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PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
�First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Treasures Tour Remarks at Queens College on the
Louis Armstrong House & Archives - Queens, NY
December 3, 1998
I am so honored to be here today for this special occasion. There are so many people to thank
who helped make this possible. I'm so pleased that we could be joined by Senator-elect Schumer
and Congressman Ackerman.- I want to thank Michael Mossman and the Queens College Jazz
Orchestra. I want to thank Dr. Sessoms. J want to thank Michael Cogswell who, you can tell
from his presentation, takes his job as the archivist for this wonderful collection to heart.
Claire Shulman has done a fabulous job in so many ways, and her support for preservation is
something that we've heard a lot about but bears mentioning again. Bill Ferris, the chairman of
the National Endowment for the Humanities, is here with us. He had been a great supporter of
preserving not only our buildings and our visible monuments, but the tapes and the documents
that also tell us about who we are as Americans.
I'm so grateful that our friend Wynton Marsalis could be here today. The talent that he brings to
everything he does is just extraordinary. And Mr. Shaw, you have added a lot to this event.
Thank you very much.
Earlier today I was able to visit the Louis Armstrong House and to see the house that jazz built,
literally. I know that when it is finished -- hopefully by July 4th in the year 2000 -- it will be a
great magnet for jazz lovers and Armstrong admirers from literally all over the world. It's also a
wonderful piece of Americana because it is decorated in a style that I remem,ber from the 1950's,
the 1960's and the early 1970's, and so when you walk into that mirrored bathroom and that
turquoise kitchen you are going to say, "I remember being in these places. That's where I grew
up, that's where my family and friends lived those years ago."
You know, iCs amazing that more than 25 years have passed since Louis Armstrong lived in
Queens, but his spirit, his music, all of that still fills not only this particular part of America, but
all of America -- literally the entire world. I already have been educated about how much
Queens has contributed to jazz -- the "Jazz Trail" and so many great jazz musicians who still live
here in Queens. And we can see the work that has come from those of you who are part of the
living legacy ofjazz in America, and in particular of Louis Armstrong's contributions through
the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. There are neighborhood schools that are being
sponsored 'Qy the Foundation and young people are learning more about what it means to have
jazz as part of the American experience.
It's an important job that we are here to celebrate today to preserve the Armstrong House, to
preserve the Armstrong Archives, because if we don't, we lose something -- not only of a
particular artist, a legend -- but of who we are. As we listen to those tapes, you know we could
think about what it was like for someone ofthat kind of extraordinary American presence to sit
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down with royalty and share his beans and talk about what it was like to travel around the world.
He had so many talents -- he was an instrumentalist, a vocalist, he was an actor and an author.
He.was a composer and he certainly was a cultural ambassador. And he himself was a great
preservationist. As Michael Cogswell told us, he preserved and saved everything. So we are
very fortunate because in the Archives today you can get a full feeling of what this man was like,
not only as a musician and an artist, but asa human being. And as Mr. Shaw said, how he lit up
a stage, how he added something, how Wynton said he made us all the better for having
encountered him personally or, if not that fortunate, encountered him through his music. I think
that part of what we are doing here with our millennium effort is making it possible for the next
generation to appreciate what Mr. Shaw had to say, what Wynton Marsalis had to say. They may
never hear Mr. Shaw or Wynton personally, but they'll be able to hear what they heard and draw
their own conclusions. If we are going to do that, then we have to contribute to make it possible
for future generations to appreciate what we have been able to appreciate.
I want to thank very much a member ,of our Save America's Treasures Council, Ronnie Ginott,
and her husband, David. She has raised over $100,000 as of today for the Armstrong Archives.
And I want to thank her for that.
Ronnie has received numerous commitments from, among others, the Sam Ash Music Co.; the
Carl Fischer Music Publishers; Cynthia Friedman; the Gemeinhardt Flute Co.; the Safra National
Bank of New York; the Selmer Co.; United Musical Instruments; the Winston Band Instrument
Co.; the Rayburn Musical Instrument Co.; Yamaha Band and Orchestral Instruments; and several
anonymous donors.
I also appreciate that the NEH has given a big financial boost to the Armstrong Collection by not
only helping to save these treasures, but to share them by funding a traveling exhibit. And soon
, in the Armstrong House, there will be a permanent Armstrong museum and that in part will be
due to a gift, I am pleased to announce, of$30,000from Tom Lee and Ann Tenenbaum in the
ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Artists and Publishers] Foundation. They are also
going to make their contribution to ensure that that house really speaks to people as they visit in
the years to come.. Generosity like these gifts makes it possible for us to continue this vital work
preserving the art and artifacts that define our nation and our future. Such efforts are all a part of
our larger project to save America's treasures, which really requires both public and private
support.
I thank Congressman Ackerman for referring to, and I thank him and his other colleagues for
voting for, a contribution from the Federal Government that will be matched by private
contributions. You know, if we think about the work that we have to do to honor the past and
imagine the future, which is the theme of our millennium celebration, there is literally something
for everyone to do.
I want to. thank the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Save America's Treasures
Committee and the committee members who are here with us today. In the next week or so I am
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�going to visit some other sites that may not be as well known as the Star Spangled Banner that
hangs in the Smithsonian, may not represent someone as well known as Louis Armstrong, but are
also part of our heritage. For example, on Saturday I will travel to Boston to visit the Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow House, as well as the African Meeting House, the oldest standing
African American church in our country. And then a few days later I'll be in both Los Angeles
and San Francisco to spotlight other of our famous monuments and to really pay tribute to the
people who in our great diversity as Americans have made us the country that we are today.
Louis Armstrong understood since 1932, when he first went overseas, that he really belonged to
the world but he represented America. He brought a message of hope and good will, and he
made it possible to go to Berlin during the height of the Cold War and be referred to as
Ambassador Satchmo. He charmed his way across Checkpoint Charlie. And in a New Yorker
cartoon of that era, there is a State Department official who says, "This is a diplomatic mission of
the utmost delicacy. The question is, 'Who is the best man for it: the Secretary of State or
Satchmo?'" Well I don't think there was much doubt.
He was not only an American ambassador overseas, he was an ambassador of another kind, an a
ambassador between and among people, particularly between the races. That was a dangerous
assignment when he took it on. He often risked his own safety to sound a clear and resonant note
for civil rights. He blasted those who stood for segregation, and his words carried special weight
as did his music, his films, his great gifts. One white southerner, as a boy, who had seen
Armstrong play at a dance, later joined the NAACP legal team that worked on the ground
breaking decision of Brown v. Board of Education. And when he was asked why he, as a white
lawyer, would join with famous black lawyers like Thurgood Marshall to overturn segregation,
he attributed his inspiration to Louis Armstrong. He said that he had opened his eyes wide and
put him to a choice. He wanted to be on the right side, he wanted to be on the side of human
dignity, respect and civil rights.
So today when we come here to Queens, and we honor the place he lived in Corona and we
honor this college which is preserving his legacy, I hope we recognize that he wanted himself
and his music to stand for America in the most profound way, to be. a real symbol of why we are
such a great nation -- because we are one out of many. He used to love living in that
neighborhood, I'm told. He liked getting his hair cut at the local barber shop. He liked shopping
at the grocery store. He loved having the neighborhood kids in to watch Westerns on Television.
And he was once asked, "Why live here? Why live in Corona, Queens? You could live in many
other places. Why here when you are on the road 300 plus days a year?" And he was reported to
have said, "You know, we are right out here with the rest of the colored folk and the Puerto
Ricans and Italians and the Hebrew cats ... The fridgidaire is full of food. What more do we
need?"
I think it's something all of us as Americans should be reminded of: "What more do we need?"
We have so many blessings, we have so many freedoms, all we have to do is just make sure we
respect each other and value each other's contributions and we can, I think, if we just pause for a
moment and lift up our eyes and open our ears and get that kind of inspiration from a great
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�American. Someone who can still teach us by his example and by his music. And I am honored
to be here at Queens College to join in this tribute and to thank all of you who are contributing to
making that contribution of Louis Armstrong stand for the next century and millennium.
Now we are going to hear some more of that wonderful music and we are going to hear it from
some children from Queens. I'm honored to introduce the student choir of the Louis Armstrong
Elementary and Intermediate Schools. Please join me in welcoming them.
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�
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
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1993 - 1997
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36239" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
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2011-0415-S
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<p>Lissa Muscatine first served in the Clinton Administration as a speechwriter. Within the First Lady’s Office, she served as Communications Director to the First Lady.</p>
<p>Lissa Muscatine’s records consist of materials from First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Press Office, highlighting topics such as health care, women’s rights, the Millennium Council, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and deal extensively with press interviews given by the First Lady; her domestic and foreign travel; and speeches and remarks, on a wide variety of topics, given by her before and during her time as First Lady. The records include interview transcripts, press releases, speeches and speech transcripts.</p>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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FLOTUS Statements and Speeches 12/1/98 - 4/30/99 [Binder]: [Louis Armstrong House and Archives - Queens, New York 12/3/1998]
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Box 22
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/2011-0415-S-Muscatine.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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First Lady's Office
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Lissa Muscatine
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2011-0415-S
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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2011-0415-S-flotus-statements-speeches 12-1-98-4-30-99-binder-louis-armstrong-house-archives-queens-ny-12-3-1998
7431941