archives you can read all about her direct contributions to the smithsonian american art museum. carol asks a question about the obama portraits and i think it's a good opportunity. maybe sarah you can clarify the difference between the portraits that are displayed at the white house and the portraits that are displayed at the smithsonian. yes. that's a great question. so carol, the recent obama portraits were actually unveiled at the portrait gallery. and so those are separate from the official white house portrait now each president does get a white house portrait now, it is become tradition in the last few decades, but those typically are a little more delayed than those immediate national portrait gallery paintings. and so that's why you're right. those artists were present at the time just because it's a different situation. matt asked a good question if you could add a piece of art to the white house collection, let's say you were first lady or president for a day and you were able to add a piece of art to the collection. what would it be and why? now that is a great questi

what is the role of an institution like the smithsonian? right? what is a role of an institution like that in helping to craft that cultural memory of who america is well, i think you framed it exactly right that we know that history is much about today and tomorrow it is about yesterday. so in many ways what institutions like the smithsonian are about are they're helping people understand that culture that history is the glue that holds the country together and part of our job is to find that right tension between history driven by scholarship and research and memory the collective memory that people bring to an idea. so for me what i love the fact is that in america our cultural memory is a kind of changing mosaic and because it's a changing mosaic. it means that they're often debates and discussions and disagreements. but in a way the goal is to create a memory that allows people to be able to do something i think is really important and that is to embrace ambiguity. too often our search for memory is here's the simple answer to complex questio

the smithsonian at one point have more than 30,000 sets of human remains.ot just the large institutions. there are smaller ones. medical museums across the country, sller institutions, historical societies. private collections of human remains. as strange as that sounds. in some states, it is still able to traffic in the buying and selling of human remains. i think we need a much larger response and one that recognizes the deep history that is present -- that is intimately tied into colonialism, white supremacy, scientific racism, and understand this is not just a phenomenon that was triply confined to the 19th century. this continued up through the 20th century. once these repositories were established, these massive bone rooms, people started finding other ways to get remains into those collections, including through police investigations, accidental discoveries and a whole host of other ways. yes, it is important there were these high profile 19th century archaeologists who were collecting human remains and human skulls, but established this tradition we

so when the smithsonian's here, i don't even know if we can do this. it was written here he said blue and green. so francis had written that. yep. and nobody knew it. so the smithsonian guys go. wow, you know, we're gonna have to we got got to figure this out. get the right colors and when they put the green and blue bulbs in there, it gives it this. totally different look to it. it's this sort of you know light pollution and nighttime kind of gloomy. totally changed the character of the of the look of it. they were an exhibit at the smithsonian. this is the poster from it was called burgers or hobby. there are an exhibit from october of 2017 till end of january 2018. and at the renwick gallery, which is on pennsylvania avenue right across the street from the white house. and at the time it was just bunkers and around 100,000 people went to go see the exhibit. it was their first and only public exhibition. and it was the second most popular exhibit at the renwick gallery's history. up until that time. and as a part of in order to move these things. 35

they're on exhibit at the smithsonian. this is the poster from -- it was called murderess or hob y. 2017 to end of january 2018. it is on pennsylvania avenue across the street from the white house. and at the time it was just bonkers. around 100,000 people went to see the exhibit. incident was their first and only public exhibition. and it was the second most popular exhibit at the renwick gallery's history up to that time. and as a part of -- in order to move these things 35 miles down the street to washington, d.c., they needed to be cleaned -- not repaired but strengthened. the burned cabin is actually burned material, all this wood. so there are parts of it that are literally tissue thin. so you just can't pick this up and hold it on your lap and take it to d.c. it would crumble. threw there was some sort of polymer and the wood absorbs it so it strengthens it. without changing the color or the shininess or anything, it's totally transparent. but this has all been strengthened. it's not restoration. they're not making

lonnie bunch is the 14th secretary of the smithsonian

and really what we think of is washington dc today an open mall surrounded by the smithsonian and other public educational institutions like the botanic garden as well as the the federal office buildings really was a product of the of the mcmillan commission and so from 1902 until the 1930s congress set about the work of appropriating the funds and making the decisions necessary to execute the plan of the mcmillan commission and la font had imagined a a open corridor from the capitol to the washington monument and there were many encroachments to the mall at that time and unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on your historical point of view. the us botanic garden was one of them and so according to the mcmillan commission plan. which can be seen to this day the models of it exist at the at the building museum here in you say it's really fascinating. the botanic garden would have to be moved now congress cared about the botanic garden. they weren't just simply going to legislated out of existence and so much to the over the objection of the existing superintendent at the time. t

and what we think of as washington dc today, open mall surrounded by the smithsonian and other public educational institutions like the botanic garden as well as the federal office buildings, really was a product of the mcmillan commission. from 1902 until the 1930's, congress set about the work of appropriating the funds and making decisions necessary to execute the plan of the mcmillan commission. l'enfant had imagined and open corridor from the capitol to the washington monument. and there were many encroachments at that time and unfortunately or fortunately, the u.s. botanic garden was one of them. according to the mcmillan plan, which can be seen to this day, the models exist at the building museum in washington, the botanic garden would have to be moved. now, congress cared about the botanic garden come they weren't going to simply legislate it out of existence. so much to the objection of the existing superintendent, a decision was made to relocate the botanic garden just one block south. but the two main casualties in this decision were, one, the existing greenhouse structures

which had their own wonderful history and became the nucleus of the national -- that is hosting the smithsonian. ese plants s they collected about 150 living plants. it's quite amazing that they survived a four-year journey across many different climates. a wide variety of latitudes made their way back to the eastern united states, where their value was quite instantly recognized by congress. upon the return of the wilcox expedition of 1842, congress immediately sought to protect these plants coming from the pacific room and give them a home. in 1842, congress appropriated funds to create a temporary greenhouse structure. at that time it was the old patent office, and there they sat, stewarded by wilcox himself. he took over care of the collection or at least administrative care immediately after he returned. < can you believe that congress paid attention to 100 plants that were being retired but in that day there's a couple of interesting things. it's challenging to move plants around really the tech the horticultural technology to begin to grow plants far out of their environment. it was just

complex, and he used the founding director of the smithsonian's national museum of african-american history and culture which is

that hangs in the smithsonian today. and i wrote out to look at the troops. they saw commander in chief coming there was not one shot fired. that was the whiskey rebellion you might have heard of the whiskey rebellion because they refused to pay taxes on whiskey. we put down both rebellions. in the same month of the same year the second administration. so yes, i had i had some problems. but we tried to resolve them the best way we could. it sounds like you work very hard to do this. oh, there's always on my mind always. thank you very much president coolidge speaking of relationships. you had unprecedented relationships with a native americans across the american frontier and how would you say that the individual states reacted to your relationships with the native native americans and you're helping them achieve citizenship for indigenous populations. well, that is a very complicated question because it has often been a situation between the states and the federal government which was actually written into the constitution as a system of checks and balances

these are some of the black soldiers that are part in the album that says collection smithsonian, and range of images. photograph of charles douglas when he entered the war and a photograph of his other son lewis douglas when he entered the war. so we begin to see the importance of the photography and importance of bravery as they pose. you can read the sense of masculinity, the purpose posed and poses -- but also that love and this is a first time we can see the mother love with garland, mother writing, explaining following his story, but then we see the love through the relationship of lewis douglas fiancÉ ameleah and working to him. he writes to her -- i've been in two fights and i'm unhurt about to go to another tonight and i believe if i survive i will write you a long letter as far from your city george washington is missing jacob carter is missing, wounded -- and they're all in the hospital. here he says my dear girl i'm away do not threat yourself to death she's like carrying and concerned about her welfare, his concern about the war he's also informing her about the experienc

valerie neil, head of the history space department at the smithsonian space museum joined us from the store. each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites across the country. up next, we visit the smithsonian air and space museum located on the national mall in washington, d.c.. our tour guides valerie neil head of the space history department. shows us artifacts that tell the story of space exploration from the moon to mars. >> i am valerie neil. we are in the boeing milestones a flight hall at the center of the museum. this is the hall where we display the pioneering aircraft and spacecraft that transform the modern world. win this museum opened in july of 1976, almost every space artifact on display had recently been in the news. this was very much a museum of contemporary spaceflight, and it was for most people their first chance to see what had been allotted in the 19 and early 1970s during this heroic age of space exploration. when he leans first ventured off the planet into space and all the way to the moon, when the united states in the

. >> i photographed it at the smithsonian, went home and built the thing. >> have gun, will travel. >, paintings. ♪ davy, davy crockett ♪ this is a davy crockett rifle that he took to the alamo. i had to have a copy of it, naturally. >> here's his copy of the pistol "wild bill" hickok was packing when he was killed in a deadwood, south dakota saloon in 1876. >> how exact is it? >> it's an exact copy. >> here's another marek-made gun, a swivel-breach rifle popular in colonial times. >> it has two barrels, two firing mechanisms, and one hammer. so, you would fire the first side, and then you just roll it around. >> are you kidding me? >> and then you could fire your second round. >> just like that? chh-chh! >> this gun was -- would be the time of george washington. ♪♪ >> as his handmade arsenal grows, so does rudy's reputation. he earns the nickname, "mr. frightening," because his handcrafted replicas are so good, it's scary. >> that was a small load. if you put a big load in there, it'll knock you on your fanny. just a sample of hand engraving that i did on a block. >> but gunsmithing

his life and accomplished very important work as someone who basically oversaw all founding and smithsonian there in space museum which opened in 1976 under his directorship you know institution known for all the world. or you know you continue to learn about the value of space exploration and scientific. again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera alexina valmy has appeared in court for the 1st time since ending a 3 week congress strike the kremlin critic attended a hearing in moscow via video link to appeal his conviction for defaming a world war 2 veteran the session has now been a chance u.s. president joe biden has presented what he calls his blueprint to build america the address congress on the eve of his 100th day in office biden respond the same trillions of dollars in investment in jobs infrastructure and education 100 days since i took the oath of office look to my hand off our family bible and heard the nation we all did that was in crisis the worst pandemic of the century the worst economic crisis since the great depression the worst attack on our democracy si

life and accomplished very important work as someone who basically oversaw the founding of the smithsonian there in space museum which opened in 1976 under his directorship you know institution known throughout the world as platform which you know you continue to learn about the value of space exploration and scientific discovery. now with more people getting vaccinated in the u.s. and govern $1000.00 infections declining restrictions are easing in many areas sad includes new york home to the headquarters of the united nations but as christensen only reports in person diplomacy has been slow to a tad. new signs of life on new york streets. as wax a nation rates increase covert infections drop and workers begin heading back to the office in 2 weeks allowed building capacity will increase from 50 to 75 percent here united nations headquarters though it is far from diplomacy as usual fewer than $600.00 staff members are coming to work each day that's less than a 10th of those who did prior to the pandemic and all public tours remain cancer. u.n. officials say building capacity will increase a

smithsonian in dc at some point. >> i like that idea. i'm sorry, we are out of time.thank you so very much, i appreciate it. for my thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show, getting answers. today, we covered all the >>> tonight, with america at a turning point in the pandemic, the u.s. issues a new travel ban on india. the white house acting on advice of the cdc, restricting travel for most non-u.s. citizens amid india's devastating surge of covid-19. more than 386,000 new cases and 3,500 deaths in the last 24 hours. the first u.s. planes carrying medical supplies arriving today. a variant spreading across india now found in at least two states here in the u.s. all of this comes as america reaches a major milestone. more than 100 million adults now fully vaccinated. >>> horrific images coming in from overseas tonight. the deadly stampede in israel. dozens killed when mass panic breaks out at a religious festival.

wonderful history and became a part of the nucleus collection of the national herbarium within the smithsonianplants. it's quite amazing. these plants survived the journey across many, many different climates, a wide variety of latitudes and made their way back to the harbors in the eastern united states where their value was instantly recognized by congress. so, upon the return of the wilkes exploration -- expedition in 1842, congress immediately sought to protect these plans from the pacific rim and give them a home. in 1842, congress appropriated funds to create a temporary greenhouse structure. at that time, at the old patent office. and there they sat, stewarded by wilkes himself. he took over care of the collection and the administrative care of the collection immediately after he returned from the expedition. and he began the process of getting congress to create and fund a permanent home for these plants. it's really fascinating. today, we would say can you believe that congress paid attention to 100 plants that were being returned? but in that day, there is a couple of interesting thi

in 1871 william peterson was found unconscious on the grounds of the smithsonian institution.tle. he had poisoned himself with laudanum. the police revived him and he convinced that he had been taking laudanum for several years and he died. in the front parlor of this house, william peterson's body was laid out. four months after he died, his wife died, anna died. and her body was brought to this house and she too was laid out on this house. and so only six years after abraham lincoln died in their house, both petersons were dead and both were laid out in this very house. interesting footnote, after anna's death, an auction company was brought in to sell the contents. strangers gathered outside, came into the house, came down the halls, came into the parlors, the auction took place on the site. the two most expensive things at the auction were the sofa in the front room, that went for $15. and the bed, upon which abraham lincoln died, sold for $80 which was eight or ten times what it should have cost if it was simply a bed. so an early historian and souvenir hunter recognized

paleobiologist, dr monica carvalho from the smithsonian tropical research institute is one of those researchersat after the impact, or with the impact, 45% of tropical species disappeared, and it took about 8 million years for diversity to recover. crosstalk. sorry — 8 million years is obviously a huge expanse of time, and when it did come back, what was different? forests were very different. so forests that came back resemble a lot rainforests that we know today, they were dominated by flowering plants, they were very dense and they had the same levels of intense ecological interaction that we see today. in the age of dinosaurs, that was not the case. the dominant plants were not flowering plants, it was a mixture of ferns, conifers and flowering plants, and it was actually a pretty widely open rainforest back then. i see. and why the difference, why the change do you think when it came back finally after all those millions of years? that's the key question. so... we're not exactly sure, we think that it could be a mixture of factors, it could be that in the past dinosaurs actually helped kee

this smithsonian. oh elaine de kooning produced a painting for the truman library of jfk and there's i guess famously a must be a copy of it at the national portrait because i'm a fan well that be on view at the new renovated museum. well, we have as i mentioned some rotating gallery space downstairs. i'm i'm hopeful what i would like to do is there's a little room where we can put some portraits. i'd like to put up portraits of all the presidents that truman knew and have a little discussion of his relationship, you know, ronald reagan. he truman didn't know him as president. but reagan was a big truman supporter back in the day. he knew herbert hoover brought her herbert hoover back into government service. of course, he knew fdr he knew ike he knew kennedy. he new johnson. these are important relationships i think that that he crossed paths with all these presidents and yeah the decooning i'm a big fan of the national portrait gallery. i love those presidential every time. i'm in washington. i try a

life and accomplished very important work as someone who basically oversaw all the founding of the smithsonian there in space museum which opened in 1976 under his directorship you know institution known throughout the world as platform which you know you continue to learn about the value of space exploration and scientific discovery. again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera and x. and of all me has appeared in court for the 1st time since ending at 3 weeks congress strike a kremlin critic attended a hearing in moscow via video link to a conviction for defaming a well to war 2 veteran the session has not been a chance u.s. president joe biden has presented what he calls his blueprint to build america he addressed congress on the eve of his 100th day in office biden to spawn the same trillion.

world that these things we are you're right as someone who basically oversaw the founding of the smithsonian's air and space museum which opened in 1976 under his directorship you know institution known throughout the world as a platform from which you know people continue to learn about the value of space exploration and scientific discovery so he's a critical piece of that he's you know and that's someone who was incredibly humble to be in that position seeing the world the way he saw it from you know that i'm only you know a man model while he's there by himself you have remained home will remain a fierce advocate for these things is just to be supressed thank you so much brian odom for sharing your thoughts with us on al-jazeera. i think you're rich it police in peru have a victim thousands of people squatting in the hillside of the capital lima police fired tear gas canisters one squatters objected to the evictions by setting cars on fires and throwing rocks the number of illegal settlements outside the capital have grown over the decades due to lack of affordable housing the problem has

i'm joined now by paleobiologist dr monica carvalho from the smithsonian tropical research institute,. thank you so much for coming on the programme-— the programme. thank you very much for having _ the programme. thank you very much for having me. _ the programme. thank you very much for having me. so - the programme. thank you very much for having me. so lots - the programme. thank you very much for having me. so lots ofl much for having me. so lots of research and _ much for having me. so lots of research and data _ much for having me. so lots of research and data gathered, i much for having me. so lots of. research and data gathered, and what is the headlines from your findings? 50 what is the headlines from your findinus? ., ., findings? so we found that after the — findings? so we found that after the impact _ findings? so we found that after the impact or - findings? so we found that after the impact or with . findings? so we found that| after the impact or with the impact, 45% of tropical species disappeared, and it took about 8 million years for diversity to recover. (crossta

in 1871 william petersen was found unconscious on the grounds of the smithsonian institution the old castle. he had poisoned himself with lawton. the police revived him and he confessed that he had been taking laudanum often for several years and he died. so in 1871 in the front parlor of this house william petersen's body was laid out four months after he died from lawton and poisoning. his wife died anna died. and her body was brought to this house and she too was laid out on this house. and so it only six years after abraham lincoln died in their house. both petersons were dead and both were laid in this very house. interesting footnote after anna's death an auction company was brought in to sell the contents. so once again strangers gathered outside came into the house came down. the halls came into the parlors the auction took place on the site. the two most expensive things that the auction were the sofa and the front room where mary lincoln had spent much of the night that went for 15 dollars. and the bed upon which abraham lincoln died so for eighty dollars. which was eight o

gretchen sorin has consulted for more than 250 institutions including the smithsonian the jewish museum and the new york state historical association. she is the director of the cooperstown graduate program of the state university of new york and the author of in the spirit of martin the living legacy of dr. martin luther king jr. and through the eyes of others african-american and identity in american art. in her new book driving while black just out today professor soren tells the story of the indispensable green book, which both reshaped the african-american traveling experience throughout our segregated land and helped drive the nascent civil rights movement, please welcome gretchen. sorin to the free library of philadelphia. good evening. it's wonderful to be in this great city of philadelphia. and i'm i apologize that that rick wasn't able to join us this evening. he had a little bit of an emergency and he's in italy, but i hope that you'll enjoy the preview of our film that he sent along. so i'm going to talk. i'm sure many of you have seen the green book movie. and i'm going to

i guess they cut out at the smithsonian or something.special. >> yes, they cut out of the wing of the plane and put it on the rover itself but the second speed test that happened yesterday which was also coincidentally the birthday of will right, coincident that the got the green light to do the flight this coming week. eric: it's amazing. jeff bezos and amazon, the house if you call him up, they're going up to outer space, a successful plate. tell me about that. >> yes, a reusable rocket and reusable capsule, the whole vehicle is reusable, able to take off vertically and of course when they land separately, it's like the 15th demonstration flight they've done, i think they are getting very close to putting humans into flight, initially they would do lights and missions for nasa and universities but i've got a feeling what they are doing is intercontinental base travel system that allows them to go into orbit, wait until the earth rotates land on a different continent cutting travel from one continent to another by like 12 hours, maybe a

she was the creator of the first ladies exhibit at the smithsonian that so many millions of smithsonianve seen throughout the years. thank you for being here tonight. >> thank you. it's a pleasure. >> i'm going to start with you, catherine. any 21st century woman who starts to read about dolley madison can see some parallels to their own lives in the way she seemed to approach her role in washington. was she, in fact, ahead of her time, sort of modern person in the early 1800s, or not? >> well, that's the paradox. in -- really you understand her as an 18th century woman raised in a certain culture, but when she becomes first lady, she starts adapting the past in a way that paves the way for modernity. she also creates the first lady role that we have come to know. every modern first lady, i think everybody all the way up, looks to her. she opens the door for a lot of women. >> staying with those thoughts because we're trying to show the parallels among them, how they hand off things about the roles to others. what are some of the things dolley madison contributed to the role? >> well, i

of those wonderful images, unfortunately many of which were destroyed in the fire later in the smithsonian and later in the 19th century, but copies of them survive. monroe, as presidents before and after, had done, presented the delegations with peace medals, professing peace and friendship. as monroe saw it, to harmonize relations with the indians, he saw the increasingly bitter defeat over slavery in territories west of the mississippi. when missouri sought admission to the union as a slave state in 1819, it precipitated a political crisis by threatening to upset the balance of power in congress between slave and free states. a series of agreements between clay and calhoun in 1820 and 1821 collectively known as the missouri compromise settled the issue for the time being. when monroe signed off on the compromise with relief and expressed optimism that the slavery question would be resolved before it tore the union apart. his old mentor jefferson was less sanguine calling the missouri compromise not to be the solution. monroe saw merit and efforts to send free blacks back to africa. thou

, and a blue gown robe de chambre and the blue down at the smithsonian survive.t is very unusual for her. this sort of a close, lots of accessories cost about 450 dollars. dolly madison's order in 1811 costs 2000 dollars. >> wow! >> to give you an idea, susan swain 2000 dollars in dollars of those days? yes the pink gown that you saw was had more lace aren't was now but are those cost 100 dollars. the blue being out of the 25 dollars made by seamstresses in washington. but of course the fabric would be an extra. >> so she will try to find that sweet spot between frugality an image? >> she did it so well. everybody said that she was beautifully dressed. she had beautiful department. she carried itself like a lady acted like a lady was very gracious >> at the same, time we're learning about sarah poker sort of modern approach to being a political partner, what's happening to women at large? united states 1848 is the seneca falls convention. >> so what's going on with women? overall the beginning to ask for more presence, power in society? >> well the 20th 30 people

when i would talk about the smithsonian last summer saying that working hard is right pager would say i'm not going to defend that. when work hard be nice and this was bathed in white supremacy. pager center not going to defend that. so one of the things are so heartening for me is that pedro again i do not want to put words in your mouth is certainly pushback if i mischaracterize. it felt to me that pager was making an important distinction between things or the real inequalities we have to be honest and confront them if it's easier not to and not to let people with troubling or foolish hobby horses hijack important conversation. felt like that's a distinction that pedro made day in and day out so often gets lost in the public debate. >> so pedro, what about you, what surprised you about your exchanges with rick and do you want to sort of respond to rick's characterization of what was surprising and really compelling about the arguments that you made? >> i think what was surprising to some of the areas where rick conceded or acknowledged and agreed. you're right that is an issue that