all this week in primetime on c-span2. tonight, epa administrator scott pruitt and fox news channel host jeanine pirro address the cpac. we'll have live coverage 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 you to 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 truman, 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 a series of presidential limousines which tell the story of the development of presidential transportation over the last 117 years or so. >> right behind me is carriage used by president roosevelt. the automobile is a force of the united states starting in the 1890s but by the time of roosevelt's administration, it is a common occurrence to see cars moving on public streets. roosevelt, interestingly enough, for all of the reputation he has, is a real forward-looking progressive, never cared much for automobiles.

he wanted to remain in horse-drawn vehicles. i think partly he thought there was a formality involved with horse-drawn transportation that was appropriate to the office. but i think also he had a progressive and sort of the man of the people image he wanted to protect. at that time, automobiles were still very much thought of as play things for the wealthy. it wouldn't do him any good to be caught riding around in a car. so he remained in the brome and used that for priprimary transpn around washington, d.c. we have a vision in our head that everyone add carriage behind their house. it was like the equivalent of a family car in the 1860s, '70s,' 80s. if you were bicycling by the 1890s, or street cars were available by that time, in rural areas you probably had some kind of general purpose carriage. not necessarily a buggy that resembles this, more like a farm

wagon or something to use to take into town or wherever you are were going tp but in larnge cities, you see them used as taxi services p. but for the purpose, of a certain station, he certain station he would be able to use one of these as did roosevelt throughout his administration. next we'll belong to another vehicle belonged to franklin roosevelt who would be president a few decades later. he preferred a horse drawn vehicle throughout his administration, so left to his successor taft to motorize the fleet. he played no favorites. he had a gasoline, team powered car. but presidential transportation evolved pretty quickly. this is sa 1939 lincoln model k. which is significant in the first car specifically modified for presidential use. and when i say that, i don't

mean armor necessarily, in fact it wasn't first armored nor was it more flashy or showy. instead, modified for practical purposes. for example, up holstery more standard because a lot of people getting in and out of the car putting wear. but this is most closely associated with franklin roosevelt and popular nickname sunshine special with his preference to ride with the top down whenever the weather permitted but even for his sunny optimistic persona throughout his public appearances. and this car was in fact modified even more after pearl harbor was attacked. it went back to detroit to add armor behind the doors, bullet resistant glass along the sides.

it is still of course a convertible. so there was a weak spot, if you will, in the protection. but nevertheless it did represent an important turning point in presidential transportation. if we look at sunshine special you'll see some other modifications that you wouldn't see on typical vehicle. wide running boards, they were fading away and fall from popularity. if you look at the back of the car, will is a lit sign that says police do not pass. in other words if you come up behind this car in a motor cade, you should pass it. the president should always be seen out in front of the group. also grab handles on the back and sides as well for secret service akts to hold on to the vehicle and a couple of platforms biltd into the rear bumper for agents to ride to protect the passengers. and presidential motorcades were evolving at this time. they could still be modest affairs during roosevelt term. he would be in the car perhaps a few police cars as escorts and

trailing carrying the presidential party. but greatest status symbol would be able to ride in the car with the president himself. so particularly important dignitaries or people roosevelt was trying to woo, perhaps members of congress. there are cabinets built into the rear of the front seats there, and they could be used to store weapons, guns in event of emergency or secret ser wrist would need them to protect the president. several things you wouldn't see on typical car. siren, red lights to use to get attention and people out of the way as president was coming through. with that, we can look at another car that came after world war ii and was used by a few of roosevelt successors. looking now at 1950 lincoln

cosmopolitan used by truman and john f. kennedy for a short period but often associated with dwight eisenhower. as originally built convertible. did not have plexiglass top that has credited to eisenhower, he saw vehicles in europe during the war. it is not armored the war is over now. no thought of security or at least thought to it be a vital concern. but it does provide protection from weather. so in the event of rain or snow the president can have some protection. otherwise it can be taken away and all the panels neatly stacked into the trunk but it doesn't have to be used and that would allow the president to stand up in the car. a couple of handrails on the back seat that would allow them to wave to crowds. which explains the rectangular windshield. that is of all things a bug

shield. so as the president is standing up there waving to crowds he doesn't get a face full of flies. a problem only the president would have. but this is standard lincoln stretched a little bit and given perhaps a little more rigorous upholstery to hold up to the wear and tear of people getting in and out. there are platforms for secret service agents and flashing lights, sirens that sort of thing but fairly modest in terms of its appointments but certainly served the presidents very well right into the kennedy administration. the size of the presidential fleet really varies from year to year. starts fairly modest then grows a little bit. but primarily one main parade car for the president and that car certainly would be used whenever he was traveling in some kind of some kind of a motorcade in washington d.c. might taken with him when he's traveling. this car could have traveled by rail or air at that time, started so move to cargo planes

by the time eisenhower is president. but president might use vehicles furnished by local dealer if he's traveling so some city they must go to the local lincoln agent, provide a new car that looks decent, convertible, and that was it. these state cars were really used for special purposes, because there was expense in transporting them. presidents wouldn't be driving themselves in their official capacities, not in motorcades, because their point was to be seen really. these cars were always meant to provide an opportunity for the public to feel as though they were getting a close look at the president. however, presidents did enjoy driving on their own. perhaps around the white house grounds. more often at their private homes. i this hi of frank link roosevelt who had a model ford model a modified that allowed him to drive it with hand controls. of course he didn't have the use of his legs. president lyndon johnson is thought of going down to his ranch. he is several cars.

a few lincolns. he had a car that turns into ha boat. loved to drive that. so presidents did drive for fun but not in official capacities. the presidential vehicle behind me is undoubtedly the most famous presidential vehicle here in our collection the henry ford of innovation and arguably the best known presidential limo convenie limousine. it is the car he was assassinated in 1963 for john f. kennedy. the car looks different than when we think of it being a deep blue color. of course it did not have this roof. it was a convert b8 originally and no armor of any time. this was a time after world war ii despite the cold war heating up, we did not think there could be that kind of risk or danger to the president's life. but also a time when the automobile is absolute lay a

force in every day life in the united states. just after president eisenhower signed legislation that will create interstate highway system so people are traveling on summer vacations, for business, work, going by car. and to some extent by airplane, but the family car is very much a force of life. and this lincoln really was a perfect fit for john f. kennedy. if we think about large cars, we think of the big tail fins and all of the shiny chrome. and really by 1958, 1959 got a bit excessive perhaps past the point of good taste. so when these lincolns were redesigned in 1961 breath of fresh air, chrome very under stated. very clean and elegant looking looked formal. and perfect match for president kennedy because we think of him being very elegant, modern forward looking as he leads us into the new frontier. so the two made a perfect match, president kennedy and this vehicle. now, of course everything about the car changed after november

22, 1963 when the president was assassinated. there had been a roof for the vehicle like the one we saw on the earlier 1950 lincoln, bubble top, just acrylic that would protect from weather, snow, rain, wouldn't provide any protection from weapons. of course the car was in convertible that day in dallas. after the assassination, it went back to the white house, documented what they needed to for evidentiary purposes. after that, the car was sent back to its modifiers, in cincinnati to be completely rebuilt as an armored vehicle. and people are always astounded to think this car was put back into service after the assassination. you would assume either it was destroyed or perhaps locked away in aware house somewhere. but no the simple fact is the president need today haed to ha vehicle. president johnson. and there wasn't time to go back

to the drawing board so the most efficient thing to do was rebuild the car. they stripped the car down to the frame and rebuilt it with armor plating behind the doors, with steel plating behind the book seat to protect from land mine. special filter into the truck so if there was a gas attack, it would take out the harmful gas. and of course this large wrap around wind screen which at the time it was the largest bullet proof glass had been made. these cars always have this tricky sort of dual mission. one they have to protect the president but make him's visible as possible. and tough to find the balance between those two things. we see the car now notice that it is black instead of that elegant midnight blue we think of when we think of president kennedy. and that was done at the insistence of president johnson. obviously he was in the motorcade in dallas that day. and he was always very uncomfortable riding in this carry think for obvious reasons.

but one thing he insisted at the last minute is the carb painted black. he thought the blue would be too associated with the tragedy in dollars. so black it would be. we also if we look at it now we would notice there is a hatch built into the roof that wasn't originally there. that hatch was put there at the insistence of president nixon who wanted to be visible. wanted the president to it be able to get outside of this armor bub fell you will and wave to crowds. so that was put in. there is this constant strain between the president and his protectors. the president wants to be seen. very much they thrive on that interaction with the public. and the secret service would just as soon as have the president sealed and protected. of course you count have it both ways. the hatch was a compromise. another issue with the car they ever got quite right with all of that glass it got very hot in that car. and of course the original air conditioning which just ran off the vents in the front would be sufficient to keep a carve this size cool. so they added a second air conditioning in the trunk to add more power, but even so it could

be sweltering hot in that car. so they never found it. so this car was used all the way through 1977 into the carter administration. and it was no longer the primary presidential vehicle by the early 1970s but it might be used by a president if the primary vehicle was unavailable for some reason. but it's kind of remarkable to thing it was used to are that long before it was finally retired from service and came here to the henry ford of american innovation. and i should point out too these cars at this time were not purchased out right by the white house or by the secret service. frankly, they didn't have the budget at that time to be buying expensive vehicles like this. they were instead leased to the white house by lincoln for a nominal sum each year. of course lincoln thought it was worth it because they got tremendous publicity out of it and good deal fort white house because they wouldn't have to outlay large amounts of money fr these vehicles. and typically they would have 10 year service life, and problem with these cars, like any cars, at certain point they get too dated.

this car looked modern in 1961 looked out of fashion by the mid 1970s. so at that point it had to be retired. and at that point also there was a new presidential vehicle which was the primary vehicle, that's the one we can look at next. we are looking now in the last of our series of presidential vehicles here at henry ford of american innovation. this is 1972 lincoln continental that was built for president nixon and used by every subsequent president up through george hw bush, first president bush. and this represents the final step in evolution of presidential transportation. we went from roosevelt, and sunshine special, then john f. kennedy as transitional cars, the point where the cars are built as unarmored just standard lincoln perhaps stretched a little but no other changes than that. whereas this was a car built from the ground up armored

vehicle from the get go to provide maximum protection to the president. so you have armor the plating behind the doors, bullet proof doors, run flat tires which are reinforced with steel inside so if the tire gets punctured the vehicle can still drive away. this built for nixon and primarily car built in 1972. associated with president reagan. he of course was shot in 1981. he survived of course, though it was very close. more dangerous perhaps than we realized at the time. and this was the car president reagan was getting when he made the speech at the washington hilton to the union when he was shot. and almost ironic as the president was getting into the car, more probably being pushed into the car by secret service agents, not hit by a direct bullet but by a bullet that riccio shayed off the armored panel. perfect shot for better term. the went through the grap between the door and a body.

if it moved it's quite possible he may not have been hit at all. of course pushed into this car and then sped off into the hospital and was able to make a recovery. the car continued to be used, any damage it seechd that day would have been minor. but that's something we don't think about. they did win rough lives, pushed around, banged up and scratched. they were also sometimes getting hit by paint or by rocks by protesters. it's part of the american way of life. we are free to speak our minds and protest and these cars would have been on the front lines of it. of course they did get a lot of care. secret service had a garage located near the white house where they could repaint them, wash them, change the oil, and keep them in top condition. but even with that, the cars did simply age after a certain point. they fell out of fashion. the styling looked too dated. this is a car in fact if you look at photos you'll see the front end looks different than today. they changed the front end to make it look a little more

current. so whenever they could they would do that to keep the cars fresh. but at certain point they looked too dated. some of these cars are associated not just with presidents but some of the passengers they carried with them. and any world leader you can think of from the middle part of the 20th century would have ridden in one of these cars. we look the a roosevelt sunshine special, it churchill in that car several times fks we think about the bubble top with president eisenhower, charles de gaule rode in that car. at one point queen elizabeth rode in that car, princess and later queen. so being in the presidential car is a real perk and point of pride for folks. and anyone from perhaps a big city mayor to someone in the congress who the president is trying to woo in order to get legislation passed might be

given a ride in in car. just as air force one used as a perk and president uses as a tool to persuade people to vote the way he wants them to. this is a car built in 1972, several decades old, and the fact is the cars recommendly aren't going to museums anymore, pat of that is they are not building one primary car but several copies of the primary parade car. so more of them out there. then partly i think too these cars are really destroyed at the end of the service life. and that's partly perhaps to keep the technology from falling into the wrong hands. but i think also to test the effectiveness of the armor against different and more modern weapons. so it's weird to srare to see t museums, and we may not get any more, but of course we got these from the lincoln motor company, leased to the white house, and when they expired lincoln took the cars back and then turned around and gave them to us for which we are very grateful.

now the cars are provided by cadillac and purchased out right by the white house so they won't go back, they'll remain tt product of the government. visitors have a lot of questions about these cars. quell they ask all the time about the kennedy car is of course is this really the car in which the president was assassinated because it hard to believe that it would have been put back into service and used for several more years after the assassination. but, no, it is and simply a matter of time. they needed a car for president so faster to rebuild that one than build from scratch. they ask about the reagan car which looks like spoiler in the back like a sports car or something. no, that's actually a handrail for secret service agents. bumper folds down to make a foot platform than that lifts up to make a handrail for them to hang onto. i think sometimes people are surprised at the technology in the cars. they assume they are something like james bond might drive.

there must it be rocket launches or honing devices. no, the technology is pretty basic. there may be there may be a pa system so the president can talk to crowd, phone call. that's about it. beyond that these were really just transportation vehicles. they were designed to serve purpose, get the president to where he was going, and to allow him to be seen in parades, those kind of situations. beyond that, the technology was fairly basic. if i had to pick a favorite carve theerks i suppose it's the one a lot of people would pick, but i think of the kennedy car as being a favorite of mine because that represents two world'ses of presidential transport. you have what starts as modified lincoln, stretched given a slightly larger engine, but beyond that it's like a car you can buy from any dealer. of course after the assassination it's built into

titanium and steel underneath, so that's a car that represents this changing moment where we really have to start thinking about protection for our presidents. and it is surprising it took that long and something that tragic to make that realization happen. of course president lincoln had been assassinated in 1860s, it seems to be for a time it cou couldn't happen again. of course, it did. i would pick that one. i also do like sunshine special though too because it is so associated with president roosevelt and perfect for his sunny optimism even during the darkest years of the depression. and he loved that too. both roosevelt and kennedy for that matter are charismatic leaders that triefd off the crowd. they loved to reach out, shake hands, they had to feel kebted to public. they got a lot of energy out of that. so both of those cars associated with the leaders.

our limousines are really all of them with the exception of the kennedy carve been on the floor from the day we got them and remained on the floor. that car we left off of display for several years, of course, just ot of sensitivity of the tragedy associated with it. but it's been on display on our floor since the late 1970s and these are some of the first things they see when they come into the museum, because they are some of the first things people are looking for, they know they are here and want to see them. i always have fun seeing people pose for pictures, always posing with the sunshine special and kennedy car. in fact, a few years ago when we commemorated the 50th anniversary we moved the kennedy up to the front closer to the entrance of the museum. boy that was one of the most remarkable days in my professional career seeing people lined up out the door and waiting for an hour or more just to spend a few minutes with that car. and they left flowers. they left cards. they left notes.

it holds how these are tangible links to our own personal experiences and i think 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. >> coming up next, we'll take you to several of franklin roosevelt historic sites and efforts to save slave houses. visit to harriet tubman underground railroad visitor center. and join us tonight from american artifact series, we'll visit hoover examine and the henry ford of american innovation in michigan to see the presidential vehicles. american history tv is in prime time beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span 3.

tonight book tv is in prime time with a look of afterwards. the son of the late supreme court justice anton in scalia, scalia speaks, then together we rise, women's march. on her book the new american revolution. and astro nant scott kelly talks about voyages into space in his book, endurance. book tv all this week in prime time on c-span 2. also tonight epa administrator scott prewett address the annual political action conference. we'll have live coverage 8:00 p.m. eastern c-span. and state governors across the country gathering in washington d.c. this weekend for annual meeting. and throughout the day the

national governors association will talk about jobs, opioid crisis, as well as future of food liability. c-span coverage 10:00 a.m. eastern on companion network c-span. >> next, a tour of spring wood estate in hyde park, new york, final resting place of president franklin roosevelt. we'll hear about president's life inside the home which is now a national historical site. >> this was home. this was where his heart always was. and he once said to his friends and neighbors, my heart has always been here. it always will be. and it was. this is where he was most happy throughout his entire life. franklin d roosevelt was born and raised in thisse