The NAACP and Its Architects

American Experience

History Series / 13 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Watch Latest: S37 E3

52m 20s

Golden Rule Jones

1m 8s

When Samuel Milton Jones set up a factory in Toledo, Ohio to manufacture his oil pump, the was determined to treat his employees fairly. He offered them benefits that were nearly unheard of in many other Gilded Age workplaces.

Mary Elizabeth Lease: The Advocate

1m 32s

In 1890s Kansas, farmers were working hard and producing a great bounty for the nation, but they weren’t getting the financial benefits. Mary Elizabeth Lease — known for making speeches about woman’s rights, the suffrage movement, and labor unions — took up the cause of the farmers. Lease stumped for the Kansas People’s Party. Filmmaker Sarah Colt introduces this advocate.

J.P. Morgan: The Financier

1m 9s

John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier and industrial organizer during the Gilded Age. In 1885, America was years into a depression, and gold reserves were down more than 50%. Morgan feared that if the U.S. dollar was devalued, his fortune would be in jeopardy. So he urged President Cleveland to consider a plan — one that eventually led to the rebound of the nation’s gold reserves.

Henry George: From Poverty to Politics

1m 35s

Henry George’s 1879 book Progress and Poverty articulated the problem felt by many people during the Gilded Age — that despite the booming economy, many were left behind in poverty. The book was a bestseller, and George became wildly popular, eventually being drafted to run for Mayor of New York City in 1886 as a candidate for the United Labor Party. Filmmaker Sarah Colt introduces Henry George.

Andrew Carnegie: Man of Steel

1m 17s

His family arrived in the United States penniless, but by the end of the Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie had amassed an unimaginable fortune. As the nation rapidly industrialized, Carnegie cornered the market on steel — the material needed to build the railroads that fueled the boom. Filmmaker Sarah Colt introduces the Gilded Age titan.

The Rad Lab

1m 34s

The “Rad Lab” was the main research facility for the American radar program in the Second World War. But there’s virtually no record of it. Filmmaker Rob Rapley discusses the program, housed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that advanced radar technology and helped to win WWII.

The Lab at Tower House

1m

In the wealthy New York suburb of Tuxedo Park, a Wall Street tycoon converted his mansion into one of the most elite laboratories in the country. In the 1930s, nearly every leading scientist in America passed through Alfred Loomis’s lab, where early research on radar led to one of the most significant radar programs in American history—an initiative that helped win World War II. Filmmaker Rob Rapl

Tycoon Turned Scientist

1m 31s

Alfred Loomis was a Wall Street tycoon who predicted the Crash of ’29, became a fulltime scientific researcher, and developed the radar technology that helped win WWII. Filmmaker Rob Rapley introduces viewers to this little know scientist who change the course of history.

Isolated Tribes

3m 17s

Today, there are approximately 100 tribes in the Amazon rainforest that have not interacted with the modern world. A hundred years ago, there were many more. In this co-production with Retro Report, Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered, talks about the ever-shrinking world for the indigenous people who have chosen to live with limited or no contact with the outside world.

Filming with Wildlife

1m 26s

Snakes, spiders, and howler monkeys — those are just a few of the animals the crew of Into the Amazon contended with when filming in Brazil. Filmmakers John Maggio and Hannah Olson discuss the many creatures they met during their efforts to bring to life Teddy Roosevelt’s journey down a river in Brazil.

Filming in the Amazon

1m 16s

To produce Into the Amazon, the filmmaking team quite literally ventured into the Amazon. Filmmakers John Maggio and Hannah Olson offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to bring to life Theodore Roosevelt’s death-defying journey down an uncharted river in Brazil.

The Secret of Tuxedo Park: Chapter 1

8m 51s

In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a small team of scientists on a clandestine transatlantic mission to deliver his country’s most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — not to the U.S. government, but to a mysterious Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis.

Blizzard of 1888

1m 8s

In 1888, the east coast experienced one of the worst blizzards in American history. It dumped four feet of snow and left hundreds dead. But it also helped inspire one of the greatest infrastructure projects in American history — the nation’s first subway.

Into the Amazon: Chapter 1

8m 25s

The remarkable story of the journey taken by President Theodore Roosevelt and legendary Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon into the heart of the South American rainforest to chart an unexplored tributary of the Amazon in 1914.

Into the Amazon: Kermit Roosevelt

1m 28s

Kermit Roosevelt was Theodore and Edith Roosevelt’s second child. When TR accepted an invitation to the Amazon after he lost the 1912 election, Edith pleaded with her son to accompany his father. The trip very nearly killed TR. But when Theodore pleaded with Kermit to leave him behind to save the expedition, Kermit refused. Into the Amazon filmmaker John Maggio talks about the famous son.

Into the Amazon: Candido Rondon

1m 13s

When Theodore Roosevelt accepted an expedition down an unknown river in Brazil, his guide was to be a man named Cândido Rondon. Rondon was a colonel in the Brazilian army, and had spent the previous ten years fording a path through the Amazon and laying thousands of miles of telegraph wire. He was considered the Lewis and Clark of Brazil. Filmmaker John Maggio introduces the intrepid explorer.

Into the Amazon: Theodore Roosevelt

1m 17s

After Theodore Roosevelt lost the 1912 election, he was devastated and bereft. He accepted an invitation to take a trip down the River of Doubt, an uncharted river in the Amazon. Led by Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon, the trip was a life-changing experience for TR — one that tested his physical and emotional fortitude. Into the Amazon filmmaker John Maggio talks about TR’s journey.

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