programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and keep up with the latest history news. >> this year, c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. next, look at our recent visit to kansas city, missouri. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> welcome to the thomas hart benton home, a historic site. it is where the famous painter from missouri lived from 1929 until 1975. he lived here the last half of his life. when you come visit the house it is almost as if he just stepped out for the day. you can take a peek around at how they lived. he was probably the most famous

painter from missouri. he was most famous in the 1930's, 1940's. he is known for doing a style of art called regionalism. a lot of the midwest rural scenes, he often paints. he paints a lot of american labor scenes. but it tends to be the rural aspect of it. his core belief was common art for the common man. but he is an artist that becomes very famous during his career. and fairly well-to-do. tom benton came from a political family. he was named for his great uncle senator thomas benton. so tom grows up surrounded by politics. father, a colonel, was a successful lawyer in missouri where tom was born. his father was a u.s. district attorney. in 1896 when tom was seven his father was elected to the house of representatives. the family does move to washington, d.c. for eight years. for benton the ages of seven to

15 growing up in d.c. then coming back to the ozarks every summer, that will be formative for him to experience those two different worlds. to be able to move in this political, powerful orbit but also then to come back and go to the swimming holes of the ozarks and float on the rivers and hike the hills. that is what he ends up painting a lot of as an adult. tom often would travel around the country, he would take sketching trips in the spring, sometimes in the fall. he would disappear for 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks and tell his wife rita he was headed south. going west, down to the ozarks. he would hitchhike, he would have an art student drive him, he would catch a training go to little farms, stop at a country church, maybe visit a steel about are about -- hear rodeo.

just sketch what he saw. doing drawings of the overall scene, sketches of details. those drawings where the raw material for his paintings and murals. whenever he wasn't drawing, he said he was thinking about drawing. right now we are standing in the benton living room, when they lived here, this house served as a gallery. you could get introduced to his wife, rita, you could make an appointment and come to buy the artwork. you probably do not see tom, he is busy in his studio at least until 5:00 at the cocktail hour. tomou are here to buy, figures you must be a big shot, leave me the hell alone. give a read of the money. the artwork hung here, there are extra nails to accommodate that. the changing artwork. except for the peace behind me, that one shows their son, and their dog, that was never intended for sale but it always hung there. tom benton becomes famous as a painter. christmas eve, 1934 he was featured on the cover of time

magazine, his self-portrait. he was the first artist to be featured on the cover of time, and that was their first all color issue. that was a big break for him. he was already famous, but it got him into public attention. it turns him into a rock star painter. almost everyone had heard of thomas hart benton. at this point, that is when he can write his own ticket and now is hired as the head of the painting department for the at thecity art institute state capitol in jefferson city. that is called the social history of jefferson city. it is not the famous missourians, his great uncle is nowhere in that mural. it is not the governors. it is the everyday folks. it is not a military history. general john pershing, the commanding general of world war i, from north missouri is not in , that mural.

tom said about that mural, it did more for the development of the state than his great uncle ever did. it is the people's history that he paints. this is the master bedroom, it becomes more his wife's bedroom, in the last several years she was not in the best of health. she had heart trouble. tom begins to use a bedroom at the far side of the house. he stays up later at night, probably reading and falling asleep. rita is picking up after him, as well. she was crucial to his success. she was the business manager, she raised their children, handled the health -- handled the house and money. she devoted her life to managing him and putting up with him. tom said rita was a hard woman to live with but when i met her , i was a bum. without her i would still be a bum. rita said maybe he was the worst husband and father in the world and no american woman could stay married to them, she was from

italy. but she also said, my husband is a genius and referred to him as, my tom and thought he was the , greatest artist ever. we also have benton's library, and extensive book collection. he was an extensive reader, he could read french and italian, he said he did not trust translations. this ozark country boy, not so much. because he does a lot of history themed paintings and murals a , lot of these are history and reference books. mixed in, books on music, philosophy, economics, james bond. readers digest, i'm sure a lot of people remember, national geographic. feminism, a bit of everything. one of the important books in his career when he was in the navy during world war i, he found a four volume set of books by spencer called the history of the united states.

we have his copy up here. it was very much a people's history of the united states. it didn't go into the great men of the history, it was how the united states was created by the people. that affected him quite a bit. that is what he begins to paint. immediately after the war he begins to work on a noncommissioned mural series epic, american historical of the history of the united states. he painted almost like a textbook in chapters and panels. ,it is the everyday sorts of folks that he is painting in his history paintings. tom also was an excellent writer in his own respect. he wrote two autobiographies. the first in 1937 was an artist in america, it is his adventures, his travels around the country. the chapters are, the west, this -- of the south, the rivers.

because he is only 48 when he writes that, he keeps having to add chapters. it is not so much what he paints, but what he paints about. he goes back in 1969 and rights a second autobiography, a technical autobiography about art. that one unfortunately is out of print, but artist in america is still available, most libraries have it. the university of missouri press cells that. then, at the end of his life he was working on a third autobiography, titled, an intimate story. he was going to revisit the events that happened to him, going to more detail on things. we have in our archives and collection some of the manuscripts from that. , on his typewriter, with his handwritten note, chapter nine, what i do. he is working on this

unpublished autobiography. he is not able to get it completed by the time he passes away in 1975. the house was built in 1903, originally it was outback, served as a stable and carriage house. then it became a garage. 's bought thison property in 1939, he had the stable turned into his art studio. all day every day, this is where he was out. he was not just a sunday afternoon painter, this is his job. come on in. just like in the house, it is completely furnished. it is his items, his tools. i love that it is not really fancy. he has got a lot of coffee cans

to hold his brushes. he is using baby food jars for his pigments. he has a big piece of glass for a pallette. but to change it into a studio, he had one big adaptation made, using a window to replace the stable door, facing north. it gives them a soft, constant, diffuse, indirect source of light. tom benton died in this room. he had been working on a new mural for nashville's music hall of fame. tom was having trouble with of a mural, it was a train, he could not get it to come out quite right. in 1975 he tells his wife rita, i think it is good enough. if i am happy with it, i will sign it and enjoy it. he comes out here, had a massive heart attack, and dropped dead.

at 85 years old in his studio with his boots on, it is really ok. the mural is in nashville, where it belongs. rita said she had nothing else to do, life was empty, she said tom was not supposed to have died. she had been ill for a few years and stopped indicting and died three weeks later. at his funeral rita said we need to preserve this place and make a memorial. she got that started. just a few months after rita died it was a designated state historical site. in 1977 missouri purchased the home and studio with all the possessions. travelcities tour staff to kansas city, missouri to learn about its rich history. when more about kansas city and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american

history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. on the presidency, a historian daniel revisits presidents andrew jackson's war of the 1830. a political struggle that crippled the powerful bank of the united states. the young countries only financial institution. he teaches at the university of tennessee and directs the papers of andrew jackson project. the white house historical association hosted this hour-long event. welcome, i am dr. curtis of the, the director national center for white house history. i have this long title. i am concurrently the association senior vice president for educational resources. i would like to put this all into a nice picture. share a background about the