Mining medal for Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover, showing the inscription of the medal inside its case. Here in the Curatorial Department of the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, we help promote and protect the former President’s legacy by safekeeping his physical artifacts. This includes approximately four hundred coins and medals that Herbert Hoover accumulated … Continue reading Much Ado About Medals Act I: Lou and The Engineer
A letter of thanks written by Rosemarie Brettman to Herbert Hoover for his food relief efforts in Germany. The letter is dated March 4, 1948. Previous blogs have described various aspects of Hoover’s food relief efforts in post-WWII Germany. Combating various leaders who sought to punish Germany by withholding food, Hoover understood the necessity of … Continue reading “We all are poor fugitives.”
Students from the elementary school at Hamburg Volksdoft in Germany sent drawings like this to Herbert Hoover as a sign of appreciation for their "Hooverbreakfast" in a letter dated November 12, 1947. On January 18, 1947, President Harry Truman reached out to Herbert Hoover with another request. Stating that “a serious situation in food still … Continue reading Hearing Loss, Colds, and the Hoover Speisung [Feeding]: Hoover’s 1947 Trip to Germany
Former Pres. Hoover, head of the Finnish Relief Fund thanks Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye is handing Hoover $100 in bills, his contribution to start the "Kids Popeye Finnish Relief Fund." The famous Robert Frost poem ends: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made … Continue reading The Road Not Taken: Hoover and Feeding the Five Small Democracies
Publicity photo of Merian C. Cooper with a King Kong prop, ca. 1933. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cooper-Kong.jpg. History is often more imaginative than fiction with individuals whose lives reflect deeds like something out of a novel. Merian C. Cooper is one of these individuals. As a young journalist, he joined the American Expeditionary Forces and became a pilot. … Continue reading “King Kong” and the American Relief Administration
Rep. W.C. Hawley and Sen. Reed Smoot, April 11, 1929.Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.17371. A popular understanding of studying history is reflected in an attribution to the philosopher George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The notion that history contains lessons that if only studied … Continue reading Lessons of History? The Use and Misuse of Smoot-Hawley Tariff
The Family Tree. It is easy to think about Herbert Hoover’s humanitarian relief efforts as discrete events brought about by different moments in historical time. Yet Hoover saw them all related and extensions of his original efforts with the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the United States Food Administration, and the United States Grain Corporation. … Continue reading The Family Tree
The American flag flying in front of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum by Spencer Howard Did you know that on March 3, 1931 President Hoover signed the law that designated "The Star Spangled Banner" as our national anthem? For more than a century, the people of the United States debated what song, if any, should … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and “The Star Spangled Banner”
On display until March 19 is our temporary exhibit, 1968: A Folsom Redemption. The exhibit tells the story of the Johnny Cash live recording concert for the inmates of Folsom and its aftermath. The concert rebooted Cash’s career and began a series of concerts he gave at various prisons. He became an inspiration for many … Continue reading Johnny Cash and Herbert Hoover Confront Prison Reform
"Monument of Gratitude" by Xawery Dunikowski, Hoover Square, Warsaw, ca. 1933. (HHPL-M image #31-1933-54) A previous blog post (see Herbert Hoover Loses His Head) dealt with the Xawery Dunikowski statue, Monument of Gratitude, dedicated in Warsaw’s Hoover Square in 1922 in memory of the American Relief Administration’s [ARA] postwar food relief efforts. Individuals who served … Continue reading A Celebration Gone Too Far
