c-span3 american history tv. thank you. we appreciate it. >> thanks so much. great to be here. you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. each week american artifacts takes viewers and archives, museums and historic sites around the country. next we visit the smithsonian national portrait gallery in washington dc to tour their one-room exhibit, examining pivotal event and personalities of the year 19 -- year 1968. historian --ic portrait gallery historian, james barber. >> my name is james barber, i'm curator and historian here at the gallery. yeare going to look at the

1968, 50 years from now. exhibitiona one year about the year 1968. we are going to begin with this iconic image of us, the earth. this was taken on a mission of apollo eight. it was the first space mission that would actually leave earth's atmosphere and travel to a distant object. the only one at the race. i guess they didn't exactly prime them whether they forgot or what. you see this incredible site.

can you give me some? he snapped to this image. as well as another number of images. it was really a first. this occurred at the end of the year in december in 1968. let's go into the exhibition and look at the beginning of the year. we are in the one room show and there are some 30 objects here thated to tell the story tumultuous year. a little bit about the organization. why are they in these locations?

i think of chronology. also this is topical of vietnam. that's his person of the year cover. if we did it chronologically we would have peggy fleming. let's start with vietnam. that would really define the 1960's. i mentioned president lyndon johnson as his person of the year coverage. he had a bad year 1967.

in 1964 he was man of the year. things were going well, even in vietnam. wasin the country there peace to menstruation's and war demonstrations all over. i chose lyndon johnson as person of the year that year. his problem was obviously vietnam. bring the troops home now. there were demonstrations throughout the nation. this became a slogan. bring the troops home now. we went from january, person of the year cover to this is now march to the massacre, which involve lieutenant william.

i should mention we should see a number of time covers. this is a cover that actually appeared a year later. he would be convicted of a number of murders and then he would be pardoned in 1974. this is a photograph of lyndon johnson. they are watching tv screens in the oval office. johnson has given a nationally dress. he was the pair accept a peace in vietnam.

his second surprise was he announced that he was no longer a candidate for the presidency. this shocked the political base. and it shocked the nation. it was so much of a surprise that lady bird johnson did not believe he was going to say that. >> i will not accept the nomination of my party for another term. on well into the next administration. let's move on here. we begin with a photograph of

martin luther king. let me explain why all these images are. we try to focus on what was our collection for the most part. you will see a great diversity of portraiture. the portrait gallery opened in 1968. this image of dr. martin luther king, he is at a news conference. he is announcing his great initiative for that year. campaign was the the march on washington, poor people's march on washington.

it continued, it went on. the march on washington occurred in mid-may. they will be on the mall. right alongside it. save their attention to the plight of the poor nationwide. the rain created mud for too many days there up to their ankles in mud. marker --y we chose chose martin luther king, this image of him. it's been asked why we didn't have anything restoring -- anything referring to his assassination.

the answer is this room only holds certain images. we can't tell the entire story of martin luther king, but we have a video here. the next image besides martin is time magazine's f kennedy, of robert who in march announced his candidacy for the democratic party. for a lot of things lyndon johnson thing was not four. the two men never got along. once kennedy entered the race johnson knew that was it. and he stepped aside. the image we see here is a time cover that appeared right after

in los's assassination angeles. kennedy of course was a peace candidate, doing very well. he won the california primary. thathing i remember about was the train. the train that left new york city to come to washington dc. there were just crowds. journey from new york city. the image height of the center here is of robert kennedy. wifeesar chavez and his

helen. kennedy went to california to support chavez. he was ending a 25 day fast in support of the pickers of california. -- the great growers and pickers of california. grape growers and pickers of california. kennedy arrives and that picture you see is of them breaking bread, sharing a piece of bread. the photograph of kennedy is one of time magazine's most iconic .mage covers it was titled the gun in america. thereery cover time did was a cover story.

with two assassinations, martin it wasd robert kennedy, really time to do a major story. this was an expensive cover to do. by the pop artist roy lichtenstein. are beingters expanded. doing the sameas thing with this artist. in the 60's they began. and one of three major pop artists at the time of use. the other two would be anti-rock -- andy warhol and -- image of its -- for every different color you see

there's a different sheet of acetate. as i mentioned it really was one of time's most iconic images. before we leave the gun in america, i should mention roy did a month before a cover in his style of robert kennedy. came out in mid-may. i should mention when i say coverage, this was the original that weree covers then put on the cover of the magazine. it's the original cover on all of these images. the liechtenstein image of kennedy would not have been appropriate for an image that would have followed so closely to his death. liechtenstein was a perfect

to capture kennedy's colorful miss and vibrancy. it was a good portrait at the time to do that. to use a real gun may have been too much, too graphic. so liechtenstein was much better. we are leaving the gun of america here and the second half of this wall is distance. we are moving from the peaceful resistance of martin luther king to three images here. and the image here at the fort of craft here is -- carmichael has a revolver here.

and mostly a shotgun there. the image above them is of bobby steele. at the time of healy newton's murder trial. and this image shows the time of healy newton's trial for murdering a policeman. another black panther member and cleaver was known for the book that he wrote. it was a collection of essays. they vary dramatically laid out the black panther agenda. it was racial matters, inequalities and whatnot.

the next topic we will look at our culture and counterculture. this wall is the center of all of the exhibition. it's the wall you see if you were to enter the room. we look at culture, pop culture, counterculture, literary culture and the photograph at the top here. it was titled slouching towards bethlehem. essays, aeries of journal of going home and that kind of thing. the main article was about the counterculture of san francisco.

explores that, writes about and a hippieut it family with a five-year-old girl on acid. it's quite the experience reading this. the book itself is very popular today. will sayho review it how it is today. below that we have another time cover about hippies. articleld do an explaining who they were, what they were all about. the gallery has two images of this. this is not the one that made the cover of time. the cover of time had some yellows in it.

the reason being the conservation, this one was much better shape and condition than the ones that actually made it. why did time not put this on the cover? i wish somebody could tummy that. the hippies will move down to the center image, which is of jimi hendrix. name withx was a huge this in 1968. she was voted by a rolling stone and billboard magazine as the artist of the year. he formed his band, the jimi hendrix experience. the member of a banned in

england. he would come back at the states to perform here. this is the one object, one of the few objects that the style of the art in vaux the 1960's. the style ofs to the 1960's. we look at two other bands of the era. before i talk about them, let's talk about the photographer. photographernown at this time period, he was contacted by local magazine, which was a picture journalism style of magazine. the contract was to go to san

francisco. theto do a photo story of counterculture and the culture that it was going on. and the photographer somehow hereed to get 10 musicians and took their picture. he was asked why he didn't take these. it was asked why didn't he take samet -- take separate images? get 10 rock 'n roll musicians this was your portrait. this was janis joplin with her band over here on the left-hand and this is jerry garcia and the grateful dead on the side. they are very young, this is an early image of these two bands.

that was his take on the san francisco music scene. the poster here, we focus on 1968. looking for images from 1960 eight as well as events that occurred in 1968. movieshis lesser-known which came out in 1968 was love of iv. yeartually had a better with three movies, to serve with love and guess who's coming to dimmer. -- to dinner. here,see in the label sydney was described as the martin luther king of those

movies. he predicted the perfected man. he was one of the leading stars of hollywood, whether male or female. a, and poster of him. let's look at television. case into look at this the center of the room. before we leave movies we had to include barbra streisand, who ofeared in the movie version -- she would win an oscar for that role. streisand won awards for everything. i'm much or there was anybody else like her. she won oscars, she won tony's, she won grammy awards. she did it all.

besides the photograph of streisand we have two tv guide tier. this is television culture of the day. there is an image of the smothers brothers here and and takeat dan rowan martin. they used a lot of political humor in these tv shows. would push the envelope as far as they could. the next year, when they got too deep into presidential politics, the studio pulled them pretty much immediately. they didn't last that long. many people remember those tv shows.

we will move from pop culture to sports. it was a memorable year for sports. we are looking at it chronologically with vince lombardi and the green bay packers. nothing really changes. the green bay packers have owned the decade. they have won mobile championships in the 60's. including the first two super bowl's of 1967 and the 1968 super bowl. nothing much has changed. use the 62 cover for the 68 show. it was the best one we could show. this was an olympic year.

in 1968ng had occurred there would be two major events for that year, the olympics and a presidential year. gamesn mind the olympic both summer and winter were held in the same year. what you see is peggy fleming, the only american to win a gold medal. this was at the age of amateur sports. there was no apparel logo. amateur sports only. he is serving.

before 1968, it was called the national championships and an amateur event. it became known as the u.s. open. doing amateur. this was a photograph from that match. he would get a trophy. but he couldn't keep the prize money. ashe, i like this quilt on the label. saying what i like yes about myself is my demeanor. she was known for his civic sense of duty. he refused to play the south

-- as open as opposed opposed to their policy of apartheid. he was very much an activist. arthur ash is yet another time cover up. mclean was their star pitcher that year and would take the detroit tigers to the world series. they would win the world series and danny mclain would win the most valuable player award. the award that was given to the pitcher was -- and the last image we have here about sports is an unidentified

imagerapher who took the of the american medalist in the 200 meter run, tommy smith would win gold and his teammate giancarlo's would win the bronze. an australian by peter norman would take the silver. see the gloved fist in the against quiet protester racial inequality they experienced in america. and i comic image -- and iconic image. sometimes there are juxtapositions you can't anticipate. of ais a wonderful example juxtaposition of arthur ashe and carlos and smith. arthur ashe knows exactly the these gentlemen go about

racial inequality in america. ashe, as i read earlier, he expresses any much effort way. it was an interesting juxtaposition. and relevant, this kind of protest is relevant to today. we are seeing this with the national flag throughout. we will move from these sportsmen and women to politics. 1968 was also an election year. and we have a number of images to illustrate that. let's focus on surely. andis from new york city

she is the first to win-american woman election to the house of representatives. that would occur in 1968. she would represent america moving forward. is thised with that image of george wallace for governor of alabama. he is campaigning for the presidency as an independent. he represents the america of old. you don't have this juxtaposition. we were wondering how to lay this out. she wasn't typically presidential candidate. later she would run for president. on paper when you ladies things out you kind of wonder how they are going to lay out.

wall ity get on the doesn't seem to fit. above them are the two democratic candidates, hubert humphrey and his private presidential candidates. is the small image you see richard daley, the mayor of chicago. this was a very memorable convention, not for so much of what went on in the convention protest and student the police brutality outside of the convention. new it might be contentious. and he was right. asked about the this, he onlyof

could say at least no one was killed. andthere were many arrests much heavy handedness from the chicago police department. artist thathe same did the rk. very different. we move from the democrats to the republicans. he would emerge the winner. his running mate was spiro agnew.

nixon wanted somebody who was confident. he didn't want anyone who would upstage him. was perfect for that. nobody really knew him. he was perfect and for richard who had been dwight eisenhower's president for eight years. know what didn't these men come of the turmoil they were going to cause later. this is covered by the same artist who did this one and hubert humphrey. a very different feel to this. this was of the free apollo eight astronaut in the middle

here and james on the right. astronauts, frank in the middle and james on the right. it was at this time they were times men of the year for 1968. america was in a space race with russia. it's a further america's interests they upped the schedule for apollo eight. this occurred around christmas time late december of 1968. as you watch these things on television. all seems to go just perfectly and all that. and makes its way after the mission. gentlemen a little more than a 60% chance of success. theye documentary

interviewed the wives, the astronaut's lives. they all said when they were saying goodbye to their husbands, they didn't know whether it was just goodbye or a fundamental goodbye. it was a complete success, the first time that human beings would travel somewhere. they would orbit the moon a number of times. and undertake the great picture of earth. it was a proud moment for america. apollo eight was on a tremendous upswing.

nassaua proud moment for and for the nation. 68 ends on a bright spot. this is just a one room exhibition. are court orders filled with portraits of interesting people that have their own stories to tell. we hope to see lots of people come visit. >> you can watch this or other american artifacts programs .nytime by visiting our website what does it mean to be american? that this year c-span studentcam video competition. from around the country are posting on social

media about it. heidi long from carol string illinois tweeted what does it mean to be an american? social study students brainstorming constitutional rights, national characteristics and important people in defense of the nation. see hms civic student brainstormed ideas for -- indiana senator todd young tweeted, visited fischer's high school today to speak with our government class. and i was interviewed by students participating in c-span's student can't -- program.m scholarship and this is william paint from fort lauderdale, florida. project-based learning at its finest. check out the post it.

we are asking middle and high school students to produce a five to six minute documentary. we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline for entries january 20. for more information, go to studentcam.org. >> who was martin van buren? good question. a lot of people probably need to ask that question. martin van buren was the eighth president of the united states. he's often forgotten, his presidency is only four years long. oftonight, his biography president martin van buren. he spent a lot of time with aaron burr, hamilton's birth -- hamilton's murderer. there are rumors persist in threat the life of martin bit --

martin van buren. martin van buren may have been the illegitimate son of aaron burke. we don't know. no one will ever know. john quincy adams once wrote in that martin van buren looks a lot like aaron burr. and he acts a lot like aaron burr. -- alwayss tried trying to organize factions and giving southerners and northerners and political alliances to speak together. >> tonight at eight eastern on c-span's q and a. next, on american history tv, a historian talks about his book bureau of spies, the secret connection between espionage and journalism in washington. and espionage that took place inside the building where he gets his talk. for not tohow spies

germany, the soviet union and the cia operated from world war ii through the cold war inside the building that stands a few blocks from the white house. club and thepress spy museum hosted this hour and 15 minute long event. >> welcome to the national press come up -- press club. my name is gil klein. i'm a former president of the club, chairman of the history and heritage committee and the bureau chief for the brand-new gaylord news turned. you are associated with the spy , which is cosponsoring this. heree sitting