>> tonight on the communicators. the technology fair for members of congress, looking at the latest in drone technology and new security fight tours for mobil phones. >> we want them to see innovation happening, that's happening in the u.s., it's happening clearer -- life changing innovation, whether it's health care, car navigat n navigation, health and safety, it's sao many other things, so they understand the decisions they make have real life consequences. >> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> all weekend. american history tv is featuring spokane, washington. c-span city tours staff recently visited many sites, located in the eastern part of the state, about 280 miles from seattle, the city is home to 200,000

people. learn more about spokane all weekend here on american history tv. >> when we open an historic house to the public. one of our purposes is to help tell the story of the community through a house. i think a house offers a different kind of exhibition style than a gallery does. in a historic house, people can relate to it in different ways. lots of people live in different kinds of houses, there are ways of connecting. we're using that as a bridge real really to talk about the different kinds of people that came through the door, and then, even beyond that. how did spokane fit into that bigger national picture. >> the house was designed by cutter, who is a well known architect here in town and beyond. and it was built as one of eight houses that were designed and

built at the same time in 1897 '98. they all look different on the exteriors, but have a mix of styles on the interior, which was the trend of the day. i would say the home is fairly basic, with the big falls we had here, the river coming through the town, power came to spokane and lighting and electricity really early after its invention, and so this house is furnished with electric lights, which is fairly rare at that time period. we're standing in the den, it's the only finished room in the cellar basement area of campbell house. it's finished to be a gameroom for mr. campbell and his friends. the campbells moved here primarily for the mining operati

operation. they had investors that were looking to invest the money they made in the steel mills in the west. they looked at some of these mines that were being explored or potential mines. and they liked what they saw, and sent backward and ended up investing not only the investors funds but a little bit of their own. when the mines became successful, so did finch and campbell. so you can imagine the mine owners at that time, sitting around a table like this talking about all kinds of issues. they really were frustrated with the railroads, because they felt they were being charged exorbitant rates for rail transportation to the ore, the smelters, there was a lot of conversation about how to work with the railroads. there was a fair amount of concern about labor unrest in

1892 and actually in 1899 again. i think some of that might have prompted some of these owners, mine owners to move into spokane instead of staying in the smaller areas near the mines. historic house needs to tell as many stories as it can. and stories about a lot of different kinds of people, i think one of the best ways we can do that is to feature some of the employees. the servants that worked here in the household that helped make it tick. there was a lot of work to managing a household like this of this size. and we know that from reconstructing all of the checked records and the letters and the city directories, we came up with the names of 104 people that worked for campbells over the 26 years they lives in this place. their generally was a coach man, a gardner, a cook, an upstairs

made, a down stairs maid. there were 5 do 7 employees that helped make this place prit. we've been able to start building biographies for them. it gives us a wonderful way to talk about people that worked here. one of my favorites is iris nelson, whose sister had left sweden and moved to whitefish montana, and earned enough money to send passage back to her sister. iris immigrated in 1918 to america and went to whitefish. she didn't speak any english, so she got off at the wrong train stop and went through some of those same stories. she decided not to stay in whitefish, she came to spokane, there were lots of scandinavians living in the area, i don't know exactly what her motivation was. what's really wonderful, we have

a series of letters written from her family to her both in whitefish and while she was working here at campbell house, and after she married and lived in spokane so for a long time, the family had these swedish letters and they had never seen a translation, we were able to find a translator and the letters are extremely poignant. in 1818 -- excuse me, 1918 and 1919 sweden was involved with world war i or it was impacting sweden tremendously, it turns out that iris came from a very, very poor farming family, the letters kind of break your heart when they talk about, please send us any extra cash you've earned or -- please send any clothes that you're not using and the length of time that it took for those to travel whether it's a letter or a check or

clothing is really obvious when you start reading through these letters. i wanted to show a couple of these that are interesting. here's the letter to miss iris nelson. that's this house. this letter was posted january 30th 1919. on the back of it, it's opened by the sensor. it's basically world war i and things are being censored in the mail. and she writes a little letter here, again, it's all in swedish. and in our translation, one of the phrases is, i want to ask you if you and alma could in some way help me by sending me $10. this is coming from her sister in sweden. i would like to buy a coat in the near future as they are

cheaper now, if you could send me some money in the meantime it will be a big help to me. it will cost at least 40 to 50 crona. i wish many times you could send cloth home as you used to do. it probably wouldn't go through the mail any more 37 you get a sense of personal family struggles. we have photographs that iris brought with her to remember her family by. we have her inspection card as she came into this country. and her papers, her immigration papers as well. i think -- being able to put a real story to the idea of working in a house like this helps us a great deal. touring a historic house is fun to see the physical aspects of what are there, but i hope that people catch on to some of the issues and concerns that people

had in the past and how they dealt with that kind of thing. our cities tour staff recently travelled to spokane washington, to learn about its rich history, learn more about spokane and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/city's tour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. we continue with our look at the history of spokane. >> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. next, remarks on the controversy over civil war monuments and memorials, and the

power that they have to influence the public. american civil war museum ceo christie coleman, explains how social forces during different time periods in american, influence the creation confederate statues in the south. and she describes a decision the museum faced over a donated jefferson davis statue. this 50-minute talk was recorded at a symposium held at the library of virginia in richard mond -- richmond, virginia, this past february. as you know, we're here today to explore an aspect of civil war history that's very much in the news. it actually has been often in the news for many years. some of you no doubt find the often rancorous public debates about civil war monuments troubling and just wish the debates would go away. but you know it won't just go away. so the constructive thing to do is to accept the debates as evidence that the subject of our institution, the american cil