case. you know, one flawed person, one flawed story suggested the whole place is bad. i think that's painting with too broad of a brush, to be honest. >> (inaudible). >> well, i don't know the details of what happened there. i'll just say it's a place of integrity to this day, i think. >> up next on american history tv, congressional history. first, a look at artifacts and photographs related to women in the u.s. house, starting with the election of jeannette rankin in 1967. and house ways and means committee. and then several historic hearings that happened in the russell senate officing about. >> each week american history tv american artifacts visits museums and historic place. up next, we take you inside the

house wing where we use artifacts and photographs to trace the history of women in congress. this is the first of a two-part program. >> the story of women in congress begins with jeannette rankin, who is elected to the house in 1916 from montana. she's elected to the house four years before women had the right to vote nationally. and in a way she's really a bridge from the sufferage movement. she was active in a women's sufferage organization. she got the right to vote in a couple of states west of the mississippi. and she runs in 1916. she's elected to one of some the empty's two at large districts. and part of her platform is she's a passivist. she's sworn into the house on april 2nd, 1917.

and the house has come into special session, extraordinary session because the prison that night, woodrow wilson, delivers a message to congress asking for a declaration of war against germany. it's the u.s. entry into world war i. and rankin, when that vote is 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 sufferage committee. she was on the public lands committee, which was an important assignment for a woman from montana with much of the lands being held by the federal government. so it was an important position. she serves only a term in the house. and she tries to run for senate for montana. she doesn't get the republican nomination. but she runs as app independent. it's an uphill battle.

she gets a fifth of the votes, though. then she goes back to private life. she's involved in women's rights issues. she's a driving force behind the shepherd turner maternity and infancy act. and she's also involved in international peace organizations. 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 8th, 1941 with a tremendous vote. this is the day after pearl harbor. fdr has come to the house chamber, addressed a joint session of congress. >> yesterday, december 7th,

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 jeannette rankin is a passivist and she is going to vote her conscience. so we have some moral histories of people who were in the chamber who recall members saying don't vote no. she opposes the war. she's the long vote against u.s. entry with the declaration of war. that effectively ended her political career. she goes back into private life. but she's a force in the anti-war movement for another couple decades. but a remarkable career. >> in 2004, we commissioned a

new portrait of jeannette rankin. she was a person who is 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. because it was the 20th century. it's 1916 and 1917 when she is elected and enters congress, there is a lot of newspaper coverage of it. and because she's a woman and something of a novelty, there's a lot of coverage of with what she's wearing. so we know exactly what she was wearing. so the portrait herself shows her in that navy blue dress. we know she was wearing a big hat. and we know exactly what the "washington post" said. so the portrait has her holding the washington poet. one of the things that's most interesting, she is wearing the hat and placed in the portrait just outside the chamber doors.

if we were to enter into that space, she would be just about 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 over as a woman should she wear a hat, because that's formal attire. or is she not a woman but a member of congress and shouldn't wear it. indeed, it turned out she is a member of congress more than she is her gender. so she take it off. all of those things we wanted to put in the portrait, as well as the sense that she was in the house but much more a preacher of her other interests as well. passivism, sufferage. so it was a somewhat lonely spot to be in. and to be taking the stands of conscious that put her at odds with people. >> jeannette rankin was somewhat

of an outlier. she comes from an activist background, sufferage background. if you look at the first two decades of women from rankin to the mid 1930s, a good number of these people don't have political background. they haven't held elective office. 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, the route for a lot of early women into congress. 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. it was for this woman here who we are looking at on this woman on the rostrum of edith norris rogers. she was a widow from massachusetts, northern massachusetts. 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 administering his personal office. and so she knew what his legislative agenda was. she kind of knew the rhythms and contours and life on capitol hill. one thing 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. 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 going to be on the ballot. the expectation was the wife would serve out this term, then she would retire and then party leaders would find a suitable male candidate to succeed her. she had other ideas. she 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 mccallsky. she was very influential in terms of veterans affairs. prior to her experience in the house, she had also volunteered

for the red cross. she had become an advocate for servicemen returning from world war i. 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 83rd when control flip-flopped back and forth between democrats and republicans. she's a republican. her experience, and you see a couple of pictures here with her, in this one she's 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 m. law hague, a machine technician. and he promoted her career. and she comes into the house in 1925, the same year as edith on norris rogers. the interesting thing about her is that she, like rogers and other women from this generation, 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. one of them was the labor committee during the new deal, which was a major committee. and her signal 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 just the crowning moment of my house experience. i'm prouder getting that bill through the house than anything else i've ever done. she was a no nonsense legislator. very early in her career, maybe the year this picture was snapped, she was on the house floor and a bill was being debated. a male member turned to her and said a yield to the gentlelady. she said i'm no lady. i'm a member of congress. and i will proceed on that basis. she did. her career was a marvelous example of moving up through the ranks through seniority. >> one of my favorite thing about edith norris rogers is how she used her public persona. she begins right from the

get-go. this is early 1926 debates mary norton. and it's a radio debate. but clearly they know they're going to be photographed and it's going to be a big deal. so mary norton is wearing her fantastic fur santa claus coat. and edith norris rogers is in widow's wear. she is still mourning her husband. she's savi and always good at that. this is a leaflet from her first general election. she said always on the job. own record of achievements. inside it says wonderful stuff. knows the ropes. gives prompt efficient service. and she talks a lot about what she has done for veterans. and she's not above also saying she is still mrs. john jacob

rogers. this is the primary season in september. she's very wise in the ways of doing this. a little later, after she has been re-elected a few times, she often is photographed doing things that would be visually interesting. and 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 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 convenient and she enjoyed it. so there are photographs of her with a airport cap and 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 at the start of the 71st congress. and so there are lots of them. and you can see they are very business like in their attire. but they are in their furs. and edith nourse rogers has flowers. this represents not all women in congress but lots of them. they are, nonetheless, being treated by the press as an entity. and now that's going to get played out would change and over the next couple of decades as people tried 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 nourse rogers. then ruth pratt, who was elected in her own right. no familial connection. she represented the silk stocking district in new york city. and then on the far side here is ruth hanna mccormick of illinois. her father was marcus hanna, the republican kingmaker in the early part of the 20th century. and constantly butted heads with william jennings brian. which is interesting because william jennings brian, his daughter ruth ryan owen ruth brian owen is on this side. when both ruths were sworn in, they came down the center aisle together arm in arm. and wowed the members of the press.

here are two daughters of avowed political enemies. if we go back into the picture just 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 kahn of california, who helped a large portion of san francisco. and she's another widow who followed her husband to congress. her husband julius was the chairman of the military affairs committee. and like edith nourse rogers, she was another woman who was very involved in her husband's political career. so when he passed away, she was asked to run for the seat in the special election. and she decided that she was going to stay on. she stayed on for more than a decade. and she's the first jewish woman elected to congress. and she's also the first woman to be appointed to the prestigious appropriations committee. and she's 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 too. and we have a portrait of her in the collection as well. >> we do. we have a wonderful portrait of her. she's standing in her district. but -- and actually right near where she lived in what is now parkland. and behind her, the view that you would see if you were standing there today, is of the golden gate bridge and the 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 district that was there. there's a lot in there. i haven't mentioned anything about the figure there. it's all about what's around here. that is exactly how she dressed

and exactly how she presented herself. >> she had in grandmotherly, matronly look. she was so good with the press. one line quips, no one was better. a reporter once asked her, how have you had so much legislative, getting legislation passed. and without missing a beat she said sex appeal. first came into the house leadership didn't want to put her on committees 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. the indian i have in my district from the cigar district. >> one of the artifacts we have related to florence that i'm particularly fond of is this

one. it's a letter from j. edgar hoover to congressman kahn. and the important part of this isn't actually what he's writing. what's important is dear mother kahn. and it's an odd phrasing for j. edgar hoover. but she was known very much the mother of the fbi. so that was often how we refused to her. this is a fascinating piece of lobbying. and playing up that affiliation and the close tie they had. >> by the time we get to the late 1930s, early 1940s we start to see a different group of that pioneering women come into congress. world war ii shapes the role of society. women hold jobs that men previously held as men go off to fight in the service.

women who come into congress occurring during that era begin to advocate 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 might contract again. and women would kind of be forced back into a domesticated role. one of the prominent woman in the 1940s is helen gahagan douglas. she was well-known to constituents. she represented a district that encompassed part of los angeles. 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 peek a lot on behalf of democratic candidates. and she won election to the house for a couple of terms in the 1940s. she wasn't a legislature. she wasn't introducing a lot of bills. she wasn't a legislative entrepreneur. but she was a spokesperson for issues. she would come on the floor and talk about improving housing, african-american civil rights. so she was known as a great speech maker. here's a campaign bill or poster which advertises speaking engagement that douglas made in 1948. it happens in oakland, which is far from her district. so you get the sense that she was on the speaking circuit a lot, speaking for democratic candidates and democratic issues. she serves a couple terms in the

house. in the early 1950s she decides to run for the u.s. senate. she goes through the democratic primary. and one of the candidates she ran against described her as being a sympathizer, red sympathizer, which was a potent attack in the era of mccarthy. but she wins that nomination. and in the general election runs against richard nixon, who uses a lot of the same tactics that have been employed against her in the primary and accuses her of being pink, right down to her underwear. she returned fire because in one campaign she named him as tricky dick, which stuck with him throughout his career. that campaign tactic, tying her

to the red scare and communist sympathies was potent because nixon won in a landslide. and she leaves politics. >> this is a 1941 mag citizen coronet, which hasn't survived into the 21st century. you can see it's a magazine aimed at women. there is a woman posing in a wedding dress and something called "the bachelor life." bachelor days and nights. but inside there's an article on women in congress. one of the things i love about this is this is a great example of they didn't know where to have women in congress. jessie sumner here. and lots of the women we love,

aoed on eu edith nourse rogers, they're here. they are described as tiny brunette, it's a tricky position for them to figure out. in this transitional generation, this is 1941, it's going to continue to be a little bit complicated to figure out. once the war ends, it's probably going to get a little more complicated. in this case, it's an interesting context. we have margaret smith tending flowers. she has a fascinating long career. this is a gallery pass signed by margaret chase smith in 1941. gallery passes were often collected as souvenirs. this was perhaps someone from maine visiting and would have been signed by one of the few women in congress at the time.

>> this is a transitional time period. margaret chase smith kind of embodies that. women in congress in the 1940s, 1950s, as a group are in an apprenticeship. they are serving longer careers. some of them are moving into leadership positions. or at least further up the leadership rung. she comes in villa the widow's mandate. she succeeds her husband clyde who passed away in 1940 and there is a special election that's held. she serves in the house for about nine years. she manages to get on the naval

affairs committee. prior to the reorganization of the armed forces in the late 1940, the house had a naval affairs committee, military affairs committee. naval affairs, if you're from maine, with the big ship yards in bathe was one of the assignments you would look out for. it would allow her to speak on women in military service. she is the prime mover behind a bill that gives women a permanent 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's probably best known in the public mind as one of the few brave senators who opposed joe mccarthy and his tactics very early on. she gave a speech called