this is from frank leslie's illustrated newspaper where a lot of the 19th century stuff we have in the house collection that tells us about what is going on in the house and what the public's reading about it, what they are seeing, this is one of the rare ones in which there is an african-american member given a sort of little portrait there on the pages next to any number of other things going on. this is the news of the day. tell me about robert elliott. mr. wasniewski: elliott is one of the interesting members. he is from south carolina. a majority of the african-american members come from south carolina, largely because it was a majority african-american population, and their districts are african-american. so there is support for a black candidate. elliott is a wonderful orator, and he is one of those people who events himself -- invent himself as he went along. you get the sense he was a true character. he had a great classical education. he came up after reconstruction: worked on a newspaper. then he becomes a member of the state assembly. he comes into the house for two terms,

this is from frank leslie's illustrated newspaper. where a lot of the 19th century stuff that we have in the house collection that tells us about what's going on in the house and what the public is reading about it, what they're seeing, this is one of the rare ones in which there's an african-american member who's given sort of a little portrait right there on the pages right next to any number of other different things that are going on. this is sort of news of the day. so tell me a little bit about robert elliott. >> elliott's one of the interesting members. he's from south carolina and the majority of african-american members during the 19th century come from south carolina, seven members all from that state largely because it's a majority african-american population and their districts are majority african-american. and so there's support for a black candidate. elliott is a wonderful orator and he's one of these people who invented himself as he went along. you get the sense that he was a true character, but he had a great classic