now, julia grant.his is about 1.5 hours. >> serving as first lady from 1869 to 1877, by all accounts, julia grant relished the role, once commenting that life inside the white house was a "garden spot of orchids.” growing up in a slave-holding family, she ended up as the spouse of the commanding general of the u.s. army during the civil war. she and ulysses s. grant shared 37 years together that included the hardships of war, the triumphs of politics, and eight challenging years in the white house. welcome to our program, our continuing series, "first ladies: influence and image." tonight, the life of julia grant. let me introduce you to our two guests at the table. bill seale is a member of our academic advisory panel for this series. we're delighted to have him here. he's a longtime white house historian and the author of "the president's house.” bill, nice to see you. >> thanks, susan. >> and pam sanfilippo is a historian at the ulysses s. grant national historic site in in st. louis and she's also

grant on it. this was julia's. d she probably kept papers pens, her correspondence in here, for when she was either writing letters or maybe receiving them and kept them stored in here. and religion was very important for -- for mrs. grant. her grandfather was a methodist minister. so, you know, growing up, it was important to her, and she instilled that in the children. they attended the methodist church here in galena, which their -- the pew that they used is still marked at the church, that it was the grant family pew. over on the dresser, we have a bible that was given to mrs. grant by the methodist-episcopal church in 1888. this is the dressing room, the most personal space in the house relating to julia grant. this is the room where she would come in to get ready in the mornings, get ready in the evenings, ready for bed, and just to come in, maybe kind of just get a little solitude from everybody in the house. we have a lot of personal things in here that belonged to mrs. grant. we have her sewing kit that she

and that concludes our discussion of julia dent grant. our thanks to our two guests for being with us tonight. william seale: thank you, susan. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> american history tv is featuring suzanne's original series "first lady" and it :00 p.m. eastern time throughout the rest of the syri -- c-span's original series "first ladies" at p.m. eastern time throughout the rest of the summer. >> a good read can be the perfect companion for your summer journeys. what better book than one that appears inside of the personal life of every first lady in american history -- peers inside the life of every first lady in american history? inspiring stories of fascinating women that survived the scrutiny of the white house. available from public affairs as a hardcover or e-book, through your favorite bookstore, or on an online bookseller. >> each week, american history

the reason the grants did not go was because julia grant did not want to risk having another confrontationis unpleasant woman. >> what did the staffing of her? >> they liked her. only four of the staff remained when the lincolns came to the white house. they brought in freed blacks. those that were interviewed talked about her in a very positive way. she got along well with them because they were the ones that helped raise her after her real mother died. >> lincoln's personal secretary did not use the best descriptions of her. >> as a young man, they have their own reasons to resent. they both had nicknames that the secretaries used to refer to them. >> outside of washington, what was the perception of the first family? >> that is a great question. if you read the press of the day, there was a considerable amount of criticism. if she had been more press-conscious, we know how much time she spent visiting soldiers and hospitals. writing letters to soldiers that were unable to write themselves. taking food and gifts. and she never took reporters along with her. if she had been a little bit m

then she got there and was a journalist and ran us along but the friend julia grant and it was page 1 news in all the newspapers when they met. the grant memorial, she went there very publicly. she was engage in a very public series of acts of reconciliation, of bringing this section back together. she was doing this, wasn't trying to influence a man to do this but with herself and her voice, very publicly. and similarly, some of the other bells same thing, a wonderful delightful woman va. clay who wrote a book about herself called a bell of the 50s kaimac after the war and argent suffragist on platforms, and the senator from alabama, bitterly before the war. and with them again, also with a cause, the newspapers say her voice was terribly important. one of the great things, you can read all the newspapers, they were on line and you can waste days. that interested me too. when i was growing up it set a proper lady was only in the paper when she was born, married and died. she was very much out in front after the war. and to new york a noted writer created several import relief organiz

grant's wife, julia, who wrote and said that after the state dinner that the first lady would, in factme downstairs. she didn't stay for the state dinner but she would come down and have coffee and literally walk around and talk to all of the guests. she was extremely gracious. she was always dressed very eloquently and very appropriately. so i think she did make friends. she was just a very kind person. guest: when they left washington, there were people who called on her to say, good-bye and -- and they had fond remembrances of her. ms. swain: and thanked her, too. we've been learning about the role of women and society. so this question comes under that category. would we classify eliza a political equal or superior to her husband? ms. swain:guest: well, colonel crook said she had great appreciation for his office and she may have had greater appreciation even than he did being that she was so well read and well learned. ms. swain: well, now it's time to learn about how the johnsons became a couple and we're going to return to the johnson historic site and learn about the early year