The historians are looking for eyewitnesses to event that happened 60 years ago. Inall know if it happened these halls here, the only people still alive for the pages who were 16 years old at the time. We are come in handy if you times with a couple of the project and we hope to continue to do so in the future. Constantly amaze me. Meeting judge tracy was a page for eight years. Having the pleasure of driving over in his car with his Capitol Police man afterwards. Still has his badge and we got there all the security. If anyone needs a ride back, he is here. , great pressure pleasure, i. T. Is met i introduce matt. Thank you all, i met wisniewski, the historian of the house. Lineittle further down the , the senate associate historian. We are very pleased to be with you as you kick off the page union weekend. We would like to spend a little bit of time telling you about research,r recent collection acquisitions related to pages and leave sometime at the end for questions might have. The history offices on both sides of capital have a strong interest in the history of congressional pages. On the house side, as jerry alluded to, we are documented the history and development of the program in part by conducting numerous oral histories with former house pages for more than a decade now. These interviews extend all the 1930s. To a pair of fromrved as a page 193236, told us many stories including one about training a young staffer named lyndon b. Johnson about how to operate the ands at the House Chamber and was inl junior the chamber on that fateful day december 8, 1941 and would go on to become the longest serving member of congress that more than 59 years. There is a nice synergy that has developed between doing these oral histories in the work of the house curator in capturing the material culture of more than two centuries of pages in the house and that is that many of our interviewees as well as other folks who have donated their memories to the collection. Assembledrs have dozens of images and artifacts and objects that document the rich page history, everything letters homer area uniformss to 1907 page to a 1940s era Capital Page School varsity letter and everything in between. In 2013, my office produced a roughly 40 page history of the house page program. Copies of which are available online. You can download the booklet. Here it is in paper form, or you can read online. In addition to highlighting the origins and a moment of the program, we used those oral history that we had done with placedll paced participants in the program. Former clerk of the house don anderson and phil goodwin was a page in 1954 when the puerto rican nationalists attack the chamber. The chamber. Highlighting stories of pages were pioneers or first, we were fortunate to draw from interviews we have conducted with the first email page to serve in the house, appointed by speeder carl albert in 1973. Mitchell who is believed to have been the first africanamerican page to serve in the house sponsored by illinois congressman paul findlay and republican leader gerald ford. His appointment was highly symbolic. It occurred on the hundredth anniversary of lincolns assassination. After the galvanizing march on selma. He marveled with the fact that he watched the debate on the landmark voting at from the doorway of the republican coat room. Researching, we came across some tantalizing tools in sources thatdary perhaps there had been earlier pioneers. These were obscure references and footnotes to some late 19th and early 20s century newspaper articles that suggest africanamericans may have served in the later half of the letter half of the 19th century, perhaps during the reconstruction area. Era. Upon closer inspection, the ages did not add up. It may have been that they were adult employees of the doorkeepers office. Ranks possible the page may have been integrated after the civil war. Historians often described congressional reconstruction that was imposed upon the south as the second American Revolution which political and wereenship rights conferred upon free slaves, at least the men. In changing the reconstructed southern states, this process also changed the face of the membership of the house itself. For the first time, africanamericans, some of them former slaves were elected to serve in congress and all 20 served in the house from 18701921. Two others in the senate before jim crow laws effectively removed africanamericans from political dissipation for more than a generation. Until recently, we knew very little about how reconstruction change the house at the staff level. More popularas Research Tools came online. Mainly digitized copies of historical newspapers. And the congressional record. These tools and involving involving impact of the impact of evolving the progress process. It was through these historical newspapers, official house disbursement records and census records that we discovered that, in fact, the first africanamerican page was appointed on april 1, it can 71. 1871. He was a 14yearold. This was during the first session of the 42nd congress. He was represented by cognition from virginia. He served in virginia after the war and became involved in state politics and when virginia was readmitted into the union in wone ran for and on a seat that represented greater richmond. With porters background, his appointment seemed a purposeful and symbolic act. On his first day, and new york wrote, correspondent except for some practical jokes which have been put upon powell, he got started very credibly. Andrts indicate he made 77 . 50 and his first month as a page. This was the going rate for roughly 20 other page colleagues who worked on the house for. Loor. Beyond that, we know only scant details of his circumstances. The census record lists his father as a we are right and mother as a homemaker. It appears that powell was not plucked out of security for the Ground Breaking appointed. He hailed from a prominent Virginia Free africanamerican family. His maternal grandmother great uncle, excuse me, was one of the most influential black american politicians of the 19th century. John mercer langston who would go on to represent virginia in the house in the 51st congress. Linksis an asymmetry that the stories of Frank Mitchell and offered Powell Alfred powell. Just like mitchell who arrived in 1965, powell arrived during the republicancontrolled house, republicantrolled house. Amid a contentious debate on the rce of the passing of the fo act of it and one, the two clubs plan acts ku klux klan act. On his first day as a page, notable africanamerican members such as Robert Elliott and joseph rainey, both of south carolina, brady was the first africanamerican to serve in the house, he delivered speeches on the floor attesting to violations against the 14th amendment rights of the constituents. In that sense, picking provided a common experience for two teenage africanamerican boys who, separated by nearly a the houseitnessed grapple with monumental civil rights issues. To change gears and conclude, i would to tell you about one of the Research Questions that nagged us as we wrote the history of the house page program. One that we are still trying to determine conclusively. Exacts pinpointing the start date of the practice of paging in the house. We know the use of legislative messengers evolved over the better half of the century. When adults serve as messengers when the late 1820s according to official house records, it is clear that a page corp employing young boys and teenagers took shape, but when exactly . Following the panic of 1837, 1 of the Major Economic recessions of the 19th century, the house ,ommittee of accounts responsible for the institutions expenditures looking to trim costs fell into the practice of paging. Soon discover the house had never set a formal number or budget to administer the program. Interviewing old and experienced officers of the house, the committee reported the house first employed boy pages convened iner he the District Of Columbia it convened in the District Of Columbia and 1800s. By the 1820s, at least three age boys served on the floor. A decade later, 18. As members sought to provide income to local orphan boys or the destitute families. Heinze recollection of Washington City is a brief records reference that some of the earliest pages dating back to the early 1800s may have been the two young sons and nephews of thomas claxton. Guides,eful glides, they do not provide content for a firsthand account. By happy coincidence while researching something completely unrelated, the history of members wearing hats on the floor, subject for another day. [laughter] i am happy to talk about that at another event. We stumbled upon the earliest firsthand account of a house page which im aware. Thomas hill hubbard, represented a district that encompassed utica and cooperstown of new york served in the house in the 15th and 17th congresses. Career was not long. Fortunately, for historians, he wrote his wife many letters. Detailed his impressions of washington, the munro administration and his college. These letters are at the library of carter street on Christmas Day of 1817, just after the opening of the 15 congress, he wrote her a long letter describing the house. This was interesting, at a time the house convened at an old brick capital. Congress is temporary quarters on the grounds of the modernday Supreme Court on the capital for being repaired after the british had sacked it in 1840. 1814. As im sure my colleagues will agree, research can be a boreas, orius,ere are those lab but there are those days where it is serendipitous or sublime. Wrote that the members with the hats on as they pleased, still require when one rises to speak, he must respect the take off his hat and address the speaker. But then, in the line, we have a charming little boy about 12 years old, and when a remember rises to submit a resolution, a little fellow stands by his side. Identified by the name oswald, stood by any member who addressed the house and if anything is submitted in writing, he takes it and conveys it to the clerk who sits under the speakers chair watches until another member rises when the same ceremony takes place again. Hubbard also recounted that oswald was required to, among other things, poor glasses of water for longwinded speech members. [laughter] this is the earliest contemporaneous account that places page boys in the House Chamber. Oswald, more than likely, was john oswald who appears in a few house sources related to end of session pay and bonuses for messengers and other employees. In the early 1800s, he was the dunn and his alliance with other count ali that theyther counts may have been the earliest pages. Like many house pages, he spent a long career in the house succeeding his father in 1824 as the sergeant at arms and serving in that capacity until 1832. Were getting closer to taking the history of house pages that to the turn of the 19th century and as i indicated at the opening, finding and preserving the stories remains an abiding interest for our office and with that, i will turn it over to ms. Elliott. Thank you. [applause] hello, im sarah elliott, curator of the house. Tois great to follow matt give you a real sense of what 19th century page life was like in the defining elements of being a page 150to your hundred ago. 200 years i want to walk you through the experience of a Single Family from a pair of pages that they sent to the house in the 1860s. The details of it comports with what matt has been talking about today. Abouting to tell you all birdie pillsbury. Brother, the pages in the house. The reason we know about birdia and elliotte is that this photo is part of a rich trove of artifacts on 19th century page life recently given last year. Elliott was 13 when he became a page in 1859 and he was 16 when he left the house for the naval academy. Albert tooke left, his brothers place at the age of 11. Were going to be talking about very young ages here. Is prettyboys story typical of 19th century pages as far as we know. Families in need, destitute families and orphans that were assisted by members of congress in finding work for the young boys in need. It was often local boys in washington. In this case, boys in the district. , it is based on letters for the most part. The letters will seem a little familiar. The content of them. Of pagesry is typical of any generation. The daily lives were a mix of complicated ties back home and communications that any kid might experience. Ordinary work in the chamber in these extraordinary moments of witnessing history. Use toe letters that we find out more about elliott and birdie and webpage life was like, a scattershot approach to preserving them on the part of. Lliott and bertie b there are no letters from elliott back on. I feel like elliott may have skated away quickly. I think he was a golden boy. He did everything right. That can be entered taking irritating. I have a whole fanfiction about how pretty resented elliott berite resented elliott. [laughter] this envelope is typical. The massachusetts member of congress who has served as speaker of the house earlier in his career. The family at the time, they were not unfamiliar with washington or political life. This is the earliest document from the collection two years before elliott comes a page. From a guy known as uncle albert. Bertie s namesake. Family, he wrote with opposite advice to elliott even manages to make a long description of how boys played marble in the streets of washington into a mortal mroral lesson. Our streets and sidewalks are so wide, i give room for youngsters to indulge in the game. Annoying, many acquired brief dexterity of snapping marbles. Ive often been amused and astonished to see a boy hit a sickle marble at a distance of 20 feet. I do not wish you to understand me that i think the boys in washington are any smarter, indeed i think they are not. They acquired great perfection by long and continuous practice and everything does in attending to a single object to conservative time. At the time that he wrote the letter, elliott was 10 and bertie was eight. Around that time, he sat for a photograph with his mother. He was a schoolboy at the time and he used this book, also in our collection, he lived in nationbuilding area. Ship building area. Just outside of boston. The next year, his father, Insurance Agent died in at that time, and that place, the death of the breadwinner for this family through them into complete this array. Disarray. She dropped from thriving middle class. She had to rely on the kindness of strangers and rents to provide for her. One thing that she did was contact old friends and those old friends did assist them by finding respectable work. She was looking for work for elliott. Letter and month or two after her husband dies and her old friend writes this letter in response to a visit to her. But he calls her betty blue eyes. She asked her help and he was the general of massachusetts and promised to do what allows him to obtain for her son to position. She was asking specifically for a house page post. Paces but theral gift of the clerk which boys will. You shall have one of them. She asks he asks her if he can take her for a drive. It worked out for elliott. This is a little later in his life when he is just after out of the naval academy. Was 13 when he traveled to washington and you can see what it looks like right around that is in 1863. It was a tough journey and had to make it on his own. Had to go through cities, across rivers, switch methods of travel described the church a couple years later. Trains would go to new york and you had to take a stagecoach across the city to take a train and then got the ball tour. Then the train cars get drawn across the city by mule and then you are in a train again. Once they got down there, uncle albert help them find housing. They seem to have lodged with someone named the commodore gets upgraded to the admiral. 14, bertie leads to live in a room himself. He wanted to move away from the enclave of living at someones house. He lives across from fords theater. Is trying to explore the city under his new job, this is what it looked like at the time, letters from home start to arrive and then i could be unfamiliar to anyone who is a page alumni. One of the letters out there at the screen is a letter from his mother. She said im sorry you are not a little more particular in your writing. The spelling was good and the letter was brief and written badly. Then she writes him again and wishes him a happy new year expresses hope that he is eating well. Do you get letters like this . Then she dramatically which is she could be with all her children while they live. Elliott ee what ghosted on her. These jobs were something that were the power of some of the grant them, to help a destitute family, but there was an expectation that you will be of service to those folks back home. Writes askingnny 100ott for help getting copies of a report from the war department. Multiple letters like that treated them like peers and useful people to know. Sometimes they will ask to have the local member support. The page was expected to express that whether it was useful or not, there was still this expectation that you are a fully fledged player. Sometimes it is smaller like asking for copies of speeches. They were not that many tourists come to town. Now we are back to bertie because elliott is old enough to get to the naval academy. The pressures at home were still there. Bertie takes his place and at the time, there were about a dozen pages in the house and the stations themselves and when a member clap their hands, a page would run to do the bidding. Life, after a buzzer system is introduced, bertie thinks that is terrible and you dont get to know the members as well. s earliest letter home. This is after his 12th birthday. Context, this is what life was like. The war has begun. The doorkeepers that he better not come to the capital during the night session because they were bigger boys. Soldiers are everywhere, headed the battle, streaming in and out of the makeshift battles, nighttime in the city was no time break it to be out. He also talks about the possibility of being a page. He treats it as a job and is helpful for the reelection of two local members. Hoping they will improve the chances. After that, he turns to other more he says, i stated pretty good chance of being page next session, dont you think . And then he tells his mother what he is having for lunch. He talks about food a lot. One of my favorite things about this whole endeavor of trying to decipher all of the different handwriting from some of th