A look behind the scenes at the recreated George Washington Distillery as an apple brandy is made. American History TV spoke to Dennis Pogue, Vice President in charge of conservation at Mount Vernon and author of "Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry."

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Treasury Department Curator Richard Cote takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cash Room, the Salmon Chase Suite, and the President Andrew Johnson Suite. Each of these rooms has recently been restored as part of an ongoing renovation effort funded by the Treasury Historical Association. This is the first half of a two part program.

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In March of 1921 President Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith left the White House at the conclusion of his second term and moved into a home on S Street near Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. Operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Woodrow Wilson House is now a museum. Frank Aucella gave a tour of the 28-room home and discussed the life and presidency of Woodrow Wilson. This is part one of a two-part program. In this portion the lower floors of the home were toured.

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Clara Barton died 100 years ago on April 12, 1912. Between 1861 and 1868, she lived in a Washington, DC boarding house and employed as many as twelve clerks in her "Missing Soldiers Office."  In 1996 the General Services Administration was preparing the building for demolition when they discovered artifacts eventually proving that this was the lost office of the founder of the American Red Cross. 

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Between 1861 and 1868, Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield and founder of the American Red Cross, lived in a Washington, DC boarding house on 7th street, NW. She employed twelve clerks on the third floor in her "Missing Soldiers Office," where they received over 60,000 letters from families searching for lost sons and husbands.

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The history of the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans is told at the Gilmore Cabin on the grounds of James Madison's Montpelier in Virginia.  Born a slave for President Madison in 1810, George Gilmore and his wife Polly raised five children on a small sharecropper farm after emancipation.  Built by George Gilmore and his sons, the cabin is one of only a few existing freedman's homes left standing in the United States.

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We tour the restored 1892 mansion of Captain Frederick Pabst in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The sea captain not only founded the world famous Pabst Brewery, he was a philanthropist and real estate developer and had a great influence on the growth of this Midwestern city on Lake Michigan. Historian John Eastberg shows us examples of craftsmanship, original furnishings and art which teach us about Pabst’s German heritage, Milwaukee’s history, and America’s Gilded Age.

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50 years ago, on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while being held in prison for his involvement in a city-wide civil rights protest called the Birmingham Campaign. King’s daughter, Bernice King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, joins Alabama’s governor, Birmingham’s Mayor and others for the unveiling of a historical marker aside the Birmingham Jail.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham civil rights campaign. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after being arrested for taking part in the protests. The campaign gained national attention after local officials used dogs and water cannons on kids after they took to the streets in what was known as the “Children’s Crusade.” A panel of authors and historians recall the turmoil of the time, as well as how Birmingham has chosen to remember its past. This event was part of the Alabama Historical Association’s annual conference.

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At the direction of Congress, the voices and experiences from the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century are being documented in an oral history project. This effort is a collaboration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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