Well start our second panel today. First i want to introduce the moderator our very own colleen shogun. Who is the Senior Vice President at the David M RubinsteinNational Center for white house history of the White House Historical association . Dr. Shogun is a trained political scientist with a phd in american politics from Yale University as well as a bachelors degree in Political Science from boston college. She has almost 15 years of service in the federal government including prominent roles with the us senate as well as the library of congress, dr. Shogun teaches government students at Georgetown University and served as vice chair of the womens Suffrage Centennial commission. Another feather in her cap in an illustrious resume is that she currently serves as a cochair of the board of directors at the womens Suffrage National Monument Foundation designated by the congress to build the first memorial in dc dedicated to the history of the movement for womens equality. Its a huge deal. To begin with our panelists we have elaine rice bachmann, who is the state archivist of maryland and a coauthor of a wonderful book designing camelot published by the White House Historical association, and im proud to say it was launched in this very room on july 28th, which happens to be Jacqueline Kennedys birthday. I was there for that event and when im tired of practicing law i go into my study and i look through the book and it heals me and i go back to litigating. Thank you for the signed edition. Like Jacqueline Kennedy herself miss bachman also studied art history at the undergraduate level in her case at Indiana University and she is an expert on marylands historic public buildings, including the state house as well as the governors mansion. Shes a frequent collaborator of the Current Governor larry hogan. Miss bachman is a former director of artistic property exhibits and outreach as well as a curator of artistic property at the maryland state archives. Next we also have Melissa Nolan who is the associate curator of Decorative Arts at the white house just across the street. Where she has served since 2003 in the presidency of George W Bush. Miss nolan previously held curatorial post at George Washingtons mount vernon the Winterthur Museum in delaware and the Strong Museum of rochester new york. She holds a master of arts degree from the Winterthur Program in early American Culture at the university of delaware as well as a bachelors degree from smith college. And last but not least we have susan shell work an executive director the executive director of Historic Preservation and collections and the Robert H Smith senior curator at George Washingtons mount vernon where she directs the architectural preservation furnishing and interpretation. Of george and Martha Washingtons home the surrounding plantation structures as well as the landscapes a phd graduate of yale and an ma and also an ma graduate from the Winterthur Program at the university of delaware. She has a bachelors degree from the university of notre dame. And exhibit that ran from 2016 and through 2021 created by dr. Sheller and her colleagues led to the creation of an awardwinning exhibition entitled lives bound together slavery at george, washingtons mount vernon. Please welcome our moderator and our next panel. Good morning, everyone. Thank you brandon for that very kind introduction when we were first planning this symposium with the national trust. This was one of the topics that myself and my colleague mac costello certainly wanted to include because we thought it was one of the most important elements of discussion and as brandon said, you know, im not a historian. Im a political scientist. So i approached these in a these types of topics in a particular type of way, which is always asking how why and to what effect and i think today we are going to talk about the how the why and to what effect and were gonna have some terrific stories talking about the historic role of women in preservation from places like mount vernon all the way to the white house including our own founder jackie kennedy, which lane will talk about in the course of our discussion. Were going to start with susan susan you work at mount vernon. And of course mount vernon is the home to one of the most amazing and interesting preservation stories in the United States one of the early preservation stories in the United States. Can you tell us a little bit about that story and can you tell us why women saved mount vernon and not men because they were there because they were they stepped up to the plate. Thank you so much. Thank you so much colleen and to our sponsors today. Its its wonderful to be here if i can have the first slide. And all of you being here today, youre all invested in preservation. Im sure youve heard the story of them alvernon Ladies Association of the union, but i will recap it again briefly in case youre not totally immersed in it as i was not before i got to mount vernon in 2010 the mount vernon. Is association was founded in 1853 by ann, Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina as a grassroots effort to acquire and preserve the home of the nations founding father now ann pamela was in turn inspired by a letter from her mother who had seen mount vernon in Something Like the condition that you see it in the in the photograph before you from a riverboat and was quote as she wrote to her daughter painfully distressed at the ruin and desolation of the home of washington and the thought passed through my mind. This is her mother writing. Why was it that the women of his country did not try and keep it in repair if the men could not do it. It does seem such a blot on our country. Now to your question colleen why not men . I think thats a story of opportunities not taken because in fact mount vernon had been made available by the washington family who still collateral relatives of George Washington who still owned it since the 1830s and both congress and the legislature of virginia the state of virginia had been approached and declined because of course, there was no model for a federal there was no model for preservation at all much Less Government owning private properties to preserve them. So congress in the Virginia Legislature both declined and thus it was remaining in private property when ann Pamela Cunningham began to create this Grassroots Organization in 1853 now to step ahead to your second question, you know, would it have made a difference we have there . Unprecedence for Historic Preservation at the time there were no white papers. There were no best practices. There were no aslh technical leaflets next slide, please. So anne Pamela Cunningham and her deputies the vice regents as they were called and still are called when they came back after the civil war. Im really began actively preserving the property. Theyre really making up the playbook as they go. And i think whats notable about amp pamelas vision. It was both conservative and inclusive from the very beginning. She made clear that her goal was to restore the house. The outbuildings the gardens and the grounds quote as nearly as possible into the condition in which they were left by George Washington now, i i say thats conservative in the sense that it wasnt a grandising. She wasnt trying to improve it or embellish it she wants to present it to people as washington knew it and it was inclusive because she envisioned it as not just the mansion and the tomb but all of the buildings that were surviving in 1859 and so, you know, i dont really have that, you know that vision of i forget what you call it when you imagine what didnt happen, but we do have evidence of other suggestions that were put forth to her by authorities by architects by Landscape Architects and those included ideas such as fitting out the grounds as a Memorial Park conserving scarce funds by preserving only the mansion and the family tombs the other structures that was said at the time were of no interest as they were only for quote unquote the menials. By which of course was memphian slave people who were making the plantation really operate and really responsible for all of the washingtons legendary hospitality. Another suggestion was to preserve the mansion by effectively dissecting it disassembling it constructing a replica of more durable brick stone and iron and then quote applying all of the old interior parts essentially creating a veneer of authenticity and finally, oh two more in closing it all in kind of a dome of iron and glass and protect it from the elements. And finally improving George Washingtons landscapes, but introducing terraces walks and part terrace of flowers. Thus quote making the most of the grounds and woods because clearly washington hadnt done enough. So next slide, please. I think that and all of those were coming from male authorities in their fields, and i think any of these would have resulted in a far different mount vernon that we see today and arguably could have set preservation in general on a different tack. So do i think it made a difference . Mmm. I think the evidence indicates that perhaps it did make a difference. So thank you to those women. Thank you susan for leading us off now. Were going to move from mount vernon. Were going to move to the white house and thats fitting were here obviously today at the White House Historical association. Melissa, i know youve done some research recently in a presentation about some of the first ladies prior to Jacqueline Kennedy who engaged in preservation efforts at the white house. Can you share with us some of those lesserknown stories and were these women really the necessary predecessors to what we see eventually realized under the Kennedy Administration . Sure, id be happy to thank you. Absolutely, i think sometimes the story of Historic Preservation as associated with the white house begins and ends often with Jacqueline Kennedy and there were certainly many many precedents that were in place when she became first lady in 1961. So many first ladies were involved in those efforts, but i wanted to highlight a few today, but could have the first slide. The first first lady i think who really deserves the credit of promoting Historic Preservation at the white house was lucretia hayes or lucy hayes her husband rutherford b. Hayes came into office quite controversially in 1877, but first of all, i just want to point out. You know, she appears on the scene 84 years before mrs. Kennedy, and she was really the first first lady to have an interest in history genealogy antiques in in looking back at americas history. She had visited the philadelphia centennial exposition in 1876 and was very influenced by that and when she got into the white house she consulted with a old friend of the hayes into her spoffard who was then serving as the librarian of congress to try to decide what in what ways could they have the white house better . Vote the history of the past which up to that point hadnt really been highlighted and one of the the plans that they came up with was commissioning portraits of former first, ladies and president s that hadnt that were not represented and that was the vast majority at that point. There was very little fine art in the house. Even when mrs. Hayes came in so you see in the slide two of the paintings that were commissioned during her time there the first of Martha Washington by alethel at andrews and this was done as a companion portrait to the lansdown. Gilbert stewart portrait of George Washington, which was referenced earlier and you know is is of the same scale is that portrait and those two portraits of hung as many of you have seen for many many years in the east room of the white house the portrait at the bottom of john adams is by edgar parker and again is one of the many president ial portraits that were commissioned during this is hayess tenure and those portraits tended to be copies of life portraits. So this is a copy of a Gilbert Stewart portrait of adams. This is hayes was also known for going through from asking the staff as they were investigating some of the lesser scenes faces at the house that if anything looked old and historic to bring it to her for her evaluation, and so i think some of the things that you know, were identified as historic in the 19th century certainly can be credited to her the whole concept of in american of highlighting. American history and furnishings is something that she highlighted in the selection of the state china service, which i would argue that the hay service is probably the most remarkable service. Thats probably ever been created for the white house throughout the 19th century because there wasnt american porcelain factories that were producing wars that would considered fine enough for white house state services. They were all being purchased from france and they tended to be french in design and mrs. Hayes was adamant that her service should really be american in theme and so she hired an artist Theodore Davis to design come up with unique drawings paintings of american scenes american flora fauna animals crops and some of which you see represented there on the right. Next slide please. Um, i also wanted to highlight edith roosevelts wife of president Theodore Roosevelt and during the mckinney in white renovation of the white house, which took place in 1902 Charles Mccann who was leading the project. He really wanted to start with a clean slate in the white house and really get rid of essentially everything that was in the house up to that point very, i mean as you you have to i dont have pictures this but you have to if youve if youre familiar with the images of the white house from the late 19th century, it was very high victorian and style and throughout the 19th century that had been what the families had used in decorating was everything of the latest fashion and kim wanted to return to a classical vision of the house and but mrs. Roosevelt put her foot down in certain things. She for example, love the lincoln bedroom suite which Mary Todd Lincoln had purchased for the best guest. Over during her time and so she insisted she was going to have it for her bedroom, which you see in that center slide the the famous lincoln bed and the accompanying dressers and table there all in use and so that of course called his bluff in terms of being able to get rid of it and she did that for for a number of things. She was also the first first lady to really install any sort of true museum type installation in the white house you see that in she had cabinets commissioned in the ground floor quarter and historic China Services displayed there. And possibly most importantly she also decided that the auctions that it happened all throughout the 19th century of white house furnishings needed to stop and that was a real turning point in terms of how you know, what remained in the house and what did get slide, please. And then i wanted to give a shout out to namie eisenhower who is usually not always considered in discussions of Historic Preservation, but she like mrs. Kennedy was very interested in antiques when she came into office her pet project was the state china and president ial services. She was concerned that not every president ial family was represented in the white house collection at the time. And so she used a lot of the techniques mrs. Kennedy did in terms of inviting the press in to highlight her search and to have them publicize it and help her get the word out and she was successful in locating descendants of the families that she was trying to search for china force. You see her there being proudly next to some of the acquisitions. She acquired in sheer numbers of acquisitions to the white house collection. Its hard to top her in terms of the collection of mermaid that came. And under her tenure in 1958 vermei is gilded sterling silver and its believed that the donation came about through her and general eisenhowers excuse me, president eisenhowers friendship with Margaret Thompson biddle who was an american heiress living in paris and who entertained the eisenhowers when they lived in paris when general eisenhower was serving as the commander of nato and then finally mrs. Eisenhower the first period room in the white house was introduced under mrs. Eisenhower. It