Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts 20150208 : vimarsa

We filmed the First Episode of jag here. We just finished filming a big pepsi deal, halftime for the super bowl, a Blake Shelton concert. We have become not only a tourist attraction, we have also attracted the movie industry because if you stand on our flight deck and lookout, use ebay. Youll see bay. You do not see a lot of buildings. There are certain shots they can do that make it look as if this is a ship at sea. The navy is critical and very important to this nations prosperity. So it is important people understand the role of the navy, understand how we got to where we are, and understand, for us the evolution of the aircraft carrier. World war ii essentially saw the first aircraft carrier. That was the invention or the operations of the first aircraft carrier. The japanese proved how strong and how important aircraft carriers could be. We took that and evolved it during the course of world war ii. And now aircraft carriers are the centerpiece of our seapower. So it is important we think it is important that people sort of understand that, but put it in context of the history that came before it. Throughout the weekend, American History tv is featuring Corpus Christi, texas. Our tour staff recently traveled there to learn more about its history. Learn more about Corpus Christi and other stops on cspans cities tour at cspan. Org. You are watching American History tv. All weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Each week, american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Catered at the foot of capitol hill the United States botanic , garden was first proposed by president George Washington in a 1796 letter. Next, a visit to the grounds of the oldest Botanic Garden in north america to learn about the history of this plant museum. My name is ari novy. I am the executive director of the United States Botanic Garden. We are standing on union square, which is the end cap of the National Mall on the east side just before you arrive at the United States capital. It is a fascinating piece of land because it has gone through many transformations in terms of what has been here over the course of the history of washington, d. C. , since around 1800. It is important to the Botanic Garden because the first United States Botanic Garden was on this piece of land, even though today it is most notably associated with the reflecting pool and memorial to grant. What i would like to do today is present a little bit of the early history of the United States Botanic Garden, so a couple of the remaining trees that date back to the original Botanic Garden location, and also talk about the process by which the Botanic Garden came to be. It eventually moved across the street from where it is currently, and a little about the famous fountain that originally was placed here by congress and also made its way two blocks south in the 20th century. T United Stateshe Botanic Garden is an Old Institution with fascinating roots. It may not seem obvious today, but the Founding Fathers were quite unified in their insistence on the creation of a national Botanic Garden. I would like to begin the story of the United States Botanic Garden in 1796 when George Washington wrote a letter in which he laid out his vision for a federal university and the federal botanical garden. He was quite adamant as the chief executive at the time that it be near the president s house, the white house. Unfortunately, washington never live to see the Botanic Garden realized within his lifetime, nor did the vegas garden get put near the white house. Eventually it was created as part of the United States capitol complex. I should note one interesting thing if i may, as a point otf syntax, i will always try to say Botanic Garden. In the generic sense talking about generic Botanical Gardens. Botanic and botanical can be used interchangeably. Whether or not they were used in the naming is more a function of the time period in which that institution was named. When United States Botanic Garden was named in the 1850s, Botanic Garden was en vogue. Today we typically set botanical garden. So, after George Washington laid out a vision for the United States Botanic Garden in the l ate 1700s, there was not too much action. The country was going through a lot of changes. We were setting in on a location for the capital, for the white house, lenfant the city planner for washington d. C. , was famous for laying out his design for the city that was going to be realized. And we had a lot going on. There was the war of 1812, and several other major occurrences that made the overall planning or execution of the planning of washington, d. C. Take more time in than the Founding Fathers had intended. The United States Botanic Garden after being endorsed by George Washington, got a muchneeded shot in the arm fomr another founding father in james madison. James madison was a prominent member of an institution early on in the history of washington d. C. , called the colombian institute. It was a gentlemanly, Scholarly Society that was dedicated to the dissemination of Natural History information. In many ways, it was akin to the American Philosophical Society of philadelphia or the academy of Natural Sciences in philadelphia, which were also institutions in philadelphia which was at that time the center of the american scientific enterprise. James madison really wanted to see a Botanic Garden on federal property. And he was instrumental in the laet 18teens in having congress chartered the existence of the first Botanic Garden. It was built in bricks and mortar on the block where we stand in 1820. It existed for a little while. There was a u. S. Botanic garden or the first version of the u. S. Botanic garden, from 1820 until the late 1830s when the Colombian Society began to peter out. Then there was a bit of a gap. The story for the u. S. Botanic garden resumes in 1838. That is a really fascinating history, beginning in 1838. Congress is getting interested in nval exploration. There he much buoyed by the overland success of the lewis and Clark Expedition a few years earlier, congress feels the country is ready to send out an armada or a small fleet of ships in 1838 to explore what was called the south seas, which essentially a specific. And a naval officer named Charles Wilks became the commander of this expedition and wilks was a relatively junior officer that he at the time. He had a fleet of four ships and for four years he explore the pacific from as far north as alaska and as far south as antarctica and crisscrossing all over the ocean in between. Wilks was a surveyor. Most interested in mapping. If you look on maps of antarctica, you will find a wliksland, named after him as he was the first surveyor to survey several islands and a section of antarctica. Unlike some more famous expeditions of Natural History for example chargedles darwin, there was no trained nationalist naturalist along with wilks, mother was an understanding that part of the expedition was to catalog all kinds of things that were seen. So artifacts and plants, both living and dried were collected during the four year expedition. In fact, they collected close to 10,000 dried plant specimens which had their own wonderful history and became part of the National Herbarium in the smithsonian. Also they collected over 150 living plants. Its quite amazing. These plants survived a fouryear journey across many different climates, a wide variety of latitudes and made their way back to the harbors in the eastern United States where their value with is to by congress. So upon the return of the w ilks expedition in 1842, congress saw to protect these plants coming from the pacific rim and give them a home. Congress appropriate funds to create a temporary greenhouse structure. At that time, at the old patent office. And there they sat, distorted by wilks. He took over care of the collection or at least 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 is really fascinating. Today, we would say can you believe that Congress Paid attention to 100 plants that were being returned . In that edday, there are a couple of interesting things. It is challenging to move plants. The Horticultural Technology to begin to grow a plant out of their environment was just being created all over the world. And we also have to remember that in the early 1800s the United States was still a primarily agrarian. Economymost people and most Founding Fathers and politicians and other members of society were earning their living somehow through what we might call today biotechnology. And plant biotechnology was really at the center of that. The growing of plants and acquiring of new plants Representative Technology that could drive new forms of income and new innovation. This is instantly grasped by congress. Wilks did not have to heart of the time securing some funds for the stewardship of these plants. From 1849 to 1850 congress had a perforated the funds and the First Permanent greenhouse of the United States Botanic Garden was being constructed and completed in 184050. So the plant collection that was picked up during the expedition in the pacific found a permanent home on the block where we stand. It is always fun to think about how much money was expended a long time ago. The original greenhouse of the Botanic Garden cost 5000 in 1850. And a gentleman was hired as the first superintendent of the Botanic Garden to care for the plants and to steward the facility so that it would be preserved into posterity. Additionally, something i find fascinating is the u. S. Botanic garden was at that time placed into the legislative branch of government. So it became by the mid 1850s a permanent freestanding agency of the legislative branch of government. And it was overseen and it remains overseen to the state by the joint committee on the library of congress. On the one hand, this seems like it does not really make a lot of sense. Why would the joint committee on the library of congress the committee created by congress to make sure the library had books and resources it needed to inform the legislative process why would that could oversight of the collection of plants . Thesre are two answers. One is that in 1850, there is no National Parks service. There is not even a department of agriculture yet. There are very few agencies. The executive Branch Agencies that we might think of the natural homes for Botanical Gardens do not exist yet. Secondly, the congress and the Founding Fathers may have considered plants informational resources similarly to the way they consider books and maps and those kinds of printed resources that were the domain of the library of congress. As such, as a collection of artifacts whose knowledge and information or potentially within whose knowledge and information could bring about better governance or economic possibilities, a collection of plants was not dissimilar to a collection of books. To the early congress, the joint committee on the library of congress made sense as an oversight body for the countrys first living plant collection. So, in 1850, there was one greenhouse. It was a gothic style greenhouse. It would have been serviced in the winter by bocoal or woodheated stoves, because the plants were tropical. Some of the plants were tropical ferns, large specimens. Large specimens of tropical and many other plants from the equatorial latitudes of the pacific rim. And it wouldve been a very exotic place. It wouldve been exotic in terms of architecture, gothic greenhouses were not something that were readily available are found throughout the country at that time. Glass house on their own were not something that were much in the Public Domain at that time. And certainly these plants would have been outlandish almost alien to temperate, eastern americans who almost certainly had not seen or traveled to the tropical environments ehrtr you would see these where you would see these plants. To my right behind us is one of the very few plants that still exist from the time of the u. S. Botanic garden placement upon this block of land. It is a special tree. In the old days, it was considered a type of elm. It is scientifically classified today in the elm family, but it is consider its own genus. In the latin, that has a leaf resembling the hornbeam. And this is a a plant that was occasionally planted in the 1850s. They eventually became popular street trees especially after the american and european elms succumb to dutch elms disease in the beginning of the 20 century. It was the japanese tree that became the street tree of choice. This is a fascinating tree not only because of its specimen value as an old tree but it is a somewhat rare variety that is hard to find. It is a beautiful specimen to this day. We are going to talk a little bit about the fortunate turn of events that allow this particular tree to survive all of the changes in land use history that took place on this land through the establishment of the u. S. Botanic garden the eventual moving of the u. S. Botanic garden, as well asl s the placement of an underground highway, the reflecting poooool, and several other changes that took place on this is a piece of land. By 1867, the garden had expanded. So a couple of additional greenhouses had been added on, including one incredibly large one that afforded washingtonians an opportunity to become immersed in a tropical Jungle Atmosphere that really must of felt like something out of a jules for an book jules ver book. It really was popular. The garden expanded. Plants were added. Compared to the relatively sparse tree situation on the mall today the trees at that time on the mall and what became union square where the canopy was quite fully. Unrecognizable to what we understand today. The garden continue to involve in this way, adding plants, continuing to add what we call hard landscape features phones, other owner mental qualities, formal walks other ornamental qualities. Up until the 1930s. What changed the trajectory of the garden was the, Mcmillan Commission which was a Congressional Commission begun out of the senate in 1901. By the late 1800s, congress had become aware that washington d. C. , was not developing and the way that they thought it should. When compared with some of the old capitals of european countries, theres no other way to say this but the washington felt inferior in terms of appearance and planning to the kinds of countries that the u. S. Was hoping to become a pieeer member of. This was also in line with the city beautiful movement, which was another way that American Cities were following the lead of european design and the nascent field of Landscape Architecture in order to create really aesthetically pleasing and Livable Cities that were developing at that time. So the Mcmillan Commission had settled upon some design ideas for the monumental core of washington, d. C. By 1902. And really, what we think of as washington, d. C. , today, an open mall surrounded by the smithsonian and other Public Institutions like the Botanic Garden, as well as the federal office buildings, really was a product of the Mcmillan Commission. And so, from 1902 until the 1930s, congress