was a an important role that photography played. so in terms of the multiple lessons that we learned through history. i see the visual visual experience as telling that story and thank you. learn more about the people and events that shape the civil war and reconstruction every saturday at 6pm eastern only on american history tv tv here on c-span 3 the c-span cities tour travels the country exploring the american story since 2011. we've been to more than 200 communities across the nation like many americans our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. next a look at one of our city's tour visits. nevada is one of the few states where our first anglo-american industry here was mining and it

wasn't agricultural. there has been mining nevada since early as 1850 51 and it really took off with the founding of virginia city in 1859 and 1860. rena was found in 1868 as part of the transcontinental railroad. we were a railroad hub for the central pacific railroad and we connected with virginia city through the virginia truckee railroad. and reno really grew up as being the last stop before the desert and the last stop before the mountains and we are the main rail hub that the silver was sent through on its way to san francisco. so the comstock load was a large deposit of silver in virginia city on the virginia range, and it was mined in earnest from 1860 until about 1886. with boom and bus periods, but one of the largest discoveries of that period was the big bonanza of 1873 when the conver virginia struck one of the

largest silver deposits that we know about that. mine was owned by john mackey who is the of this building? john mackie was born in the early 1830s in dublin, ireland and he and his family came over to new york where he grew up in the five points neighborhood of new york city. and when he was old enough he left new york and took a ship to panama hiked to cross panama got on another ship and landed in the goldfields of california. he was part of the 1849 gold rush and would have arrived around 1850-51. he worked in the goldfields, but didn't find his fortune and in 1860 he walked from the goldfields of california to virginia city and according to the story entered virginia city penniles and because of his experience in the minds of california, he very quickly worked his way up through the minds of virginia city and became a superintendent of mine in the late 1860s and was able to buy in and purchase some mind by the early 1870s, and he was

owner of the conversignia. when most people thought i was defunct and he and his business partners kept it open for a few more weeks and it struck the big bonanza. and by the 1870s his minds were averaging about $300,000 a month in silver production, and there was an 1870s dollars. and john mackey was a major part of the minds of virginia city all the way up until they shut up the pumps of the combination shaft, which was kind of signaled the end of mining major the golden age of mining in virginia city in 1886, and he went on to invest in telecommunications. his first investment was the transatlantic telegraph cable. and by 1902 when he passed away the mackies were known as telecommunication barons and owned a telegraph and telephone company. and his son clarence mackey took

over the business and he was the one that built the relationship with the university starting in 1907 that led to the creation of the mackie school. one of the unique aspects in nevada is according to the our 1864 constitution the land grant university in nevada has to teach mining. and you and r is the land grant university here in nevada? you and i was found in 1874 in elko, and it was can the elko experiment was considered a bit of a failure. nobody graduated in 10 years. so they moved the university to reno and 1885 and moral hall was completed in 1886 which was the first building here at unr the first class graduated from unr in 1891. and mining education here at unr during that time was a lot of starts and stops. it wasn't very consistent there would go a few semesters where no mining classes were offered.

and in those days you and our in those days. it was called the university of nevada was just a few buildings on the south end of what was then the evans alfalfa ranch and as the university moved north they bought a more of the alfalfa ranch. in 1907 several politicians here in nevada. thought it would be a good idea to honor john mackey by having a statue of him. on the grounds of the capitol building so they approached john mackey's air clarence mackey about funding this statue and clarence bank. he agreed and reached out to the artist gootson borglum who had later go on to design and implement mount rushmore to build the statue by the time was completed about 1907-1908. there was a lot of politics people remember john mackey. they thought it might be inappropriate that one man. one individual was honored on

the capital grounds. so there was a bit of a debate and doctors stubbs who was the president of the university at the time said, hey, we'll take it. and so that's how the statute of john mackey arrived at the university but clarence mackey saw this kind of plucky western university and wanted to quote beautify the campus. so he donated money for the quad and our elm trees which are now over 100 years old and in 1908 donated thousand dollars to build the mackie school of mines. the keck museum which was originally known as the mackie school museum was founded in 1908. it was one of the original fixtures of the macky mines building. these are the original red oak cases from 1908 and the museum is still displaying and storing items as it would have been in 1908. founded as a research museum. it endeavored to bring the world to the mackie student and we

have collections from all over the world and many of our collection of ores from very famous mining districts and minds some of which have been closed for over 100 years and these or samples were taken at depth in many cases. we know the actual shaft and depth that the orr samples taken from the minerals on display and the objects on display really show about less than 5% of the collection the majority of the collection still in storage. and our three collecting areas is rocks and minerals with a special focus on ores paleontology and mining history in the last 10 to 15 years. we've really tightened our scope to focus on nevada. it's not only is that what we're good at but also nevada is a extremely interesting state from a geological perspective with over 35 minerals discovered here in the state of nevada. we are now in the lower level of

the wm keck museum and next to me is the mary louise and john mackey silver collection mary louise and john mackey owned several minds in virginia city, which was of course the side of the comstock load and particularly the famous silver mine the conversion which in 1873 was the source of the big bonanza. by the end of the 1870s mayor louise asked john to make her something from all the silver that was being pulled out of their minds. john mackey sent four boxcars of silver bullion from his mind's in virginia city and they most likely went through reno on their way to new york and there they arrived at tiffany & company and tiffany and company manufactured this set it took 200 artisans two years to make and these are only 58 of the original 1200 pieces in the collection, which originally sat 24 people. the mackies would have used this set daily in their homes in paris in london all the way up

into turn of the century. in the 1950s the mackie family donated this silver service to the university the quote and unquote impractical pieces, like the 29 candle candelabras the cigar stands or the decorative celery vases. and the university used this set as its state silver for many years. the service has been on display here at the keck museum for about 20 years. many of the items in the service really show the opulence of dining culture in the gilded age and there are many pieces here that we wouldn't normally find in a modern dinner service. so we have everything from crumb trays for so that the footmen can brush up crumbs in between courses. we also have melon eaters which were used to eat melons. i cantaloupe you slice with one side and you can use the fork on

the other side to pick up the morsel. we also have wine siphons and all of forks and champagne holders and some one of my personal favorites a pair of ham holders, so that while the footman where serving which the service of the style was called service day ruse where everything would be held by a servant and carved by the servant at the table and then served. the footman could hold the ham without without getting his white gloves so late. i'm really glad that visitors when they come to the tech museum can see objects such as the mary louise and john mackey silver collection that show not only the wealth of the minds in virginia city, but also that this is owned by the people of nevada and that this is on display for people to enjoy.

nevadaans take their earth science very seriously, and it's hard pressed to find a nevada and who does not claim they're a rockhound and nevada's love their geology. and mining has always been an important part of nevada since statehood. you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org cities tour. this is american history tv only on c-span 3. founded on february 4th 1941 the uso united service organizations is 80 years old this year tonight on real america three films that show the uso at work. here's a preview. i thought it would be fun. i thought it would be great but

not like i anticipated man it went way over down in the craft game. no, hope you know the lady. you never have to go go go. down i saw some linkage between the white to black. i saw it on the fire basis, man. i really did the relationship that black to white. the military in terms of

advancement in terms of what you can do if you really want to do it. is maybe 40% better than in the civilian life? i mean that the problem is that nobody wants to be in the military no matter how groovy it is. i don't get how long they let you cut your hair. how big it. do you wear vegas again? go back by chemo's dress shop. yes a hello tomorrow. what's your name rene? okay. well, i'll be there in march 15 and now you hey, hi, this is bob story. for anybody who tuned in late and missed the first 30 years stick around there's more to come. actually, i've got a special warm spot for the uso. we both started working for people in uniform about the same time 1941 and we both covered a lot of ground since then. i've been on the road so much when i get a letter from my wife it starts out dear sir.

but you may not know that the uso is serving more guys and gals in uniform in more locations today than ever before in an average month something like 3 million service people visit the uso facilities around the world that kind of service takes a lot of people and most of them are unpaid volunteers about 160,000 of them. what started it all was. the thing called world war ii and another thing that went with it call the draft qualifications were strict if you could hear thunder and see lightning and had two teeth that hit raise your right hand and repeat after me. the result was hundreds of thousands of new people in uniform. they had a huge job ahead of them. where they were going, they need all the support the american people could give they got it. and one way they got it was the uso it had just come into being. but it soon got into high gear. the uso brought the stars to the

desert of north africa and into the pacific with so many gis to be reached they couldn't be particularly. they'd sign up anybody. thanks, all you manage the khaki. there are many ways of spending a sunday afternoon in philadelphia and one of them is at the national league ballpark. where the philadelphia phillies play. as part of the afternoon program of recreational activities on religious emphasis day the ball game with cincinnati was a popular attraction for servicemen and their enthusiastic hosts. among the dozens of churches and synagogues in philadelphia are history is parallel out of the city far into colonial days. one of these is the mikva israel congregation. the second oldest synagogue in the united states founded in 1740 mica israel was the

congregation of heim solomon revolutionary war hero who spent his fortune and his life on the cause of freedom. learn more about the uso tonight at 10pm eastern 7pm pacific here an american history tv. you're watching american history tv every weekend on c-span 3 explore our nation's past american history tv on c-span 3 created by america's cable television companies and today we're brought to you by these television companies who provide american history tv to viewers as a public service. prepare to cast off which one cabana cast off. lastly then we cast off that.

you're watching american history tv covering history. c-span style with event coverage. i witness accounts archival films lectures and college classrooms and visits to museums and historic places all weekend every weekend on c-span 3 next on lectures in history tulane university professor john ray proctor teaches a class about playwright august wilson his contribution to african-american theater and his pulitzer prize-winning play fences in one hour and 15 minutes david wilkins discusses 18th and 19th century us policy toward american indians and explains their impact on them today.

in two hours on reel america three films that show the uso at work founded on february 4 1941 the uso united services organizations is 80 years old this year. today we're going to look at august wilson's fences. we're going to begin with a very brief discussion about who and what august wilson was his goal as a playwright. i'm gonna repeat some stuff that you have heard before from our in-class presentation from semhall, but there's going to be some stuff that i'm going to talk about in a little bit more depth than we talked about last class on thursday. you guys are going to look at t-bone and weasel. i really hope you all read that and prepared to do that. i'm gonna give you your very quick pop quiz the pop quiz for fences should be easy as we will be done discussing it, but we're gonna take it so that you guys can get a grade for it and you will have the pop quiz for