Located in West Branch, Iowa,
the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library is celebrating it’s 50 Anniversary.
It is very modern, as it went
through massive renovation project and re-dedication in 1992.
Tinky Wiky sneaks into a
display of what might be worn to a presidential dinner party.
There was a presidential dinner
table display with a few modern plate patterns:
Clinton
Truman
Eisenhower
Wilson
Johnson
Reagan
This pattern was used for
Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.
Answer to: "What do I use when?"
Shaken not stirred
The second of three children,
his father was a blacksmith and his mother a Quaker minister. He was orphaned
by the age of 10 and eventually went to live with his Uncle John (frontier
physician and businessman) in Oregon.
Without attending high school, Herbert
learned bookkeeping, typing and mathematics at night school.
He attended
Stanford University the first year it opened, graduating in 1895 with a degree
in geology.
He worked in the California gold mines before joining a British
firm and working as a mining engineer in Australia.
There was nothing in this
display to explain who the woman is...the signage only talked about his work in
China. Later, I read he married Lou Henry, who he met in college, in 1899,
after which they immediately left for China, where they survived the Boxer Rebellion.
From 1901 to 1908 he worked for Bewick, Moreing and Company where he became the
“doctor of sick mines” circling the globe several time with his wife and two
young sons. Next he established his own international firm of engineering
consultants based in London.
He became a high respected figure with his service
as Secretary of commerce and his humanitarian efforts during WWI. He easily
won the presidency in 1928 but when the stock market crashed, triggering the
Great Depression, his popularity took a nose dive.
After 1940 the Hoovers lived at
the Waldorf Towers in New York City...they had a recreation of their living
room. The website showed a small gallery 8 titled “An Uncommon Woman” about Lou
Hoover, but I must have missed it because I never saw an reference to his wife
and was wondering if he was a bachelor until I saw a postcard of Lou Hoover, in
the gift shop. I talked to the attendant about there being no mention of his
wife and she said, “They wanted the museum to focus on him.”
Lou died 1944 and Herbert in
1964, by which time he had rehabilitated his image. As of today, he holds the
record for the longest retirement of any President...until this year if Jimmy
Carter lives past September, he'll break his record.
About Lou: The first woman in America to earn a
geology degree. Traveling around the world with her husband, she raised their
two sons. During the Boxer Rebellion, she nursed the wounded, scrounged up
food, medicine and clothing for the injured and stood guard duty on
barricades...calling China, “the most interesting siege of the age.” As First
Lady, she prepared an exhaustive social history of the White House and stirred
up controversy by inviting Jessie DePriest, wife of an African American
Congressman, to a White House tea party. Check out the Story: White House History
