i swear to god. i never met president. reagan but i did get to know mrs. reagan a little bit. she would eat a third of a cobb salad at lunch. you felt huge next to her. it was always terrible because she would gossip-- she would always do more gossip than i did. for me it was i don't know man. -- i don't know miss. yes it's terrible.>> i just noted that president. reagan had such an effect on our language and sense of national identity, people think that jesus said shining on the hill. she looked up at me and said, well that's the kind of thing ronnie would do, isn't it? may we all be loved as nancy

loved ronnie reagan. recently the presidential library reviewed a unique film collection. joining us on the phone is library direct to. what is this film collection?>> she was an assistant to roosevelt and was with him for more than 20 years and was a close friend of the family as well. she lived in the white house and she became intrigued with film cameras. she would film a number of these informal picnics events and lunches and part of this collection were films from other people who gave home movies that were included in

her collection. she had a stroke and left the white house and took a lot of possessions with her and died several years later. it did become part of the initial library collection when the library was created. her grand nieces decided to donate these and since then we went back to the original film and had them transferred and restored and are finally starting to make them available to the public. this is the first time we have put this whole collection of films online for people to review. >> how many films were in the collection?>> 11 but they are strangely intercut. there are two hours total and we put about 90 minutes online. there are still some we are trying to sort through. some may have been newsreel footage or copyright protected.

some footage we are not exactly clear on ownership so we are trying to work through it. on one of these reels you may have five or six sub clips about 10 minutes long, and there might be a scene from up in canada or a scene from springwood and it sort of jumps all over. at this point they are not clearly delineated. there's not a clear chronology so we are trying to sort through them. we started to put together a little highlight reel where we put together a selection of clips so people can get a little bit more of a sense of when these were taken and what they are showing.>> i'm guessing these are mostly black and white?>> it is but there is some wonderful color footage. some very rare color footage taken here featuring franklin

and eleanor really-- franklin and eleanor roosevelt with their irish setter and cutting roses in the rose garden and children writing their horses. it's beautiful footage and very unusual color footage. there's also colorful footage of eleanor roosevelt on a boat but most of it is black and white. >> how and when did the library come to acquire the collection? >> it was donated in august 2017 and has taken a while to go through it and have it transferred. some of this is fairly fragile and has been treated in a special laboratory. they had to go through the process of getting it ready for transfer and then we transferred it into video files so the footage will

be available to researchers and filmmakers in the future. >> is the collection previously unknown? >> the entirety of the collection was unknown. some of the footage has been seen before. some has not. some of it has been rarely seen so some archivists for example may have seen it but a lot has not been widely seen and some of it has never been seen. >> these are all pre-world war ii films? >> this was mostly from 1932 to about 1938. after that it drops off and i imagine that life got too busy. what's wonderful is that it shows you a behind-the-scenes footage. there are some scenes where there are reporters around and you can see newsreel crews, but a lot of it, they are really letting their hair down.

for example there are scenes with fdr around the pool where you can see his very atrophied legs and that is something he would never reveal in a setting where there might be press but he was cute-- but he was so comfortable and when you have someone taking the footage you knew that the footage would never get in the hands of newsreel companies. some of the behind the things-- behind-the-scenes things you see, insights into the informal lives of the roosevelt.>> how would you say the collection adds to that legacy? >> one of the things that is very intriguing is that even though they were extraordinary public figures for decades, they had a private life.

if you think about polio and the fact that he was completely paralyzed from the waist down, this was kept secret from the american public for decades. the people knew that he had polio and what they called crippled or that he had a handicap or a funny walk but very few-- very few people knew that he was paralyzed and so severely crippled. when you see these home movies it reveals a side of him where he is not putting on the act. whenever there are cameras around or he's giving speeches or public appearances, he is pretending to be able to walk and stand without the assistance of the braces that he wore and someone he could were-- hold on to to brace himself. >> does missy lehand appear and are there any observations without-- about her

relationships? >> she appears in a number of those with scenes at the white house and at his home here in hyde park. there are fun scenes that do not have roosevelt in them at all and she's traveling with her sister and they are going around the country. these are people who enjoyed life. because of her position, she always looks very serious as the president's secretary. you can easily get a perception of her as a reserved and serious person. when you see those movies you get the sense that she was a lot of fun, vivacious, and a powerful woman. she controlled access to the president. she was not given a lot of respect. even today a lot of historians

don't fully acknowledge the remarkable role that she played for so long. we have correspondence from ambassadors and powerful people contacting her saying i need to get to see the president. can you get me in? and her essentially providing back door access to fdr for the people that she felt he needed to see. the people she felt he did not need to see did not get in to see him. >> how is the library preserving and processing the film collection?>> the original film was sent to washington and transferred over video files so we have these high-definition files and the film itself will be stored in collections rooms which are temperature and humidity controlled. we have a lot of audiotapes that are stored in stacks and kept under very specific environmental conditions.

>> how can people learn more about them?>> we put them online and there's a lot of shots where we don't know who everyone is yet. we were debating whether we should wait and try to identify everyone or put them out there and get public feedback. we want to create a crowdsourcing opportunity so people can go through the footage. there are several scenes of the picnic that they had at eleanor roosevelt's home. it looks like there is a number of reporters but they are not there as reporters. they are just having fun and doing three-legged races and just playing. we would love to get feedback to identify who all the individuals are. nine of the 11 have been put 11 rolls have been put online. others we're still working through the issues of

ownership. they're available now on both our websites will take you right you to the youtube playlist.>> thank you for your time. you tube play list. >> paul sparrow thank you so much for your time today. >> i appreciate it. >> visited our website cspan.org. you can view our tv schedule, preview upcoming programs and watch college lectures, museum tours and more. american history tv at cspan.org. coming up we'll show you the coverage from the historical summit this week with representatives from presidential historic sites. former white house

spokesperson. and that's followed by historians discussing what you choose. and they will include presidential history. if you missed any of these stories, you can find them any time online at cspan library.org. american history tv weekdays continues until labor day. on thursday we turn to our oral history series in conversation with women who were members of congress. then on friday, we'll show you discussions on world war i known as the great war. including a look at soldiers on the western front and how the u.s. dealt with shell shock. this labor day weekend american history tv on cspan3 has three days of feature programming. starting saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern with lectures in

history. as colorado state university pueblo professor matt harris discusses the anti slavery movement before the civil war. sunday at 10:00 a.m. on oral history, our women in congress feature continues with barbara finelli. at 8:00 p.m. on the presidency a look at the relationship between george washington and alexander hamilton and the accuracy of hamilton the musical. the white house historical association's presidential site summit. watch american history tv this labor day weekend on cspan3. >> white house correspondents join presidential spokesperson in a discussion between the relationship of both sides. this is from the white house historical association summit this week with representatives of presidential historic sites across the