Author Charles Rappleye is an award-winning investigative journalist and editor. He has written extensively on media, law enforcement, and organized crime. The author of Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution; Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution; and his new book - Herbert Hoover in the White House: The … Continue reading Herbert Hoover in the White House
On August 10, 1962, Herbert Hoover celebrated his 88th birthday by attending the dedication and opening of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library -Museum in West Branch, Iowa. Accompanied by friend and former president Harry S. Truman, Hoover fondly reminisced about growing up in West Branch and celebrating the Fourth of July with firecrackers purchased by … Continue reading Herbert Hoover a Superhero?
New Exhibit April 23 - October 23, 2016 Hoover and Prohibition When President Herbert Hoover entered the White House in 1929, prohibition was already the law. The 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919 and took effect nationwide in 1920. It called for a ban on alcohol sales in one year. States struggled to enforce prohibition and the federal government … Continue reading Ain’t Misbehavin? The World of Gangsters
Before entering public service, Herbert Hoover was a successful and wealthy mining engineer. In fact, he and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, both majored in geology at Stanford University. In 1905, Lou attempted to find an adequate English translation of the medieval mining treatise De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola. Because classical Latin is not … Continue reading De Re Metallica, Translated
In March, 1931, Herbert Hoover decided to take a Caribbean cruise. He had taken only one brief vacation during the first two years of his Presidency, and badly needed some rest. The battleship Arizona had just finished a two year overhaul and was scheduled to make a "shakedown" cruise off the east coast, so the … Continue reading Caribbean Vacation
President Hoover at his desk. by Spencer Howard On January 12, 1932, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. submitted his resignation to President Herbert Hoover, citing ill health and age. At 91 years old, he noted, "the time has come, and I bow to the inevitable." In his 30 years on the Supreme Court, … Continue reading A Non-Political – and Entirely Political – Supreme Court Appointment
by Spencer Howard Herbert Hoover inauguration - Coolidge and Hoover drive from White House to Capitol 03/04/1929. HHPLM 31-1929-49 Seventy-three years ago this week Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States on March 4, 1929. The basic facts are well known: it was a rainy day; the major topics of … Continue reading Inauguration Report
By Thomas F. Schwartz In nineteenth-century America, the ruling family of the stage was the Booth family. John Wilkes Booth forever ruined the family reputation by assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. In the twentieth-century, the Barrymore family were the stars of stage and screen. Beginning with Maurice Barrymore and his three children, John, Lionel, and Ethel, … Continue reading Oscar Winner Ethel Barrymore’s Birthday Greeting from a former President
February 10, 1899 - Herbert Hoover (center) and Lou Henry (seated left) on their wedding day, with Lou's sister and parents. by Spencer Howard Presidential campaigns have changed tremendously over the last 70 years, but one aspect that continues to this day is the ritual unveiling of skeletons from the candidates' metaphorical closets. One example … Continue reading The Hoover Wedding Scandal
A rapid acceleration of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic violence began the evening of November 9 and continued into November 10. Kristallnacht, or “the night of the broken glass”, witnessed more than 8,000 Jewish shops destroyed with countless synagogues demolished or burned. Individual Jews were attacked, many severely beaten, and more than ninety killed while others committed … Continue reading An Actor’s Response
