That is the southern terminus of our National Scenic byways and National Heritage area. We are pleased that the books tonight focuses on both our northern terminus and southern terminus. You will hear a little bit about gettysburg which is our northern terminus, northern part of the National Heritage area. You will also hear a little bit about charlottesville. Monticello out jeffersons driveway, you are driving on the scenic byway. And you are driving 180 miles north to gettysburg. Mile plotst 180 of land, we have 11 sites. Monticello, madisons willin montpelier, brent talk about these places. We wnant to thank the charlottesville convention bureau, one of our wonderful partners. Kurt, the executive director is here tonight. Thank you. Without further ado, i will introduce our guest. Brent glass, the director emeritus of this and sony National Museum of american the smithsonian National Museum of American History. A National Leader in the interpretation and promotion of history, brent glass is a public historian who provides management to the museum, historical organizations and cultural institutions around the world. Served as, brent has a Management Consultant to more institutions ranging from places like san francisco, president lincolns foundation in illinois. He was a member of the flight 93 Memorial Advisory commission. Lets welcome dr. Brent glass. [applause] glass thank you, shuan. Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here. Dayent a really interesting revisiting monticello and particularly enjoyed some of the new opportunities and experiences. It reinforces my belief that there is always something new under the sun. I think we are learning more about history all the time through scholarships, through archaeology, through a number of new approaches to understanding history. It is so great to visit monticello and see how that research is being made acceptable to the public. I enjoyed that very much. Fact o recognize the one of my earliest career experiences was directing the North Carolina humanities council. The Virginia Humanities Council the foundation is the official name. Programs hloold that as one of the best, if not the best in the country, so it is an honor to be sponsored by the center for the book and the foundation. I also want to thank the library for hosting this event tonight. Also, to think the journey through Hallowed Ground for inviting me. They were very kind to invite me when the book was First Published in march. We had a program a few weeks after publication at gettysburg. We had a very spirited event about what to include and not include in making our list of significant places in American History. I hope you will join in after my presentation and perhaps question my selections and maybe have some ideas of your own. I do want to recognize a new friend tonight, sarah from the highland, which is the official name. Very Interesting Research going on there. I think it is wrong to say plowing new ground, because we need to be careful when we disturbed archaeological evidence that is now changing some of our understanding of james monroe and his contributions. Very good to meet you and your children. I think it is so great they are joining you this evening. I dontt to make sure want to leave out my good friend emeritus of the Jefferson Memorial foundation. Dan and i have been friends for many years. We are even closer friends now because we Work Together on a number of projects. Just being in monticello today, dan, reminded me of how your emphasis on scholarship and preservation together has enriched not only the visitors experience, but also American History. At dinner tonight, leslie, your successor, we were both singing your praises. Great for you to be here tonight. It is always an honor to see you. I want to recognize Dave Mccullough who encourage me to write this book and wrote the foreword. If you are interested in 50 great places, you get the wonderful foreword. He and i will be appearing together later in boston at the Old South Meeting House where we will be talking about history and the importance of preserving history and 50 Great American places. I wrote this book and David Mccullough encouraged me to write the book that i would want to read. There were three reasons for writing the book. First was to encourage historical literacy. What do i mean by that . I dont mean memorization of dates and facts. The order in which the president are elected or when was the war of 1812 . [laughter] that is a trick question. Im not talking about memorizing those facts. Im talking about historical context. How places and events and people relate to each other in their own time. And how they can be resources for us today. What is the connection between some of these Historical Places and these individuals we read about and our own times . How do they help us understand evene are as americans and giving us meaning in our lives . Historical literacy is connected to citizenship. It is impossible to be a citizen in a democracy without knowing something about our history and it is impossible to have a democracy without having people who understand our history. Especially in the year in which we will elect a new president , every headline we read has some connection to history. Every headline we read about the election and the issues, even about the personalities certainly being at monticello and reading anything about jefferson, you know there were some heated personality conflicts back in his time. So we dont have to think about our own time as the only time in which these largerthanlife personalities entered into our political consciousness. I think it is particularly interesting not only in the president ial election year, but in the year in which i think i was told by leslie it is ok to mention Alexander Hamilton in charlottesville. A year in which one of the founders of our country has entered into the popular consciousness and the popular conversation. I think it is fantastic that so many young people, people from across the country, from around the world are interested in the first secretary of the treasury. I was talking to a group of Young College students, women from other countries, who were living in new york for a year. What show we want to go to a broadway show. Maybe you want to see the show hamilton. The first treasurer of the united states. They looked at me and thought why would i want to see a show about a bureaucrat . Its not that. It has great music, hiphop, rap lyrics. Whether they went or not, i dont know. I was also motivated when i was working at the National Museum of American History. I met so many people from around the world who came to discover American History at the smithsonian. After we reopened the museum after a twoyear renovation, we dedicated a public space right outside the starspangled banner gallery for a ceremony in which we swore in new citizens to the united states. I had the opportunity to meet so many of these people who were dedicated to becoming citizens. They were hungry for more information about American History. Mccullough said to write the book i would want to read, i wrote the book that i thought they would want to read as well. That was my motivation, historical literacy. Second motivation was to promote heritage tourism. Americans to go out and experience firsthand this amazing these amazing Historic Sites we have in our country. There is something about the user of place that inspires but also stirs our imagination. It is interesting that when you go to a place like monticello or gettysburg or any other places i write about, our imaginations are what, i think, are most interesting to realize that we use it to fill in the gaps. There is new information but there is much information we may never know about the people who occupy these places. Visiting these places firsthand is very powerful. It is hard to even understand much about American History without getting out and actually visiting these Historic Sites. The third reason, and i should back up and say what is amazing to me is how many of the wellestablished sites are adding information all the time. If you go to mount vernon, there is a new education center. If you go to monticello, montpelier, gettysburg all these places. If you have not visited these places in the last 10 years, you are missing so much scholarship, new educational material. That is another reason to visit these Historic Sites across the country. The third reason was to recognize and honor the visionaries and the contemporary people who are preserving his stortoric places. Historic preservation is vital to helping us understand these Great American places. Centennial year of the National Parks service. Are nationalsites parks. I think of these places, monticello which is in the National Park which has been preserved over the years, these are the places that have been preserved. In each one of the essays, i have a few sentences about some of the heroes and men and women who are not as well known in history, but who played a large role in preserving our history at these great Historic Sites. On Grand Central terminal, i quoted Jacqueline Kennedy onassis who led the fight in the 1970s to preserve Grand Central terminal. She wrote, and she said as she was fighting for the preservation of Grand Central terminal, she said something that was universal as far as Historic Preservation. She wrote is it not cruel to let our city die by degree, stripped of all her history and beauty to inspire our children . If our children are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to find for our future . If the children are not inspired by the past, where will they have the strength to fight for the future . I think that really captures the spirit of Historic Preservation and that was another reason why i wrote the book. It is important to realize it is not inevitable. History is not inevitable. It depends on people making choices and making decisions. So, those are some of the motivations for writing the book. How did i select the sites of the book . I had four criteria in selecting these sites. First of all, i wanted to have sites that represented all the regions of the country. Not every state, but every region. Sites, i wanted to have that represented all the time periods, from the free colonial. Period to presentday. The book is arranged roughly in chronological order, although i start with the national law in washington. After the national mall, my essays cover the sites in roughly chronological order. That is important because some of the places i wrote about were listed early in the book meant they were more important than the sites that are wrote about later in the book. I had someone call me and said im happy my site is more important than gettysburg because im number eight and gettysburg is number 15. No, this is roughly in chronological or. Der. These were sites that were publicly accessible. You can get to them fairly easily, many of them for free. That was important to me. The fourth criteria was i selected sites that represented major themes in American History. Themes that i think represents and a fine american identity. Those themes are freedom, and innovation, diversity, landscape. Freedom, war, innovation, diversity, and landscape. Fwidl, if you are trying to memorize that. We can argue about that. Maybe there are some themes that are not uniquely american or that i should add or subtract. Those are the things that guided me in selecting these sites. I will show you a few images from the book, not all 50, but about 20 images, 20 sites that represent important themes and 50 Great American places. Under freedom, i have to start with monticello. And, as i said earlier, i think we are learning so much about Thomas Jefferson and about his contributions to American History. Thanks to monticello that we know so much about his time. Today, i was fascinated with the walkthrough the building of monticello, the putting up and pulling down was the name of the exhibit. How often he built and rebuilt and changed the appearance of monticello. But, also to think about jeffersons contributions to the story of freedom, to the fact that now monticello is talking about the history of slavery at monticello. That freedom story is being told here. It is a very rich site for all of those reasons. At the smithsonian, we had possession of jeffersons bible. Many of you know about jeffersons bible. I know dan does. A great story of just how original a mind jefferson had and how he did not accept anything. He had to challenge everything. Monticello tops my list in terms of it could be in many different categories, but in the freedom story, certainly it belongs there. The freedom trail in boston is another important site that i believe in the next few years you will read more and more about boston as we get closer to the 250th anniversary of the american revolution. The stamp act, the 250th anniversary was last year. Along the freedom trail is where i will be on wednesday. There are 16 sites that helps us understand the events that led up to the american revolution. Many of the important meetings took place there leading up to the american revolution. Seneca falls. Seneca falls was mentioned there we go seneca falls was mentioned last week when Hillary Clinton accepted, or didnt accept, but was giving a victory speech. Seneca falls appeared in the video that was shown prior to her victory speech. Ill be speaking at seneca falls in july at the annual anniversary of the Womens Rights Convention which was held in july 1848. What always amazes me about this in early july, the women came together for tea and decided finally enough is enough. They were staunch abolitionists, progressive reformers, but they decided we will have a convention about womens rights. We will hold it for three weeks. We are going to draft a declaration of sentiments. One of the key provisions of the declaration of sentiments will be that women have the right to vote. If we were planning a convention, wed start a year or two ahead of time. They had 300 people show up at the convention before fax machines, before the telephone, before airmail or the internet. They sent out the word and people came. 150 people, men and women, signed the declaration of sentiments. That document launched the Womens Suffrage Movement and the womens Rights Movement in this country and around the world. It is a very important site. Not far from seneca falls is the town of auburn, new york. Who knows the two important people that lived in auburn . One of them was william seward, Abraham Lincoln secretary of state. His home is beautifully preserved. Home, thism sewards is a connection to Alexander Hamilton here so if you will follow my logic, who lived in auburn . Harriet tubman. For the last 50 years of her life, she lived in auburn, new york and her home is open to the public. The connection to Alexander Hamilton is she will be replacing Andrew Jackson on the 20 bill. Worthwhilehat was a story to bring us back to seneca falls. A very important site. The National Park service does a wonderful job interpreting the Womens Rights Convention. The building on your left is the chapel that was restored by the park Service Several years ago. After it ceased operation as a chapel, it was used for almost every use you can imagine. A laundromat, rollerskating rink, office building, used car dealership. Everything was in that building but somehow the bones of the building survived and the Parks Service restored the building years ago. The building on the right is elizabeths home just outside of seneca falls. In atlanta, the Ebenezer Baptist church. Another important landmark and the Martin Luther king birth which is just down the street in the area of atlanta called sweet auburn. Ist i found interesting when you go to the Ebenezer Baptist church, the Parks Service has restored the church and has a recording of Martin Luther king delivering sermons in that church. It is quite powerful to hear him speak and know he is speaking in that building. When you go to his home, you go into the room where he was born. Many people dont realize this