On viewing Shakespeare’s First Folio [currently on exhibit at the University of Iowa Library], a wandering Hoover archivist recalled correspondence exchanged between Emily Folger and Herbert Hoover. Emily Folger, widow of Henry Clay Folger, wrote Hoover on July 28th 1934, seeking advice on who to hire as Director of the recently opened Folger Shakespeare Library. … Continue reading On Viewing Shakespeare’s First Folio
By Thomas F. Schwartz Often projects that seem simple at first, become more complicated and involved once begun. Unanticipated problems emerge as greater comprehension of what is required only emerges by working through the project. And so it was when the Hoovers decided to undertake an English translation of Georgius Agricola’s De Re Metallica, a … Continue reading The Discovery of a Professional Tradition: Herbert and Lou Hoover’s Translation of De Re Metallica
By Thomas F. Schwartz If there is any public recognition of the word “Tommyknocker” it is probably a reference to the 1987 Stephen King novel The Tommyknockers or spin off ABC miniseries with Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger. The Stephen King novel’s use of “Tommyknocker” has nothing to do with the ancient mythic gnome that … Continue reading Herbert Hoover and the Tommyknockers: Mythic Gnomes of the Mine Shafts
by Spencer Howard Presidential Libraries are not libraries in the usual sense. They are archives and museums, bringing together in one place the documents and artifacts of a President and his administration and presenting them to the public for study and discussion. Like all Presidential Libraries, the Hoover Library has collected documents and artifacts from … Continue reading The Papers of Rose Wilder Lane
New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Eig will be discussing his book, Get Capone, at the Hoover Presidential Library-Museum on August 20, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Get Capone draws on thousands of pages of recently discovered government documents, wiretap transcripts, and Al Capone’s handwritten personal letters. Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author, tells the dramatic … Continue reading Jonathan Eig, author of Get Capone, Speaking at the Hoover Museum
by Spencer Howard There is a widespread but unfounded myth that President Hoover ordered the deportation or "repatriation" of large numbers of Hispanics, primarily Mexicans, during his administration (1929-1933). "Deportation" is the legal process for formally expelling a non-citizen from the United States; "repatriation" is a term that refers to various methods for persuading or … Continue reading Hoover on Immigration
by Spencer Howard With the recent advances in astronomy, there are now over 300,000 known asteroids in our solar system, though only about 16,000 have been given names. Four of them have been named to honor the humanitarian work of Herbert Hoover. In 1920, Johann Palisa, an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria, … Continue reading Up in the Sky – it’s Hooveria
From the left: Anton Fokker, Herbert Hoover, F. Trubee Davison and Edward Warner Those of a certain age have fond memories of Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip. Among the memorable characters that lived out his fantasies was Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy. A reoccurring fantasy was being a World War I fighter pilot in a Sopwith … Continue reading Hoover “Meets the Fokker”
One of the most sensational New York City murders of 1937 involved artist, Robert Irwin, who brutally murdered three people on Easter Sunday. Nicknamed the "mad sculptor" by the newspapers, Irwin briefly boarded with Mary Gedeon and her two daughters, Veronica and Ethel at their Beekman Place apartment. Veronica was a model who posed for … Continue reading Lou Henry Hoover and the “Mad Sculptor”
When people think of the home front during a world war, the rationing of food and gasoline immediately come to mind. But rationing was a feature of World War II, not World War I. Herbert Hoover as head of the United States Food Administration was able to get Americans to voluntarily reduce their consumption … Continue reading Practical War-Pig Plan
