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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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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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed at Jamestown Island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history, the original fort was unearthed in 1994. We visited Jamestown to learn how the story of the 1607 settlers is being revealed everyday through the study of artifacts, and how artifacts are conserved for future scholars.

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The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee stands adjacent to the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. The museum depicts the evolution of American civil rights from 1619 through 2000, and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011. Gwen Harmon, the museum's director of governmental and community affairs, led this tour.

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St. John's Church on Lafayette Square near the White House was built in 1816 and designed by U.S. Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe. St. John's is known as the "Church of the Presidents," because every president since James Madison has attended at least one service there.

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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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American History TV visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History for a look at the newly opened First Ladies exhibit. See inaugural and evening gowns, including those worn by Dolley Madison, Mary Lincoln, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon and Michelle Obama. Curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy explains what these gowns have to tell us about the unofficial yet influential role first ladies play in presidential administrations – and about the politics and culture of their times.

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James Madison, the fourth President of the United States & often referred to as the "Father of the Constitution," owned about a hundred slaves at Montpelier, his 4600- acre estate in Orange County, Virginia.  American History TV traveled 90 miles south of the nation's capital to learn about an archaeological project investigating the enslaved communities of James Madison's Montpelier.

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Each week American History TV's American Artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture will open a new building on the National Mall in 2015. American History TV spoke to Lonnie Bunch - the museum’s founding director – about the new facility. And later, we travel with Mr. Bunch to the museum’s storage site in a Washington, DC suburb, where he shows us some of the artifacts that will be on display in the new building. 

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This June marks the 50th Anniversary of two of President John F. Kennedy’s most memorable speeches. On June 10th 1963, JFK delivered the commencement address at American University known as his “Peace Speech.” He called for high-level negotiations with the Soviet Union, a nuclear test ban treaty and an end to the Cold War.  On June 26th 1963, President Kennedy took a harder line in West Berlin, famously stating that as a free man he took pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.” This is a discussion from the Kennedy Presidential Library about the significance and lasting influence of these two addresses.

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