hundred years in our bell tower cracked, they put it in this room. and one of my favorite days that's not one of the days of the revolutionary wars comes 150 years ago today this year in april. after abraham lincoln was assassinated. he came here to philadelphia, washington's birthday 1861 on his way to be inaugurated. he made a stop at independence fall, washington's birthday and he actually said in this room he would rather be assassinated on the spot than fail the ideals of the founding fathers which is actually the kind of strength that america needed at the time and sadly, four years later he comes back having been assassinated, but having succeeded in saving the united

states. they put his casket next to the liberty bell. people coming through to pay their respects. the united states was born and the ghost of the founding fathers, kind of president at that one time. that's the kind of thing that makes this room so great. and the park service comes in, in the 20th century, after world war ii, and unfortunately, the one thing that changed a lot of the walls, they made them fancier. it's a plain room and they wanted their paintings up and our big thing was let's get it back to the way it looked. he kind of stripped it back down to the plainer walls you see today but again, the main structure fortunately, survived the years and we were able to figure out well enough the paint colors and we were able to get it back to what we think is pretty much how it looked. the furniture is from the time, it's not necessarily the original furniture, again in the

early days nothing would save the british army. nobody's thinking about the history until we have some and they kept using it for different things and we don't have all the contents in the room but we think everything here is a good match as to what was here. as best we can tell from our investigation and our research, this is pretty close to how it looked. american history tv continues in primetime thursday with a look at world war i, the discussion on german occupied belgium and the humanitarian aid it received. also, a look at woodrow wilson's second term as president from the time the u.s. first entered the war in 1917.

florence harding once said that she had only one hobby and that was warren harding. she was a significant force in her husband's presidency and adept at handling the media, despite hardships, scandals, her husband's infidelities, his death in office, as well as her own poor health, he would help define the role of the modern first lady. sunday night on first ladies, influence and image, examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency, from martha washington to michelle obama, sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. american history tv continues with more from our series, american artifacts. next, we go inside senator lamar alexander's office where the republican lawmaker talks about his public service and the stories behind some of his political mementos. later, a look at a reconstructed

black smith forge o medical history from a collection at maryland's national museum of health and medicine. >> each week american artifacts takes you to museums to reveal what americans know about american history. lamar alexander from richard rings onto bill clinton. he recalled his walk across tennessee after part of his 1978 gubernatorial campaign. and he shared stories behind his mementos in his d.c. office. >> my walk across tennessee was 1978. i began on january 26th at my parents's home in east tennessee. and then i walked east until march 1st. a big three foot snowstorm.

it took me to july 6th. it's 1,000 miles. i shook 1,000 hands a day and spent every week night with someone whom i didn't know. i grew up in the great smokies. or right next to it. our scout troop every weekend, we would be in the mountains. and i love the outdoors. and so do most tennesseeans. we have more people with hunting and fishing licenses than vote in republican pry marries, for example. when i ran for governor for the first time in 1974 i lost. and my wife said, well, you'll lose again if you run the way you did the first time. i would just go around in my blue suit. so i was thinking how do i run a campaign that puts me really in touch with people. walking across the stage, shaking hands with people sounded like fun to me. so i got four young men from the university of tennessee band in a flat-bed truck.

we had alexander's washboard band. the truck would follow me along. they would get up and play music. a crowd would gather. sometimes i would play the trombone or wash board. and then we would go to the next place. it was sort of a throwback to a campaign from 50 or 60 years ago. so i walked across the state 1,000 miles. spent the night every night with someone in their homes. i went home on weekends. usually saturday and sunday night. then i would go right back to the same place. people would give me walking sticks as a symbol of my walk across the state. the first day was january 26th, 1978. and it was so cold and there was so much snow and ice as i stood there on my parents's front porch in tennessee that the trombone slide froze. so i just took off walking.

i think my parents were probably pretty embarrassed. they raised me to be a respectable young man. i was standing on their porch announcing i was going to walk 1,000 miles across tennessee. i would rye to shake 1,000 hands a day. usually we would plan ahead. maybe i would stop and have lunch with certain people. by late afternoon, particularly as the weather got better, i would get to a town. and i would have a family to stay with. it might be the local farm bureau head or just were someone from the community. i might go to their kids's softball game, have dinner in their home. they would usually invite some of their friends over for the evening. by that time i was pretty tired. i would go to sleep, get up the next morning. i went to one factory in tennessee where all the women who were working there admired my red and black plaid shirt. turns out, that's where they made the shirt.

it was a levi shirt that they made right there in that factory. i had to think about what am i going to wear? you don't walk across the state in a blue suit. i had this red and black plaid shirt in my closet. i went to the friedman army surplus and bought a dozen more. i wouldn't want to wear the same one every day. then as i walked across the state i auctioned them off to raise money for the campaign. i knew i was doing better by the time i got to middle tennessee around nashville, one shirt went for $500. and i thought, i may have a chance to win this. i wanted to save the boots. i think one of the boots is in a museum in appalachia. they were l.l. bean. i already had them.

in july it was over 100 degrees. i would carry around a few brochures in my left hand and pass them out to people. and i wasn't paying attention. it was in newport, tennessee. saturday morning. it was still cold. it was probably february. and i walked right in front of the pickup truck. it knocked me up over the thing. if i hadn't had boots on i would have broken my ankle for sure. the lady got out and realized what i was and said, oh, my gosh, and it had to happen in newport. i took two or three days and then i went right back to that stop. i always put an x. because people always suspected i was taking rides. i would walk 10 or 12 miles, mark another x. spend the night. keep going. when i was governor, i would get stuffy the way