Barack Obama was the most recent President to smoke cigarettes. He did his best to keep his habit out of the public eye knowing that it was frowned upon. Before the habit was socially stigmatized, many Presidents smoked. Herbert Hoover was one of them. A recent reference question concerning Hoover’s choice in pipe tobacco led … Continue reading Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
This third installment in the saga of Hoover’s ties with American Presidents gets tricky. Hoover’s connections to Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft were small, self-contained universes which allowed for easy translation into a blog post. This is not the case with Hoover and Woodrow Wilson. Their contacts were frequent, their engagement deep, their conjoined … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and American Presidents of the 20th century, Part 3
The early 1930s were not good years for Arkansas. Parts of the state were still struggling to recover from the massive Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Arkansas was also at the center of a severe drought in 1930 which withered crops in the field, leading to a devastatingly bad harvest. Crop failures led to widespread … Continue reading Thanksgiving Proclamation-Arkansas, 1931
While every region has its natural collegiate rivals in football—think Auburn-Alabama, Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Oklahoma—only one rivalry comes complete with capital letters. The Stanford-Cal Big Game [always capitalized by the cognoscenti] dates back to 1892, when Walter Camp coached the Stanford team to a 14-10 victory over their rivals across the bay. As a student, … Continue reading Stanford-Cal Big Game
At the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month in the year 1918, church bells rang out across Europe. They rang to celebrate the armistice which ended more than four years of grueling total warfare on the continent. The erstwhile combatants hoped that they could negotiate an enduring peace. This would … Continue reading The End of the Great War
by Matthew Schaefer During his fifty years of public service, Herbert Hoover wrote at least one million letters. Carbon copies of these letters constitute the bulk of the Herbert Hoover papers. Most of the letters from his later years are terse, honed by long practice to speak only to the point. Hoover’s prose in these … Continue reading From the Herbert Hoover Snark-ives
Like millions of Americans, I am captivated by the autumnal pull of college football. The crisp cool air, the turning leaves, the thump of pad upon pad, the siren call of homecoming at the alma mater all weave their magic. I spend many Saturday hours inside watching the local heroes on the Big-10 network. … Continue reading Are You Ready for some Football?—College Coaches’ Mythic Edition
Dirty tricks in political campaigns are not recent phenomena. Every American electoral cycle spawns a new reason for candidates to be justifiably paranoid. Someone is out to get them, or at least to get their political office. Those closest to the candidate, especially members of their immediate family, sometimes get caught up in the … Continue reading Political Campaigns and Dirty Tricks
Part 2 by Matthew Schaefer This post is the second in an intermittent series describing the continuing saga of Herbert Hoover’s connections to U.S. Presidents. In 1910, the 36 year-old Hoover wrote letters to friends explaining that he’d grown bored with the game of making money and that he’d welcome a new challenge. Well-connected friends … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and American Presidents of the 20th century
by Matthew Schaefer When I give presentations to the general public within the friendly confines of the Hoover Library, I make it a point to show and share manuscripts from our collections. This is the first visit to a Presidential Library for many in my audience. Showing a folder with drafts of Herbert Hoover speeches, … Continue reading Lou Henry Hoover on the Middle Class
