annexed to let lecture if you want to guys -- if you guys want to stick around. nikki for coming. [applause] -- thank you for coming. [applause] >> learn more about the people and events that shaped the civil war and deconstruction, every saturday at six clark eastern, only on american history tv. 6:00 eastern, only on american history tv. >> the little white house in key west, florida. theake you there as we hear stories of how president truman spends his time at this historic retreat. ♪

>> the little white house got its name partly through an accident. partly through the fact that franklin roosevelt had had a little white house. in our case, president truman was at everglades city in december of 1947. the press corps started yelling at the president, are you going to return to florida? he responded by saying, of course, i have a little white house key west. -- in key west. it was painted gray, the navy took that as an indication that the president was returning they painted it all white.

it is no longer navy grey. i would like to welcome you to the little white house. it is florida's official presidential museum. it has been used by seven american presidents. it was built as the navy commanders home back in 1890. it served a number of various commanders over almost 100 years. it was slightly interrupted by andidents taft and truman eisenhower and kennedy and jimmy carter. the department of defense. we seem to have a continuum through american history. largestlding was the building on the naval base. it was 9000 square feet.

assequently, it was built the commander's home. by 1911, he realized things were getting snug. he emerged it into a single dwelling of almost 9000 square feet. time, key west was the command headquarters for the seventh naval district, which went from key west to charleston. astor -- a general was inspecting the base and he finds that the commander has moved to smaller quarters because he is a bachelor and he doesn't want to bounce around in 9000 square feet by himself or get he left this hard home -- himself. he left this large home sitting empty. he was impressed by all of the research being done by the navy in key west. he gets home to washington to learn the president has a cough

that he can't seem to shake. he immediately says, i have a perfect vacation venue. i'm sure that the president would love it. came,s why the president he came for a week of r&r. he was relaxing with his friends. they really are resting and women, soaking up -- swimming, soaking up the sun. the president says what a fabulous race it turned out to be, his cold disappeared in just a week. as he leaves after that first week, he promised our city commissioners, whenever i get tired, i will be back. 12 leaks -- weeks later he is back. the president would take up residence up to a month at a time at the little white house. it becomes the functioning white house of the united rates. president truman on his very

first vacation here is invited by the navy to go out on a captured german sub. president truman and 16 of his closest half go out on this close -- captured summary. the captain is a misery native. issouri native. the sutherland springs elite. springs a leak. logs, they were not concerned because they knew the captain would like out for him. they were not denying submariners that extra $.50 that they earned in pay because it obviously was a very hazardous job. time, the instruments

reengage in they slowly go to the surface. they crack the hatch and the staff scrambles up to go to the deck. the president sees them all sitting there, soaking wet. he says, i see you are hiding the lack of apprehension. president truman started coming here in 1946. the navy really had not put any money into fixing the place up. 1949, the president had been here four times and following we, theyt of tom do realized the president will be coming back much more often. they hired the premier interior decorator, the house reflects the remodel of 1949. mr. lester made no consultation with the president. he simply wanted to create a timeless venue, something that would be acceptable to the

guests will be coming to see the president. he picked colors that were popular at the time. told --reen walls, graze, tomato wed, the house had admirals living in it until 1974. many of the things that were done for truman were discarded. the -- tosk to restore the house as it was. lessecords did not tell items were from. fabric, it turned out to be a waverley print. none of us knew that. we happened to find a scrap on ebay. we found 200 yards of fabric ended up meeting 187 yards to complete the cast -- task. the paintings were stolen until we found a notation that they

had been loaned by the naval academy. the naval academy had no idea what i was talking about. finally, we found a list of the session of collection numbers from the truman library. we approached the naval academy for the paintings. they informed me that they were worth $1 million and we were not the president so were getting them. they shot high resolution scans so all of the paintings are exactly as they are in the photographs when president truman was here in the house area little white house is a very restoration to the time when resident truman was using it. truman's president living room. his library during the daytime, his office every evening. 59, seven are of playing poker, what do you do with the rest of them?

they ran films here in the living room. there are many neat things about the little white house. the little room is iconic in the number of nieces that are actually connected with president truman. pieces that are connected to president truman. his piano is in the corner. rarely did the president have to piano here. --had instead he had incredible musical talent. rolled in music lessons for the next 10 years. they expected him to become a concert pianist.

at 16, he drops out of the lessons, saying he is not good enough to get we believe he dropped out to save the family the cost of the expense. he regularly played the piano, he loved paying -- playing mozart. 1953, the uss williamsburg was decommissioned. president eisenhower felt it was a luxury that he. all the artifacts from the ship were scattered. later, our years base commander put out a directive, i want the piano. amazingly, admirable's -- admirals get what they want. it was shipped back to key west, it was restored. truman was surprised to find his old pno back in the little white house. this is where the president came

to relax. the president told everyone that was on vacation, working vacations but vacations. it turns out it was all a lie. both the president and his staff were lying to each other. vacation,d get up, on at 7:00 in the morning. he would read a newspaper, have a glass of orange juice with a shot of bourbon, he would go out at a pace of 120 paces per minute, cardio if i ever heard it. would take up his position at this old desk. every day, large mail bags would arrive. they would contain correspondence, legislation, sometimes books. he would literally run the country from this desk. after several hours, he would

insist that they all go swimming. it was important that his staff rest. his staff were working like fiends behind his back, thinking at least the president is relaxing. the president was doing the exact same thing because every night, he would take work up to his bedroom, thinking at least my staff is resting. it finally came to a head when he wrote a letter to his cousin and confesses, the vacation is a farce. 200-600ing my name times per day. the work of the president never ends, it follows you no matter where you go. that brings up this iconic symbol. harry truman made it famous because he believed that all responsibility ends at the president's desk. the only person at the president can pass responsibility to his to god. -- is to god.

in the wild west, a bone handle knife was placed in front of the dealer. turn, yousn't your passed the bar -- the knife to the next dealer. harry truman, being a poker player, would know that. the buck stops here is the sign that ended up on his desk. this is one of multiple copies the president received, the original one is at his library. the one thing that people rarely get to see is the back of the sign. the back of the sign says, i am from misery. why is that important? it reminded harry truman, don't ever get a swelled head. don't think you are better than the people who elected you. one of these days, you will be going back home. harry never ever lost a concept.

he never forgot we was or where he was going. he was always one of us. moment, we are in the harry s truman little white house, we call it a rec room. you might call it a florida room. this is where the president relaxed with his staff after hours. thing in theic house is this poker table. it was made for the president in our shop in 1949. the president had already been here for four other vacations prior to that. he relaxed by playing poker with his closest staff area they played cards from 7:00 until 11:00 every night. this was a teambuilding exercise, it had nothing to do with winning or losing money. to truman staff are still living eightof them made 11 --

of the 11 trips with the president to key west. when they boarded the plane in washington, they flew -- through $50 into the pot. the banker would save the winnings so if they ran out of money, the banker advanced you more money. it was all about camaraderie. he didn't feel everyone lost more than $20 in the entire thing. truman regarded the big white house as the great white jail. he felt he was constantly under everyone's eye, so by coming here he could come with his ff, someone -- sta let their beards row. -- grow. they would use off-color stories or have a glass of bourbon and visit without any scrutiny from the press. we know that president truman

shared his decision not to run for reelection with his closest staff sitting at this table. for the next six, not one person leaked the story. president truman had shared that information with them so that they would have the opportunity to leave government service and get a job before everyone else. he was looking out for his closest staff. he had great fun with his staff. he personally did not like fishing. he would go out fishing with his staff in order to bet on the biggest cash -- catch. sportswear companies sent the case of hawaiian shirts to the president. with the thought that if the president is wearing our shirt, we will sell a lot of shirts. president truman war those free shirts the first year and then organized the loud shirt contest

, that was the official uniform of key west. it was a contest for the craziest tropical shirt defined. he was often seen wearing these loud shirts. the press corps followed suit. they wore loud shirts too. , of formed a little group which president truman referred club,m as the one more they were always hollering, just !ne more the house is reasonable. if you go to europe, you go to palaces. if you go to the big white house, it is very formal. it is very presidential. remindsle white house many of our visitors of their mom's house, or their grandmother's house, perhaps a favorite aunt. it is very humbly furnished.

it is very subtle. i think that the number one thing is that people coming in go, i could live here. this feels like my house. it really is the people's house in so many ways. it is not big house by any means. they get it. harry truman was truly human. he was one of us. socertainly would've been .eeping with his character ♪ you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org. this is american history tv, only on c-span3.

week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic laces to learn about american history. here's a brief look at one of our recent trips. >> these next few galleries really tell the story of the chesapeake bay region. maryland, virginia, north carolina. move out of the 17th century and into the 18th, what you begin to see is how the londonof places like are really having an impact threat the entire south. you begin to see, not just people coming from land, but tradesmen. professional artists. coming to the south because they see an opportunity make things that -- things.

this next gallery represents the kinds of objects that would've been made in that region. if you move into the. before the revolutionary war. around me is the architectural interior. this is architecture that came out of the house in somerset county, maryland. it was built in the first decade of the 18th century. the person who lived in houses like this was no means poor. thatwas the kind of house somebody in the upper 50% of wealth is going to have. time,nventories from that you see that they had quite a number of fine things. not only are they going to have some look we made furniture, like a walnut table. they are also going to have ceramics. they will have imported glass.

ont because they are living the edge of the english empire does not mean that they don't have access to those global markets. those global markets are bringing them those kinds of things. they are bringing them pottery, glass, metal work. they are also bringing ideas of what is fashionable. foroesn't take very long what is fashionable in the cabinet shop in london or edinburgh to make its way to america and even into households in a fairly democratic level. settlements around the chesapeake bay are flourishing starting in the mid-1770's, there is also colonization going on further south. along the tidal rivers and will become the carolinas. 18the middle of the

century, the carolina low country was home to some of the wealthiest people in north america. the objects in this room represent some of the earliest things made in the southern low country. we are going to take a walk this story here and see the kinds of objects being made in places like charleston, south carolina, right on the eve of the revolutionary war. charleston is one of the cities -- wealthiest cities. on the eve of the american revolution, charleston was closer to london then it was to the other colonial cities. more charles tony and's were sending their children to be educated abroad people from any other colony. that wealth is based on trade. it is based on the trade for indigo.- spice, through

-- four indigo. we are really fortunate here in the museum to have our collection, one of the great views of charleston from that. a painting of the city done in 1774. he was an english painter who came to charleston and actually advertises a newspaper that he is preparing to paint a view of the city. he's going to send that painting back to london and have engraved. you have to imagine in the back of his head in the back of those reading the advertisement, there is the implication that if you print, yource your house is better delineated in it. he paints the view of charleston harbor right on the eve of the revolution. he shows charleston at the height of its commercial supremacy. he goes back to london.

he takes the painting and has the print engraved area -- engraved. it produces a definitive view of the city on the eve of the revolutionary war. all of the identifiable , you have aandmarks ship coming into harbor. perhaps even if you want to get philosophical about it, maybe these waves in the clouds are meant to represent -- and the clouds are meant to pretend revolution to come. even the wealthiest city in north america, there are storm clouds brewing. won't be colonies for much longer. travel with us to a historic sites, e-zines, and archives, each sunday at 6:00 and 10:00 eastern.

tv, allamerican history weekend on c-span3. next, rutgers university professors teach a class on the history of the environmental movement and laws and litigations having to do with natural resources. he describes the relationship between private property and government regulation. it explores who is legally allowed to represent environmental interest in court. his class is about an hour. do aday, we're going to class on environmental law and litigation in the united dates. i'm not going to cover everything there is to say about the subject, could be an entire course in its own right. i'm going to focus on a few big picture problems that environmental issues pose for the subject matter of this class, law and society.