th congress and then again in the 83rd congress, when control flip-flopped back and forth between democrats and republicans. she is a republican. her experience, and you see a couple pictures here with her, in this one, she is having a radio debate with mary norton of new jersey. this is in 1926. and these two really become, in many respects, the deans of women in congress for several decades. mary norton is a democrat and she came up through politics in

jersey city, new jersey. her mentor was frank "i am the law" haguig, a machine politici and comes in in 1925, the same year as edith norris rogers. the interesting thing about her is she, like rogers and other women from this early general railings, really pursue a strategy of gaining power in the house by assimilating. they didn't push women's issues, per se. they really tried to minimize gender differences and norton was extremely successful moving up the committee leadership ladder. she chaired four congressional committees by the time she retired from the house in the early 1950s. and one of them was the labor committee of the new deal, the

labor committee and her single piece of legislation was the fair labor standards act of 1938, which set a 40-hour workweek, outlawed child labor, set a minimum wage, and she later said that was the -- the crowning moment of my house experience. i'm prouder of getting that bill through the house than anything else i've ever done. but she was a no-nonsense legislator. very early on in her career, maybe even the year that this picture was snapped, she was on the house floor and a bill was being debated and a male member turned to her and said, "i yield to the gentlelady from new jersey" she cut him off and she said "i'm no lady. i'm a member of congress and i'm going to proceed on that basis." and she did. her career was a mar investment louse example of moving up through the ranks, through seniority. >> one of my favorite things about edith norris rogers is how she used her public persona and she begins right from the

get-go. this is early 1926 when she debates mary norton it is a radio die baite bait.bait.tit.. this is a leaflet from her first general election. in here, she says over and over again, things like, always on the job, relike the mrs. rogers on her own record of achievement. inside, it says some wonderful stuff. knows the ropes. gives prompt, efficient service.

she is very wise in the way of doing this after she has been re-elected a few times, she often is photographed doing things that will be visually interesting and also very much related to the issues that are important to her. here, she and other members of congress are testing out a really weird riding lawn mower-looking tank, right outside the capitol. and she often would do that. she also was photographed -- she often -- she was called the most air minded female member of congress. she often would fly back and forth to places in open airplanes. she said she found them very event and she enjoyed it. so, there are photographs of her, you know, with aviator cap and aviator goggles, headed off into the sky. so she did some wonderful,

wonderful things. but as matt has said, she also was very much an assimilationist in the way of that first generation of women in congress. here's a photo of some of the early women of congress, women in congress at the start of i believe the 71st congress. and so, there are lots of them and you can see they are very business like in their attire, but it's -- but they are wearing furst and looks like edith norris rogers has some flowers with her. but this represents not all the women who were in congress, that congress, but lots of them. you can see they are, nonetheless, being photographed and treated by the press as an entity and how that's gonna get played out would change and over the next couple of decades as people try to figure out what do we talk about when we talk about women in congress? >> this is an interesting photo because it points out, you can go through this and look at the way the women were elected to

congress. on the front row, far left, is pearl oldfield who had succeeded her husband, who was a senior member who passed away. then edith norris rogers, then ruth pratt, who was elected in her own right, not with any fam kbrar collection, represented the silk stocking district in new york city. and then on the far side here is ruth hannah mccormick of illinois. her father was marcus hannah, who was the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th, o was the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th century. and coon statenly butted heads with william jennings brian, which is interesting, because william jennings brian, her daughter, ruth brian oyan owen n this side of the picture w avenue press account when these two ruths were sworn in 1929, they came down the center aisle together, arm in arm and wowed the members and the press because here are to daughters of

avowed political enemies. if we go back into the pitcher to finish out this is mary norton of new jersey and this woman here is another one of the interesting characters from this time period, florence ca kahn o san francisco, another widow who followed her husband into congress. like rogers, she was another woman very involved in her husband's political career so when he passed away, she was asked to run for seat in the special election and she decided to -- she was gonna stay on. she stayed on more than a decade and she is the first jewish woman elected to congress. she is also the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious appropriations committee. and she is responsible for

steering a lot of funds into the bay area to develop things like the bay bridge connecting san francisco and oakland and then also, the alameda naval air station. she sat on the military affairs committee panel, too and we have a portrait of her in the collection as well. >> with he do we have a wonderful portrait of her. she is standing in her district and -- but -- actually right near where she lived, in what is now park land. and behind her, the view that you would see if you were standing there today is of the golden gate bridge and marin headlands. and there's a little bitty, in the painting, but enormous in real life, ship coming through there that was part of the naval air station that was there. so, there's very -- there's a lot in there, but one of the things that's most interesting about her is i haven't mentioned anything about her figure there, it is all about what's around her. her figure is dark, it's black, but it's very accurate. that is exactly how she dressed

and exactly how she presented herself. >> she had kind of this grandmotherly, matronly look, but she was so good with the press. she had one-line quips, there was no one who was better a reporter once asked her, how have you had so much legislative success getting on onto these committees, legislation passed, and without missing a beat, she said sex appeal. when she first came into the house, leadership didn't want to put her on the committees that her husband was on. she did not get the military affairs committee assignment right away. instead, she was put on to the indian affairs committee. now, she represented san francisco, urban district, so she went out and told the press, she said the only indians i have in my district are in front of cigar shops. and she went after the leadership very publicly. well, very shortly, they came around and put her on to the committee assignments that she wanted. one of the artifacts that we

have related to florence kahn i'm particularly fond of is this one, it is a letter from j. edgar hoover to congresswoman kahn and the important part of this suspect actually what he is writing, what's important is, "dear mother kahn" and it's an odd braising for j. edgar hoover but she was known very much as the mother of the fbi. and so that was often how he referred to her. so, this is a fascinating piece of little sort of lobbying and playing up that affiliation and that close tie they had. >> by the time we get to the late 1930s, early 1940s, we are beginning to see a different group from that pioneer group of women come into congress. world war ii kind of reshapes the role of women in society generally, women hold a lot of jobs that men previously held as men go off to fight in the

service. women who come into congress during that era begin to advocate more of a role for women outside the home. mary norton was one of them. she was constantly urging women to be involved in politics, to be involved outside the home, even when the war ended. she feared that that might contract again and women would kind of be forced back into a domesticated role. one of the prominent people who serves in the 1940s is helen gahagan douglas. we have a picture of her here from that time period. and douglas was well known to constituents, she represented a district that encompassed a part of los angeles, california, but she was known nationally. she was a star of the stage. she was married to melvin douglas, the actor. and she became involved in california politics and was a

progressive and began to speak a lot on behalf of democratic candidates. and she one election to the house for a couple of terms in the 1940s. she wasn't really a legislator, per se. she wasn't introducing a lot of bills. you know, she wants what we would call a legislative entrepreneur, but she was a spokesperson for progressive issues so she would often come onto the floor and talk about improving housing, african-american civil rights, so she was known as a speechmaker. here is a bill that advertises a speaking engagement she made in 1948, happens in oakland, far from her district, you get the sense she was on the speaking circuit a lot, speaking for democratic candidates and democratic issues. she serves a couple of terms in

the house and in the early 1950s, she decides to run for the u.s. senate and she goes through the primary, the democratic primary and the candidate -- one of the candidates she ran against tarred her as being a simple nice other, a red sympathizer, which was a very potent attack in the early 1950s in the era of mccarthy. she wins it and runs against richard nixon, using some of the same tactics employed against her in the primary and accuses her of being pink, right down to her underwear. she returned fire, because in one speech, she labeled nixon tricky dick, which is a name that stuck with him the rest of his political career, but that campaign tactic kind of tying

her to -- to the red scare and communist sympathies was potent because nixon won in a landslide and she leaves politics. >> this is a 1941 magazine, "cornett," which hasn't survived into the 21st seine hurry. but you can see it's a magazine aimed at women. there's a woman posing in a wedding dress and there's something called the bachelor life on the cover. rollicking expose of bachelor days and nights. inside there is an article about women in congress. one of the things i love about this, this is sort of a great example of how the press really didn't know where to have women in congress. these women are, in some cases, all business, jesse sumner here. and lots of the women that we know from long service, edith nourse rogers, all these folks are here and they are very

business like. but often, they are described as, you know, sort of fabulously wealthy or 5'3''or, you know, tiny brunette. things like that that sort of placing them still in this -- it is a tricky position for them to figure out and in this transitional generation this is 1941, it's going to continue to be a little bit complicated to figure out. and once the war ends, it is probably going to get a little more complicated. and in this case, it's kind of an interesting contrast here. jesse sum nish here is on the phone and she is taking care of business but over here, we have margaret chase smith, who is tending some flowers. and she has a wonderful, fascinating long career. this is a visitor pass, a gallery pass, that's signed by margaret chase smith in 1941. and gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs of trips to the capitol and that this was perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women

in congress at the time. >> f achmargaret chase smith ems that. women in congress in the 1940s, 1950s, as a group, they are really kind of serving an apprenticesh apprenticeship. they are slowly working their way into positions of influential and seniority. they are getting better committee assignments. they are serving longer careers. by the end of this period, some of them are moving into leadership positions. or at least further up the leadership rung. smith serves for nine years, has an influential career. she manages to get on the naval affairs committee, which was a

plum assignment. prior to the reorganization of the armed forces in the late 1940s, the house had a naval affairs committee and a military affairs committee. naval affairs, if you're from maine, with the big shipyards up in bath, was one of -- one of the assignments that you would really look out for and it gave her really a position of influence and it allowed her to speak on the topic of women in military service. in 1948, she is a prime mover behind a bill that helps integrate the armed forces and gives women a role in the uniformed forces. she leaves the house the following year to serve in the u.s. senate, runs for the senate, wins election. she is probably best known in the u.n. mind as the -- one of the very few brave senators who opposed mccarthy, joe mccarthy and his tactics very early on. she gave a speech called "the

declaration of conscience" in june, 1950, with where she opposed his tactics very eloquently. so, she -- and she goes on to serve a very long career to the early 1970s. but she is one of the women who kind of is pushing the story of women in congress into a new era. yeah, if you're interested in this topic, learn more by going to going to our website, history.house.gov and the women in congress publication, along with objects and art facts that we don't have here on the table today is available on the site. >> this was the first of a two-part program. you can view this and all other american artifacts programs on our website, c-span.org/history. you have watching c-span's american history tv. we want to hear from you. follow us on twister at c-span history, connect with us on face become at facebook.com/c-span history or leave comments, too.

and check out our upcoming programs the our website, c-span.org/history. we would like to tell you about some of our other american history tv programs. be with us every saturday at 8 p.m. and midnight eastern for lectures in history. join students in the class really to hear lectures on campuses across the country on topics ranging from the american revolution to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. again, that's lectures in history, every saturday at 8 p.m. and midnight eastern here on american history tv on c-span3. here's a look at some of the program you will find christmas day on the c-span networks. holiday festivities start at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span with lighting of the national christmas tree, followed by the white house christmas decorations with first lady michelle obama and the lighting

of the capitol christmas tree. just after 12:30 p.m., celebrity activists talk about their causes. then at 8, supreme court justice samuel alito and former florida governor jeb bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. on c-span2 at 10 a.m. eastern, venture into the art of good writing with steve pinker. at 12:30, see the feminist side of a super hero as jill lepore searching the secret history of wonder woman. at 7 p.m., author pamela paul and others talk about their read be habits. on american history tv on c-span3 at 8 a.m. eastern, the fall of the berlin wall with c-span footage of president george bush and bob dole, with speeches from presidents john kennedy and ronald reagan. at nan, fashion experts on first ladies' fashion choice and how they represented the styles of the times in which they lived. and then at 10, wormer fwhbs news anchor, tom brokaw, on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events that's this