We tour the restored 1892 mansion of Captain Frederick Pabst in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The sea captain not only founded the world famous Pabst Brewery, he was a philanthropist and real estate developer and had a great influence on the growth of this Midwestern city on Lake Michigan. Historian John Eastberg shows us examples of craftsmanship, original furnishings and art which teach us about Pabst’s German heritage, Milwaukee’s history, and America’s Gilded Age.

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Each week American Artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, Washington, DC, was lightly defended and vulnerable to attack, with only one fort located 12 miles south of the city and the Confederate state of Virginia just across the Potomac River. By 1865, the nation’s capital arguably had become the most fortified city in the world, with about 70 armed forts and batteries encircling the city. We visited three of the surviving forts with Dale Floyd, author of a study on the Civil War Defenses of Washington for the National Park Service.

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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed at Jamestown Island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history, the original fort was unearthed in 1994. We visited Jamestown to learn how the story of the 1607 settlers is being revealed everyday through the study of artifacts, and how artifacts are conserved for future scholars.

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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed on Jamestown island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history forever under the James River, the original fort was rediscovered in 1994 by archaeologist William Kelso.  In this program, we join Mr. Kelso for an “In the Trenches” tour as he explains how he unearthed the original fort. And we visit Bly Straube in the archaeology lab where more than 1.5 million artifacts are studied to help reveal what life was like inside Jamestown fort over 400 years ago.

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The history of the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans is told at the Gilmore Cabin on the grounds of James Madison's Montpelier in Virginia.  Born a slave for President Madison in 1810, George Gilmore and his wife Polly raised five children on a small sharecropper farm after emancipation.  Built by George Gilmore and his sons, the cabin is one of only a few existing freedman's homes left standing in the United States.

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 After a year of conservation treatments, the National Archives is returning a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta to public display. One of only four originals from 1297, the document is owned by Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein but is on permanent loan to the archives. Partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the archives designed a custom case to protect the fragile document.  In this event, the new encasement is unveiled and details of the project are discussed.

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The Civil War Battle of Shiloh took place April 6th and 7th, 1862 in Hardin County, Tennessee, and resulted in a Union victory over Confederate forces. We visited Shiloh National Military Park, where Stacy Allen, the Park's Chief Ranger, talked about some of the artifacts on display in the Visitor Center, including battle flags, arms and munitions, and personal items from soliders who fought in the battle. He also took us behind the scenes to the Park’s storage facility, where he showed us two rare Civil War tents.

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Clara Barton died 100 years ago on April 12, 1912. Between 1861 and 1868, she lived in a Washington, DC boarding house and employed as many as twelve clerks in her "Missing Soldiers Office."  In 1996 the General Services Administration was preparing the building for demolition when they discovered artifacts eventually proving that this was the lost office of the founder of the American Red Cross. 

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Del Quentin Wilber, author of “Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan,” met American History TV at the Washington Hilton to recreate the afternoon of March 30, 1981. On that day, John Hinckley fired six bullets at President Reagan, who had just completed a speech to the AFL-CIO. Using archival photographs and video, and declassified audio from the U.S. Secret Service, we trace the route of the presidential motorcade to The George Washington University Hospital.

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Between 1861 and 1868, Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield and founder of the American Red Cross, lived in a Washington, DC boarding house on 7th street, NW. She employed twelve clerks on the third floor in her "Missing Soldiers Office," where they received over 60,000 letters from families searching for lost sons and husbands.

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