. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> up next, a look at our recent visit to lake charles, louisiana. you are watching american history tv all weekend on c-span3. >> beginnings are always interesting. the dons of new eras in human history are among the most fascinating of all studies. the dawn have our little days are most important of all. it is how we start that counts. -- dusks and sunsets

somehow take care of themselves when we have started arriving. from the pen of the city chronicler. maude reede. when we have started arriving.sh nurse in the region. she was the daughter and granddaughter of a local family who had a long history here. her grandfather was one of the early sheriffs of the area. more than 100 years of sheriffs in the region. in addition to being a nurse, she was an avid scrapbook or. -- scrapbooker. today, we're looking at the scrapbook collection she put together. there are 13 scrapbooks that discuss specific moments in late charles history. there are many smaller scrapbooks that talk about various other subjects from recipes into early doctors to local families. she believed in recording in detail the local history of the place.

she took great pains in collecting material, transcribing official documents, she went to peoples homes and collected their photographs. she took their diaries and wrote them down and transcribed them. she put all of that material together in these scrapbooks that cover 100 years of local history. reed is mod read -- maude as a young girl. this is her at bellevue hospital. because of her family connection to public service, she released this call to the local -- realized this call to the local community. she looked at the early doctors around and saw them as pioneers,

going out in treating the second -- sick traveling across the , countryside. at 21, she said her life was slipping away. what could i do to serve others? she decided to become a nurse. she goes to bellevue, new york, one of the largest and most famous hospitals of the day, to get experience. she knew she needed experience doing the job. around the mid- she comes back 20's, to lake charles and begins her work as a red cross nurse. maude got into scrapbooking at the request of a local doctor. he was contacted by a famous surgeon who wanted to write a history of the medicine of louisiana. he contacted a doctor who would know her local connection. she began to compile history and compile these scrapbooks. she compiled 13 different scrapbooks. they are organized by subject. the experience during world war

ii or early doctors, even her personal life. this is the scrapbook, the -- number five that maude reid collected. about the history of lake charles. maude reid had a fierce pride in her hometown. she often wanted to show people and tell people that lake charles, even though it was younger then new orleans had a history that was as rich and deep as these other places. this is in the late 40's or early 50's when lake charles is really starting to grow because of the petrochemical build, maude reid would go back to the earliest moments of lake charles history. those early pioneers who gathered around lake charles because of its beauty and its access to the gulf. she took this picture and put it in the scrapbook because of an

article written about lake charles. a woman wrote a beautiful article about what was so special about lake charles. says, this lovely place is the spot that left her down with the light. delight.ith this is a scene in late summer. you can see over and over she takes pictures of the lake and puts them in the scrapbook, trying to preserve the beauty of the region she saw around her. these cypress trees are the most iconic images of louisiana. here, you can see she says, seen on lake charles where charles salieri once made his home.

lake charles was named after the first person in the region. there are stories people told about him and the early pioneers. a lot of them involve a man who would use the waterways to hide out. legend says that once lafitte left new orleans, he came to this region. this is right after the war of 1812 when he was expelled from the city after being a hero. he comes here and sets up a base in galveston and he uses the river to make his way inward over and over again. like most local historians, maude reid made an effort to document the people she considered the founders of the town, the most important members. when industry change or there was economic development, she took great pains to document it.

you can see some of the work she does is showing pictures of the most prosperous people in town. off of the lumber industry and sulfur industry and oil industry. she also takes great pains to find the everyday activities, activities that in this time many people not -- might ignore. in the 1930's, she is going to document a river baptism and the -- in the african-american community here. a very important affair for this group, but one that is often ignored. -- in the african-american community here. this is sunday, 1938. -- 1930. she went to houses to take pictures of the most intimate of their religious expressions. these are the st. joseph's day

alters by the italian-americans in st. charles where the altar was made out of bread and cakes and fruits and given away as a sign of thinking st. joseph for his help during the famine. what i think maude reid realized about the place was it's a living, breathing entity that takes different types of people to make it what it is. lake charles is special because of not only the natural beauty here, but because of the founders who made it what it is. the everyday individual people who contributed to the culture. on this table is her scrapbook about world war ii. scrapbook number seven. as a red cross nurse, the war took a toll on her. she paid special attention to

how many people, how many local boys were serving in the war. and what it cost them. thesen look and some of pictures and see she would make notations of every person in the area. writing notes, killed in a crash. it really is an amazing scrapbook. she was not only documenting the local community's experience with the men fighting in the war, but sustaining the war effort. anything about collecting scrap or rationing, she makes an effort to document. here is a picture that she clips out and makes a notation and says, a wave of hysteria swept over the nation for several days following the announcement of president roosevelt's death. it was the topic of everyone's

conversation. here is one of the articles she clips out about president roosevelt. he actually visited a town called lake arthur in 1920. one of the local boys, 10 or 12, gets lost. he is missing. roosevelt is therefore a duck hunting trip. when everyone finds out, they split up into search parties. he is one of the people who goes out. it is roosevelt who finds the boy the next morning. he finds him on this island. he brings the boy back. that is one of the legends here about roosevelt visiting. while the war was raging in europe, american officials realized that we needed a well-trained force.

when we would enter into the battle. they realized louisiana's terrain gave the soldiers many opportunities to train. more than 400,000 soldiers came into the area to engage in these elaborate wargames. the biggest names in the war, the people who would make the most significant contributions including dwight eisenhower were stationed here. even very famously the person who many people tell legends about, general patton. the troops were divided into two forces. a red army and a blue army. they were divided by states. one army was arkansas, louisiana, texas, alabama, mississippi. they went to war against the red army.

planes dropped sacks of flour from the air. where the flower covered, that would so the damage that ensued. they remember the number of men who were here, soldiers camped out everywhere here. they had tents in backyards. the men who were trained in the region became the first fighting force deployed into your. -- europe. they had real-world experience. the leaders like patent and kruger and bradley became the officers they relied on for the development. -- battle. this is the scrapbook that maude reid put together of her life. she scrapbooked about her life until she passed away in 1978. i think this scrapbook shows you

the kind of connection she had to the community and the impact. she often would visit schools and make presentations. here's is a note, a letter from a student written to her. dear miss maude reid, we listened to you on a tape recorder. we enjoyed hearing you tell the children from the fourth grade about the early times. you told us things we never learned. thank you very much. not only did she speak to the schools and communities, her work as a nurse really gives you an indication of how progressive she was. when she returned here, she began a lot of the public health activities here you -- here. you can see the child welfare clinic at city hall. lake charles, 1926.

as it looked the first day it began, inspection of the babies. a few weeks later the halls were , painted green and additional equipment put in. this is as it was, the beginning. dr. crawford and maude reid. she also spearheaded a free dental clinic for needy children. she instituted the first free public lunch in the area, making sure none of the students would know which students needed free lunch. that was very important to her. she did a lot of those public -- the first person to institute the public health activities in the region. i think maude reid was a remarkable person. she believed in public service. she wanted to make a change and an impact in the local community. she devoted her life to it.

as a nurse, as a historian, as a person collecting these scrapbooks to document the lives of these people around lake charles, the religious ceremonies, their daily lives, the contributions local families made. in a way she was the first , person to say this is what it means to be from lake charles, to be part of this community. this is what lake charles is. this is what makes it beautiful and unique and different. >> the staff traveled to lake charles, louisiana to learn more about its rich history. learn more about our tour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> next, paul talks about german

uboat warfare. he explains why germany attacked u.s. and canadian ships and describes their tactics. he is the author of a history of u-long-range summering campaign against north america. he spoke at a daylong symposium at the graveyard of the atlantic museum in hatteras, north carolina to mark the 100th anniversary of the world war i u-boat warfare off the north carolina coast. it's about 45 minutes. >> our next speaker is mr. paul hodos. he was the author of "the kaiser's lost kreuzer: a history of u-156 and germany's long-range submarine campaign against north america, 1918." that is one of the books we will have available later this afternoon. he has graduated from saint vincent's college in pennsylvania and he is now with