our presenter today is jim barber, and historian at the particularly -- portrait gallery. jim has lectured extensively on the civil war. gas finished a new exhibition on babe ruth and given talks on everyone from thelonious monk to over elvis -- [indiscernible] please welcome jim barber. jim barber: welcome to the national portrait gallery. ira aldridge, we will talk about a little bit right now. very appropriate for february is black history month. why ira aldridge? with this "face to face series," series, we connect three different people throughout three consecutive months. we began last month with pocahontas. this month is ira aldridge. the connection is the thread, back in 2007, the state of virginia commemorated two huge anniversaries. one, the older one being the 400 anniversary of the founding of jamestown. the second anniversary was the 200 anniversary of the birth of robert e. lee. one of the hardest things to do for anyone is to get a sense of time. think back to hundred years -- 200 years if you can to robert e. lee's era. and then another 200 years back to jame

our presenter today is jim barber, and historian at the particularly -- portrait gallery. war.

a third thursday of next month with jim barber and everett dirkson. thank you very much. >> yes, thank you for showing up. [ applause ] you've been watching c-span city's tour. find out where we're going next on line. and a quick reminder that every weekend on c-span 3 experience american history tv beginning saturdays at 8:00 a.m. eastern. for more information, follow us on twitter @c-spanhistory or follow us on facebook. and join american history tv sunday for live coverage of ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the surrender at appomattox. in april of 1865 confederate general robert e. lee met ulysses s. grant at appomattox courthouse and effectively surrendered the shuffle warcivil war. we'll be live sunday as historians reflect on the last battles and explore the aftermath and legacy of appomattox. we'll also open our phone call for authors david blight and elizabeth marron. that's sunday on c-span 3. >>> here are some of our featured programs for this weekend on c-span. on c-span 2's book tv saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern president of am

>> next, we visit the national portrait gallery in washington d.c., with historian and curator jim barber who gives us an in-depth look at one of the oil paintings of ira aldridge, an early 19th-century african american actor. he was born free in new york in 1807 and became famous in after -- in europe after being unable to find work in america. this program is part of a series called "face to face" about important players in the struggle for justice in american history. ian cooke: hello and welcome. i am ian cooke of the national portrait gallery.

next month jim barber with everett dirksen. [applause] >> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook, @cspanhistory. >> american history tv recently visited longwood university in virginia. the program was cohosted by the university at appomattox courthouse national historical park. next, a talk about the military maneuvers of the union and confederate armies that brought them to appomattox. >> thank you, patrick. our final speaker tonight is christopher calkins. he a proud graduate of longwood university. longwood college when he went here. you were one of the first male graduates of longwood. chris has had a long career with the national park service. he worked at appomattox, spotsylvania, and was chief of interpretation at petersburg for many years. in 2008 he took over the position of park manager for battlefield state park. it is only 15 minutes from here. he has done an amazing job in revising sailor's creek. -- revitalizing sailor's creek. as a mentioned in the beginning he will be available

barber shop quartet day. they are the national quartet champion. tenor baritone jim henry bass. jim, get over here.son because you are the bass? >> i'm the best-looking. >> is that what it is? >> it's a weak pool. >> all right. okay. here is what i have got to tell you. my dad is a barber. is he 78 and still has his barber shop barber pole. barber shops have anything to do with barber shop quart at the time? >> they really do. started in the back rooms of barber shops, particularly in the south. they were owned by african-american men primarily. and they would gather in the back rooms and sing the popular songs of the day harmonize. maybe strum to a guitar and that's sort of where it was born, really. >> and now you guys are keeping this tradition going. probably can't be an easy thing to do. kind of seems like a throw back how are you doing this? >> we try to keep the music alive and sing a lot of things more recent and in the same style. so we're not always singing songs from that era. we are singing songs written in modern days as well. trying to maintain the style. it's a great ache pella style

our presenter today is jim barber, a historian here at the portrait gallery. jim has written and lectured extensively on the civil war. he's finishing a new exhibition on babe ruth and he has given face to face talks on everyone from they will loanus munch to elmer elsworth. please welcome with a history of ira aldrich jim barber. [ applause ] >> again welcome toll the national portrait gallery. ira aldridge, we'll talk about a little bit right now and very appropriate for february's black history month. why ira aldridge? and with this face to face series we connect three different people throughout three consecutive months so that we began last month with pocahontas and this month is ira aldridge and the connection is, the thread back in 2007 the state of virginia celebrated or commemorated two huge anniversaries, one the -- the older one being the 400th anniversary of the founding of jamestown. and the second anniversary was the 200th anniversary of the birth of robert e. lee. and one of the hardest things for anyone to do, teachers, historians, you name it,