Transcripts For CSPAN3 Smithsonian Institution Castle 201708

Steve berry he has a cool job, he looks after this stuff in the building. It is really neat. A really interesting place, kind of where it started. The smithsonian was started by a man named james smithson. He was an innocuous british chemist. He was just a guy who had an interest in science at the time. He died at he had 500,000 when he died and he left it to his nephew. His nephew had been married and had kids, life would be great, he would have cap the money, but he died childless. The provision said the money would go to washington, d. C. To found the Smithsonian Institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. That is what the language says. Here is the neat part. He had never set foot in america. Why did he leave a half Million Dollars to place he never set a foot in . To this day, nobody knows. The guess is he was somewhat bitter. , soas an illegitimate son for the 30 years of his life, he first was known as james lewis macey. Because he was illegitimate, he was never allowed to use his fathers name or fortunes or anything. There was a scrap of paper found in his personal effects, paraphrasing, it avails me not, the name of the person or North Cumberland will be extinct, but mine will be not. To suggest he was a little bitter. Other than that, we do not know. And he was right. All of that was from the 500,000 investment. It took Congress Many years. They could not decide what to do. A lot of people were suspicious of creating Something Like this. Southern senators thought it would be an antislavery institution. John quincy adams and the house of representatives, in 1846, they created the Smithsonian Institution. It was completed in 1855. This is smithsons tomb brought to the early part of the 20th century. He is not in here. He is actually down here. There he is. Test his bones are in there. When analysts brought over, the regents were notified that the cemetery he was buried in set on top of a stone quarry. They needed to extend the seawall, so they notified the board of regents. On our board at the time was Alexander Graham bell who took a upon himself to convince Board Members that we needed to bring james smithsons bones here, even though he had never visited here in his lifetime and had no Close Friends that we know of. Yardhip docked at the navy in southwest d. C. , and they had a long procession with his british flag draped coffin and they brought him here to the building and in the middle of the hall, they had a great ceremony and they changed the flags to half american, half british. And then took him up the stairs to the regions room and draped the coffin in an american flag. These are the ideas of what they thought they were going to do and never did. They wanted to build a proper memorial. Ideas came this is like of the tomb, this is more vague. They are both huge and would have dwarfed the lincoln memorial. As it became apparent, there was less money for the project, the designs went into a garden bench and finally, when the regions were informed by congress that there was no money for this, he ended up in this room right here. Which in the 1880s was the janitors closet. It was totally redesigned. The cool thing was for a long time, this was closed. You could not come in here. It was blocked off. They opened it in the 1970s when they opened it up when people could walk in. In here, a few of his personal effects, but most of them were destroyed in the fire and we will tell you more about that upstairs. His book survived and we have them over in a refrigerated vault in the Natural History museum. There are a few little personal effects that survived. In my novel taking place inside of the smithsonian, this is all in the book and we reopen this tomb as they did in 1973. They popped this panel off and i go back in there again and use it. It fascinated me. Why did they go in his tomb in 1973 . Nobody really knows. There was no scientific value. They decided to go in and inventory it. They took it apart and walked him across to the Natural History museum and study him for a day or so. Got in a lot of trouble, didnt it . They did. The District Office got wind of it and they contacted our lawyers to say you have got no proper permit. That is why we have lawyers. I am a lawyer so i can talk about the lawyers. They eventually put all of the bones in and it was put back down. I could not resist. I had something hidden there because it was the Perfect Place to hide something because nobody would go in there. It is all in the novel. The reader will learn about all of that. I try to keep my books 90 to reality. I keep them as close as reality as i can keep them so you can learn along the way. I serve on this Smithsonian Library Advisory Board and we oversee the 22 libraries. There is a library in all of the museums, so i have a rate interest in the smithsonian. I wanted to draw attention to the smithsonian and the smithsonian libraries. A recurring character is my hero, he has been in 12 of my books. He is a retired Justice Department agent and lives in copenhagen. He gets in trouble a lot. I pick stuff from history. Things in a footnote. Not in the main body. In here, i deal with the knights of the golden circle, the largest, most dangerous, Clandestine Group in American History, and i weave them in the tale. This is the crypt. We will go downstairs to something the basement and see something very few people get to see. This is the great hall where we are now. Now, we are going to the basement, which looks tight. A lot of pipes and wires. We will follow. It pays to be short here. It helps. When you see books and television and movies, they always talk about the mysteries under the smithsonian. Now, you are under it. There is not a lot of mystery per se. It is a workable work area. There is an interesting something that is kind of fascinating and i put it in the book. We have a drawing to show you. We are right here. This is the Smithsonian Castle and were right here. Underneath the national mall, all across 730 feet, there is a tunnel and up. They did not actually tunnel, they dug a big trench built in a frame brick causeway and filled it over. It became a tunnel. You will see that in a second. What it was designed to do is bring heating from over here to the castle. The heating ducts and is still does to this day but it is their tight and narrow thing and i put it in the novel. I was down here one day and rick showed me and i said it has to be in there. It is too cool. In the winter time, this area is warmer where the tunnel is and you can see the line. That is a cool picture. You should have a picture of that. This gets a little warmer so you can see the line as it goes across. The tunnel is right here. Will reset the alarm off again . I think we have it covered. Lets go down. You can see several hundred feet. It last week with the lights off and a flashlight. I guess you cannot see your hand in front of your face. In the novel, rick actually is in the tunnel with the character and allows access into this building from the Natural History across. He is in the book. I had to have somebody in the book and you a bunch of stuff make someoneng to up, and i said, why make up somebody . I used him. He said he had to be handsome and exciting and i had to paint him, a lot of conditions he put on it. He gets shot at. He does get shot at. You savestephanie, so her life. You did a good job. This tunnel figures into the book. There are secrets in the smithsonian and here is one of them. One of the real cool secrets. It has been there since 1910. Do people still love the walkthrough . Occasionally. We had Asbestos Abatement last summer, so they were in there for three months. To a few days ago. He said it was not the funnest experience in the world. It was really tight. You cannot because of the. Yet. I was trying to film it with my cell phone. I was continually hitting my head against the pipes. The only thing i did differently is it is Straight Line and in the book, i put a couple of curves of a couple of twists. Other than that, it is faithfully represented. We are going to see something i think is the coolest thing in the whole building. It is his office. He has the office that you would think of when you think of the smithsonian and we will show it to you right now. Rick wrote a book on the castle, the definitive book on the Smithsonian Castle. I studied that book. The curators office. It is decorated with pictures and with objects of the smithsonian. [laughter] look at all the cool stuff. Over here, here is a shelf and old books and what you would think of when you think of a smithsonian curator and a little cubbyhole where nobody can get to you. We will show you something really neat discovered here about 20 years ago . Yeah, i think we have always known it was there but sealed off. And never had been years. Pretty interesting. A tour of your office. What does the curator in the castle do . I am the curator of the furniture to furnish the secretary and undersecretary. All the public spaces. It was set up in 1964 by general ripley who was secretary at the time. He felt the inside of the building should better reflect downside, a historic structure. At the time, it was green linoleum and issued metal furniture and all of that. For the next, since 1965, we have been collecting antique furniture that fits with the building and the time period, roughly 1840 to 1900. The first initial years of the smithsonian. Then, we actually, people actually sit at the desks and is the tables and the building is furnished that way throughout and that is the collection i manage. This little staircase is in one of the tiny towers on the corner of the main building. It was put in 1881 for the scientists who have Laboratory Space on a balcony in the great hall. One of them was mary jane, she was the sister of one of the young assistant secretaries. She worked in the marine collection. The wet storage was down here. They put in the staircase as a shortcut and she would have to go to the middle of the great hall, down a flight of stairs and where the elevator we came down and was a flight of stairs and all the way to this end of the building, the west end. Pick up these huge and jars filled with marine vertebrates and retrace her stuff and go back up. They put in this little staircase for shortcut for those scientists. She said before she would open the door and come out into the storage space, she would stop mp her feet three times to scare away the rats. That is the book that is out. We put this medallion on the cover. We had a cover artist draw it. We put this medallion on the cover. We put the castle and everything on there. It is essential to the book itself. Staircase show up in the book . Yes, it does. It is used as a secret way to get in and out. You cannot not put it in the book, come on. It was sealed for many years and they unsealed it and using it again. We will go from the very bottom up towards the top in up to the rotunda, a place many people never get to see. This is the regents room where they meet. Many people do not understand how it is governed, it is governed by a 17 member council. It is headed by the chief justice of the United States. The Vice President of the United States serves on the board as do three members of the house of the three members of the senate and nine citizen members of the 17 of members. This is where they meet. This room is pretty cool because as we saw downstairs in the so brought his body up here first. It laid in this room. That was in the early part of the century. In 1865, january, this is where they kept smithsons personal effects. When the fire happened, this room was destroyed and most of his personal effects. The only thing that survived were his books that are in a refrigerated vault in the national History Museum a few of his personal items. A small painting and some arrowheads. Just his calling cards and really very minor things. What people do not realize is there is smithsonite. What is it . A mineral he discovered. It was named for him posthumously. It is fairly useful. But it is very expensive for some reason. In many different colors. The most sought after is a turquoise color and found in mexico. I always wondered, extremely expensive mineral that has very little, if no uses whatsoever. We are not sure why it is so expensive. I have a chunk of it on my desk where i write. This is the regents room. I think it would be cool to be a smithsonian regent. They meet a couple of times a year, sometimes a more. The chief justice takes an active role, very interested in it. That is right. What kind of things do they decide in here . Everything. The fate of the institution. When a new museum is proposed, they work it out. They are the governing board. I like to say that every Smithsonian Museum and Research Center has been created in this building, if not because the collections were located but because the regents created a it in this room. They are a fiduciary board. They set all of the policy and make all of the major decisions. That is why there are 18 chairs, 17 regents and a secretary that reports to them. Is there a reason it is circular . A previous secretary preferred round tables. He had a point. At a long table, we had a 16 foot antique table and if you were sitting at this end, you could not to make eye contact or talk to the person on the same side of the table as you. We had this custommade, large enough to accommodate 18 chairs. This way, everyone can make eye contact and no one chair is more important than the other except the chief justice sits over there. That is his preferred or chair. Out to the rotunda now. This is almost like the heart of the building. Center of the Center Section of the building. Prior to 1865, we were standing in the middle of an auditorium is where we would be. It would be a gigantic gallery, a couple thousand people. Here it is. You can see it. Standing in the middle of this. The smithsonian would present talks and lectures and speeches. A big controversy at the time because joseph henry refused to allow an abolitionist speak. He did not want to get in the middle. The smithsonian did a risky juggling act during the civil war. On the one hand, he was lincolns science advisor and helped with innovation in the war. He was very sympathetic to the south in some ways and had a lot of connections. He tried to balance it. He tried not to take sides. You are in washington, d. C. , it is a little bit of a problem. He managed to do it and survive except in january of 1865, there was a horrific fire. I want to show you this first. This case is interesting. When i was writing the novel, reas read gilding guilding this case. It was being refurbished. I included it in the novel and i destroyed it in the book a little bit. It did not happen in real life. This key is really interesting. I do not know why i found it fascinating. It was found in the attic in the 1950s and nobody knows what it opens. It does go into a lot. It goes into a lock but will not turn. There is one original door left but it will not turn. It fascinated me. This key is given to the incoming secretary each time. It is like a badge of the office but they do not give him the original. Rick has like five copies per i copies in his office. He will not let me get it. He keeps about five down there and they get a copy. This is the original. It fascinated me, so the novel revolved around this key. This one little thing and put it all together. In the novel, i figure out what it opens. And had some fun with that. That is where my 10 is. The key itself israel. This is the badge that was created back in the 1960s by Dillon Ripley. Ceremony to get more to being the secretary. That is pretty cool. The symbol of knowledge. They incorporated that into the badge of office in the photograph. Dillon ripley with queen elizabeth. He loved regalia. He did. Little majesty to the job. He left a huge imprint. Much of what you see today came from him. He had all kinds of things he created. The smithsonian libraries themselves came from him. He was quite a visionary. He was what and when was he here . He was the eighth secretary. E started in 1964 he retired in 1984, so he was a long serving secretary who made a lot of changes. And also created this maze, another symbol of the institution. Mostly with symbolism from james smithson, this from the smithson coat of arms on the silver down here. The medallion represents the cities associated with james smithson, bath, england where we think u. S. Conceived. Paris, where he was born. London, went to school, where he lived after that. Where he died and then washington, d. C. Incorporated that symbolism in the novel but it was created for that very purpose. It fascinated me, all of the symbolism. They incorporated a piece of smithsonite. That gets carried in academic processions and when we induct the secretary. The honor guard carries it. Mason in thee United States senate. It is supposed to preside over the regents meeting. They never do that. Thats why i decided to relocate it to proximity of the regents room. In a sense, it is residing. When i was writing the novel, there is another case and not near as attractive, a much different case and that makes it look so much better. More glitzier. The case dates around 1920. A lot of the novel takes place in the rotunda. There is an action sequence, and i wanted the reader to get in here and be a part of what is here. This is what the public never comes. The secretarys office is down this way and offices are down here and we will see something with regard to the fire and we will show you where the fire started. This room, what was it called back then . It was 50 feet by 200 feet. In january 1865, we would be standing in the picture gallery and there were portraits all over the wall. Some of the greatest portraits of the time, particularly of the american indians. They had a collection. And right up here, there was a stove here and they connected it to the f