ration food. all were one hoover believed that if you just encouraged people to act correctly it would ration food themselves. you did not need to impose it on them. >> watch american artifacts today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3 >> we are on the banks of the mississippi river in new orleans were c-span is learning about the city's history. new orleans is the birthplace of jazz. musicians like louis armstrong got their start here. we take you to the new orleans jazz museum to learn about the city's music history. ♪

>> i'm not sure it is only the original one but certainly the most famous. most world-renowned, changed the world kind of music. i'm going back home to stay ♪ ♪ i'm going to new orleans ♪ >> something the country can be proud of. something that has defined america not only for americans but people outside of america. like any great art, it has spoken these truths and great issues of our time about humanity. right now we are on the second floor of the new orleans jazz museum in the u.s. mint at the herman leonard museum. after hurricane katrina the jazz exhibit was moved out and put in

storage until basically now. we have slowly but surely started taking the instruments and artifacts out of the archive and putting them back here are your slowly but surely having instrument cases me, the women of note exhibit, the gonzales bureau. slowly but surely we have been museum.a jazz the eventual plan is to turn the an 8000econd floor into square foot history of jazz in new orleans exhibit. new orleans jazz brings to mind a kind of collectively improvised dance music. influenced by blues and spirituals and ragtime and other things that have come through the crescent city. ♪ jazz starts new orleans for a

lot of different reasons. one is that new orleans is a huge port town so lots of cultures that contributed to jazz came here through the port, people bringing goods either from europe or from the caribbean. northern parts down to mississippi. there also was a large presence of enslaved africans here. the laws governing how you treated these enslaved africans were more lenient than any other place in the country. i'm not at all saying it was easy to be a slave here. it was as difficult as you could expect. but here, slaves had it a teeny bit easier. they had to have a day off. you could not split up families when you sold slaves. icad on their own property. they could have their own businesses. lenient andtle more that meant the things they brought from africa, cultural

tropes, stayed around here longer than other places. in terms of all the things that came together for jazz, you can start seeing it in the early 1890's and then probably by 1910,the early 1900s, somewhere in the neighborhood. you can start hearing something that if you heard it today you would say that is jazz. in new orleans, music has always been an essential part of the culture. they say the first opera ever performed in america was performed here with several opera houses. also, lots of dance halls, lots of places to hear music. music has always been in inherent part of the culture. because of that, music is a part of every kind of cultural tradition.

parties, christenings, funerals. in hire a band -- everything general you hire a band for. >> the largest collection in the world related to new orleans jazz. the jewel of the collection is this cornet that louis armstrong basically learned to play on. it was the cornet provided to -- where he was sent after shooting off a pistol on new year's eve. >> louis armstrong was born on jane ally which is now where the municipal traffic or is. he was born about as poor as you could be. he started out running the

streets in a single group with his friends. the one of those kids you see with bottle caps on the bottom of their shoes. very resourceful kid. played a little bit, saying and he was arrested new year's eve when he was about seven or so. shooting off his moms boyfriends pistol on new year's eve. years.ed to 1.5 the bandleader saw he might have the potential and got him in the band. by the time he got out of there he had some idea that he wanted to be a musician. started playing music among our jobs he had. hang out with king oliver and oliver was kind of his mentor.

>> as you can see it is pretty beat up. it was played by kids not only during the time armstrong was there but for many years afterwards. toer gave -- presented it tois armstrong and as a gift the jazz museum back in 1965. louis armstrong confirmed this was the horn from the notches he made in the mouthpiece. louis felt it gave him more of a -- more ofhis mouth a grip with his mouth for the inch commend. this is an area where we have a number of instruments on display. trumpet --r

he is still living he is and his 90's now. he was a prolific producer and ranger -- and arranger, writer, bandleader. he was fundamental in fats domino's career. he helped produce and create arrangements for fats domino's early rock and roll work. one of the earliest and the development of rock 'n roll. is a directomew link from jazz to rock 'n roll. one of fats domino's pianos. it was in his home on catherine street. that's, despite being internationally known, one of the creators of rock 'n roll, he returned to his home and wanted to live in new orleans. his home was damaged during katrina, flooded heavily. this piano was in there. it floated in about 12 feet of water. once the water receded it was

heavily damaged. .he legs broke off basically the entire piano was really horrible condition. it's been conserved. it is not playable but it has been brought back to the conservators and repair folks say if we try to make it playable again, it would not be the same piano, and we did not want to lose the historical nature of the piano. ♪ >> fats domino's was from new orleans, and he influenced all of early rock 'n roll. the beatles were some of his biggest fans and when the 1965, theye here in asked if they could meet with fats domino, and there was a famous photo of them with fats

domino's. . and theymous friends, went on to create their own band. on newa strong influence orleans and the world. was a major blow to the city, but he left a wonderful legacy, and he influenced so many people with his warmth and his music. ♪ >> -- was born in 1897 and died in 1983. she was a character. by the bellsknown she wore a on her ankle -- the

bells that she wore on her ankle. she was a wonderful musician. in the 1960's, she began playing and weervation hall, have a wonderful vid of emmaemma -- of sweet performing. ♪ [applause] >> now we have moved into the storage area. this is away, and really neat drum set. this was the drum set of paul. and a creolemer

band. there is wonderful footage of this drama being played with the band. this would've been a jazz banned -- this would have been a jazz band led by kid ori. this came to a six years ago as a donation. have a drum snare, drums.baby dodd's many drummers think of baby dodd as the father of modern drumming. setit came with this lovely that baby dodd played in the

latter half of his career. >> when folks come to the museum, i would like for them to take away several things. uld ke them to take away the deep history ofusic t m here. it is a living, breathing art form in new orleans and the rest of the country. they don't who say likeazz, or don't know jazz, no jazz songs. it is a part of your life, even if you don't realize it. ♪ >> our city's tour staff travel to new orleans to learn about its rich history. none more about new orleans and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/citiestour. americanatching history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3.

next on the civil war yale , university professor david blight talks about the political , and often religious rhetoric, that frederick douglass used when writing or speaking about abolition or the civil war. this 50 minute talk was part of a conference hosted by the university of virginia center for civil war history. prof. blight: thank you, gary, liz joan, will and other , friends. i learned a long time ago that when they invite you somewhere, just say yes, and then figure out later what you will talk about, or talk about whatever they want you to talk about. because it is always fun and always important and there is no better audience.