Braden Paynter: So, and so. [[laughs]] I forgot to stand up. Um, he sees himself as a symbol to try and change-help change the country. And to being the man who live in the big house. On the big hill. Overlooking the capital, overlooking the White House. This is probably not lost on him when he buys that house.
Unknown: But he lived on-in a house on eighth street? Shoshi Weiss: Yeah. [[crosstalk]] Braden Paynter: [[crosstalk]]Yes.
Shoshi Weiss: Eighth street. Yep.[[crosstalk]] Unknown: [[crosstalk]]Near the capitol. Shoshi Weiss: That's the first home he moved in. Yeah.[[crosstalk]] Unknown: [[crosstalk]]First home he moved to.
Braden Paynter: And at that point he is moving from a very urban area to an area that has housing in it, but is also more rural. At that point. [[crosstalk]] Shoshi Weiss: [[crosstalk]] Especially at that time. Yeah.
Unknown: And that became-that was after [[?]]
Unknown: I think some of his things are still supposed to be there, I am not sure. Shoshi Weiss: The eighth street house-[[crosstalk]] Unknown: [[crosstalk]]The one who bought the building supposed to be there?
Shoshi Weiss: Yeah. It is run by a private organization. But they just moved his belongings there.
[SILENCE]
Unknown: The portrait I am most familiar with is taken at an older age with a lot of white hair. Where is that? Where can you see the original?
Shoshi Weiss: There's several of him when he was older, we have two of them at this site. Unknown: Is it this one here? Shoshi Weiss: Yeah. It's that one with the other women's right activist.
Unknown: And what's going on in this one?
Braden Paynter: It's his uh, it's his second wife Helen Pitts, is the lady. Oh, I am sorry. If anybody would like to see some of these. It is a picture. For the folks listening online of uh, Mr. Douglass sitting with two women. One is his second wife Helen Pitts who was quite the activist as well. She is a writer and speaker and a thinker as well. And it is actually her sister as well. It is the two of them sitting together. The three of them, I am sorry. Three of them.
Unknown: And where was it taken? Was this picture taken on Cedar hill or? Braden Paynter: We don't know. We don't know.[[crosstalk]] Unknown: [[crosstalk]]Or in a studio? Most likely in a studio.[[crosstalk]] Braden Paynter: [[crosstalk]]We don't know. We don't know.
Shoshi Weiss: Yeah. But that is the iconic image of Frederick Douglass with the hair [[laughs]].
Braden Paynter: Yeah. In other places you will see a lot of Frederick Douglass um, documents and pieces with the vast majority of his papers have been digitized and available online through the Library of Congress. They have a special Frederick Douglass collection online. And then also the univer-the library at Howard University has a very large collection of his effects as well.
Unknown: He also advised president Lincoln, didn't he? Shoshi Weiss: Yes. He actually advised President Lincoln three times during the civil war and he advised every subsequent president after that. Up until his death. He was considered, especially after the civil war, he was considered an official leader of the African American community and a spoke person. Yeah. So then they would invite him to speak. Yeah.
Unknown: Meeting him in person was, I think we only met him once in person though, didn't he? Didn't he only come to the White House only once or the President's house?
Shoshi Weiss: I am pretty sure three times. Yeah. Unknown: Three times?
Shoshi Weiss: Yeah. Lincoln was the one he met with the most. I am pretty sure. Yeah.