♪ the 114 congress gavels in this tuesday at noon eastern. watch live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate live on c-span 2 and track the gop led congress and have your say on the c-span networks c-span radio and c-span.org, new congress best access on c-span. next cartoonist patrick oliphant draws ten presidential caricatures for an audience at the art gallery. during the presentation david mccullough discusses the presidents and their most memorable qualities. this is about an hour. i'm delighted to play the part i've been asked to do today with patrick. and president solovey, thank you very much for being here and introducing us.

i want to tell you you're in for a rare thrill of an experience. i saw patrick do what he does this way in rome two years ago and it took my breath away. it's like watching a magic show. and i think that you'll come away i hope you will, with a feeling that many of us have that what he's doing is of immense importance and his total body of work is a major american accomplishment in art, not just in politics and understanding of the times we have been living in. one of the most obvious lessons in history is that it isn't just about politics and war and barring boring statistics. it's about everything. people, human, history is human. when in the course of human

events our founding document begins. and the operative word there is human. this struck me powerfulfully one day when i was driving down massachusetts avenue and came to sheridan circle. i was late for an appointment. and all of the sudden hit this horrendous traffic jam. and everything stopped. and i was late and i was getting frustrated and i looked over at the statue of phil sheridan in the middle of sheridan circle very good statue, and i thought, i wonder how many people driving around this circle have any idea who that is. they go around here twice a day, probably 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 in the even within 10,000 people or so. and i began to get down about that prospect and the fact that was late for my appointment. and owl of the sudden "rhapsody

in blue" came on the car radio and lifted me out of the car, my doldrums. and i started thinking who is more important to us as a people as a story. is it phil sheridan or george gershwin. by preference is gershwin. but they're both important. and i feel very much patrick oliphant is his art form's version of george gershwin. he is a major american phenomena. and the fact that we're going to enjoy his way of seeing life and our time is a privilege believe me. i remind you for example of thomas nast who is the one who really put old boss tweet down finally. and tweed summed it up

perfectly, as you may remember. he said, my constituents don't care a straur for what you write in those newspapers, most of them can't read. it's those damn pictures that get me. and then of course there was bill maul din in our time and to my mind surpassing them all is our honored guest today patrick oliphant. where are you, patrick? he's right at work. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> very generous of you. >> thank you very much. if you'd let me get on with my work. >> go ahead. i want to preach a little more. >> havy got any johnson stories? >> i think the phenomenon of the human face is one of the most

extraordinary aspects of the human brain. when you think there are very little differences from one face to another, may newt, fractions of an inch. and yet you could be in grand central station at rush hour with 10, 20,000 people going by. and if some old friend of yours from 20 years ago walked by, you would recognize them instantly. think what that does -- what that says about the brain and how it evolved in order to know faces. we have right here in your wonderful gallery one of the national treasures in trumbles decoration of independence july 4th, 1776. almost everything about that painting in inaccurate. the room is wrong, the furniture is wrong, the curtains are in the wrong place the door is in the wrong place.

there is only one thing that is totally accurate. the faces. 48 different faces which are all rendered superbly. most of them trumble went and did them in person. because of what was the utmost important was that they be identifiable and accountable. they wanted to be known for who they were. and at the time -- keep in mind when they were signing that decoration, they were signing their death warrants but there didn't want to be any ambiguity about who was there who mattered. that's what we're seeing now all the time in our own public political and national life. all these faces. but once in a while someone comes along who can see more in a face than most all of us do and can make it indelible in a way that it will never be forgotten. you'll never see the same face

in the same way. now he's rendering the president, who was in office when patrick first came in 1964. i was stationed outside of president johnson's office right after the kennedy death to look over some photographs to be used in the usia of the president with the photographic head of the isa. because we weren't allowed to use any photographs that the president didn't like. and i could hear talk behind the door of the white house the oval office, i think i wonder if i'll get to see the president. and it was time for me to go and just as i was about to leave the door opened and this head came out around the sides of the door and it was at a much higher level than a head should be.

and i heard the only immortal words that i ever heard the president enunciate -- i heard it in person. and he said anybody seen my razor? take it from there pal. >> got any nixon stories? [ laughter ] >> here he comes. [ laughter ] >> imagine he can just stand up there and do that. nothing on the board. he touches --

>> that's what you need of nixon really, isn't it? [ laughter ] >> this gallery is a teaching gallery, which, to me is one of the most exciting developments at yale in the last 25 years or less. and the idea that all of the different disciplines, as they say in academic life, really all of the different aspects of human life, can be taught here by professors instructors were lecturers in virtually any department. and imagine coming here to see this work when you're studying the politics of the last 40-some years, 50 years.

and what a different what a different lift it would give to the experience. >> this take as while. [ laughter ] >> patrick, i get the feeling you have a good time doing that face. >> well, it comes back about once a year. there's a strange afterlife he had. so he's good for a cartoon in a year, even now.

[ laughter ]

[ laughter ] [ applause ] >> i didn't know he was left-handed. that's funny. did you ever meet him? >> no i never did. no. >> that's okay. >> did you? >> when i did meet once, i usually stay away from presidents or politicians in general. >> why? >> because i might like them. [ laughter ] >> would it also make it harder to be -- >> couldn't get -- >> -- negative or mocking about it. >> objective about somebody i

like. >> yeah. >> so i generally stayed away from getting involved with them any way, which is more easy than you think in washington. [ laughter ] and this guy i did meet after he was in office. and he was a very good fellow. a nice fellow >> i agree. >> and that really gave me pause that you shouldn't hob knob with the enemy. but he used to bang his head on things. i used to draw him always this

way. he called me up and asked me would i be the entertainment at a gathering of his staff. every year he had dinner with the staff. so they were all there and kisen kissinger and all those awful people. i don't know why i was so -- maybe i was just out in the crowd there. i don't know why i did this. but i took this and i walked oef to him and i drew a band aid on his head.

you can get wrestled to the ground for that sort of thing. >> yeah. >> the secret service guy came over and said you do that again, you'll never cartoon in this town again. >> well, i spent a day with president ford at the ford library. he had invited me out to lecture there. and i thought he was very level, balanced intelligent and commendable figure. and by no means slow upstairs by no means. and i think he's an example of how through the media or some wisecrack by another politician, these people can be typecast in the most unfair fashion. and i think his presidency is

waiting for somebody to write a good book about him. brief as it was wibt was very interesting. and i personally think that what he did to pardon nixon was a noble and admirable decision that clearly cost him from getting reelected. it was not to his advantage in doing so. pu there's all kinds of subsequent evidence to indicate that he knew this was the best thing for him to do in the national interest. so i'm a gerald ford fan. and i think that more and more as time passes people will see him that way. it's interesting how our views of presidents change. when i was a boy, all excited about the 1968 presidential election of truman against dewy

i was very interested in politics. i wanted to stay up to see how it came out but u was too tired to do so. the next morning i went in and my father was in the bathroom shaving. i said dad, dad, who won? and he said, truman, like it was the end of the world. and 25 or 30 years later i went home, back to pittsburgh and was sitting with him after dinner and he launched into this whole tirade about how the country was going to hell and the world was going to hell. i've heard much of that all my life. and then he paused and he said too bad old harry isn't still in the white house. oh, i've got a little story, too, about our next character on

stage here. when the panama issue became a big event in washington and was called by president carter to come down and advise them object what their policy should be -- my book on panama had just been published. i was just turned over to a very nice aid who has subsequently become a very good friend. we were sitting in this tiny little office and it was clear kwiek quite quickly that he didn't know anything about the panama canal. my heart went out to him because he had a real responsibility and i wanted to help any way i could. my wife and i were sitting on one side of the desk with barely enough loom for our knees and he was on the other. and i looked down oun the floor and there was a mouse trap with

cheese on it by a little hole in the wall. i said, excuse me, mr. butler, but is that what i think it is? he said oh yes. i said, you have mice in the white house? he said generations of them. and we can't get rid of them. and i thought well, they are every right. thaf they've been here for generations. they have ever right. was thinking maybe that's another series of cartoons for you, historic mice at the white house. >> you white it, i'll draw it. [ laughter ] >> now is there any symbolism that you're putting mr. carter lower than the others? >> yes. in my work at the time he sha rank. he was also famous for, as i

remember --shrank. he was also famous for, as i remember -- you're scared of rabbits. >> the rabbit. you remember the rabbit? he was in the boat wasn't he? in the row boat? or was he trying to swim. >> he was in the row boat and the rabbit started trying to climb in. >> and the image was him pounding away at the rabbit request a pebble. >> i imagine if you tried to put a band aid on his forehead. another killer rabbit. >> the killer rabbit. >> very good. [ applause ]

>> the guy that you like, david. or you told me you like him. and after all, he did give us one of his own begotten sons. >> oh, here he comes. i think i've known or interviewed seven of the ten presidents that patrick is going to render immortal today. and one of the things that struck me, and the more i think about it the more it strikes me as important is that there doesn't seem to be any common

denominator about these presidents. there's no trait. there's no running to type. jimmy carter is as different from ronald reagan as anybody could have been. and if i had to say which one i liked best, it had virtually nothing to do with their politics. and that is george bush sr. and if i had to -- or if i would have had to ride, when they were all still with us, from new haven from texas with one of them, he would be the one i would pick. because he's a wonderful friendly real man a gentleman and interesting, with many good story to tell, which he tells

extremely well. and generous in the extreme. i was at his apartment at university of -- at college station where the bush, sr. library is. and in the apartment above his couch were five photographs. one was of president bush with margaret thatcher. another with president bush with gorbachev or ronald reagan. but in the middle about that big, twice as big, three times as big as any of the others was the picture of george h.w. bush with joe demash yo and ted williams. and you could tell which he thought were more important in the scale of things. it was a wonderful picture of each of them. and he explained that he awarded them some kind of presidential

recognition and they had taken the picture in the rose garden. and each had signed it. and i said, who a great picture. and i meant it just as a photograph. a superb picture. again the faces that are indelible for us. about two weeks later a big tube arrives at our home and it was the picture. he gave it to me. in the letter accompanying letter -- they were talking about that he wrote nice little note ps. this wasn't a nice little note. this was a real letter. he explained that each of the three had signed 33 of the prints. they made 99 prints. they all signed all of them and each got to keep 33 of the 99. and he said that joe, who always professed to play only for the money sold his to ted. [ laughter ]

but here he's got the 33 pictures of his. he said he had a few left and he gave me one. not only was that extremely thoughtful and nice, but that's a historic treasure. it's worth a lot of money truly, if i were to sell it. i won't sell it. i've got a baseball player here and he ought to get it. but it's a measure, i think of the man. and i think mrs. bush is fantastic. i don't -- i would not want to be her husband. she really rules the roost. but i remember maybe some of you do, when she made her first appearance as first lady on stage at kennedy center and she walked out -- this of course coming after eight years of nancy reagan who was a very different kind of woman.

she walked out like this and she walked up -- had a light blue wool suit very nice suit middle-aged lady. and she walked out and took that microphone and she said, well what you see is what you get. and i thought, good for you. [ laughter ] sfl >> did we get out of sequence? >> what? >> did i forget ronald reagan? >> how could you forget him. i think he's emerging. >> i think i might have forgotten him. >> it's in the stars as they say. >> there's his hair anyway. >> i interviewed reagan in the white house before soon after he was shot. and i thought it was wonderful

that he would be willing to do an interview so soon after. but when i went in to sit down with him, i was studying to see if there was any sign of the stress or the trauma or the loss of weight or scar on his head or anything, any sign whatever. nothing. and i was within three or four feet of him. absolutely incredible. he looked not like an older fellow who has carefully been done up and touched up a little bit. not at all. he was intelligent and calm and as cordial as if we were old friends. and in no hurry and very were likable. obviously a good sense of humor and a good sense of the fact that he had the job and he better do it. >> he liked the story didn't he?

>> he loved the story. >> yeah.

>> i don't know if that's a sign of anything. >> utterly amazing. am i blocking your view or no?

[ laughter ] >> look at that cowboy hat, just one line. >> now patrick you've made him bigger than everybody. [ applause ] you've made him bigger than anybody. is there a reason for that? >> we've got to mo along here. we're running out of people. >> is there a symbolism to the umbrella that bush is holding? >> that will lead to the transpacific. >> oh yeah. yeah. >> did he ever mention that to you? >> no. >> quite interesting fellow.

even though he did give us one of his only begotten sons. [ laughter ] . >> oh boy. >> what? [ laughter ]what? [ laughter ] >> he's doing it.

>> his mouth used to hang out a lot. >> may be sort of a fly trap. [ laughter ]

>> if i go any further i'll be in trouble. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> further to him, let's see. politicians when they want to be

sincere frown a lot. bear with me.

[ laughter ] [ laughter ]

>> remember -- [ laughter ] >> most sincerely looking us right in the eye i did not have sex with that woman. >> ms. what's her name whoever that was. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> i need to go out in the sun. he should be small. maybe give him a big hat.

[ laughter ] [ applause ] >> imagine being able to do that just in a few lines and what, three minutes. >> that's about all you can say about him. [ laughter ]

>> i would like to just tell you one quick story about mr. bush, jr. through mainly entirely through the help of ted kennedy we got a bill through congress authorizing the creation of a monument to john adams in the district of columbia. there is nothing in our capitol company rating the importance of our founding time of john adams. and president bush, h.w. bush, was newly in office and he was going to sign the bill. and ted called me and said, you should come down for this ceremony. well i had never been to

anything like that and i wanted very much to do it. so we met for lunch, ted and i at the adams hotel and then we were going to walk over to the white house. and ted was suffering from a lot of back pain then and it was clear i was difficult for him to walk but he insisted me wanted to walk and he never complained about it. so we started out to go over to the white house. i don't, it was 2:15, 2:30 something like that. and all the way through the park he was going, that damn president is doing this and those republicans are doing that. and i said ted aye got to tell you, i like the president. he looked at me and he said, oh so do i. like, don't you know anything? what does that have to do with it? and i thought truly that's what we've lost in washington now. because you differ with somebody you don't have to consider them your enemy. and the people that could work that way like howard baker and alan simpsons are desperately needed back in office. >> isn't that right. yeah.

[ applause ] the guy in the bed there also gave us -- >> i asked patrick last night if ever he just started drawing and an idea came to him through the drawing. and he said very rarely. and as remarkable as his drawings are his talent is, really, there's nothing like it right now, maybe never has been. but to think that he's still doing three cartoons a week. so he has to have three ideas a week. and his ideas are always original. and one of my favorite aspects of his work is the little character he includes down at the bottom whose name is punk. and i asked him when did punk

emerge? and he said, oh i brought him with me from australia. and we talked about how the trouble he had getting through customs. but think of that, every new idea three times a week for 40-some years. that alone -- many people have a staff to help do that. his staff is all right up there in his head. >> oh brother. you know who is emerging don't you? >> yeah. now consider all of the alias we have up here. those who weren't are the exception.

which may make the comment that we don't want to think about that -- look how much is in the eyes and the teeth and yet he get it of who it is. it's remarkable.

>> good ol hillary. i don't like dynasties, do you? >> i'm sorry, what? >> i don't like dynasties. we're getting another clinton dynasty now. >> oh another clinton dynasty. what does this say? >> cream. oh. cream. >> don't listen to him. english is his second language so -- anyway, where was i? >> i tried to take a lot of

courses in the art department, art school as an undergraduate and particularly portrait painting and drawing. and studied with deen kel lar who was a wonderful portrait painter and whose works hang around the university in many places and at the lobby of the yale club in new york. he was a terrific teacher. he made you really learn anatomy anatomy, drawing faces everything. joseph al bez had taken control of the art school and deen kel lar had been banished to a little room up in one of the old sections of the old arts school. and didn't have any students.

so i went up to see him and asked him if i could be his student. he said if i could round up seven other students. you had to have eight students in order to qualify. he would teach the course. well, i did and he did. but one day i was sitting in a drawing class taught by another professor and we were busy drawing one of our fellow students. it was her turn to pose sitting in a chair just wearing what she had had on that day. and we're all working away. and all of the sudden this voice from behind, this german accent said you have to ask yourself is she romanesque or is she gothic? and it was albers. instantly i knew exactly what she was. she was very gothic, thin. i thought what a brilliant analysis from this man who's famous for the home imagine to

the square. he knew a lot more than just the deer old square. what have we emerging here now? >> i've drawn him already. i just want to do him again. >> oh, i know. this is one of patrick's more celebrated images. and i asked him if by chance that this had emerged just from fooling with the pencil. and he said it had not. and he's done, i think more than one version of the president in this form. he was not asking is he romanesque or gothic. but is he on an island somewhere

far off in the pacific. [ laughter ] >> with no ears. he doesn't hear a thing. >> oh, he doesn't hear anything. oh, i missed that symbolism. >> i thought i'd put someone down here. >> is that punk? >> no.

[ laughter ] [ applause ] >> here i will get this for you. >> that will be five bucks. okay. thank you.

>> rumsfeldrumsfeld. a rumperfect prussian general. a lot of this stuff.?oitz of course -- what's wrong with me? [ applause ]

i take issue with your supposition that there is no common thread. you think they're all different? they're all wonderfully individualistic? >> i know you can prove they aren't. >> i'm just about to do that. >> all right. wait until you see this. talk about slight of hand. >> does anybody remember golda mier?

and then you just add some hair. [ applause ] >> give her a bit more hair. okay. >> that's all i know. [ applause ] thank you. >> pleasure. thank you. thank you.

thanks. you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter. after the american revolution and before he was elected the first president of the united states, george washington retired from public life. up next washington's journey's to inspect his western virginia land holdings during his retirement and how it contributes to western expansion and propelled his over thes tolinking the east and west. >> thank you