beginning at 8:00 p.m. on our companion network c-span. and state governors from across the country are gathering here in washington, d.c. this weekend for their annual winter meeting and throughout the day saturday, the national governors association will host panels to talk about jobs, the opioid crisis as well as the future of agriculture and food availability. c-span's live coverage begins tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern after "washington journal" on our companion network c-span. >> each week, american artifacts takes to you museums and historic places to learn about american history. next, we tour the presidential vehicles collection at the henry ford museum in dearborn, michigan. transportation curator matt anderson shows us cars used by presidents true man, eisenhower, carter and reagan. and the lincoln continental that john f. kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated. >> my name is matt anderson. i'm curator of transportation

here at the henry ford. we are inside the henry ford museum of american innovation, just outside our driving america exhibit where we look at the history of the automobile in the united states. we're actually standing in front of series of presidential limousines telling the story of the development of presidential transportation over the last 117 years or so. behind me is a 1902 clarj used by theodore roosevelt. by the time of his administration it's a common occurrence of cars moving on public streets. roosevelt, for all of the reputation he has is a forward looking progressive. they thought there was a formality appropriate to the dig any to the office and he had a progressive and man of the people image he wanted to protect and automobiles were

thought of as play things for the wealthy. it wouldn't do him good riding around in a car. he used a broem moving around washington, d.c. vehicles like this were fairly common in larger cities. we have a vision in our heads by so many western movies that everybody had a carjack ra carr the home. if you were walking by foot street cars were available. rural areas you probably had some kind of general purpose carriage, not necessarily a buggy that resembles this but a farm wagon to use to take into town or whenever you're going. you see this aspect used as a personal transportation and taxi services and for the president he would be at a certain station

to use one of these. and next, a vehicle that belonged to another roosevelt, his cousin, franklin roosevelt, who would be presidents a few decades laeter. he preferred a horse drawn vehicle. it was left to a successor to motorize the white house fleet. he played no favorite. hed a electric, gas and steam powered car. from that time on, presidential transportation evolved quickly. the car behind us is the 1939 lincoln model k. one of the most significant presidential vehicles. s the first car modified for presidential use. i don't mean armor, it was not armors at all when it was delivered to the white house or modified to be more luxurious or showy. it was modified for practical purposes, the up ols industry --

putting in a lot of ware on that seat. this vehicle is associated with franklin roosevelt and it has a nickname, sunshine special which comes partly from roosevelt's preference to ride with the top down whenever the weather permitted and into world war ii he maintained an optimistic persona throughout his public appearances. this car was modified more after pearl harbor was attacked in 1941. went back to it so there was armor added to the vehicle. bullet resistant glass and it is a convertible so there was a weak spot if you will in the protection. but it does represent an important turning point in presidential transportation. if we look at sunshine special we will see modifications you wouldn't see on a typical

vehicle. wide running boards which was still common in the 1930s, they were starting to fade away and fall from popularity. if you look at the back of the car. there's a lit sign, police, do not pass. you should not pass it and the president should always seen out in front of the group. there are grab handles on the back and along the front and on the sides for secret service agents to hold on and platforms to ride the rear bumper to protect them. and they could still be modest affairs during roosevelt's terms. he would be in the car and a few particula police cars. and the greatest honor and status symbol would be able to ride in the car with the president himself. so particularly important is people that roosevelt was trying

to woo members of congress ridings in the car with him and seen as a great treat. there are a couple of cabinets built into the rear of the front seats and used to store weapons or guns if the secret service needed them to protect the president. several things you wouldn't see on a car, siren and red lights, used to get attention and get people out of the way as the president was coming through. another car that came after world war ii and used by roosevelt's successors. >> we're looking at a 1950 lincoln cosmopolitan used by president truman and john f. kennedy and associated with president dwight d. eisenhower. the car was a convertible and didn't have the plexiglass top.

he's seen vehicles like this being used in europe during the war and thought it might be handy. it is not armored. the war is over, no thought of security, not thought to be a vital concern. it does provide protection from weather. in the event of rain and snow, the president can have protection. it is sectioned and be taken apart and the panels can be stacked into the trunk. that would allow the president to stand up in the car. there's a couple of handrails on the back of the front seat that would allow them to wave to crowds as they went back and slains that strange rectangular windshield. that's of all things a bug shield. so as the president is standing up there and waiving, he doesn't get a face full of flies. the problems only the president might have. it is a standard lincoln, stretched a little bit and given

perhaps rigorous -- holding up the wear and tear. platforms built on to the back for secret service agents. spotlights and flashing heights, fairly modest and received the presidents well into the kennedy administration. the size of the presidential fleet varies from year to year. it starts modest and grows a little bit. primarily, there was always just one parade car for the president and the that car certainly would be uses whenever he was traveling in a montanaer kad in washington, d.c. it might be taken with him when traveling. it could travel by rail or airplane, they start to move towards cargo planes to transport the cars by the time eisenhower is president. or use a vehicle furnished by a local dealer. they might go to the local lincoln agent and provided a new

car. and that was it. the state cars was used for special purposes and high profile events. there was a lot of difficulty and expense transporting them. presidents wouldn't drive thems in official capacities, their point is to be seen and provide an opportunity for the public to get a close look at the president. however, presidents did enjoy driving on their own perhaps around the white house and at their private homes. franklin roosevelt allowed him to drive it with hand controls and didn't have the use of his legs. president lyndon johnson went down to his ranch and he had several cars. he had a car that turns into a boat. he loved to drive that into the river on his ranch and drive in that. the president dove for fun but not in the official capacities. the presidential vehicle behind

me is the most famous vehicle here in our collection at the henry ford of american innovation and the best known presidential limousine of any sort. this is the 1961 lincoln continental used by president kennedy and it is the car he was riding when assassinated in 1963. it looks different, when we think to the pictures of kennedy and we think of it aspect a deep blue color. it was a convertible and didn't have armor. this is a time after world war ii despite the cold war heating up we didn't think there could that kind of risk or danger towards the president. it is a force in everyday life in the united states. it is after the president eisenhower creating the interstate highway system. traveling for vacation, business and work. going by car and airplane and the family car is a force of

life. the lincoln was a perfect fit for president kennedy. if we think about large cars like cat lacks and lincolns, in the 1950s we think about the -- so when these lincolns were redesigned in 1961, they were a breath of fresh air. the cars are clean, elegant and formal and was a perfect match for president kennedy. we think of him as being elegant, modern, forward looking as he laeted us to the new frontier. so a perfect match. everything about the car changed after november 22nd, 1963 when the president was assassinated. it was a roof like the one we saw on the earlier bubble top, just acrylic protecting from weather and snow and rain, no

weapons. the car kwuz in the convertible configuration in dallas. after the assassination, the car was sent into the white house and conducted a thorough investigation and documented what they needed to for evidentiary purposes. after that the car was sent back to the modifyiers in cincinnati to be completely rebuilt as an armored vehicle. people are astounded that it was put back into the service you would think it was destroyed or locked away. the president needed to have a vehicle. president johnson and there wasn't time to go back to the drawing board and build something from scratch. so they thoroughly rebuilt it, strip it had down to the bare frame and reguilt it with titanium armor, steel plating to protect from a land minor

grenade, a special filter put into the trunk if there was a gas attack, it would filter and tack out the gas and there was this large wrap-around screen, the largest piece of bullet proof glass ever made and these cars always have this dual mission. one, they have to protect the president and have to make him as visible as possible. it is tough to find the balance between the two. we see the car. it is black instead of the elegant midnight blue when we think of president kennedy. and that was done by president johnson. he was in the motorcade in dallas, he was uncomfortable riding in the car. he wanted the car paint black. we also if we look at it now, we notice there's a hatch built into the roof. that hatch was put there at the

insistence of president nixon. he wanted the president to get outside of this armored bubble and wave to crowds. there's a constant strain between the president and the protectors, the president wants to it be seen. they thrive on the interaction with the public. and the secret service wants them protected. so the hatch was a compromise. another issue with the car they never got rite with all of the glass and permanent roof t got hot in that car and the original air-conditioning which was the vents in the front wouldn't be sufficient to keep a car this size cool. so they added another one in the trunk to add more power to it and it can be sweltering hot in the car. so they never found t. it was used through 1977 into the cart carter administration and it was no longer the primary vehicle but it may be used if it wasn't

available. its remarkable that it was used for that long before it was retired and came here to the henry ford museum american innovation. the cars was not purchased out rite. they didn't have the budget at that time to be buying expensive vehicles. they were leased to the white house by lincoln for a nominal sum each year. it was a good deal for the white house. and typically, they would have, perhaps a 10 or 15 year service life at most and the problem with these cars at a certain point they get too dated thchlt car looked morn in 1961 and looked out of fashion by the mid 1970s so at that point it had to be retired and there was a new vehicle which was the primary and that's the one we can look

at next. >> we're looking now in the last of our series of presidential vehicles, this is a 1972 lincoln continental built for president nixon and used by every subsequent one up to president bush. this is the evolution in the transportation. we went from the carriage and moved to franklin roes volt sunshine special and john f. kennedy lincoln. the car is built as unarmored and standard lincoln, modified a stretched a little. this is a car built from the ground up as an armored vehicle. designed to provide maximum protection for the president. bullet proof glass, and run flat tires, the vehicle can drive away to safety if it gets

punctured. built for nixon. it is most often associated with president reagan. he was shot in 1981. he survived and it was close more dangerous than we realized at the time. this was the car he was getting after he made the speech to the union at the washington hilton when shot. as the president was getting into the car. being pushed in by secret service agents, he was hit by a bullet that ricochetted and it was a perfect shot it went through gap between the door and the body. so had things moved a fraction of an inch one way or another, it is possible he may not have been hit. he was pushed into the car and sped off to the hospital. the car continued to be used any damage was minor. we think about this car as being

glamorous. they lived rough lives. they were bumped and pushed around in airplanes, being strapped down and banged up. and getting hit by paint or rocks or stones by protest stores it is part of the american way of life. we are free to speak our minds and protest and these cars in the front lines of them. the secret service had a garage located near the white house and they can paint them and wash them and keep them in top condition. even with that, the cars did age after a certain point. fell out of fashion and looked dated. few look at photo it is, the front end looks different from today. they changed the front end to make it look current. whenever they could they would do that to keep the cars fresh and at a certain point they looked too dated like this one did by the early 1990s. associated with the president and passengers and a rural

leader that you can think of from the middle part of the 20th century. roosevelt's sunshine special, winston church hill road in that and the bup bubble top. queen elizabeth road in the car and any number of dig that tears would have been in the more recent cars too. being in the presidential car is a perk and a kind of point of pride for folks. from a big city mayor or someone in the congress that the president is trying to woo trying to get legislation passed. air force one is a perk today. this is the most recent car we have in our collection even though it was built in 1972 and the fact is that the cars aren't

going to museums anymore. part of that they are not building not just one primary car but several copies so there are more out there and partly, two, these cars are really destroyed at the end of the service life and that's to keep the technology from falling into the wrong hands and test the effectiveness of the armor against modern weapons. it is rare to see them in museums anymore and we may not get anymore either. we have these vehicles from the lincoln motor company, leased to the white house by lincoln and when the lease expired, they took the cars back and turned around and gave them to us and we are grateful. they are provided by cadillac now and purchased out rite by the white house. they remain the property of the government to see as they see

fit. people ask all the time about the kennedy car and is this really the car that the president was assassinated. it is. it was a matter of time, it was faster to rebilt that one than to start from scratch. they ask the raegon car and it looks like a spoiler in the back. does this have a -- it is a handrail, it lifts up from the trunk, the spoiler to make a handrail to hold onto when riding with the president in the parade. people are surprised of the technology. they assume there must be rocket launchers or special trackers or devices, no, the technology is base i can. there might be a pa system with a microphone so the president can talk to the crowd.

or a radio switchboard. beyond that, these are really just transportation vehicles designed to serve the purpose and get the president where he was going to and allow him to be seen in parades. beyond that t the technology was fairly basic. if i had to pick a favorite car i suppose it is the one a lot of people would pick. i think of the kennedy car being a favorite. it represents two worlds of presidenti presidential tran presidential transport. after the as is nation rebuilt into a armored -- is steel plating and to protect from grenades. we have to start thinking about protection for our president spts it is surprising that it took that long and tragic to have that realization happen.

it seems to be that for a time we thought these were abstractions that people would not harm the president and it couldn't happen again and unfortunately, it did. i would pick that one and i also do like sunshine special because it is so associated with president roosevelt. and he loved that car very much. he enjoyed riding in it. and insisted on the top being down. they thrived off of interaction with the crowd. they loved to reach out and shake hands. they wanted to feel connected with the public. both cars are associated with those leaders. our presidential limousines are a permanent exhibit here. all of them with the exception of the kennedy car been on the floor sins the day we got them and remained. that car we left off for several years out of sensitivity with

the tragedy, but it's been on display sins the late 1970s. they are in front because they are some of the first things they want to see. i have fun people posing for pictures with the car. always posing with the sunshine special and the kennedy car. when we comem rated the 50th anniversary, we moved it up to the front closer to the entrance and it was one of the most remarkable days, seeing people lined up out the door and waiting an hour or more to spend a few minutes. they left flowers and cards and notes. that's what makes these cars so special. >> you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at

c-span.org/history. >> here is what's coming up. next a look at franklin roosevelt historic sites and efforts to save slave houses and then har yet tub man under ground railroad visitor center. >> and join us tonight for "american history tv" and prime time from our american artifacts series we'll visit the herbert hoover presidential library. and the henry ford museum to see the presidential vehicles. "american history tv" is in prime time beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span three. >> tonight book tv is in prime time with a look at afterwards, the son of the late supreme court justice, scalia shared speeches in the book "scalia speaks" and the women's march.

linda, discusses "together we rise." interviewed on her book," the new american revolution" and the book "endurance" book tv all this week and prime time on c-span two. epa administration tor fox pruitt and -- conservative political action conference. live coverage 8:00 p.m. eastern on our come pain i don't know network c-span. state governors across the country gathering in washington, d.c. for the annual winter meeting and throughout the day saturday, the national governor association hosting panels to talk about jobs, opioid crisis and ago debris culture and food availability. on the companion network, c sp