A silver medal of thanks was made only two years into Mr. Hoover’s Belgian Relief activities. It depicts the face of Herbert Hoover on the front, with a personalized inscription on the reverse of: Herbert C. Hoover from his friends of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (65.6.38).The back of the silver medal of thanks … Continue reading Much Ado About Medals Act II: Leones Belgicae
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.”
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
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
"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
Guest post by Olga Ovcharskaia, PhD candidate in Slavic Languages and Literature, Stanford University In January 1892, the people of Iowa read an appeal by the newly established Iowa Russian Famine Relief Committee: “While our granaries are loaded to bursting and our railways are blocked with grain trains, across the ocean, hundreds of thousands of … Continue reading The Gift of Corn: Iowan Humanitarian Aid to Russia in the Famine of 1891-1892
The Nobel Peace Prize medal. by Spencer Howard Herbert Hoover was known as “The Great Humanitarian” for the many food relief programs he led during and after both World Wars. The precise number of people Hoover saved from starvation remains a matter of debate, but most scholars agree it is in the hundreds of millions. … Continue reading Herbert Hoover’s Nobel Peace Prize nominations
Part 2 By Thomas F. Schwartz Though the original ten reel production never was released for general viewing, the existing scripts give a sense of its contents. Because it was a silent film, the subtitles clearly describe the film footage that preceded it. It begins by stating: “This is not a picture of actors … Continue reading The Lost Documentary Film of the Commission for Relief in Belgium
By Thomas F. Schwartz Herbert Hoover, American Relief Administration, Brussels, Belgian ca. 1919 Among the innovative methods to publicize the work of the Commission for Relief in Belgium [CRB] and the American Relief Administration [ARA] were two documentary film efforts, both which are lost to history. George Barr Baker served with Herbert Hoover in both … Continue reading Herbert Hoover, American Relief Administration, Brussels, Belgian ca. 1919
