sam jack's -- sam houston is the president of texas. sam houston new andrew jackson -- knew andrew jackson from his time in tennessee. he served under andrew jackson in the military. they knew each other from before you central time in texas. circumstances pushed houston to texas. he became involved in the effort here to gain independence, the push for annexation and joining the united states. that issue had gone back and forth between prior presidents of texas and both sides at one point or another refusing, there were other issues going on.

a state that accepted slavery was an issue great britain getting involved, kind of spurring the united states and the state of texas. finally in 1844, it became a major issue and it gets revisited again. andrew jackson writes to his old friend sam houston, basically saying it would really benefit the future prosperity of texas and the united states for this to happen, and he ends the letter saying, "god get -- god bless you and yours may it great you prosperity in this life and the life to come, your friend, andrew jackson." the next item relates to the 1900 storm. the 1900 storm is a major event in the island's history. there has been a lot written about it and set about it, but

it still lingers today, though it is still very much a part of galveston the in history and life today. this letter is a requested -- recent acquisition. it is from frances lister, who is a real estate agent. it is to his two sons. it starts out, "dear boys." basically it is what happened to him and his family during the storm. it goes into great detail about the water rising and the wind picking up and what happened to them through the night of september 8. and it is basically let the boys know -- he had sent them tell a brand's, but i guess he wanted to go into more detail and let them know what happened that

night. the detail is very descriptive and gives you an idea of the horrors these people suffered. just to give you an idea how horrible the night was we can read about the water rising in the wind picking up and things being moved off their foundations, but mr. let -- mr. lister in his letter said, you need to send his wife and daughter off the island. he was afraid of disease. he was afraid of an epidemic. -- as soon as i can get them out of here. the town will be visited by an epidemic, i think. in any case, they are so terribly shocked, they must be taken away from here. that gives you an idea of the trauma that the family and so many others effort during the

hurricane. >> b rosenberg library is unique in that it not only has an archive and a book collection, but also a museum. we have approximately 8000 objects in the museum collection, including artwork, textiles glass. recently the smithsonian portrait gallery had an exhibit on the war of 1812 and borrowed this wonderful portrait of jean-lafitte, who had a basic here in galveston after the war of 1812. came here in about 1850 or so. relations between jean-lafitte and the u.s. government had soured and he and his brother p air were -- pierre were hired on as informants for spain. so, he used galveston as a piece of operations for not only

sparring, but also his privateering endeavors as well. it is a really unique piece. a local family was building a mansion between 24th and 25th street on broadway. when they were tearing down the old house and laying the foundation for the new one, they discovered a number of confederate artifacts, and this painting rolled up in a tent. the family took this as a possible jean-lafitte painting, and in the 1970's, the piece was donated to the library. however it was really just speculation that led early folks to believe this was jean-lafitte . but it really caught fire, much like all of the history with lafitte. there is much mythology that is

difficult to disentangle from fact. if you experts have taken a look at this portrayed, and concluded it is most likely not lafitte for a number of reasons including the costume he is wearing. do you notice the hat looks like it belongs more in the 1600s rather than the 1800s? also, the last of an undershirt. very short of sensual for early 19th century proper portrait. also the way he is holding the dagger. that would be a draw out from the way the dagger is gone out. this is a very foreboding man. he is going to stab you in the back or stab you from above. some have said it may be a fanciful victorian interpretation of lafitte. another, it might be the famed

actor edward bowes, brother of john wilkes booth, who came to galveston a few times for performances. the next object i would like to show you is fascinating. it ties in with the revolutionary period and galveston history. these are a pair of dueling pistols that belonged to general sam houston. very ornate. they were never used for any duels. but still a wonderful piece. they were given to sam houston by his friends in cincinnati. at the time of the revolution, many in ohio, especially cincinnati, supported the cause of texas independence. so those who chose to, came down to fight. and the remaining people raised funds to send cannons here.

two twin sisters came and were involved in the decisive battle of san jacinto which saw texas winning independence from mexico. the instruction says general sam houston, from your sin see friends -- cinnci friends. that's an abbreviation for cincinnati. >> what i would like people to take away from here is a connection to history. so many people come to galveston looking for a piece of family history or a connection. we play an important role for galveston. we are the keeper of the history here. >> find out where c-span's cities tour is going next online at www.c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> each week, and american

history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. next we travel about 15 miles north of washington, d.c. to great falls visitors center where we will take a boat ride to learn more about the chesapeake and the ohio canal. [foghorn] >> i would like to introduce myself. im a park ranger here -- i'm a park ranger here at the chesapeake and ohio canal. i think we will cast off shortly. we will give you a brief history here on the canal. all right, it is called the chesapeake and ohio canal, but it definitely -- starts at the chesapeake bay and rose up to the mouth of the ohio canal. when we told it we wanted to

connect to the eastern shore with what was considered the west back then. the west was up in ohio, pennsylvania, that area. we wanted to connect its part to the chesapeake bay. and the piece of the canal from the 1870's -- there were about 15 or 20 boats waiting at the loft. at the peak of its, there were 15 or 20 boats operational on the can now. those are obviously not courses. a lot of people use them for horses and donkeys. they are a combination of the two. but a very special combination. the male is going to be the donkey. and the female is the mare. you need a female or send a

mail. d. if you did at the other way, you would get something that is called a henney, and they do not have the same working genes that we want our meals to have on the canal, so we decided meals would the -- mules would be a better fit for us. all through history, you have the use of horses. the pony express, wagons. they were used for various things. the question that usually comes up, why are the mules here instead of forces? there are various reasons for that. you can sell there are -- you can tell there are various reasons for that. you can see their ears. their ears make them very aware of their surroundings. their feet are a different shape from horses. they are more oval shape instead of circular. that makes them very surefooted and allows them to know where they are placing their foot at all times. they are not skittish like

horses are. horses will tend to rear up and it takes a while to combat down, whereas -- calm back down, whereas our mules are not as jumpy. so with a horse, you get it reared up and you have to wait for it to calm down. with a mule, it would just stop. it would see a snake there and it would wait for you to move it so it would not cause any harm to itself. they are actually very smart. mules are smarter than horses are. you can work a horse to death. they want to please their master. if you had a horse you're on canal, you could literally run it to death, to the ground from working. whereas a mule -- if someone

says that you are as stubborn as a new all, you can take that as a compliment. they are saying that you are smart. you cannot work a mules to death. after about six hours, it will say, i'm not trying to hurt myself. i am going to stand here until you change me out. our mules are dolly and eva. they are two of our youngest mules. dolly is 11 and eva is ten. you can see that they are connected by two chains. they are connected by a chain. they are currently pulling us at the rate of two miles an hour maybe. they could pull us a little bit faster, but we do not usually want to go any faster than this. and back then they could not go

faster than this, because there was a speed limit of four miles an hour on the canal. >> europe and watching our weekly series "american artifacts" on c-span3's and american history tv. you can watch this and all their other programs online at c-span.org/history. >> this sunday, on q&a the director of the watchdog program on how doctors are lobbied on which medications to prescribe. >> while it is illegal for a company to market a drug before it has been approved by the fda it is not illegal to market a disease. drug companies have invented diseases are exaggerated the importance of certain conditions or exaggerated the importance of

a particular mechanism of a drug, for example, and then blanketed medical journals and medical meetings send other venues with these messages that are meant to prepare the minds of clinicians to accept a particular drug and also the minds of consumers to accept a particular condition. >> sunday night on c-span's q&a. >> former national security council and officials from the nixon administration discuss nixon's attempts to normalize relations with china in the 1970's. they detail secretary henry kissinger's visit and nixon's official visit one your later.