welcome to the new york historical society. i'm louise merritt, the new york historical society president and ceo. i'm pleased to see you all in our beautiful auditorium this evening. tonight's program "women in the white house" is a part of our bernard and irene schwartz distinguished speaker series. i would like to thank mr. schwartz for his great and generous support which enabled us to bring so many fine historians and writers to this stage. [ applause ] >> i would like to thank and recognize members of the chairman's council in the audience and to thank them for their great generosity and all they do on our institution's behalf, and of course my great and talented colleague, our vice president for public programs, dale gregory. [ applause ] >> tonight's program is presented in collaboration with our brand-new center for women's history, and we're grateful to our partners at hogan lovell who are the corporate sponsor for women's history programming at new york historical. tonight's program will last about an hour, and it wil

the door closed at west point, lee opens one at another prestigious institution -- the new york historical societyrk historical society were to make this happen for you, what would that mean? >> they'd be in new york, where people come from all over the world. it would be a fabulous, fabulous place. >> and your reaction if they say "game on"? >> done. >> and "game on" it is. the society does agree to give safe harbor to 5,000 of "the guys." if you split this collection up between museums, it would be easier, potentially, for them to take and more people could see it. >> it would be double the joy. >> with lee's help, a children's museum in rochester, new york, agrees to take in and display the other half of the collection. ♪ carole tells me that working with us on this episode has helped her to grieve for robert and, in doing so, to preserve his legacy. >> that's why i reached out to you. it is my hope that people see this show and see a passion that somebody had for, in this case, soldiers, and so what i leave to the world is the robert c. postal soldier legacy collection. >> so, you never felt l

welcome to the new york historical society. i'm louise merritt, the new york historical society president and ceo. i'm pleased to see you all in our beautiful auditorium this evening. tonight's program "women in the white house" is a part of our bernard and irene schwartz distinguished speaker series. i would like to thank mr. schwartz for his great and generous support which enabled us to bring so many fine historians and writers to this stage. [ applause ]

the door closed at west point, lee opens one at another prestigious institution -- the new york historical societyty were to make this happen for you, what would that mean? >> they'd be in new york, where people come from all over the world. it would be a fabulous, fabulous place. >> and your reaction if they say "game on"? >> done. >> and "game on" it is. the society does agree to give safe harbor to 5,000 of "the guys." if you split this collection up between museums, it would be easier, potentially, for them to take and more people could see it. >> it would be double the joy. >> with lee's help, a children's museum in rochester, new york, agrees to take in and display the other half of the collection. ♪ carole tells me that working with us on this episode has helped her to grieve for robert and, in doing so, to preserve his legacy. >> that's why i reached out to you. it is my hope that people see this show and see a passion that somebody had for, in this case, soldiers, and so what i leave to the world is the robert c. postal soldier legacy collection. >> so, you never felt like you were compet

the new york historical society and the bryant park reading room co-hosted this event. >> now it is migrate pleasure to introduce tonight's speaker, marjorie j. spruill, an authority on the american women's rights movement. she is professor of history at the university of south carolina and the author of new women of the new south. she's also edited "one woman, one vote" rediscovering the woman's suffrage movement which is the anthology to the pbs film one woman one vote which in fact the new york historical society will be screening on august 15th as a part of our centennial summer celebration. professor spruill has served as an adviser for many museum exhibitions, documentaries and a feature film and she is a former president of the southern association for women's historians. her new book is "divided we stand," the battle over women's rights and family values that polarized american politics. ladies and gentlemen, professor marjorie spruill. [ applause ] >> well, this is an amazing venue, i must say, and it's wonderful to be here. this is such a great tradition that this institution, the

new york city. the new york historical society and the reading room cohosted the event. my pleasure to introduce our speaker, an authority on the women's rights movement. she is the professor of history at the university of south carolina and the author of new women of the new south.

the new york historical society and the bryant park reading room co-hosted this event. >> now it is migrate pleasure to introduce tonight's

new york city. the new york historical society and the reading room cohosted the event. >> it is my pleasure to introduce our speaker, an authority on the women's rights movement. she is the professor of history at the university of south carolina and the author of new women of the new south. she has served as an advisor or many museum exhibitions, documentaries, and feature film. she is the former president of the southern association or women historians. her new book is "divided we stand, the battle over women's rights." ladies and gentlemen, marjorie spruill. marjorie spruill: this is an amazing venue. it is wonderful to be here. this is such a great tradition that this institution has, to get book lovers out here on these warm summer nights together and talk about books. i am pleased to be part of it and have a chance to talk about my new book. it is about the role of women and women issues in american politics. it tells the story of the modern women's movement, which in the early 70's enjoyed tremendously this and the story of a conservative women's movement that organized in opposition and became m

lieu wise mere from president and koechlt of new york historic society.innati. john bray, director of the smith sewn nan national museum of american history. anne turner dylan president general of the national society daughters of the american revolution. james vaughan, executive director of the pennsylvania historical and museum commission. stephanie see itbic, director of the smith son known american history, american art museum, robb shink, vice president of george washington's mount vernon. ruth taylor, executive director of the newport historical society, catherine robinson, president and ceo of historic charltz ton foundation. david row sell, the executive director of withina ter museum garden and library. beth hill of for tying of new york, and betty joe of the delaware tribe of indians. [ applause ] >> and now i'd like to introduce the members of the board of directors of the museum of the american revolution. will you raise your hands so everyone knows where you are and that you are here today. [ applause ] >> these are the volunteers who have gu

which in fact, the new york historical society will be screening on august 15th as a part of our centennial summer celebration. professor spruill has served as an advise r for many museum exhibtions, documentaries and films. she is a former president of the southern association for women's hoist attorney. her new book is "divided we stand," "dividing of women rights." ladies and gentlemen, professor marjorie spruill. >> well, this is an amazing venue i must say. it is so wonderful to be here. this is such a great tradition that this institution, these pair institutions has to get book lovers out here on these nice warm summer nights together with authors and talk about books, i'm pleased and honored to be a part of it and have a chance to talk with you about my new book. "divided we stand" is about the role of women and women's issues in american politics. it tells the story of both the modern women's movement, which in the early '70s enjoy tremendous success and a story of conservator women's movement that organized opposition and became more powerful as the decade progressed. now of cours

but this a letter written in his hand on loan to us from the aurora historical society in aurora, new york. here we are with franklin pierce. we have a letter frequent pierce wrote to abraham lincoln which is on loan to us from the library of congress. what is interesting about this letter is this was a letter of sympathy written from pierce upon the death of abraham lincoln's son. he was 11 years old. part of what makes this letter really heartfelt is pierce's on son died at the age of 11, shortly before he became president in 1853. he died in a train accident all three of them were in while franklin and his wife both survived an injured -- unin jured. they did see the crushed body of their son which was tragic for them and they both became depressed as a result of that and i'm sure it affected his presidency. really interesting letter he writes in sympathy to abraham lincoln. moving on to james buchanan, we have on loan from the lancaster historical association a tobacco smoking pipe. .t is made in london james buchanan was known to smoke a little bit. there is not much known about james

. >>> the supreme court historical society held a discussion about the 1905 supreme court case lochner v. new york dealing with labor law. the court ruled against a new york state law that limited the number of hours a baker could work saying it violated the 14th amendments liberty of contract. the decision ushered in what's gone as the lochner era. this discussion about lochner v. new york ran an hour. >>> let me now mention how much we appreciate the fact that justice briar has agreed to host this evening. we are sincerely grateful to you for that. brief comments about justice breyer can't begin to do justice to him, so i'm going to have to be unjust in light of time constraints i'm subject to. justice breyer has always been remarkably generous with his time in supporting society projects. in less than two weeks on june 6th at our annual meeting he'll be delivering the society's 41st annual lecture. of course he's doing these extra projects for the society at a tremendously busy time for him and all of his colleagues on the court. so justice breyer thank you so much. some background on justice b

new york and .iversity it is my all moderate, so i am happy about that. hands:st book "invisible the businessman's crusade please the new deal," welcome her to the stage. >> thank you so much to the historical society for having me here. it is nice to be here, because i am a native of brooklyn your i was born a little bit down the block on pierpont street, that is the apartment my parents were living in when i was born. it is special to be here in particular, tonight. weeks ago, the new york daily news repriced its most famous hidden -- headline in history. trump to planet, dropdead." what most people know about the fiscal crisis in 1975 can be headline on that screen. president ford gave a speech to which the headline refers at a lunch of national press club in washington, d.c.. weeks before, he and his advisers had been debating whether or not the president should say anything and public about what most people believe would be the imminent bankruptcy -- as he laid it out at the citynal press club, the brought problems on itself and therefore the federal government had no obligation to help. there were several laws circulating through congress to provide federal aid. he criticized the city's netwo

. >>> the supreme court historical society held a discussion about the 1905 supreme court case lochner v. new yorkealing with labor law. the court ruled against a new york state law that limited the number of hours a baker could work saying it violated the 14th amendments liberty of contract. the decision ushered in what's gone as the lochner era. this discussion about lochner v. new york ran an hour. >>> let me now mention how much we appreciate the fac

historical society for inviting me to participate. i appreciate the opportunity to take part in this conversation about lochner versus new york. a case to put it mildly has not enjoyed a good reputation. chicago law professor, david a. strous best captured the lucky ner legacy with a simple question, who would ever cite in case in a supreme court brief, except to identify it with your opponent's position. it's safe to say that a majority of lawyers, constructional scholars and judges from all sides of the political and economic spectrum, rank lochner along with dread scot is one of the worse decisions in constructional history. of course there are only prominent exceptions, i suspect randy will attempt to quince you the lochner case does not deserve this reputation. i am here because i think it does. however, there are many things upon which randy and i do agree. one, is that we both agree and recognize the importance of liberty in our political system and our constitutional tradition. so in the spirit of starting our conversation i would like to focus on the meaning of liberty, not from my own perspective but from observation

this is hosted by the new york historical society.