kennedy and ronald reagan. fashion choices and how they represented the style the of the times in which they lived. then at 10:00, former nbc news anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that's this christmas day on the c-span networks. for our complete schedule go to cspan.org. each week american history tv's "american artifacts" takes you to museums and historic places. next we take you inside the ins u.s. capital to learn about the history of the house of representatives page program. the program began in the early 1800s and continued up until 2011 when due to technology and staff changes, house leadership decided that paiges were no longer critical and the program was ended.

>> i'm matthew wasniewski, a historian of the house of representatives. >> i'm farar elliott, a curator. we are here in the historic space. the ceremonial office, one of the oldest parts of the capitol's house wing. there was built in 1857. this spot is an ideal place to talk about historic events in the capitol. in the artifacts we have in the collection that matt and i interpret all the time. >> we want to tell you about the history of the house page program, which is a history going back to the early 1800s. we don't actually know when the first pages served in the house. the tradition of having messengers and a page is simply a messenger, an errand runner. it usually has involved, at least in the u.s. congress, young boys between age 8 and age 16. who would run all kinds of

errands for members of congress on the floor, rounding up members, things of that nature. and we have a couple of accounts that kind of place it at 1800 when the first young boys served on the house floor as pages. there is an eyewitness account of the house storekeeper thomas claxston on the floor with his nephews. these of the first accounts of pages. it developed over a couple decades. by the 1820's, we begin to see pages showing up and expense reports. definitely that is a page, a flo or attendant. it develops over a number of decades. the pages again tended to be young boys. as young as 8. in the house, they tended to be older. pre-teen. the idea was a younger child was

much more liable to take direction. if you had an older teen, you might not get such compliance. the thing about the house was it was meeting in a chamber, which is now modern national statuary hall. the old hall was very cramped, filled with desks, packed with members at an early point in its existence. the idea was that you wanted young boys who could dart i n between desks and take amendments from members to the chair and get on and off the floor quickly. there is a great entry in the diary of john quincy adams, the great wig member of congress. he came back to the house after serving as president for a term. he is the only member to have

done that. he kept a fantastic diary. at one point, he's watching the pages. he refers to them as chipping mercury's, moving about. 18-20 pages were serving. they tended to be boys from washington, d.c. they were sons of members or sons of federal officials, but a lot of times they would be orphans or children from destitute families who members of congress were looking to give a helping hand up. the pay for pages was pretty good. they were paid anywhere from $1.50 at the beginning of 1800 to $2.50 per day. at the end of congress, they could get a large bonus. it was a lucrative enterprise in the 19th century. >> one of the things that is interesting about the visual history of pages is that they are such a part of the legislative process that they do not really get noticed in terms of paintings and prints until you start seeing

illustrated journals like "harpers." at some point, it is not until the 1860's that they start showing up as part of the engravings. in fact, one of my favorite parts about that they are used by illustrators as a commentary on what is going on. the images are often, they are of the chamber. there is an accounting story that is going to tell you all the details of what is being discussed on the floor and why that image is there. an illustrator wanted quick way

to telegraph what you're supposed to think and how you put yourself in that image. they will use pages. for example, we have an 1861 london illustrated newsprint. and the article is talking about how fractious the chamber is. and there are several folks in here yelling, trying to make their point. and right in the front there is a page. he's looking towards were some of the yelling is going on. he's silhouetted. one of the things he is therefore is so that we know, oh, consternation and confusion as to why this is happening is part of what is going on. this is not regular. it might well be regular, but according to the london illustrated news, this is unusual because it is unlike what they are used to. that moves along often just a few years later, 1869, thaddeus stevens is giving what is considered his last great speech. and there are lots of suits here.

if you are an artist that would be tough to feel like i'm all are doing is circles and torsos. in the quarter he has a pair of pages. they are not just present sitting on the steps. but they are wrapped by that is stevens. he's not long for this world. that goes on and on. in 1877, there are pages sitting down here as part of the linking process happening in 1877 to solve the problems related to the disputed presidential election of the previous fall. its so lengthy that some of these poor fellow sitting on the steps of the rostrum have fallen asleep. others look exhausted. and so, one of the things the artist is letting us know is

that this is probably late at night. it has probably going on a long time. it might just feel a little bit tedious to the average joe, which is what the page stands in for. pages weren't just in the chamber. there were out and about. >> one of the things the pages would do in the 19th century, prior to having a lot of staff on capitol hill, pages performed a lot of administrative jobs that staff do now. one of them was to have to go out sometimes late at night and round up members from their boarding houses or from their hotels for a late-night vote. we have a wonderful, again, a memoir by a page who served in the early 1870's. augustus thomas. she recalled having to sit through what he referred to as drivel, intended only for print as members held the floor late at night to make a speech. he said the pages would be sitting at the roster nodding off to sleep if they could

behind the roster. maybe they would play a game of marbles. he would say, we would have that problematic member who would demand a call of the house in the wee hours of the morning. and the pages would have to sift out to the city as process servers rounding up the delinquents. so pages would do a lot of things. in the 19th century, when you think, the house is a much smaller institution. we did not have house office. members did not have staff. the staff that was here for the committees or the leadership was

really bare bones. so, the pages performed a lot of administrative tasks. not just a liberating -- delivering messages or lighting a lantern. they would haul firewood in. in the wintertime to feed one of the fireplaces. they also worked in the document folding room where copies of speeches would be prepared to be distributed to their constituents. and this was endless hours of work. so, the pages performed a lot of important tasks that kept the legislative process running. >> that reminds me. one of the really nifty artifacts we have in the collection is from some of those other things that pages were doing. one of the things you are discussing is what pages were paid. some pages would be able to supplement their income by doing something like this.

this is a receipt for a page who managed to get this many people to order up extra copies of a speech by benjamin butler. and it was to be printed at the congressional "globe." benjamin butler ordered 2000 copies of his own speech to distribute. other people were ordering 100. you would get a commission if you were a page. this is an example of seeing this in action. we know from memoirs that is something pages would do. this is a great example of how they did it and the receipt he got for his hard work. that is a lot of people surround up. >> we have a newspaper account of one page who made $400 on certain speeches that were given

around the time of the mckinley tariff debate in 1890. it could be a real way to supplement your income. >> that is a lot of money then. >> the pages also, until it was banned, would go around on the floor with a signature book and select -- and collect autographs and sell it to visitors in the gallery. that was banned. but there were a lot of ways they could supplement their income to live in d.c. >> it is chewed at the chamber could get crowded, which made it great to have messengers running around. another way the crowded news came into play for pages was that eventually, after a lot of discussion and grumbling about

who got the good seats and who got the seats that were crammed in the back for you could not hear anything, they instituted a lottery. it was the first half of the 19th country. by the 1860's, they had the page s drying the numbers. they would have one of the most senior head pages blindfolded at the speakers roster of. your number came out first, you got your pick of the seat. they already had been sitting in party blocs by then. but where you were going to be often would be whether or not the magic ball that was your number was polled by the blindfolded page. it became one of those things that was written about a lot. because of the camera ritual of the opening of congress when people would talk about the blindfolded page. you can see how crowded everything is and how important it would be to get a good desk assignment. and after the glamour of the lottery, the page since they're holding a glass of water for the member who was speaking. we have some artifacts that are really wonderful examples of how the pages lived in what they did. one of the ones it is my favorite is a page uniform from 1907. this is from agenda named roy pascoe. he was a page in 1906. he love to being a page so much that he kept his uniform.

a years ago, his descendents found it. he kept is so carefully. it is quiet wonderful and that it is influenced by military attire. so at some point he and the page program were becoming so much more formal. he had close connections to joe cannon, the speaker of the house. so it's possible one of the reasons this is such a fancy uniform as because of his connection. my favorite thing about it is not a military part. it is the fact that right along the top, in case you miss it, it says page.

as he's running around he is easily identified. most of the time, though, the identification was not written. it was a button. sometimes they would be a sometimes they would be a badge. we have to a few of those early buttons that pages wore. also, just to affiliate themselves with their core of page brethren. this tiny little page fraternity pin is from the 1930's. it is part of a raft of information from a page who served at this time, who donated not only this but some other objects that show exactly what, how great it was to have this axis to the capital. things like his membership card in the little congress. a ticket to get into the galleries when herbert hoover was giving a speech. we have learned so much more about it than just what was in these artifacts. >> we did an oral history.

at tha tpoint, she was 90 years old. the memories of being a page were so page. he search for four years in the early 1930's. he was here longer than the typical page. for him, it was a full-time job as a teenager. but he had these great memories of coming into the chamber and hearing speeches by fdr. he heard fdr's inaugural. he was up on the platform. >> i was anxious to hear the new president address the joint session of congress. and johnny mckab was one along with me sitting in front of the speaker. i just sat there for -- actually i was on duty. i just sat there for a little

bit. i didn't know they were taking the picture while i was sitting there. >> he also had such a memory that he could memorize member's faces. he did not need any kind of cheat sheet or booklet. and so, he was put on the door by the house doorkeeper. he would be responsible for making sure who was coming and going was a member or along down the floor. also, he could run in for a reporter or for someone who wanted to speak to a member and quickly get to them. and bring them out onto the speaker lobby. he did this for a year. and one of the stories he told us was that he had had to train this young staffer from taxes. >> they came to me and said, we

are having a new doorkeeper that is going to work on the door. i wanted to introduce them to everyone and he will be working for you. and is said, what is his name. lyndon johnson. i have known him since he arrived in washington. so, became and worked the rest of the session on the door. and i took him in and introduced him to congressmen on the floor and went up and down each aisle. told them who he was. introduced him to the reporters and a lot of things like that. >> his experience was typical of a lot of the pages. it expose them to a living civics lesson. that you never would learn from the pages of a book. there is a real continuity and the stories he would tell and

the stories that later pages would tell us. >> it is certainly true that when we look at artifacts, these are the ones that people saved. it was such an important and life-changing period. as adolescence is always, but for them it absolutely was. we end up with thing lots of people safe like cards and pins and photos. yearbooks. one of my favorite objects is this great image that somebody had. they saved it forever of pages at the beginning of the 20th century lined up in front of the rostrum in the house chamber

with their supervisors in the front. the pages look pretty happy. the supervisors look a little more severe. but i suppose if you are so proving many kids, you want to look severe. but you can see how young they were. and how much this would have loomed large in their memories. >> these are young boys, pre-teens, teenagers. they did a lot of hard work but there was a lot of downtime. and the stories of some of the things they did to entertain themselves. yoe themselves. you are looking here at mr. rupp's card. this is from the 1930's. it is his membership card to a group called the little congress club. the little congress was not just pages.

it was staffers, secretaries from offices who would get together on a regular basis for dinner. usually at a local hotel. and then they would have a meeting afterwards in which they would debate current legislation. and a 1930's -- new deal reforms or neutrality laws. and lyndon johnson got involved with this as well. he led the little congress. but pages had precursors to this clock. in the 1920's, they had a club called the itsy-bitsy congress in which the pages, when the house was in recess, would go to members seats or desks and they would manage a bill on the floor and run a debate. in the 19 century, it was called the junior house

representatives. in the 1890's when we had the great speaker thomas brackett-reed who instituted reed's rules. the pages admired him so much they started this junior house of representatives and debated the impact of reed's rules. they would do a lot in the chamber to amuse themselves . by the 20th century, the house is modernizing. it is becoming a modern institution it is today. there was one page that was designated the speakers page. that was considered a position of high on a you got that if you had established yourself as a junior page. but the vast majority of people

who served as pages were bench pages, errand runners on the floor. they would bring the congressional record in and put it under the seatas. they would deliver messages to members on the floor. later in the 20th century, maybe they would run errands. for a while, we had pages called riding pages. they would be dispatch on horseback sometimes down to the executive departments to deliver messages from the house. once we get a telegraph system in washington, d.c., they become telegraph pages. they to not need to get on horseback and go to the far ends

of pennsylvania avenue. some of the other pages in the 20th century, who have more responsibility, our documentarians. they sit on the rostrum. they area much more involved in the legislative process in terms of delivering amendments to the clerks and interacting with staff and parliamentarians. they also operated later in the 20th century the bell system that developed to let members know when a vote was on. prior to that, pages what have to scurry out into the halls and shout to members that a vote was going on. >> the bell system was a gong system that would call people to vote. came about right around the turn of the 2010 she when you had enough electricity and this magic new technology to do this. this was from the 1960's. it is one of the light boards you would find in the house office building that changed a lot of that. from members being called by pages running for the restaurant or through the office buildings and saying what is going on. to lights and an increasingly complicated buzzer signal system that would tell people what kind

of vote, quorum call. interestingly, even before that, in the chamber itself, and a lot of the prints in the 19th century, you see the pages sitting on the rostrum. they would often clap to get their attention or call them. but at some point in the very end of the 19th century, the house installs a buzzer system. so they take each and every desk and drill a hole and put. what was adorable we haven't -- a doorbell. we have a desk that showed that alteration. the doorbell is still there. we wondered why. we were able to find out exactly when that came into play. >> one of the things that happens in the 20th century is

that pages being to get formal schooling during the experience and washington, d.c. in the 19th 00:25:46 ? unidentified speaker century, pages just worked in the house. when they did not work, they were off. they lived in boarding houses. they didn't get formal schooling. that begins to change at about

the same time that we have progressives pushing for child labor laws in the u.s. and for a formal educational system. there were some progressive looked at the pages and said they know an awful lot about becoming a statesman, a representative or senator, but they are almost devoid of any useful knowledge. so, you begin to sing this push in the early 1900s -- to see this push, and by the mid 1920's parents of some of these pages who are increase in the from across the country. they are no longer just from washington, d.c. parents establish a private school in the capital. the man who starts the first formal education system for the pages is ernest kendal. he savages the capitol page s chool in the basement. it is house and senate pages. we have some wonderful oral history of the school. jeoe bartlett who would go on to become a marine general. he also would become a reading clerk in thehouse. he was a page in the 1940's. he has reminiscences off the page school and how primitive

conditions were. >> we generated our own electricity. the capital generated its own electricity. if you brought an alternate current in, you probably lost it. the line of generators was constant. they were big. it was a private school. conducted by e.l. kendal. a spartan baptist children. i -- baptist gentleman. we paid $19 a month for tuition. the roof leaked. and it was not completely uncommon to go in there and find on the dffloor a puddle. you put down planks. we'd take our seats, hold our feet up and study latin. >> there also descriptions of pages in their spare time going to the capitol basement with pellet guns hunting the cat-sized rats as part of their

entertainment. >> rats and pellet guns are not part of everyone's high school experience. but it's not high school if you don't have a yearbook, but very quickly, the capital page school began to have all the things you would expect of a lot of high schools. this is the 1944 yearbook. not very big. a small school. there's the president, the pledge of allegiance. here's sam rayburn. and lots of the folks involved. here is the democratic chief page. more folks. look, the student council, the faculty. and for many pages. like any yearbook, they were having their yearbook signed.

all the things they did that year. they went to the white house. these are two varsity letters. from the rest of all team. -- the basketball team. this is the first scholastic varsity letter. >> the sports programs, one of the big things that pages did, and this goes back before school, in the earliest account is into the 1870's. the pages put together a baseball team. they would travel around and play youth teams. sometimes they would play adult staffers on the hill and win. the great thing was it was a house and senate baseball team. the senate had a tradition of having younger pages. so the house completely dominated the baseball games. >> they had snowball fights. house and senate page

activities. they were going to school together. it was >> the day started early. they would be in class at 6:30 a.m. the academic they would be done by 10:30 because they would have to be ready to go to their chambers when the house or the senate typically would gavel in at noon. it could be a long day, especially if it went into a late evening session. >> once the page school happened and pages were all together, one of the things that was interesting reading people's memoirs and interviewing people is that changes in uniform and the different bodies didn't happen at the same time. the house left the nicker era earlier. pages in the supreme court and senate wearing nickers envied the house pages. you can see that in the class photos from the 1930's. the house pages ar taking full

advantage of the fact that they can weare a zippier suit. you will see them with wonderful suits. stripes. these are photographs from the 1960's. they document the first african-american page in the house wsince reconstruction. upon his appointment at the capitol. this is him with his fabulous 1960's glasses. these are newspaper photographs. it was something that was not just of interest in the institutional history of the house but of interest for the news as well. >> this is frank mitchell who was appointed in 1965. this is on the centennial of lincoln's assassination. he is from springfield. there is the lincoln connection. the civil war connection.

he is here with gerald ford and les arrons. >> he was the house minority whip and ford is the house minority leader. after discussing some things with them we went into another room and cameras, still and video were there probably eight or ten of them. and other reporters asking questions. it was quiet the whirlwind experience. i want to emphasize this was 1965. frank mitchell of springfield, illinois, became the first negro to serve as a page in the house. a clipping from my hometown newspaper. >> for a long time we thought that mitchell was actually the very first african-american page to serve. but we were able to do some research about the

reconstruction period. which is interesting because you have african-american members serving in the house for the first time. there is a total of 20 who served in the latter part of the 19th century. and what you see at the staff level is that there are african-americans who are pointed to position. there was an african-american house library and. -- librarian. that was a house appointed position in that era. in 1871, a member who representative district that encompassed richmond and a couple of the towns south of the james river, he was a civil war veteran who had stayed on. he became a political carpetbagger when virginia was readmitted to the union.

one of the things he does is appoints an african-american page. and powell comes into the house chamber. we know a lot a lot about powell. he was 14. we do not have any pictures of him. but we found him in census records. we know his family was from manchester. we have press reports are saying that he was the first african-american page, including one report that said that his first day on the job the pages teased him like they did every other page, but he did his job. he served for a year. he is the only instance of an african-american page serving in the 1800's. shortly after he leaves, the reconstruction era ends. and you have jim crow laws go

into place in the house, in washington, d.c. and th appointment of african-americans to staff physician subsides. just like the story of african-american members. by the end of the 1800's, we go through a long p eriod where there is no african-american serving in the house of representatives. >> one of my favorite thing about alfred powell, al though we do not have any images, we found in the records of the friedman bank his deposit slips where he is taking his earnings and deposited. which i find just fascinating and gripping. the freedmen's bank is an

example of something set up specifically to serve the economic needs of newly freed african-americans. he was born free to free african-americans in manchester, but african americans all over used these new programs and resources. i loved alfred powell did, too! >> we've been talking about page s and talking about boys. it was all boys up until 1939, when for a day, we had a girl by the name of jean cox, appointed by her father. she served for the opening day in 1939. and was paid the going rate of $4.00. it was a symbolic appointment. but we do not see girls entering the page program for another, more than 2030 years. not until 1973 when carl albert is speaker. he had become penpals with a young woman.

who had come to the capitol and thought what a great opportunity. and saw they were all boys. and was told, we do not feel like this is the place for girls. >> and i at that age between six and seventh grade said that is not fair. so, he said, well, maybe we can do something about that. when i went back to school in the fall, i wrote loaders 00:38:14 albert. and wrote letters for many years. and finally, one day, when i was just about to graduate from high school i got a call from charlie ward, his administrative assistant.

he asked me how i would feel about being the first woman page . knew this say, i was ecstatic about this. i said, i will have to ask my parents. he said, mr. albert has spoken to your parents and it is ok with them. i said absolutely. that was how it began. >> by the latter 1970's, it is about half female, half male. it's in the early 1980's, that we have the first female based on her grades inthe the page school elevated to the speakers page, which was a real approximate for the grils. -- a real kabul schmidt -- accomplishment for the girls. technology was changing the job. whether it was the telegraph which obviated writing pages. or the telephone which obviated telegraph paged. so, technology by the latter 20 century, particularly in the

computer age, smartphone age, begins to obviate a lot of the tasks. the need for messengers on the floor was really not that great by the latter part of the 20th century. and the ability to deliver documents electronically kind of cut back on the shores that the pages had to do. so, technology by the early 21st century is one of the factors that leaves house leadership -- leads house leadership to decide that the page program is no longer critical to the legislative function. one of the commonalities and oral history interviews or in memoirs we've researcher even in news articles were individuals looked back on their page service. they saw it as a highlight of their youth. >> in retrospect, that whole experience that summer changed my life.

it changed the way i look at the world and politics, certainly our government. >> i remember i was around for the voting rights act. i think medicare also. i felt those kind of things, the legislation, was more historic and certainly more important than anything about my appointment. >> we know of roughly two dozen individuals who would serve in the house or senate who had been pages as teenagers. but it was an experience that again gave them

>> you have been watching c-span american history tv. we want to hear from you. you can leave comments, too on our facebook. and check out our upcoming programs at our web side. >> and we would like to tell you about some of our other american history tv programs. join us every saturday for a special look at the civil war. >> here is a look at some of the programs you will find christmas day on the c-span networks. holiday festivities start with

the lighting of the national christmas tree followed by the white house christmas decorat n decorations with first lady michelle obama and the lighting of the capitol christmas tree. then celebrity activists talk about their causes. then the bill of rights and the founding fathers. on c-span 2, venture into the art of good righting. at 7:00 p.m., pamela hall and others talk about their reading hapts. and then the fall of the berlin wall with speeches from kennedy and reagan. fashion experts and how first ladies represented the styles of the times in which they