take the lsat. watch the entire program in 2:30 p.m. eastern on sunday. american history tv, only on c-span3. week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. we traveled to north carolina totour biltmore, the largest home in america. leslie klingner, curator of interpretation, let us through the main level of the 175,000 square foot home. we also learned about the landscape design of the 8000 acre property in which biltmore sits. this is about 25 minutes. welcome to biltmore in nashville, north carolina. largestn america's home, and it will be my pleasure

to tour you through the house. it is a beautiful estate with an incredibly expansive home. home with more than 33 fireplaces, an incredible massive staircase. an architectural beauty surrounding the home. welcome to biltmore estate. we will head in. constructed over a period of six years starting in the late 1880's and finished in 1895. george vanderbilt, the owner of the home, the owner and builder of the home, envisioned it as a getaway for his family and friends, and opened it to his guests. george washington vanderbilt was the youngest son of henry william vanderbilt. this was an incredible family

that has been building railroads and shipping industries in new york and across the world. he was the youngest and was really interested in. intellectual pursuits he was -- in interested pursuits. he was a collector of arts and beautiful objects. george washington vanderbilt came to the asheville area in the late 1880's. his mother was suffering from malaria and there were many pulmonary doctors in the area. he fell in love with the landscapes and the sweeping views, and began to assemble an estate, and began to acquire land with this envision -- with this vision of creating a house and a grand estate around it. you would not think of a house this size that a bachelor would want that. when george began building baltimore, it was he himself and his trusty dog cedric, and they created this grand estate.

it was really for friends and family and to get away and it was his primary home, although he traveled quite a bit. he fell in love soon after. they were married in paris and had a form of honeymoon and came back to biltmore in october of 1898. ever since then, it has been a family home. it is a really interesting story. when the architect and george vanderbilt started working together, they had a vision for a small house. something tucked away into the mountains. and as their vision grew, the house literally grew. they traveled to france and england, visiting grand shadows and estates, to components from each of them -- chateaus and the state to components -- and took components from each of them. the house from the exterior is very much and american expression of the french renaissance. it has these grand, sweeping

views, of course, but framed in the architecture itself. ae deep roof lines with quite bit of drama, but most of the architecture is from the french renaissance. we're in the entry hall of the biltmore. it is the heart of the home. you come through these beautiful, large oak doors. you are struck by the quality of the workmanship. there is beautiful marble, the construction of the house is really beautiful. the entryway is a centerpiece of the home that is flanked by the winter garden. it brings in sunlight into the home on year-round. off of these spaces radiate a library, which is one of our guest's favorite room, a music room, a salon, a breakfast room, all sorts of spaces for entertaining. next, we will proceed into the banquet hall. this is the the vanderbilts and their guests dined every night

at 8:00. ladies would come down in the evening gowns and gentlemen would be dressed in white tie and the table would be set beautiful with china and all that we still have in our collection. this was their main home. they did travel and have a home in paris as well, one in washington, d.c., one in maine, but biltmore was their main home, and they welcomed guests here. , many politicians came here, and they would dine at this table. it was really a scene of intellectual interests and exchange. i can only imagine the conversations that were held at this table. ,f you were a guest at a party a large party, you would be seated at a large table, but if it was just the vanderbilts and a few friends, you would be at a small table, which is what we are showing this evening. it is a three bay fireplace, almost a walk in fireplace if

you will, and on incredible skill that likes of roman provides heat for the room as well. throughout the houses, remarkable carving. carl was an immigrant from austria that found his way working in these grand houses. he also worked on the facade of the metropolitan museum. scenes.ate, he did two george vanderbilt was a great fan of opera and you see many expressions of that throughout the architecture in the house. this is a space pattern after these grand reception rooms. one of the most remarkable things is the ceiling above us. it is beautifully vaulted wood in ceiling that take your breath away. sealings thatded take your breath away. surrounding that is not only animal trophies, but other

sculptures by karl bitter. as i mentioned, george vanderbilt was a bachelor when he built this house, but he soon welcomed his future bride. she became the heart of this estate. she was close to the workers here in service hostess of the house. not only as hostess to vanderbilt's guess, but across the entire estate -- guests but across the entire estate. a little girl slipped over and came over to edith's table and asked for a bite off of her plate. she fed her a little bite in center on her way and the little girl told us how much he thought her mother must've died watching that scene, but they give you an idea of how beloved the

vanderbilts were beloved by the workers and how much this house was a home. you could have little girls wandering into the kitchen and up the stairs and wanted to catch a glimpse of the ladies and gentlemen dining. in 1900, the vanderbilts welcomed cornelia vanderbilt. they only had one child. she grew up with the entire estate and the grounds. we are leaving the banquet hall and pass in the breakfast room and on her way to the music room. one thing is interesting and unexpected is the music room in the salon were not finished during vanderbilt's time at biltmore. they were finished much later, almost 80 years later. sometimes were used for parties, but mostly, they were just core don't off with velvet curtains -- unfinished until 1976, and it was finished by our former owner who passed away

this past year. this was really a space he created. the space was always supposed to be a music room. it was listed on the plants as a music room, but for a mysterious reason, it was unfinished. -- and hired experts and he hired experts in renaissance design and finished the space in 1976. one of the most interesting things about this room, despite so many fascinating things happening during george vanderbilt's time, this room housed one of vanderbilt's great mysteries. we do not know why it was finished, but it served an important role in american history. just weeks after pearl harbor was bombed, the national gallery spent -- sent much of its are two biltmore house for safekeeping. it is interesting how it came about. edith vanderbilt was friends with david finley, the national gallery's first director, and he had visited vanderbilt -- biltmore, and learned about how

the house was isolated in a beautiful area and was built to be fire safe and it registered to him. ofing the 1940's, when much amazing art was being lost, he felt that the national gallery collection -- he contacted mrs. vanderbilt and asked if he could since 72 pieces of art to biltmore for safekeeping? they were loaded up and steel crates in the middle of the night in a snowstorm, and send down to the biltmore house by railroad, and housed in this room. at that point, the biltmore was opened as a museum and guests were walking past this space with curtains and steel fire doors, and having no idea that great work by rembrandt, vermeer were here, even the gilbert of george washington. the artwork was only here for a

couple of years. it was realized before the war was done that they were not at risk in the way that they thought, so it was around the year were guests were walking idea that inno 1943, the estate closed to guests because of a lack of manpower. so many people were involved in the war and rations with gasoline. ,he artwork hung here on racks safe and tucked away for another year, and were sent back in 1944. mrs. vanderbilt did not charge the gallery for that. we have a beautiful letter saying it was part of her american duty, perp each other duty, to house and keep the are safe at biltmore. it is interesting to think why the spaces might not of been finished. many people say perhaps it was because of financial reasons. i am not quite sure that was the case because there are so many

other spaces but important guests would not have seen better finished with beautiful metalwork. finances had been the deciding factor, those other spaces were not of been finished. i suspect, it was common that rooms would have been outfitted with paneling, sourced from abroad from other grand homes being dismantled. mr. vanderbilt was very particular. i imagine they were waiting to find just the right space to outfit with antiques am a would paneling, -- with antiques, woulood paneling. i imagine they had grand plans for this room and never got quite to it. we have left the music room and are walking through the tapestry gallery at the more. this space on many of the long galleries in england. than 90 feet more

long, one of the most expansive spaces in the house, and decorated with exquisite tapestry from the 15 30's. a sectionthe few from that really tells the virtues of man. these are charity and prudence. this is a special space because it was the least formal spaces of the house. this is where the vanderbilt would have initially greeted their guests, where afternoon tea would have been had each day. their daughter or any visiting children would come down for tea. we like to populate this space to show what that would have looked like. it is a special space and opens up and has these exquisite views of the mountains and vanderbilt's estate and beyond. thisan imagine breezes in space and how much they would have enjoyed sitting in here with guests in the afternoon. another feature in this room are some of the paintings.

we have many, many paintings. we passed the portrait of either vanderbilt done by a family friend -- edith vanderbilt done by a family friend. there is one just above the library door. motherthe left of his that he commissioned in a beautiful portion -- in a beautiful portrait. go untilre going to one of the favorite spaces in the house of our guests, the library. as i mentioned, george vanderbilt was very interested in collecting books, and so, this space was created to showcase part of this collection. there are about 10,300 books in the room surrounding us, but that is less than half of his collection. we have more than 22,000 volumes that george rentable collected in the collection today. preventable was reading from a very -- george vanderbilt was reading from a very young age. even at the age of 12, he began

keeping a journal of the books he had read, which he kept his entire life until his death at age 51 m and he had read 3159 books during his lifetime, and they really -- and he was really reading a lot of contemporary literature. he was fascinated with history, fascinated with art, with horticulture. we had one of the strongest libraries of order culture. our collection really spans all of these topics. they are also bound, custom-bound for him, and it is magical to be in a space like this and his love of books clearly comes through. the room is architecturally interesting, paneled with french walnut. whereave elements in them documents could have been talked away. often where are the secret panels in the biltmore house?

unfortunately, we don't have a huge underground system of thomas, but one of my favorite things is that guests staying in certain sleep had an area that had a-- in certain suites behindse that would come a hallway and pop down from their room, grab a volume that pete their interest, and go back aked their interest and go back to their estate. president and mrs. the mountains, the gulf, and everything as shall has to offer. they spent a lot of time with us in the house. toured themwe around.

areident and mrs. obama lovers of books, but president obama was transfixed by a globe in our direction dated from 1999 -- 1899. interested in examining areas in the middle east and looking at the boundaries in place at the turn-of-the-century , just getting the broader worldview. he spent a lot of time structureshow the that are seen on the globe at that time really impact our world situation today. coming to the morgue is you an entirely different -- coming to biltmore gives you an entirely different perspective. it gives you insight to this fascinating family, the vanderbilts, who were key to the growth of america, but also insight into one family, family who loved books, who loved this calm, beautiful area. who did a lot to enhance the understanding of farming and for street in america at that time

estryrming and for at that time. arrive,uests when they they will feel a couple of things. one, they will see a certain layout that doesn't look like what they left, whether they are at the hotel or their cities. it has a very specific feel to it. strive asltmore, we hard as we can, that the guests same would experience the design intent that the vanderbilts and homestead and hunt led in the 1980's. would come up the road, and there were wonderful letters back and forth from olmstead and vanderbilt on what

the guests would experience. olmstead had this wonderful letter to vanderbilt saying that there wouldn't be any long-range views. the aread break into viewing the house and then the guests would walk through the house and come out on the window's view on the west side, and that view, which was the first event vanderbilt saw before he even purchased the property, that you would be the culmination of that experience. i think it is interesting. that was done in the 1890's, and even today in this decade, a president, mr. obama and his wife, and some friends, visited the estate on vacation. and they came up the approach road and they suddenly came to the house and saw everything about it. and then walked through the house and were standing on the , anda -- and standing

president obama said, this is why we came. back in 1880's, george vanderbilt came and saw this wonderful view in western north carolina. andy saw this view of the french broad river valley, and it captivated him, so he started purchasing some land and built this home here on the property for him and his guests. the estate at one time, with all of the lands had grown to 125,000 acres. we are standing in the middle of a four acre walled garden, which is an english garden in western north carolina. it is just one part of the larger gardens, which was historically was associated with the biltmore house. much of a man that biltmore was purchasing and looking at at this time -- much of the land

that biltmore was purchasing and looking at at this time, much of forested,ad been over been burned over, cut over, people had taken everything from firewood off of it and people farmed on this land. it was not rich farm land at that time. the land was not nearly as pretty as we see it now. anda lot of vanderbilts , their planmstead was to rehabilitate the land, and make it that hospitality-based location for george vanderbilt's family and friends. was probably what we call the first banks sticker -- was probably what we call the first landscape architect, but what he looked at as the big picture.

here done everything from central parks in new york city, prospect park in brooklyn, and he had a vision that could stand huge acreage, and also, that ability to see what he called the picturesque, that pretty, little vignette would look like. he was a man of great vision, and he first started landscape architecture in the united states. frederick holmstead had worked family aerbilt's number of times, was the person to have an estate like this laid out. he was also at the end of his career. i think that he did not have anything left to prove. he could bring all of his experiences and leave his ego out of it in little bit, and paint this really broad, beautiful picture that included -- forestry that people

do not see cautiously. they see the backdrops, but it did not look like that when olmstead began. he saw that that was an important part of it. it was also very important that the country learn that you can have a scientifically-managed forest and they had been doing it for centuries in europe, but it was not the practice here, so he helped to bring together with george vanderbilt. so, as olmstead and vanderbilt were working out the bigger estate, and they both understood that scientifically-managed forests were going to be a really big part of the estate, they had to find somebody who could make this happen. and the first person they brought in as the first manager, the first forester was gifford pincho, and we remember him from the national forest service.

he started his career here at biltmore. , what is iteye going to look like in 20, 50 years? that is a refrain we still use at the estate the day. as a director of horticulture here, i have one very important job, and that is to maintain the design intent that was historically for the estate. whether it is the approach road or in this garden, or the azalea garden, the water gardens and the italian gardens. fall of these things had very specific goals that the guests would experience. it all comes down to that original design and the people we have making it all come together. that is what makes the more. >> interested in american history tv?

visit our website, c-span.org/history. you can watch college lectures, and more. c-span.org/history. next on american history tv, the story of elisabeth griffith examines the history of women in america from the 1770s to the 1850s, looking at their roles inside the home, occupations in the workforce, and their legal status. she also explores the first wave of feminism which took place during this time. the smithsonian associates hosted this hour and 40 minutes program. >> our speaker tonight is elisabeth griffith, and she is our speaker for the entirety of the series. if you are here because you enjoy american women in history, i want to recommend to you a tour coming up at the end of ne