Matthew Schaefer Mothers know all too well the familiar refrain after sending their son to summer camp: ‘You never call. You never write.’ Lou Henry Hoover was no exception. When her seventeen year-old son Allan went off to spend August at Cody, Wyoming’s Valley Ranch Camp and Yellowstone National Park, Lou did not hear from … Continue reading Mum’s Summer Camp Blues
by Matthew Schaefer Even before entering the White House, the Hoovers determined that they would need to escape Washington DC’s notorious summer heat and humidity. Given their love of the outdoors, the Hoovers’ purchase and development of a summer camp on the Rapidan River in Virginia came as no surprise. The camp was in the … Continue reading Home Improvements at Camp Rapidan
By Thomas F. Schwartz One of the great Hanna-Barbera cartoons was Wally Gator that ran from 1962 through 1963. The vocal talents of Daws Butler, best known as the voice of Yogi Bear, made Wally Gator the alligator counterpart of that wily rabbit Bugs Bunny. As everyone knows, alligators are found in the United States … Continue reading Not a Croc: The Hoover Alligators
By Thomas F. Schwartz The most common association with the word “mole” is a skin blemish that most of us sport on some part of our anatomy. Those more attuned to popular culture may also think of the hip hop Chicago trio, Moleman, or the supervillain in Marvel comics, Mole Man, or the campy 1961 … Continue reading When a Mole is not a Mole.
Herbert Hoover was a lifelong fan of baseball, not just major league baseball, but baseball of all kinds. Hoover played the game as a youth, tried out for the Stanford team while in college, and championed baseball as the ideal American sport. Hoover was given season passes to the Washington Senators and New York Giants, … Continue reading Old Timers’ Day, New York Yankees Stadium, August 8, 1959
By Thomas F. Schwartz Most people have forgotten the days when you were born at home, often married at home, and had your wake and funeral at home. These significant events were of importance to immediate family members and their church family members. Records of births, marriages, and deaths were recorded in family Bibles and … Continue reading The Value of Knowing Your Birthday
by Matthew Schaeffer Many years after Hoover left the White House, he became a respected elder statesman. Hoover relished this role, giving advice to Democrats and Republicans alike as he entered his eighties. At this late stage of his life, Hoover came to be seen as a model of vigorous aging. Magazine articles were written … Continue reading Days of Reckoning-Herbert Hoover’s Birthdays at age 80+
by Spencer Howard In late June, 1932, a few hundred unemployed World War I veterans boarded freight trains in Portland, Oregon. Out of work and overwhelmed by the Depression, they had decided to go to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress for early payment of a soldier's bonus that was scheduled to be paid in 1945. … Continue reading Bonus Army
By Thomas F. Schwartz William Shakespeare remains one of the most studied individuals in world history. Among the many writers about the Bard of Avon, James Shapiro, the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, explores the life of William Shakespeare and his writings for a general audience in a number … Continue reading Shakespeare, Hoover, and Calvin Hoffman
by: Matthew Schaefer It should come as no surprise that Herbert Hoover gave thought to the nature and operation of the National Archives. When World War I was winding down, Hoover [in addition to work with Wilson at the Paris Treaty talks and overseeing the feeding of Europe] created the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution … Continue reading National Archives and Herbert Hoover
