the marquee -- marquis de lafayette to return from france for a heroes tour. talkst, brian howard about the preservation of a nearly 200-year-old carriage used by general lafayette during that tour. the studebaker national museum hosted this program. it is about one hour. >> our feature presenter today has been a friend of the iseum's for 25 years when first came to the museum in 1999, there was a report on my the first drawn vehicle -- the horse-drawn vehicle collection. companyrian howard's that undertook the conservation of our national treasures under

the grant in 2005. you see his work in eight vehicles with our presidential carriages collection, most notable the lincoln carriage. he is here tonight to talk about another american history figure. .arquis de lafayette he has worked on everything from presidential carriages to military cannons to a strange hybrid horse-drawn motorcar that was going to service and alaska lodging establishment. keep that in mind in cases presentation goes over an hour. without further do, i would like to welcome mr. brian howard to the stage to talk about marquis de lafayette.

brian: this concludes my program. we will see you later. [laughter] brian: you won't get off that lucky. i'm sorry. we will be discussing for the most part the conservation of the carriage used by lafayette in his tour of 1825. i have the dates wrong. we reviewed those vehicles in the late 1990's, long before this building was part of studebaker history.

the grant no longer exists. it was ended a number of years ago. there's always concerned that these funding programs will go because of that balance between budgets and keeping our history intact. the grant was for the conservation of four presidential carriages. the centennial wagon come expedition wagon, the carriage this is theyette -- -- it was a real privilege to work on that vehicle. this is the landau used by president grant. this was built by brewster company of new york. brome used by benjamin harrison. a studebaker vehicle.

n, used bye state president mckinley. also a studebaker vehicle. the forward backward car was used between the capital building and the office building -- these were replaced with a couple different versions of electric railcars. not nearly as much fun to ride. i was in that tunnel about two weeks ago. wagon, colombian expedition. the vehicle we will be looking -- this, the crew let vehicle was built in baltimore. various -- it turns up in various places throughout the country. before we look at the carriage

come i relies i didn't know a great deal about lafayette. -- i realized i didn't know a great deal about lafayette. when i first look at this history, he is not a person you would automatically assume would be a supporter of the american revolution. he was born in 1757 to one of france's oldest and wealthiest families. at 11 committee he inherited one of the nation's largest fortunes. woman evenarried a more renowned in her name and wealth and his family had been -- he didn't seem impressed with wealth and prestige. he wanted military glory. his father had been a soldier and he wanted to pursue that. in 1773, he was given a captains commission in the french army and appointed to the black musketeers.

after losing his commission in 1775, the french cut back their military spending. he lost his commission, essentially losing his identity. there was an opportunity to bring him to the city of minsk. he had an opportunity to dine with the duke of gloucester, the brother of king george the third. the king of england at the time. at that time out come of the duke was complaining about these upstarts in america. they were rising up against the authority of british rule. they believed they could have independence and self-rule. while they were being mocked, lafayette's interest was the.

this was piqued. he said his heart was enlisted. old, he began to understand the founding of this country or the beginning of the revolution, of what was happening here. he was solicited by silas deane, a representative of the continental congress. dean was sent to france to find military officers. our forces had few military officers at the time. ,t 19 with no war experience lafayette was offered a commission. in early 1777, james level of massachusetts met with lafayette. but he refused to give him the commission at that time.

saying americans were tired of frenchmen coming in seeking glory in america. upon realizing that lafayette was wealthy and well-connected, he decided that perhaps he should have a commission anyhow and he was appointed major general. i don't think politics had anything to do with it. i don't think influence had anything to do with it. i think it was his record as a military man. in 1824, he was invited by president monroe to visit the united states. this is 48 years after the american revolution. my first assumption was it was the 50th anniversary.

that was not the case. i don't know the full implications, but it was a very uncivil period in american history. arrived, the spirit of 1776 had faded. as america expanded westward. the missouri compromise of 1820 paved over a festering section by setting geographical boundaries on slavery, the compromise to find the line in which the nation will eventually split. of lafayette'ss tour coincided with a bitterly presidential campaign.

the candidates were unable to -- america wasng in desperate need of a hero. wast turns out, lafayette of ann desperate need emotional lift after trying to bring freedom to france. just to give you a perspective -- contentious elections are not new. the press was not always unbiased. when lafayette arrived in america, the newspapers were filled with vitriol as the presidential campaign devolved into putting the interests of the north, represented by quincy in the south, represented by andrew jackson. this was at the end of meriwether lewis -- the end of

lafayette's tour. was in the middle of it. i'm not sure his invitation was tied to bring back a memory of what had occurred 48 years earlier. unified spirit that pervaded in america. on july 13, 1824, lafayette left paris and set sail along the coast of france and arrived 1824. york in august of lafayette was greeted by smartly dressed young men in less uniform that militia uniform and

young men ins -- militia uniform and aging veterans. in newival of lafayette york marked the beginning of a tour that would take lafayette through all the states of the union at that time. enormous crowds gathered everywhere regardless of the time of day and whether -- weather. obviously, there were no photographs. these engravings of how large a gathering -- there were 30,000

people in philadelphia. and wellm was alive because many of the homeowners stands and built charged $.20 to sit on them to those who visited the area. lafayette's trip to america was a really big deal. everyone who had an opportunity to make a souvenir made a souvenir and sold a souvenir. while the press lauded his trip -- there may be these still available. a lot of inexpensive ceramic pieces. the cap skin gloves have an image of washington and lafayette. there are also these gloves with just an image of lafayette.

to -- a come forward young woman came forward to have him kiss her hand and he refused because he would not kiss himself. there were fans, there were napkins. the press went from praising lafayette to going on to say lafayette is everything whether it be on our heads or under our feet, we wrap our bodies in lafayette during the day and repose between lafayette blankets at night. even ladies distinguished their proper -- not everyone was lauding lafayette and what he brought to america.

traveled these 24 states and used every means of transportation available at the time. he used steamships, sailing ships must age coaches, horse-drawn vehicles -- stage coaches, horse-drawn vehicles and canal boats. vehicle was used a number of times throughout his trip. it was not the only vehicle used during history to america. this was an image sent to me from upstate new york. it is believed to have been used when he was in albany. this vehicle was in a collection in cooperstown, new york. the collection has been sold. it was then used by lafayette. albany to cooperstown is 74 miles.

if you were using one vehicle, it would have made that trip between -- it was a several date trip. that's several day trip. vehicle at bradford hall. lee's family home in virginia. this vehicle was supposedly used by lafayette when he was in virginia. this is the earliest image i've found of the lafayette carriage. i didn't find that until a colleague was writing a book on this particular style of carriage. she found an old publication. -- it is inesting the condition we found it in. they brought this vehicle -- it was purchased from john yates of syracuse in 1825 and then

eventually by studebaker in 1887. this is near or slightly after that time. , we are seeingre much of the original interior which is no longer in the vehicle we have in the studebaker collection. stepsre quite a set of ar, aren't they? let's take a look at the carriage. i tried to give you a smattering of lafayette to understand how important his arrival here was to the population at that time. the structure of the vehicle was in sound condition. wheels couldn't be driven.

we had sections of paint removed and had microscopic cross-sections repaired. i'm sorry, i had pdf images and could not get them into the format of this presentation. you could see the multiple layers of paint. at that point, we could tell there were at least three different coats of paint. entire undercarriage was painted black. we also found a medium brown oil paint. we found active corrosion on the arm component. -- iron component. we also found old repair. .ections of paint lifted the paint points upward and splits.

the leather was the thierry did -- deteriorated. that was prevalent. the braces appeared to be stable but the surfaces were heavily covered in oil. many people assume it is mold. it is a white formation of oil on the surface of the leather. that had also been coded multiple times. -- coated times. -- coated multiple times. there was a distinct lean caused by the brackets in the tail board. things we look forward when we first begin to examine a vehicle. original condition? has it been modified? this is paint that flaked off. there is paint covering it.

this is not the original paint layer. it is something that happened subsequent to that first painting. this shows the entire running gear painted black. here is a repair plate that was added. there was a fracture at this point. here, you are saying that deterioration that seeing that deterioration -- here, you are seeing the deterioration. you can also see the lien i was talking about under the toe board. it was supported by metal braces that come down and attach back to the body. once those two metal sections fractured, it broke. they've tried wiring it up and

they attached boards. again, the body was structurally stable. the frame was bent. the body had been repainted three times. obviously come altering it significantly from when -- obviously, altering it from when it was first constructed. green.n and dark -- there were sections of brown and dark green. trunk --y panels had shrunk.dy panels had it is a problem of low humidity caused by heating in the winter. is hardened and doesn't shrink.

that is causing much of the flaking and damage to paint surfaces. we often do damage to the artifacts we're trying to exhibit. lean. showing that here.e fracture this slide, we are beginning to remove the black over paint. i will try to hit the little laser. blackection here is the paint, the outermost layer of paint on the body. handmade cotton

swabs. we are cleaning areas one inch by one inch. in this case, it was a solvent mixture. every vehicle is different. solvent thewhat you use to take paint off carriages? we will adjust the ph and we can remove paint by adjusting the ph of the solution. this was the condition of the green paint we found. the black paint covered all these areas. we are seeing what's left of the green paint. the leather top was badly damaged. it was torn. it was not the original leather

top but one that had been replaced by studebaker in the early 20th century. that was beginning to break down and deteriorate. we are looking at early 19th century or 18th-century leat her. laterds up better than produced leather. solvent when combined with moisture turns into sulfuric acid. it is the sulfur and water forming sulfuric acid that causes that deterioration. those are not used in the 18th century. the condition of the top i was talking about the bracket i keep mentioning is that bracket.

there was also multiple repairs and additions to this vehicle. covering a leather transitioning from the sea to the floor of the driver. it was covered by another piece of leather and subsequently covered by a piece of 20 century vinyl. it was tapped into the lower edge. there are larger sections leather.-- of braided which we found almost impossible to duplicate. it was one of the most complicated parts of this treatment. this is the vinyl i was showing you here. this is the original seat cushion. -- there'soms probably 6-8 early 19th-century

vehicles that remain. that have not been restored. this probably have a dozen 18th-century carriages that remain only a couple unmolested. the original materials are so badly damaged, they are not replicated. continual changes take place and we no longer have these kind of details. there is a vehicle at the henry ford and then this vehicle that has those. that kind of upholstery detail is long gone. that is a body of information that is primarily missing at this point. once the vinyl is taken up, this is the original leather. there's old patches put in. the vehicle was used for a considerable period of time

after it was used by lafayette. this is the backside of the toe board. there is vinyl placed over the original. the it's removal, you see horsehair stuffing. that was removed so we could do repairs that cushion. -- two that cushion. -- to that cushion. we found unexpected green. brown on the body and straw yellow on the body, but we never saw this grass green anywhere else it was just on the drivers seat cushion. this is obviously acidic deterioration, but for the most

part intact. toput leather inserts in retain the cushion and use it for exhibit. this is again the drivers seat. that cushion goes in the back. here also you have a better sense of the interior that studebaker installed in the carriage. it was a high-end interior, some of the fa fanciest trim they had at the time. it was retained because we have no idea if there are any remnants of that original upholstery underneath. rather than lose the intact interior,a studebaker showing her interest and concern they tookollection -- their time and had their cressman install a proper

interior. aftsmen install a proper interior. here is the braided leather this covered the entire rail on the drivers seat. we retain all the original braiding ended our insert rebranding in these areas. i talked about the condition. i want to run through what we ended up doing. at this point, you can see here the brown and black striping has been exposed. this was all covered with black paint. they are working with those swabs removing that over paint. decided not to go down to the earliest level of yellow and green. sure what condition

this vehicle was in when lafayette used it. did he write this vehicle when rided a net ride -- did he this vehicle when it had a brown exterior? we decided to go to this one level and leave it there. you can begin to see in areas that of yellow that are peeking through. this is black, as i said before. the main area after the overpayment was removed. it had this broad, black stripe. ,claiming, -- upon cleaning

the brown paint was similar to what was underneath. we could remove the black ain't quite easily, but if we were not careful, we would remove the round paint as well, -- the brown paint as well, getting to the green and yellow underneath, which we did not want to do. bodyis the gear of the removed. again, showing you the area of .ellow, that straw yellow also, we are finding there were abrasions, and i will show you more on the wheels. this was just with the black paint removed. there's fractures here that have an filled, and after filling, they sanded them, so they sanded through the brown and yellow paint.

there was a significant amount of in painting. we match the color but not using the same type of paint. iserm we use in conservation reversible. i could come in with mineral paints and remove all the i put on to get back down to that condition. is you look at it now, it looks intact. it looks all brown, but with some cotton cloth, i could get it back to this condition. idea is toion, the produce a perfect surface. is toonservator, my idea preserve all original materials as much as possible. that does not always produce an aesthetically pleasing finish. often in conservation, there is what we refer to as aesthetic

compensation. that's where i come in and do my retouching so it looks intact. my retouching and repainting is done with paints i can remove. this is a slide of one of the spokes. green, but what happened is it appears that these have been abraded considerably before having been repainted. the actual condition of the the blackr under paint and brown paint, once that is removed, you can see much of the green stripes have been abraded through. tainted straw yellow, broad green stripes. it's very different than what in an early vehicle like this --

and there's not many to compare to, but the striping pattern is very different than what you would see in carriages later in the 19th century. what we decided to do -- and if you look at the carriage, you will know that the rear wheel has a segment that was taken down to the earliest straw and green layer. we wanted to make sure people understood that there was an earlier paint layer, but we did not to remove all the brown paint because we did not know yet what lafayette had seen or what this vehicle looked like when lafayette used it, so this the past. window to there's the body again. significant paint loss. isolation varnish, and acrylic resin that is clear, comes up and a solvent such as polyamine which will not remove the original paint. we just put paint in areas where there were no paint.

we did not paint over the top of the green. you look at the side of lafayette, you can see there were areas of loss, and now there's green paint to visually improve the way it looks. this is the back panel. this is still one of the unknowns about this carriage. onre are forms and colors this back panel under the green which do not seem to have anything to do with the paint scheme that we believe this vehicle would have had. therather than removing green which was fairly intact, we just left it as it was and to makeray compensation it look more cohesive. again, showing some of the damages. design changes.

this is a piece of wood from the driver's seat that had been cut out and mail back in -- nailed back in. it did not happen when the vehicle was in use. it happened when it was being constructed. it was a design change when the coach maker took the wrong powder and cut it out and his boss told him to put it back. that is what that is. there is that green paint again. we are to see some of it perhaps on the back of the carriage. the hardware was silver plate over brass. this is before and after. that's before. that's after. this is the door handle on the passenger side. the original had been lost, and

this was a replacement. we took a mold off the original and cast the replacement. we cast in aluminum and polished it to make sure our peace was distinguished from the original, but we wanted it to look intact, to look as though it would have done a proper handle on this carriage. these are details -- again, elements on the carriage that appear to have had no finish been lost or have entirely, with simple cleaning and a light polishing, this is referred to as close beta silver. then sheets of silver eventually started over the back -- the brass substrate. name and theaker's street address in baltimore. what we discovered is most of

the hubcap had been painted, though in the center, it would have been left right. those are the spokes of the segment that we returned to its original color. this is the silverplated decoration, essentially 3/8 inch wide, half copperplate. it is filled with lead and nailed into the side of the carriage, and all of its trim was been silverplated. you can see the detail, how it is picked out. again, the interior being intact was -- the top was replicated. d leather toexture give the sense of age. it probably would have been a very highly finished reflective leather originally, but keeping with the age of the component, we thought it was important to blend the vehicle.

again, there's loss i want to point out in the back. right here, too, where we are seeing the yellow. we know the earliest body color on this vehicle was not dark green but yellow. as i finished up, i will show you why that is significant. note the vehicle after treatment. we also did the one in the front wheel. leather replaced. all the original leather we could salvage we did. pieces of it were removed and placed in archival boxes. the lamps are not original. they were later lamps added to the vehicle. we do not have originals, nor do

we have images of what they would have been. these are inserts. the original is down here to complete the appearance. .verything still ragged we found a bit of red paint. we were not sure if it was a drop of paint. we did more investigation and did more removal, and what we came up with, we found the green paint we had seen on the other side, but we were also now finding red areas and leaves. this would be the front side of the toe board or the back end of the horse.

not a part of the carriage that would have been seen in great detail, but highly decorated, we found out and really well painted. each leaf has its own little painted in. it's not crudely done. then we started finding feathers, what we thought were feathers. again, i showed you the green on the other side where that cushion had been. that same green now appears here. this is the straw yellow color that i showed you, little flakes on the body. that seemed to be the earliest paint layer. the green again, as i mentioned. what we came up with was a .lmost headless ego we were encouraged by the feathers on the wings and thought this would be exciting.

after we removed the paint, it was a little less exciting because now we had a lot more work to do. again, with reversible paint, isolation varnish, separating my work from the work of the original artist, you know, looking at images of eagles from the period, we did our best put the head back on. this does not seem to have much to do with the rest of the carriage. i know there is some yellow on the body. this is a formal carriage. formal carriages are supposed to limousines. they are not decorated with advertising and, you know, scenes of your girlfriend on the hood or whatever. they are supposed to be conservative.

but about a year and a half ago -- the image that i showed you, the earliest image of the collection was sent to me along and itis description, said -- that yellow and dark green striping -- this is how they are describing it. jet lagwas drawn by horses.-- jet black -- thiscription

description is 1824. taken from a -- we're going to get there. i'm sure. there. ok. boston commercial gazette. my assumption was that this vehicle was in boston, unless they are sending reporters to baltimore, which i don't know if they were doing that at the time, but this was the earliest verbal description of the carriage that we have, and this did not occur -- we did not get this for about a year and a half. with this information now, we are left with a couple of different choices. one is do nothing else or to paint.the brown

easily.e done quite not quickly, but easily. but they described it as having a dark green body. i'm not sure where the eagle fits with the straw and green trim on the running gear. there's a possibility that this was not a brand-new vehicle. it was a vehicle that was already built and have been modified for lafayette's use. the upgraded eagle was probably a result of sanding and an abrasion of putting the green paint on the body. it does not appear that they repainted the running gear and left that the yellowish green as described here, but the body was the eagle. that is probably an earlier form, and is a possibility there different decorations of the back and side as well.

infrared videography might show that as well. maybe some x-rays of the body camera might give us some information. damageobably extensive that has been upgraded to the point where it cannot be recovered or so badly damaged it cannot be reconstructed. nonetheless. lafayettee used by remains. it has its history intact with the mystery still attached. this museum has the good fortune of having the privilege of letting another institution benefit from the opportunity of its visitors to see it. i had a rear privilege and opportunity to have worked on this vehicle. thanks very much.

[applause] >> are there any questions for brian? if so, please come to the microphone here so we can pick on the recording. >> [inaudible] >> right here. [inaudible] >> i remember the lafayette carriage being in a big mausoleum case in the dealership building. was there some history to that? brian: no. next question. no, that case was actually constructed for a studebaker we had on display. it basically had no other properties than it was nicely displaced. at the car lot, we had plentiful display case, so it seemed

natural that whatever you wanted to feature just went in the display's case. did not have any environmental properties or anything like that. >> [inaudible] brian: no, we did not. >> can i do one more? brian: you can do all you want. >> [inaudible] the sheriff of saint joe county. called to the corner of brunson and lafayette street to investigate a murder. there was a report he drove to main street because he could not spell lafayette. [laughter] brian: -- >> any other questions for our conservative?

not see can say i did the case. when i first examined the carriage, it was not in the case. it was upstairs in storage space. >> [inaudible] sure. this vehicle is suspended. the body is suspended by leather braces. i know that on one earlier trip, the braces, which seemed to be intact, one of them failed and allow the body to tilt. what needs to happen with this piece is not only support taking the weight off the wheel -- there is a crate that has been built for it. the wheels will touch the bottom of the crate that actually bear no weight. the running gear itself will be supported under its axles, and the body itself will be then supported independently of the leather straps and running gear,

so that is what we are doing. the cushions will be removed and wrapped and boxed. the lamps will be removed, .owered, and then tied down any contact points, it will be then strapped down to the bottom of the crate, and the crate will andrapped in polyethylene transported, first going to our studio in carlisle. the museum is not ready to accept the carriage. it will be there for about two weeks, i think. approximately two and a half weeks. then we will load it again and drive it to virginia where we will unload it and roll it into

the exhibit area. that's the plan. the lincoln carriage was another issue. it also had c springs and leather braces, but those are so they wereve, actually set on elliptical springs like early automobiles and dampened the movement by .aving global shape forms this one is not easy because everything moves, and it rocks by its side independent of the running gear and up and down, independent of the wheels. a lot of moving parts. there are stories of lafayette being shaken and getting ill from writing in these vehicles, and a think that continues through most early cars, so i don't think it was a phenomenon of these vehicles. how we another word on are transporting this vehicle.

brian mentioned the lincoln carriage. when we go to transport an , we took it down to it axles and take it where wants to go. that would not work here because we would have a pilot carriage. matt anderson from the henry ford museum, when henry ford went to move one of their gt had aver to england, they not optimal experience with transporting and had to rethink how they were going to bring it that. brian and i were attending a conference where we saw the presentation on how they moved the gt 40. we both said to each other that looked like a good way to try to , andthe lincoln carriage we did that, and we're doing the

same thing for lafayette. any further questions? brian: thank you all. >> this holiday weekend on american history tv, on the civil war, historians discuss new york city during the war from divided political loyalties to its southern economic ties and the 1863 draft riot. >> it seems clear that these draft riots really were kind of thatganic perfect storm had maybe been building for half a century. you were saying this is not so much an irish riot or domestic riot, but working man, the largest in our history. >> sunday at 8:00 p.m. on the presidency, philip leiby discusses locations associated with george washington's life, including riverfront land long thought to be his virginia

birthplace. >> george corbyn washington had sold the property off, so he was sort of disciplining himself. there was still family storage, but they were getting fewer, and the washingtons themselves were living more distant, living further away, so it is sort of a retreat. there was not a lot on the land to recall where the buildings were. 8:00 p.m. eastern of"reel america," "men ron's" about the infantry regiment known as the harlem hell fighters -- "men of bronze." canteens, our rifles, our army belts, our helmets. french helmets, french rifles, french ammunition, french , and a set of water canteens with french wine.

>> pulitzer prize-winning historian david mccullough talks about how the founders valued education, viewed slavery, and persevered in the face of hardship and how these ideals shaped american society. >> he grew up on a farm where they have no money. his mother was illiterate. could sign his name, maybe could read because there was a bible in the house and that was the only book. daythey work hard every from childhood on. because he got a scholarship that this little college in cambridge called harvard and, as he said, discovered books and read forever, he became the john adams that helped change the world. americanr complete history tv schedule, go to www.c-span.org. >> american history tv is on c-span3 every weekend, featuring

museum tourists, archival films, and programs on the presidency. here's a clip from a recent program. ♪ 1940 eight, half of the population of palestine had fled. the following year, the united nations established the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees. the agency mandate -- to provide refugees, wherever they may live, with food rations and shelter, health care and basic education, in listing the assistance of host nations. it was to be and still is financed from voluntary contributions. when work. under way, an estimated i've hundred thousand people were getting their help. by 1978, the egg you had increased to one million 760,000 palestinians registered to

receive care. in 1948, the assembly had resolved that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable day or be duly compensated. this has been reaffirmed by the united nations every year ever since, but these failed to be implemented because repatriation was not permitted by israel. >> most of our populations have a full population, and those who live in camps live in misery and squalor and poverty. nevertheless, the loss of a cap

has to be also for the first time in their lives, they understand that by struggling politically and militarily and even intellectually, they are getting to move out of the camps. they are no longer simply forgotten people left to rot indefinitely. >> beirut, lebanon. since the mid-1970's, a city devastated by an intractable civil war. for years, affluent people lived in comfort here. not the palestinians, though. there are an estimated 400,000 year in lebanon.

they are to be found crowded in areas which do not live up into our usual concept of a refugee camp, in urban ghettos which seem to get worse and worse as the years go by. this is where the hopi she family lived. refugees from 1948, they had resettled on the west bank. them firstr brought to jordan. then they were forced to move into south lebanon. now they are here in beirut. children were born along the way. the older boys pride themselves on being fighters already. the girls still go to one of the childrenor palestinian maintained since 1950. >> you can watch this and other

american history programs on our website where all our video is archived. that's www.c-span.org/history. was an 18thheatley century boston slave and the first african-american to have her poetry published. next on american history tv, english professor barbara lewis, university of massachusetts boston, explores the time in which phillis wheatley lived. she talks about boston's treatment of slaves, and phillis wheatley's standing in her master's household. the boston public library and boston literary district cohosted this event. it is about 50 minutes. >> good evening. welcome to the boston public library's commonwealth salon where the presentation -- for the presentation remembering phillis wheatley by barbara lewis.