Open for business in 1861 and located about six blocks from the capitol building, the United States Government Printing Office still prints the Congressional Record each day that the House and Senate are in session. We visited to learn the history of GPO and to see some of their historic printing jobs, including the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," which took twenty years to print, and the twenty-seven volume "Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy."

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January 9, 2013 is the 100th anniversry of President Nixon's birth. American History TV visits Yorba Linda, California and the home where Richard Nixon was born. Docent Darlene Sky gave us a tour of the small house located on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.  The grounds of the home are also the final resting place of the 37th president & his wife Pat.

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Bob Dole, former U.S. Senator and 1996 Republican nominee for president, recorded a series of interviews for an oral history project of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. The project chronicles not only Dole’s career, but the life of the U.S. Senate, and the people and politics of his times. In excerpts from a 2007 interview, Dole talks with historian Richard Norton Smith about passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, meeting Saddam Hussein, the advice he gave President Clinton, his interest in Colin Powell as a vice-presidential running mate and his work with veterans.

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American History TV visits Chatham Manor, the only known house in the U.S. visited by both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Built in 1771 by Virginia Continental Congress delegate William Fitzhugh, it was a Union headquarters during the Civil War and a field hospital during the Battle of Fredricksburg where Clara Barton & Walt Whitman tended to the wounded and dying. Chatham was given to the National Park Service in 1975 and is part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

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Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork died December 19, 2012, at age 85. In this conversation with Robert Bork, Nixon Library Director Timothy Naftali talks with President Nixon’s Solicitor General about how he got the job, how Nixon lectured him at Camp David about the role of a judge, the issue of executive privilege, the "Saturday Night Massacre," and his reaction to the discovery of the so-called "Smoking Gun" tape.
 

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Long-serving Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye died December 17, 2012, at age 88. In this program, Senator Inouye reflects on his World War II military service with the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-volunteer unit made up entirely of second generation Japanese Americans. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallant action, and lost an arm in battle. This oral history was conducted for “Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project.”

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The 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia was fought from December 11 to 13 inside and near the small transportation hub along the Rappahannock River, an hour’s drive south of Washington, D.C.  During events marking the 150th anniversary of a battle that resulted in almost 2,000 deaths and 16,000 casualties, American History TV captured video of re-enactments, including a river crossing and landing under fire and street-to-street urban combat.  We spoke with National Park Service historian Frank O'Reilly, homeowner Charles McDaniel, and several participating re-enactors.

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Noel Koch was a speechwriter for former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas. In excerpts from this oral history from the collection of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, Koch recalls his political experiences in the Nixon White House and the 1976 Ford-Dole presidential ticket.

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Former U.S. Senator Howard Baker Jr. reflected on his political career as part of an oral history project conducted by the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. In a wide-ranging conversation, Baker talked about the dynamics of the Senate, the relationship between Bob Dole and President Nixon, and his own roles on the Senate Watergate Committee and as President Reagan’s chief of staff.

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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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