idea of finding the answers to questions and wheels can find. >> it is a new event for me. i've had a new position for all my professional life. father is a lifelong republican who never voted for a democrat until me. >> joined the discussion. our c-span cities tour takes american history tv on the road to feature the history of cities across america. here is a recent program. this is grant wood studio, where american gothic was painted. it was the piece that everyone knows. a lot of times, people will not know the artist with the title, but it is an iconic piece. it is probably the most iconic piece of american art to date. grant would was born outside of

animosa, iowa. he lived here until he moved to iowa city in 1935. that is just 30 miles away. he was artistic from a young age. we have every early sketches dating from 1906, possibly 1904. he was always really artistic. that may have been a little difficult for him growing up. his father was a quaker. he grew up in a relatively strict household. he was always really creative. he went off to europe. he went to your four times during the 1920's to study because that is what artists did. your artistic education was not really complete until you went to europe. for the early years of his career he was painting in an american impressionist style. a lot of loose expressionist brushwork. even paying a very quickly. during the mature phase of his career, he slowed down. he developed this hard edged more linear style. that coincided with him coming back to his last trip to europe that he took in and realizing 1928 that the midwest was just

as worthy of midwest artistic consideration as europe. he wanted to paint what he knew. he wanted to paint the people and landscapes that surrounded him. this studio allowed him to be a professional painter at a time where it would've been rare for someone in eastern iowa to have that profession. the mansion next to the studio longed to john b turner who wanted to turn into a mortuary. he hired grant wood to help with the transition. he happened to offer him the space the carriage house. wouldfered to let grant -- wood move into the carriage house as a studio space and later as a resident. he later realized he could make this into a space where he could live year-round. turner was not charging him any rent. that allowed him to leave his job at the school district. he was an art teacher. he moved in here full-time and worked as an artist. that allowed him to become a professional artist at an age

where that would've been quite difficult for him. this would have been the bedroom. there were mattresses under both of these alcoves with curtains you could pull aside and bring them out at night. this space right here functioned as a stage. grant wood hosted theatricals a lot. he was known as the predecessor to the current the uterus scene of cedar rapids. -- theater scene of cedar rapids. this would have been the stage. the audience would be sitting back in the larger living area. he was also really handy. he pushed this part of the heritage house out and created another source of light for himself. he also created this space as a place to put his paintings. you can stack a bunch of canvases and boards and push it back into the wall. it is out of sight and out of mind. you are not tripping over your art supplies all the time. here are some of the other paintings he did while working in the studio.

this is woman with plants. a portrait of his mother from 1929. she is holding her snake plant. he was really inspired by northern renaissance painters he saw in germany. it was typical in the northern renaissance to paint a portrait of someone holding an attribute of their personality. she has her plant. daughters of the american revolution is another fantastic one. this is a painting i really like because i think it shows his witty personality. when he was creating this large stained glass window for the veterans memorial, the building in cedar rapids he caught some , flack from people because there was not a stained glass placed in the u.s. that could work on such a large scale. he went to munich, germany to create this window. he caught some flack because it was a war memorial window. we had just finished world war i with germany. some people thought that was not patriotic. he painted this portrait of

three daughters of the revolution. they are standing next to the painting of washington crossing the delaware. he was a german artist it was painting the scenes. a little pointing out the hypocrisy of these primitive proper looking daughters of the revolution. the midnight ride of paul revere is another one of his pieces. he looks to america's past and the fables that created our national consciousness. and a very tiny rocking horse paul revere is writing to this town that looks dollhouse-like. the midnight ride of paul revere utilizes his sense of landscape with stylized lollipop trees. the fantasy cliffs in the background. it is fun to see those elements come together. this is his most iconic painting, american gothic. he painted it in 1930 that same year he entered it in competition for the art institute of chicago where it won a bronze medal. the museum bought it for $300.

this is one of the most iconic pieces of american art. he used his dentist and his younger sister as models. nan is alternatively described as being the farmer's wife. she thought she was too young to be the wife. she preferred the daughter. the architecture in the background is an actual building that still exists a couple hours south of cedar rapids. what he is referring to her when he says american gothic is the pointed window. this is something that is typical of european gothic architecture he would have seen a lot of. he was in europe four times in the this struck him as being 1920's. interesting that this unassuming white clapboard iowa farmhouse would utilize the delicate tracery, typical of gothic.

it would be transported to the midwest in such a way. he fell in love with this building. he made a quick oil sketch of it but if you wanted to utilize it in a painting that came out in american gothic. the gothic in europe, it is mostly used for cathedrals and associated with religion and the sacred. it is interesting to see it juxtaposed with this midwestern couple here. in the background, you can see a tall plant. another thing he would use in his paintings. specifically the portrait of his mother. this plant is alternatively known as mother-in-law's tongue or snake plant. it is very hearty. we have takeoffs from the original plant. they are impossible to kill. it is something he used in a lot of his paintings. approach his sister is wearing. he reused a lot of his props. this was something that was his mother's painting. and you can see her wearing it in another painting. it is really striking on nan.

of rick rack apron, typical iowa farm wives. the quintessential overalls. herells was his trademark he painted in them. it is interesting he used them for the doctor but they were a midwestern marker to be sure. american gothic is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. it was in the right place at the right time. it was in the show of the art institute of chicago. he was interested in midwestern architecture and how they lived. it was perfectly into the narrative he was building. it is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. it was in the right place at the right time.

it was in the show of the art institute of chicago. it was reproduced in the newspaper. people really had a response to it and fell in love with it. they were interested in the story and who the models were. they were interested in what it said about the midwest. all of america got really into it. it became this iconic piece. people had a lot of thoughts about it. whether it was these dour midwesterners were puritanical or these good frontier foundational values that were going to keep america together during this trying time. for people who do not look very emotional, it is a piece that engenders a lot of emotion. his career skyrocketed after american gothic. it was the iconic piece which is why we are still talking about him today. american gothic changed the trajectory of his career. he started getting bigger commissions. he took a job at the university of iowa in iowa city. he worked for the wpa during the depression. the work progress the administration.

he was super busy. he traveled a lot. he became the face of that art movement, american teen painting. --scene painting. he traveled the country and gave a lot of talks. he was busy putting forth the idea that the midwest was a viable place to create art. he started an artist colony in stone city for a couple of summers. he wanted to encourage artists to paint where they were and what they knew. you do not have to go to the east coast. you do not have to go to europe to paint worthwhile things. you can do it in your own backyard using what you know. the way both iowans thought about their state and the way outsiders thought about iowa changed with grant wood. he is painting largely during the great depression. you do not see any of that in his paintings. his paintings are very idealized. everyone is healthy. everyone is out working the land. there is no dust bowl. there is no drought. there is no flood.

all of the corn is coming up perfectly. the houses are neat and beautiful. i think he was operating with some nostalgia for an iowa that never really existed. people from iowa had mixed reactions to things like american gothic. they kind of thought he was making fun of them or calling them puritanical. i think wood shaped what people who are not from iowa thought of the state. even today people have this idea of the rolling hills and the farmlands and the windmills and the good hearty iowa stock people. a lot of that comes from grant wood. he kind of creative a myth of iowa that exists to this day. he died in 1942 of pancreatic cancer. they came up really quickly. he started feeling bad in the middle of 1941. he took some trips. one someplace for the summer. he came back and was diagnosed

and passed away in 1942. he was very young when he died. he could have had an entire rest of his career ahead of him. 20 or 30 years of working. he died before his time, which is sad. he is still a big part of the arts community in iowa. he is the best-known iowa artist of any time i can think of. he is most important as a symbol. he is a reminder that iowa is viable as an artistic subject. and that our landscape and people are worthwhile. that painting them and spending your life recording what happens in iowa is a worthwhile thing to do. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org/citiestour. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. katie was simply three

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communicators, michael powell. he is interviewed by washington post reporter ken sukreski. >> the cable industry is in transition. it's talks of the miser dramatically premature. the industry has nicely transitioned to this broadband that helps compensate for the market competitive pressures on video. they have managed the video better than people would have imagined. i think they are thriving as businesses, as consumer delivery systems. they recently announced an initiative called 10g, an attempt to dramatically increase broadband to american homes. >> what's the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2.

>> >> authors send a walker and it edward lyman discussed three-mile island. we begin your harrisburg, pennsylvania but i guess you lives near three-mile island. this is about 90 minutes. >> "washington journal" continues. for the next 90 minutes on historyton journal" and -- american history tv, we look island's.ree mile the instrument rated a five on thel