Part 2 By Matthew Schaeffer Visitors to the Herbert Hoover Museum will find nearly seven hundred artifacts on display to tell his life story. There is an entire exhibit case dedicated to documenting the Hoovers’ time in the White House. It contains scores of artifacts, and it can be overwhelming. One artifact that escaped my … Continue reading The End of the First Hoover Ball Era
Part 1 By Matthew Schaeffer The health of the President of the United States is often newsworthy. President Trump’s height and weight made recent headlines. Obama’s smoking drew public interest. Clinton’s affinity for eating fast food, sometimes while dressed for jogging, was worth a news photo. I would argue that the American public cares more … Continue reading Hoover Ball Genesis
by Spencer Howard When Hoover became President in 1929, he decided to build a weekend retreat – a fishing camp – some place where he could escape from Washington and unwind. He chose a site on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia about 100 miles from Washington, where two small streams … Continue reading The President’s Mountain School
Part 2 (Part 1: A Mother's Day Gift: the Friendship of Louis Chevrillon and Herbert Hoover) By Thomas F. Schwartz On December 15, 1938, Chevrillon wrote to Hoover presenting a grim future for France and Europe. Commending Hoover on his strong public statements against the German government’s oppression of Jews on what is now referred … Continue reading The Clouds of War: The Friendship of Louis Chevrillon and Herbert Hoover
by Lynn Smith March 26, 1931 started as a lovely 60 degree spring day on the eastern plains of Colorado between the small farming communities of Towner and Holly. Twenty local children, dressed for spring, set out for Pleasant Hill School near the Kansas border in a makeshift bus fashioned from a 1929 truck with … Continue reading Boy Hero Visits Hoover White House and Leaves a Family Friend
On April 29, 1931 several precedents were set at a State Dinner at the White House. The Hoovers hosted King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambai, monarchs of Siam. This was the first State Dinner where an ‘Oriental monarch’ met with the President. It was also the first time that the ruling monarch sat at the … Continue reading State Dinner at the Hoover White House for the King and Queen of Siam
Part 1 By Thomas F. Schwartz One of the under researched aspects of Herbert Hoover is his vast network of associates that provided him with vital information as well as served as valuable agents in his many humanitarian efforts. Louis Chevrillon is unknown to most Americans, but he was one of the driving forces in … Continue reading A Mother’s Day Gift: The Friendship of Louis Chevrillon and Herbert Hoover
National Proposal Day! What will they think of next? I know from personal experience that my memory of proposing to my wife does not align with her memory of the event. No matter, we're still happily married 30+ years on. The Hoovers have similarly unaligned stories regarding Herbert's proposal to Lou Henry. Doubtless memory is … Continue reading National Proposal Day! What Next?
by Spencer Howard In any discussion of President Hoover’s economic policies, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff often takes center stage. What's typically omitted, however, is the context in which the bill emerged. From the earliest days of the republic, a protective tariff was one of the bedrock principles of U.S. economic policy. In the late 19th and … Continue reading The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930
By Thomas F. Schwartz It is easy to overlook the significance of Herbert Hoover’s food relief efforts by looking merely at numbers. The precise number of people Hoover saved from starvation remains murky but most scholars agree it is in the hundreds of millions. Ironically, one of the most brutal leaders of modern times, Joseph … Continue reading Preventing Tragedy and Statistics
