Part 3 By Matthew Schaeffer After Herbert Hoover left the White House on March 4, 1933, Hoover Ball disappeared from the public awareness. Clearly Franklin Roosevelt, suffering from the lingering impact of polio, was not going to throw a six pound ball over a net. Like Calvin Coolidge’s mechanical horse, Hoover ball was consigned to … Continue reading Hoover Ball Rejuvenated
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 Matthew Schaefer In the course of her life, Lou Henry Hoover gave many addresses to graduating classes: Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr and Whittier Colleges, Stanford University, and Castilla high school. The first time that she spoke to a graduating class occurred in 1890, when sixteen year old Lou Henry spoke as valedictorian to her Bailey … Continue reading Another Lou Henry Hoover Commencement Address
While on the subject [howsoever narrow] of Hoovers speaking at Stanford commencements, I would be remiss not to note that Lou Henry Hoover contributed to the oeuvre. Lou Henry Hoover was one of three speakers tapped to address the graduates at Stanford’s fiftieth anniversary, June 15, 1941. She was the first woman to address Stanford’s … Continue reading Rites of Spring: Lou Henry Hoover’s Commencement Address at Stanford, 1941
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
