>> i do want to ask you one last question, and that is really the rising interest in the role of first ladies overall. i'm not sure if it is part of the me too movement or progression in women's history, but there seems to be a lot more interest in it. should there be, and what can we learn from these women who have been -- really helped make some political partners with the president? ms. bales: first off, i think all of them are interesting people. if you have any interest in getting to know people, which i love to talk to people and hear their story and what they are all about and where are they from, that sort of thing. they all have something important to them and there is a reason. what is that story? the first lady is not paid a dime for what she does or what she puts up with, but they all have a cause or reason for what they are doing. you find out they are very interesting people. >> thank you for the conversation. ms. bales: thank you. >> you are watching american history tv, only on c-span3.

recently, the franklin d roosevelt presidential library in new york displayed a unique film collection, and joining us on the phone to talk about it is library director paul sparrow. what is the missy lehand film collection? paul: missy lehand was an assistant to franklin roosevelt starting in 1920 and was with him for more than 20 years and was a close friend of the family as well. she actually lived in the white house when he was president. she became intrigued with film cameras. she had a film camera, and she would film a number of these informal picnics, events, and lunches, and then also part of this collection were films from other people who gave home movies to her that were included in her collection.

now, she had a stroke in 1941 and left the white house and took a lot of her possessions with her and died several years later, so they did not become an -- become part of the initial library collection when the library was created. her grand-nieces made the decision to donate these films to the library last year. since then, we went back to the original film, had them transferred and restored and we are making 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 are in the collection? paul: there were 11 different films, but they are strangely intercut. there are about two hours total. we put about 90 minutes online at this point. there is somewhere trying to -- there is some that we are trying to sort through. some of it may have been at newsreel footage that may be copyright protected. there are some footage we are not clear on ownership. we are still trying to work

through it. on one of these reels, you might have five or six different sub-clips. the reels reach about 10 minutes long. there might be a scene from their home in campobello up in canada, there might be a scene from hyde park, from warm springs, so they sort of jump all over. at this point, they are not clearly delineated, there is not a clear chronology of them, so we are trying to sort through them. we have started putting together a little highlight reel where we put together a selection of clips from warm springs and a selection of clips from campobello, so people can get more of a sense of where these home movies were taken that they are showing. >> so i am guessing that these are mostly black-and-white? paul: mostly black-and-white, but there is some wonderful color footage. some rare color footage, taken here in hyde park at the home in springwood, that features franklin and eleanor roosevelt on the lawn, in front of the house, with their irish setter and his mother, sarah, cutting

roses in the rose garden and the children riding on horses. it is beautiful footage. it is very unusual color footage from that period. there is also color footage of eleanor roosevelt on a boat knitting with some of her friends. but most of it is black and white. >> how and when did the fdr library come to acquire the collection? paul: the collection was donated about a year ago in august of 2017, and it has taken us a while to go through it and have it transferred. some of the old film stock is fairly fragile, and has to be treated in a special laboratory that the national archives works with in maryland, the color lab, so they have to go through the process of getting it ready for transfer, and we transferred it in both what they call for a 4k -- what they call 4k video files and high-definition video files so that the footage will be

available to researchers and filmmakers in the future. >> is the collection previously unknown? paul: well, the entirety of the collection was unknown. some of the footage has not been seen before. some of it has been rarely seen. some film archivists who worked for ken burns, for example, may have seen it, but some of it has never been seen. >> these are all pre-world war ii films? paul: yes, from the period of 1932 to 1938. after that, it sort of drops off. i imagine the life in the white house got too busy. what is wonderful about it is it shows you the sort of behind-the-scenes footage. there are some scenes where there are other reporters around and there are scenes where you can see other newsreel crews, but a lot of it, the roosevelts are letting their hair down. there are some scenes with fdr

in warm springs around the pool where you can see has very atrophied legs. that is something he would never reveal in a setting where there might be press present. but he was so comfortable with the other polio survivors at warm springs, and when you have someone like missy lehand taking the footage, he knew that would never get in the hands of a newsreel company. some of the picnics you see, the behind-the-scenes things you see, are really insights into the life of the roosevelts. >> how we you say the collection adds to fdr's legacy? paul: one of the things that is very intriguing about the roosevelts is, even though they were extraordinarily public for decades, they had a very private life. particularly, if you think about his polio and the fact that he was completely paralyzed from the waist down, this was

something that was kept secret from the american public for decades. people knew that he had polio, they knew that he was what they called crippled back then or he had a handicap or a funny walk, but very few people knew that he was paralyzed and so severely crippled. when you see the home movies it reveals a side of him where he is not putting on the act. everything else, whenever there is cameras around or he is giving speeches, he is pretending to be able to walk or pretending to be able to stand of course without the assistance of the steel braces that he wore on his legs and someone he could hold onto to brace himself, he could not stand. >> does missy lehand appear in any of these films? if so, are there any new observations about her relationship with fdr and eleanor roosevelt? paul: yes, missy lehand appears in a number of the videos, including scenes with franklin

both at the white house and at his home here in hyde park, and there are fun scenes that are home movies of missy that do not have the roosevelts at all where she is traveling with her sister and they are going around the country, and you can tell they really had a good time. these are people who enjoyed life. because of missy's position, many of the official photographs, she always looks very serious. she is the president's secretary. you can easily get a perception of her as a very reserved and serious person. when you see these home movies, you get the sense that she was a lot of fun, she was vivacious, and of course she was a very powerful woman. she controlled access to the president. she was not given a lot of respect. there was a lot of sexism back then. even today, a lot of historians do not fully acknowledge the remarkable role she played with

the roosevelts. we do have correspondence from ambassadors, and powerful people, contacting missy saying, "listen, i really need to see the president. can you get me in?" and her essentially providing backdoor access to the president for people she felt he needed to see, and the people she did not -- and the people she felt he didn't need to see did not get into see him. >> you talked a little bit about condition of the film. how is the library processing and preserving the film collection? paul: the original film was sent out to washington and was transferred to video files. we now have high-definition video files. the film itself will be stored in our collection rooms, which are temperature and humidity-controlled. we have a lot of film stock and audio tapes here that are stored in what we call our stacks, and they are kept under very specific environmental conditions. >> how can people view the films and learn more about them? paul: at this point, we put them online, and there are a lot of shots where we do not know who

everybody is in the shot yet. we were debating whether we should wait and identify everyone, or put them out there and get public feedback. eventually, we want to create crowdsourcing opportunities so people can go through the footage. for example, there are several scenes of a big picnic they had up at eleanor roosevelt's home, and it looks like there are a number of reporters there, but they are not there as reporters, they are just having fun. they are doing three-legged races and egg races and just playing. we would love to get feedback , help people identify who all the individuals are. nine of the 11 rolls have been put online. the other ones, we are still working through some issues of ownership. they are available now both on the fdr library youtube channel, and there is a page on the fdr library website that will explain the collection and take

you to the youtube playlist. >> paul sparrow, thank you for your time today. paul: i appreciate it. bus was recently in the 39th hawaii for stop of our 50 capitals tour. join us next weekend as we featured our visit to hawaii on c-span, but tv, and american history tv. exploring hawaii's history and culture. c-span,xt saturday on the director of hawaii's office of planning, will talk about homelessness and affordable housing. on book tv at noon, stuart coleman on his book "eddie would of a legendarye hawaiian surfer.

then, the book collection of late u.s. senator daniel in a -- daniel inouye. then, the executive director of the blue planet foundation on renewable energy efforts in hawaii. en route -- at 2:00 p.m. eastern, we visit the valley along the north shore of a wahoo -- of oahu. eastern, three short documentaries about hawaii. the 1956 film "soldier in hawaii," the silent film "hawaiian island." tv, weekend on c-span, book and american history tv. on theto hawaii weekend free c-span radio app.

at 10:00mayor saturday a.m. eastern. the c-span bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. we recently stopped in springfield, illinois, and are looking forward to the midterm elections. we are asking folks which party should control congress and wide. >> i think the party that should control congress after the midterms is the democrats some checks on things going on in washington. there is so much that is contrary to what i believe is best for the electorate in the united states. i believe that, with the democrats controlling congress, that will bring some checks and balances to the project -- to the process. >> i would like to see the republicans retain control of congress in both chambers after this election because, as a

supporter of donald trump, i think that the republican party is going to do a better job advancing its agenda where is the democratic party is going to obstruct him. keep it read. >> i want women to control congress. i'm tired of people who don't live my life telling me what i need to do. we need more women in all sorts of powerful positions. in congress, as the president, in our senate, state and federal. >> i think that it would be bad for the country if impeachment proceedings failed. they will initiate if the democrats hold the house. i think either we would like to see a sweeping democratic victory where they pick up enough seats in the senate to get a guilty in impeachment, or to have the republicans keep the house of representatives and

then there's no impeachment at all. if there are unsuccessful impeachment proceedings going on for many months, that would be pretty bad for the country. >> voices from the states, part of c-span's 50 capitals tour. next, on lectures in history, brandeis university professor abigail cooper talks about how rove for thes st rights of full citizenship and the right to vote, make contracts and choose where they work. this is about 50 minutes. prof. cooper: slavery to freedom revisited. radicals and roots. there is talk about the latin -- of or relating to roots and the linkages between radicalism and roots.