Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Presidency The Life Times Of First Lady Lou Henry Hoover 20220730

Temporary exhibit. Deliverance america and the famine and soviet russia 192123 please take time after the talk to do so. It tells the story of how Herbert Hoover and the American Relief administration. Fed more than 10 Million People on a daily basis. During one of russias worst famines we also welcome speech cspan. Who are recording todays event for later broadcast . These programs would not be possible. Without the support of the hoover president ial foundation who are in the midst of raising 20 Million Dollars for a complete renovation of our permanent galleries . To learn more about the project. And how to become a member visit their membership table in the lobby. We are also grateful for the support of diamond v. As many of you know, they are a Global Nutrition and Health Company and nearby cedar rapids. Annette dunlap has been a north carolinabased freelance writer for more than 30 years. Among her many books are the only fulllength biographies of first Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland as well as a biography of Calvin Coolidges Vice President charles gate stause. And most recent biography is why she is here today. A woman of adventure life and times of first Lady Lou Henry Hoover was released earlier this month by the university of Nebraska Press one would have to go back 18 years to find another book length biography of Lou Henry Hoover. Dunlap conducted much of her research before covid closed the Research Room for nearly two years. Thank police is here to give us some of her insights on her findings. Following her remarks will be a brief question and answer period and then book sales and signings will conclude the event in the lobby area. At this time please put all of your cell phones on vibrate. And join me in welcoming annette dunlap. Well, good afternoon. It is just so great to see you and especially your willingness to come out on what is an absolutely beautiful beautiful day. So what i want to do is make sure that it is worth your time to be here this afternoon and share with you some of the interesting things that ive learned about Lou Henry Hoover who as the woman who inspired me to do the research the archivist at the national first. Ladies library told me lou is an underrepresented first lady and my friend michelle didnt know the half of it before i get started a few. Thank yous are in order first. I have profuse. Thanks for the hoover to the hoover president ial foundation who through several Research Grants enabled me to help fund a portion of my research to this location and work on the biography, and i have a special thanks to tom as well as his staff three archivists who are absolutely tremendous craig wright, Matt Schaefer and spencer howard. They always went above and beyond and without their efforts their work and their dedication to lou their own commitment to archival work. This biography would not be possible. Also want to thank university of Nebraska Press they are my first public first time i have published with them. They have done a superior job and i am very very pleased with the book that they have put out. Its formatting and i hope that you will enjoy it as well. So with that behind us, lets go ahead and get started and lets Start Talking about Lou Henry Hoover. So lou was born on waterloo, iowa on march 29th, 1874 her parents charles and florence were both originally from worcester, ohio their families had migrated to iowa individually and then the two met up and were married in june of 1873 lou as you can see from this photograph is the older of two children. The other picture is of her sister jean whose birthday is right around the corner at the end of june and jean was born in 1882. The who excuse me the henry family did not stay in iowa Florence Henry had asthma another Health Problems in charles was also looking for new opportunities in banking which was his area of profession. So the family had traveled to texas and spent some time in corsicana they had returned to waterloo. Thats when jean was born then they went to kansas where charles thought he had a Business Opportunity and that also did not materialize and finally in 1889. They moved to whittier, california, which was established as a quaker enclave the henrys were not quakers they were visited a variety of churches lou one time wrote in a letter that she had been quartered an eighth and to the Episcopal Church the Methodist Church the presbyterian church, but after her marriage to her rehoover, she pretty much identified with the Quaker Community if you know anything about the quaker faith, you know that one of the tenants of that religion is that they believe in complete equality of men and women and that in and of itself is important because what we see going throughout the entirety of lose life is a woman who was extremely committed to equal opportunities for women across the spectrum not only in terms of Educational Opportunity physical activity pursuit of careers, but she also believed in way more egalitarian marriages than what she experienced herself in fact if she were alive today she would very much approve of the fact that husbands and fathers are beginning to take on a larger and larger share of housekeeping and child rearing these things that she was responsible for and her in their entirety and youd bear in mind as i share with you many of the things that she did that. She was also managing a household and had primary responsibility for the rearing of the hoovers two sons so i mentioned that lou was all about gary egalitarianism, and i dont think that any photograph better describes this and this one right here this young lady. Who is 15 years old and as holding this rifle happens to be our good friend lou henry . The story goes that she was given the name lou because dad was hoping for a boy that didnt happen, but whats also interesting about lous name is that she doesnt have and its not only is it a unisex name . She doesnt have a gender identifying middle name. So when i was doing the research on Francis Folsom Cleveland Frank was a common nickname for girls named francis, but Francis Cleveland being known as frank as a child oftentimes would get classified as boy as a boy on the School Roster so she began to identify herself by her by the nickname frank, but her middle name, which was clara which would designate her gender lou who is roughly the same about 10 years younger than Francis Cleveland was did not have any gender identifying name and then you think about the fact that her last name is henry. And yet she very much knew that she was a woman and she embraced being a girl and a woman but her father art also taught her how to hunt how to fish how to skin a rabbit and dress it and eat it and she was a phenomenal horse woman and road horses until she was into into her early 60s. Lou is the first female major in geology in Stanford University. And again, this is another example of a woman that is blazing trails who is doing something other women have not done. There were a small handful of women who had begun to enter into the Earth Sciences one of them had already attained a doctorate and was teaching at a Womens College here in the east. Excuse me. Im in iowa and the east coast and and a few others were also doing some work with the Us Geological service. So lou is the first woman to study geology she ran into some hurdles with that because they would take field trips. Her mother was concerned about where the chaperones were. Hoping that the professors wives were in attendance because surely it was not appropriate for lou to be the lone female student going out with her fellow male students to do field trips out into the woods and into the surrounding countryside. Its very curious, but lou does not answer her mother directly to that question. Stanford is where lou meets Herbert Hoover who im going to refer to as bert through the remainder of my talk because thats what he was known as to his friends and his family and also helps distinguish us to see distinguish him from his older son who is known as herbert. So lou meets bert at stanford, they are introduced by Professor John c. Branner. John brenner is the catalyst for wailu has ended up at stanford lew originally had a teaching certificate. She started at los angeles normal school, which has now ucla when her family moved him on to ray. She transferred to san jose normal and thats where she got the certificate but she wasnt able to find a teaching job that suited her she tried to get into banking because that was her fathers profession and lou is it was extremely good throughout our whole life with numbers and accounting but again being a woman there were not going to be any Career Opportunities for her there. And so she happened to hear branner do a series of lectures on geology and one of the things that is interesting when we go back to this photograph. This is taken on mount wilson, but on mount gleeson, which is another one of the Southern California mountains, lou and her father worked a gold mine. So lou had already had experience with mining and working with ors and so geology really interested her then she heard branders lectures and stanford had opened up very unique in that it was not a State University was privately owned, but its orientation was to Public Service and its orientation was to make education equal for both men and women. So stanford was a great place for lou to end up because of the ethos that it promoted and because it fit in with her own views of opportunities for women, so lou and bert meet they are in terms even though lou is by chronological age older than bert by several months. They were born both both born in 1874 burt being born in august of 1874. But bert was in the pioneer or first class of stanford and lieu, of course is coming in in the fourth incoming class. So bert goes ahead and graduates he begins to find employment his employment takes him outside of california. Hes in nevada. Hes in new mexico and then he gets connected with a londonbased company and he ends up in australia bear in mind. This is preinternet age. Yeah, were not talking about setting up a skype call. Every night to stay in touch so they had some kind of understanding there were probably letters that were exchanged in the process and then bird has an opportunity to go to china with that opportunity comes an increase in salary. Burt was already helping to find his brother theodores education and providing some Financial Support to his sister and to some other family members, but now with this Salary Increase he is able to offer lou marriage and so he has this very very romantic telegram it goes going to china via San Francisco. Will you go with me . The curious thing about the telegram is that the telegrams at the time went through the post office . They had a new postmaster. The postmaster did not know that lou was miss lou henry. He just assumed that this telegram from bert. To lou was one guy to another and so he posts it the public bulletin board. And thats how lou managed to find her marriage proposal. She was equally romantic in the way in which she responded. One word yes. And this is their wedding day picture. Bird sales back from australia lands in San Francisco comes to monterey the couple are married on february 10th 1899 and they had right back to San Francisco that afternoon and have set sail for china the very next morning. So one of the things that i found remarkable as i worked on lous life and started to put put the book together. Is how much of lose life was defined by . International conflicts ill share her experiences in the boxer rebellion in china and just a minute, but let me just give you sort of the the boundaries of that. When she got out of stanford in 1898. The United States entered the spanishamerican war and she helped her mother roll bandages for the local red cross. She is in china during the box of rebellion and even though she its kind of downplayed when you read the details of her correspondence and her journaling during that time her life and the life of all americans and all foreigners was very much at risk. Well spend a lot of time talking about her work in world war one and of course a lot of berts very notable work is is during world war one. But lou was also still alive at the outbreak of World War Two. And she had some involvement in some charitable work at the start of that conflict as well. So her life and her involvement is framed by the those four conflicts. And thats also including the other the other events that occurred during her lifetime, which would include the Great Depression which becomes an unfortunately defining. Event in the lives of both hoovers and does them both a tremendous injustice. Because it doesnt it it hides what this couple really did for the United States and for the world. So, let me circle back now to the box of rebellion. The boxer rebellion was essentially an uprising of a group of native chinese who resented the influence and presence of foreigners in the country. And when you dig into some of the history of china, you really do begin to see that there was a tremendous amount of foreign influence. It wasnt just americans were actually latecomers to this influence. The germans wanted a piece the russians wanted a piece the japanese wanted a piece the british wanted a piece the french wanted a piece. I mean you had these countries that were functioning as world powers or regional powers really wanting to have Strong Influence on what was going on in china. So you have this group who we translate their their term as boxers because of their boxing in to stay physically fit. And also because they believed it had religious connotations to them and theyre supported by the dowager empress of china. And so there is a massive uprising there is a huge massacre of missionaries and other foreigners and there is this effort to rid china of these foreign of foreign presence. And so you have troops coming from all those countries that i just named including the United States to not only protect the citizens of their countries who are living in china, but also to stand against what the boxers attempting to do. So the boxers burned out compounds were foreigners were living. They pulled up railroad tracks. They burned bridges the americans and all other foreigners started to find themselves having to congregate in small enclaves one of the initial letters. That was was given to me in learning more about lou was a letter that she wrote to her friend from stanford evelyn white in which lou appears to be downplaying what she is experiencing because she says well evan white you should have come to china this summer you missed the siege of the age. And yet at the same time mary bainbridge, who was the wife of the american consulate is sending lou a quick note and saying that the real ray bridge was burned overnight. It looks like theyre going to have to have all the americans including the doctors come into the compound in which the american consulate is is living and and their quarters and it looks like you know, and she wants to know how do you and then mary brain . Brain, go bainbridge goes and how do you feel about all this . I guess there is no sense in youre getting upset and even if there were theres you dont seem to be the type who would get upset anyway, and theres no reason for fainting away. So it was just this whole idea of what they were experiencing and lou chronicles in a lot of detail the military activities her interaction with the military. Theyre trying to make sure they have enough food and then finally how their age she and bird are finally able to leave china after enough of the hostilities have died down that theres a way for them to have safe passage. In reality, there is a little note that lou wrote. That stated august 4th. And she wrote it after her after herbert was born in 1903 and she slips it into the diary with where she had chronicled what had been going on during the box rebellion, and she writes august 4th. Little herberts future birthday. Why did we ever return to china . And so the hoovers eventually settle somewhat permanently. They always make annual trips to the United States, but the firm that bird is working for be with mooring is based in london. And so they rent homes in london, and this is where both of the hoover children are born herbert. Who is born in 1903 and alan who was born in 1907 and one of the first things that lou does after shes up and around again is to go to the American Embassy and register them so that they will have their american citizenship. The other thing that happens during this time period is that you know, bert is making a lot of money as a mining engineer working for bewick mooring he goes off on his own as with a consultancy starting in 1908, and its roughly in this time period that they make very Close Friends with the couple abby and edgar record. Abby and edgar record play very very important and pivotal roles in the lives of the hoovers through the rest of the hoovers lives edgar becomes a very close confidant and advisor to bert. He becomes the sort of family accountant and treasurer if you will. But he also begins to function for lou as someone of go between between bert and lou because when they are living on the couple is living on two different continents edgar is usually with bert and its edgar whos sending lou telegrams and letters about what berts up to. Hes the one whos the conduit for the correspondence. So what the couples did before the outbreak of world war one was they used to pool extra money together, which they referred to as the seeing cairo fund. And they would take off and they would go travel wherever they decided to go. It was very atypical of both couples. Especially bird who like to have everything planned and this just happens to be a photograph of the foursome when they are in venice. Well, then we get that word photograph by the way was 1912 we get to august of 1914 or the end of july. 1914 and world war one breaks out and if youll just give me one second. Thank you. So world war one kind of if you study the history of europe, you know, europe is kind of got a lot of hostilities and tensions anyway, and what literally trips the trigger is the murder of the archduke ferdinand. So you have war being declared in russia and germany are supporting serbia and austin as well as austriahungary, then youve got france and britain who are agreeing that theyre going to go in together and in spite of efforts that last minute diplomacy. Nothing happens and war breaks out and so one of the first things germany does is an invades neutral belgium. And france and Great Britain are pledged to support belgium and the germans commit quite a number of atrocities and they burn villages. They shoot mayors. They shoot people they burn libraries it is and a lot of what theyre going to end up doing is trying to starve this country out belgium does not have much arable land to speak of belgium is pretty much wholly dependent upon food imports and so bert finds himself in a situation where he may be able to help through his own contacts in his own desire for philanthropic work edgar ricard has introduced burt to a fellow engineer by the name of miller shaler and they begin to have conversations with the american and belgian. Excuse me, the American Ambassador to both belgium and to the United States about ways to get foodstuffs into belgium. Bearing in mind that the United States is still neutral at this point. But in the meantime before this begins to transpire and this is a photograph of foodstuffs being sent to belgium courtesy of the commission for the relief of belgium or crb. But before all of this begins to take place you have what is pretty much chaos on the continent of europe because a lot of american summer in europe and so you had american scattered throughout all of europe and some of them were in germany. In fact, one of the things i learned in my Francis Cleveland research, is that her she had remarried and her husband was stuck behind enemy lines and had to figure out how to get out. So you have affluent americans you have teachers you have students you have all kinds of groups who are going at who have or crossed the continent and the american embassies and all of these countries are all of their expats get to london. Know londons the westernmost country in europe. They speak english and thats gonna be your best shot at getting back home home to the United States. Well, you got two complicating factors going on. The first complicating factor is one of the most popular shipping lines is the german america hamburg america shipping line. Flagged in germany now an enemy competent competent and youve got currencies that people have exchanged the United States dollars for or maybe theyre british pounds for youve got currencies that are now currencies in enemy countries. So you have all these people who are coming into london. Their tickets are canceled. And by the way, the hoovers had tickets on a german flag line to return from london to the United States. They were ticketed for august 13th 1914. Their plan was to get the boys back to california to get them enrolled in american schools. We see how that worked out. So lou hears that theres all this chaos going down to savoy hotel because theres a group of american businessmen trying to help all of these american stranded americans who have no money have no way to get back home and have no place to stay. And so what she writes in her report is i heard that the scene that the savoy was the thing to go see and lou goes and she sees it and she sees that not only is their chaos but a lot of women are being ignored. Well a few months before the outbreak of world war one lou has become president of whats called the society for the american women in london. Its an educational and philanthropic organization. Thats really a womens club for american women who are living in Great Britain. And so she goes and talks to her fellow saw members and says do you think we might be able to help . These stranded americans especially stranded women and they agree to this so in lose typical modest way. She says i set up a table in the ballroom of the savoy with a stack of savoy. Stationary a pen and the lovely gold backchaired chairs of the savoy ballroom. And she begins to write down what the needs are she helps people find a place to stay. She starts looking for ways for them to be ticketed so that they can get back home and shes loaning them money to pay for places to stay and food to eat until they can get back home from her own personal funds. And she writes in her and report that she had it all paid back except for one person. Its a real testament to hulu was it was her tremendous skill. This was a woman who was not only able to see a need. But she had the unique capability not only of identifying a need but identifying a good solution for that need and then getting it carried out. And that is a very very rare combination to have in one individual and yet that was a gift set a skill set that Lou Henry Hoover had so i mentioned that she was a member of the society of american women in london had become president in may of 1914 after the current president s husband had passed and that woman had returned to the United States lou does eventually take the boys back to california. She hasnt been in california but a few weeks when bert has gotten involved with the crb work. Hes really stoked about it. Hes super excited and he starts hitting her up with a bunch of telegrams. I am engaged in the most exciting work. We have ever been involved in you need to get back here. You need to be with me. And in one of the few telegrams where she kind of chews him out. She says look. You may not think that what im doing here being with the boys is important, but im not only here with the boys. Im also mending fences for you. You know, you may think its full foolish for me to stay here, but i think it is. And yet at the same time even though she is upset with the way he is prevailing on her to just find somebody to take care of the boys so she can come back and be with him in london. She is at doing what he has asked. And she is able to contact. California contacts that the couple have and raising enough funds just from their california contacts to be able to pay for an entire shipment of wheat to get to europe to go to belgium. And then she contacts the governor of kansas and gets a second shipment of wheat funded and sent to london to be sent into belgium. So she has just done a tremendous tremendous job in this relatively six week period of time before she finally relands and decides that she will go back to be with bert in london. But it doesnt it but it comes with a huge emotional cost. Because the germans are torpedoing passenger liners. Because they believe that those passenger liners are also carrying war material from the United States across the waters to be used in the war. And so lou is terrified that she may be on an liner that gets blown up. And the night before she is to set sail she writes an absolutely heartwrenching letter. To a man by the name of Jackson Reynolds who was a mutual friend of the hoovers and she opens it up and she says dear mr. Reynolds. I am making you a present of my boys if anything should happen to my husband or me and i am doing so without asking your permission. And if you ever get an opportunity the hooverment museum has a woman who portrays lou and she reads that letter as a performance in its entirety. I believe it is available on youtube and i would strongly encourage you if youre interested to watch it. It will give you a huge window into the heart. Break and heartache that lou experienced so many times in her life that she concealed from her family and she concealed from her friends and she concealed from the rest of the world. When lou gets back to london to work with bert on the crb. Shes also working with her fellow members of saul and they form the american womens War Relief Fund. And this is not just some. Random group of american women let me point out a few of these people who she lou is working with. Thats lous photograph right there. This is the former jenny jerome Lady Randolph churchill mother of Winston Churchill this is the widow of John Jacob Astor the fourth john jacob. Astor had been had drowned at the Maiden Voyage of the titanic. She was on that voyage. He made sure she was in a lifeboat. He went down with the ship. This is lady pejet. Formerly many stevens the daughter of a hotel magnet this is the former consuelo vanderbilt. Otherwise known as the duchess of marlborough. This is lady reginald owen. Better known as ruth brian owen the daughter of William Jennings bryan a woman elected to congress and served between 1929 and 1933 when Franklin Delano roosevelt appointed her as the first woman ambassador ever and she became ambassador to denmark. So, what did this american womens war relief . Fund do lou became chair of the economic committee. Remember i said she was good with numbers had the ability to discern needs had the ability to figure out how to make them happen. What im going to show you is Lou Henry Hoovers doing. While shes doing all this work for bert. Shes actually criss crossing the ocean in these torpedoinfested waters to raise money for the crb. If you look at crb paperwork, you will never see her name in the Womens Division masthead. Until you sit down and start to read the correspondence you have absolutely no clue. How much of a powerhouse she was behind the scenes in making the crb be what it became . But what was she doing with the War Relief Fund . The the lou helped to get funding for three sewing factories. The women who were employed there were the wives of soldiers who had been deployed into combat. This is in in and around london. Theyre paid the wage set by the trade union, which is designed to have a good living for one adult and one child. These factories also provided what we today would call daycare. And they served. Both a main meal of the day and t which t in london is more than just, you know a sympathy got it has food that comes with it. These were wellpaying jobs. They were in clean welllit wellventilated factories. The photograph that i have here is identified from what is a reputable source as being a photograph of the sewing factories but i got to studying this picture yesterday, and im not a hundred percent sure to sewing factory, which is okay because it also shows Something Else lewis involved in. Its kind of hard to see probably from where you are, but this is lace. And belgian lacemakers were worldrenowned for the high quality of their lace. This is not the tatting that you know you can do with a looks like a crochet hook. This is multiple bobbins of threads coming in to weave incredibly intricate designs. And you have to train and be approved to be a belgian lacemaker. And lou worked with women in belgium to employ other women for to make lace and then lose set up a network of american women to arrange for that lace to be sold in order that the belgians could have money to buy the food that was being supplied to them. One of the things that lou genuinely believed in was in maintaining the integrity and the selfrespect of a person by making them feel like they were worthwhile and employment in her view and earning a living were part of what helped you feel like you were a worthwhile contributing member of society. So there was also not only this economic component to it, but it was a psychological component of being able to feel good about yourself in spite of the fact that youre living in this war term wartorn impoverished occupied country a lot of psychology there that gets overlooked as part of what propels you to do many of the things that she does. One of the other things the War Relief Fund did was they funded a hospital for the care of wounded british soldiers and came up with money to pay for an ambulance to transport them from the front back to the hospital. So again, i want to reiterate. Lose doing all of this work. While shes managing the home the hoovers are living in. Shes staying in touch with whats going on with the boys in, california. Shes doing work for the crb. Shes traveling back and forth across the ocean for a varieties of reasons. And these are stories about her that until i dig into the dug into the research. Have not really been highlighted. She deserves way more credit and attention for her contributions in world war one and she has been given to this point and its helpful to understand that it goes well beyond what she did for the crb. She left an imprint in many different places and that is very much the ethos of Lou Henry Hoover. Well, lou eventually retrieves the boys. They come and live with them in london. And it reaches a point where its time to take them home, but the end by 1917 the United States has finally entered the war in april that year. And lou has law excuse me. Bird has lobbied with the Wilson Administration and event gets appointed with what eventually gets title is food administrator. The United States had been feeding itself and europe. From the outbreak of the war because most of the fertile farmland particularly in western europe and in germany had turned into battlegrounds. So we had been raising wheat and foodstuffs. We were feeding the allied armies. We were feeding the european citizens in the allied countries, and we were feeding people in the United States. So now were entering into the war. Weve got a feed and clothe our soldiers. Weve got to try to prevent inflation from happening. We have to prevent malnourishment and so burt moves into this role of food administrator for the Wilson Administration. And lou is which is true to form jumps in to find ways to support him. One of the ways in which she supports him. Is to find is to allow herself to be interviewed to talk about how shes economizing at home and conformity with some of the guidelines that birds Food Administration is putting out such as what today we hear is meatless mondays, and thats supposed to be a health thing. Well meeting list mondays started out from world war one as a way to conserve me consumption. Also taking sugar out of the diet. So some of those things now that were being told are bad for us where the things that were actually being either discouraged from consumption or limited in order to make sure there was enough food to go around. In the meantime again, lucy need more women have come into washington dc to take over their jobs of the men who have gone to war. Theyre in the administrative positions, and she looks for a clubhouse similar to what was available for saul and she establishes a clubhouse for women who are living in washington for not only women that are working in berts Food Administration, but also women working in other cabinet level agencies and she gets her group of friends to staff it and provide for activities and food and hospitality and shes paying for this all out of her own money that house expands eventually to include two other houses joining to the first house that she identified and it all gets eventually moved to a place. Excuse me a house on Jackson Place in washington dc, which is now one of the womens clubs in, washington. Okay, 1917 julia gordon low has already contacted lou one time and asked her to get involved with girl scouting which is a movement that loads started in 1912. And lou had said im too busy i cant do it, but lou had gotten a friend Henrietta Bates brook. To fill that role and julia gordon comes back to her again and says, you know, would you reconsider and this time lou does so she becomes a District Of Columbia commissioner for the girl scouts of america. Then shes asked to become one of the national Vice President s and if she also eventually takes leadership of girl scout troop 8 in washington, dc i could probably span the rest of my time talking about lou and the girl scouts, but that would cheat us all out of some of her other accomplishments. So let me point you to a third thursday talk that was given earlier this month by ann robertson. Who is the historian for the girl scouts of america in which she does a magnificent job of explaining lose introduction into scouting and also lose contributions to professionalizing the organization. In my book i take more of attack of how loose short up the finances of the organization as well as talk some about it professionalizing it so if you take ann robertsons talk and read what ive got and put those two together. Youll get a pretty good picture of how influential lou was and scouts i maintain when the scouts celebrated their 100th anniversary in 19, excuse me, 2012 that they did lou a huge injustice because she deserved a great deal of attention in my opinion based on my research. I dont know if the scouts would have survived past the 30s if it had not been for the work that lou did in all aspects of getting the organization more professionalized and in trying to shore up its finances. But lou found a home in scouting because first of all gave her an opportunity to work with girls. She referred to them as the daughter. She never had. Scouting believed in addressing the needs of the whole girl. And so this filled fulfilled all of those ethos because its about educating yourself. Its about having selfesteem and selfrespect. Its about being physically active. Its about being comfortable pursuing a career and understanding that you can have a career and a family one of the things that lou had to straddle in her leadership roles of the scout she became president of it in 1922 and chairman of the board in 1925. She then served as honorary president as the first lady from 29 to 33 and then assumed presidency again for two more years after she left the white house, but particularly during the time of the 20s when the boy scouts were suing the girl scouts about their name. And saying that it, you know made the feminized the boy scouts in order to have a girl scouts. Now lose straddled this line of the girls looking to be feminine. Well at the same time providing programming that was making them as selfsufficient as they could possibly be the only person that i know who could possibly carry that off with grace. And elon is Lou Henry Hoover and she did it and she did it admirably. And part of what she also did was she would use the scouts to support berts programs. So this is part of a pictograph that was in the washington evening star when bert was still food administrator, and i know the pictures are not clear to you, but this is scouts working in. The garden went in World War Two we called the victory gardens, but these are the gardens for raising your own food to help with. Prevent Food Shortages and fulfill the slogan of the time food will win the war. I want to point out one thing to you notice who gets top billing here. Mr. And yet if you read every one of these captions, its mrs. Hoover and mrs. Hoover. And to be honest with you, thats why she said she was fine with that. She hated the limelight. And in fact, its that hating the limelight not wanting publicity is part of the reason. We dont know these many things about her. Remember what i said, her name wasnt in the masthead of the Womens Division of crb, but she was a huge fundraiser for them and a big promoter of them. Okay. So in 1922 at a dinner conference at a conversation around the hoover dinner table discussion ensues about how physically unfit American Youth are these does this sound familiar . So she worked with officials in other cabinet offices and they formed the National Amateur athletic federation. And lou worked with the womens she was the only female on the board. She was a Vice President. And she worked with the Womens Division and helped to find funding for the Womens Division and wrote the forward to this book play day the spirit of sport. Lou was about everybody being engaged in sporting events. She she already saw in the 1920s how College Sports was being professionalized imagine that. She was a hundred years ahead of her time. And she rude that she thought it was it was the sad thing. Because she felt that everybody should be encouraged to be involved in sports. I will say on a personal note this kind of resonates with me. I was sharing this with the uncommon students last night. My dad was originally a certified as a physical education teacher. Um, i am not the most athletic in the world. My preference as a child was to sit in a chair and read a book. He would literally come and grab the book out of my hand and say go outside and play. Um, he was not my favorite person. For that was one of the reasons other than just being a father. So, you know i had to go outside and play. But two things that came from his emphasis on physical activity was making sure i knew how to ride a bicycle. And making sure i knew how to swim. And you know what . Those are two things you can do well into your 50s and 60s and beyond. And i credit that to my dad. I didnt have to play professional sports. He didnt care. He knew i didnt have the talent for it, but he still wanted me to understand the value of physical activity and i guess i zero in on what lou is trying to say because that was my experience and i can see in hindsight how very much on target she was and she struggled with it then just as per nonprofessional Recreational Organization struggle now to keep their organizations going to find volunteers and to find funding. Lou is the second woman to appear on a cover of time magazine. She is here in her capacity as chair of the Womens Committee on law enforcement. It was a group of political wives essentially and former first ladies who were concerned about the fact that prohibition wasnt working. That there was a lot of law breaking going on and so they had come together as a convention and she is the one who gets top billing. By the way, if you want to know who the first woman was, it was an italian actress by the name of eleanor dues, so quite a shift from an actress to the chair of the national Womens Committee for law enforcement. And then she makes the cover of time as the nations first lady when Herbert Hoover wins with a landslide against al smith in the 1928 election. And so the hoovers go into the white house with a lot of excitement a lot of support bird has managed to win over Southern States that had traditionally voted democratic but if you know anything about al smith, you will know that he was a catholic and he was in favor of ending prohibition and both of those things did not sit. Well in the hyper conservative south so one of the things that luke confronts is that the south side of chicago has elected . Its low the loan black. Member of the house and his name is oscar depriest. And it is common for the first lady to hold a reception for the wives of all of the elected members of congress. And so the question then becomes what are we going to do about mrs. Depriest . The first lady is considered the social arbiter of washington if she invites mrs. Depriest into the white house, she gives jesse dupree social legitimacy and shames all the other social social leaders in the city because she has recognized mrs. Depriest. So the decision is made that rather than hold one very large event in which all of the waves are invited which would have made it obvious that mrs. Depriest was or wasnt invited lou has a series of teas and she invites the what congressional wives in alphabetical order. So youve got, you know just sets based on letters of their last name. And so for the set that last name ends and d. Theyre going through the list and they see no depriest and so oh, you know mrs. Hoover is going to shine mrs. Depriest. Excellent, you know, shes doing exactly what shes supposed to do. We certainly dont want a black woman coming and having tea with us and socializing with us. Except what lou has done is she has arranged a private tea for mrs. Depriest. Its held on june 12th. Lou invites some sympathetic congressional wives who she knows we have no trouble having tea with mrs. Dupriest. She invites some cabinet wives same orientation loose sisters. Gene is there and so they have tea and of course, its not kept a secret. And all hell breaks loose. The south is in an uproar. They felt like theyve been betrayed by bert because hes allowed his wife to invite a black woman the white house tries to do damage control and say look, you know, its not a socially event. Its a political event. They tried to tie it to when the haitian ambassador had visited the white house even when Booker T Washington had had a meal with Theodore Roosevelt and his family, although that had a caused a lot of protests and ugly language to go on at the same time. Oscar to priest doesnt let the flames die down because he uses a to raise money for the naacp. So kind of puts the Hoover Administration a little bit on some rocky territory through the summer and just about the time it all sort of dies out by the end of august and it looks like things are going to get back on this equal footing again. We get at the end of october the collapse of the economy and the collapse of the stock market. And so what you end up having is a situation and all the causes of the depression or are very lengthy and very varied and not for this this afternoons discussion except to say that Herbert Hoover being a businessman had a keen sense of what would probably make the economy work. They are also balancing the and part of in into depending on you know, your political views but to put your head into the hoovers heads bear in mind that this is a couple who physically experience not just, you know, read it in the newspaper. They were on site and present. During world war one they have seen what fascism does. Socialism through which we would call communism has begun to encroach on europe. There are things being seen where the government is taking more and more control of individual lives and the perception is that if the government becomes too involved in our lives that government gains control of our lives and we lose our independence. And so you have to balance some of that philosophy of the dignity of the individual with whats governments role and how far does government go and thats really where both hoovers are straddling that line lou in private letters to her son allen bird and what hes trying to do with Public Policy and its just a very very difficult time and theres just a lot of intransigence in terms of congress about what to do bert to unfortunately was never really much of a good strong negotiator. He had always been able to kind of be the leader and get people to follow but the negotiations are very very delicate and its just it ends up being a very difficult stressful and tough time. Not only for bert as president , but for lou to be in the white house with him to try to be a support to him to try to encourage him, but also what shes witnessing going on with the government and with the economy. Which shes trying to do is be herself. To take leadership in the things that she can. One of the things that she does is she identifies a piece of property in the shenandoah mountains in virginia to build camp rapidan, which becomes the president ial retreat as a result of building that camp they learned that the community in which theyve built the camp has no school for the children and she undertakes for the building of what becomes the president s mountain school. They employ local people to teach them carpentry and construction skills. Lou personally recruits the teacher christine vest graduate of Berea College someone who had experience working in rural heavily impoverished areas lou pays christine out of her own money. 1500 dollars a year 1500 dollars a year to teach in 1930 is an excellent salary she provides her with a horse. She makes sure the christine is a place to live. She recommends a solid bank for christine to feel comfortable depositing her money and she stays in touch with these children. She and bert visit them every year when theyre coming to rapidan and she is very much engaged and involved in the education of these children. An interview christine get vest gives years later after the National Park Service Takes over the community and incorporates it into the National Park. Christine vest says without this education these children would never have been able to be successful when they were relocated that they were able to slide right into classrooms if their normal age and that the skills that had been taught the man and abled them to find employment. So again, its not lou its its more than lou just handling the immediate need it is lou. Being able to provide for needs that carry people forward with the potential for success. We also was extremely interested in the furnishings of the white house. She had a family retainer dar stark photograph and researched the provenance of all of the items in the white house. She used her personal funds to have the furnishings of the family quarters photographed and the providence research. Its the First Time Ever the family quarters and the furnishings of the family quarters had been photographed. This is a photograph of lous sitting at a reproduction of the desk that james monroe signed the Monroe Doctrine on as well as the companion chair that went with it lou paid for that to be that this replica. She borrowed the original from descendants of monroe. And lewis also the first first lady to use radio to address the nation. She addressed girl scouts across the nation via radio, but this is a broadcast in which she broadcasts from the white house. Shes the first first lady to broadcast from the white house with radio. She enlisted the scouts in help with trying to promote volunteerism to encourage small communities to help one another. They tried to pick up the idea of what had been what was called the better homes movement, which was something bird had done when he was secretary of commerce the idea of finding small odd jobs for local men to do that might earn them 50 cents 75 cents a dollar for the day give them a sense of earning. It was a good idea just the nation was in such dire straits and some of the communities particularly the rural communities. Were so absolutely impoverished. It was hardly even any money going or in circulation. So it was a very very tough thing to do. To the other thing that we dont know about lou unless you start to dig into her papers is that she engaged in a tremendous amount of private philanthropy. Throughout the depression. She had a network of people across the country who would make her aware of various needs. She would check them out she funded tuition. For an innumerable number of students including some black students. She sent small checks as little as 10 to elderly widows who needed just enough money to get by. When she heard that someone who had been an employee of her mother. I was having the home foreclosed on alan had graduated from Harvard Business school was back in california. She asked alan to investigate it and alan said, you know, its too late to do anything but lou found a way for some anonymous funding to be given to help the woman find a place to live. These are things that just would never see the light of day if we werent researching lou and her life when she passed away her family pulled open a desk drawer and they found countless numbers of checks of people who knew that she had given them money and they were size. They were trying to pay her back. She never cashed them. So the extent of her private philanthropy is probably never going to be known. Probably not even to some of the people who received it. Again. This is a woman who does it has not gotten her do and i hope that im doing a little bit this this afternoon to do her justice. So im going to wrap this up and say okay. Well, you know, you can say to me annette, you know, shes done all these tremendous things. Why do we not know more about her whats going on here . Well part of it is lou hated publicity. She did not cultivate the press in fact, she wrote in a letter to alan how much she hated interviews and cautioned him about doing interviews. And because she did not cultivate a relationship with the press the way subsequent first ladies have done including her media successor eleanor roosevelt. Thats a lot of the reason why so much of what lou did went unknown. In my previous position. I worked with our Public Relations person in our agency, and i used to have him come and talk to a group of people to help them understand about the press and one of the things he would always say to them is you need to own your story. If you dont own the story and you dont control it the press will come up with a story and thats the one that theyre going to put forth. And so lou did not understand her need to create her story and to put it forward. And so thats a lot of the reason why we dont know much of what she has accomplished. So what i will say is this is going to be one example of why she hated the press. This is a cotton gown. Lou had this made from a pattern of her mothers she wore it in support of cotton farmers. Who were not even getting sense on the dollar at in 1931 . For their cotton and she had this dress made and she wore to a reception in. 1932 and thats what happens. Because thats all the press really wanted to do was talk about what she wore. And this is just one article. I picked this one because you can see it from where youre sitting. But there were articles making a big deal about mrs. Hoover wearing a cotton gown. Instead of instead of using the opportunity for she was trying to support american farmers. And particularly american cotton farmers excuse me. Liu was the first first lady to actively campaign for her husband we take that a lot for granted now, but she was the groundbreaker on this. And after she left the white house, just quick thumbnail. Her contributions to Stanford University, which is she relocated to the home. She had built in palo alto. She began an Organization Called friends of music which eventually became the Stanford University school of music. But it began as a Concert Series to bring music culture to the area. She also personally funded several musician artists including a harpist him. She liked Mildred Dilling. She had just gone to a performance of Mildred Dilling a couple of hours before she passed away in 1940 before lou passed away in 1944. Who also was instrumental in working with her colleagues and friends that she had at Stanford University in Womens Health center for the establishment of physical Therapy Program at stanford and if you look up that program now on the internet you will see it is worldrenowned and very extensive. Lou also mentored a number of women students in stanford and had them to her house for tease and for discussions through the years and she stayed very physically active as as evidenced by this christmas card, which was sent friends in 1939. So i had originally thought to begin my talk with you about quoting a little story that went around during the height of the feminist movement about gender the dancers Ginger Rogers and fred astaire. And the story kind of goes like this. Ginger rogers was the better dancer than fred astaire. And so you have to ask well. Why how do you come to that conclusion . Well, because Ginger Rogers did all the same steps as fred astaire except she was wearing high high heels and did them backwards . Well to me, Lou Henry Hoover is our Ginger Rogers. She did so many things in conjunction for helping berts career helping further many of the things that he did but she was running a parallel life. Where she was working with her own organizations her own group of women friends supporting the development of young women helping to provide filament for philanthropic needs for countless others for trying to promote good government. And she has not had the fullness of her story told. And i have only scratched the surface and i hope what i have done is open a door for more research. Thank you very much. So we have time for questions lynn has a portable mic and ill join her. Please wait until you get the microphone make sure its on and ask your question and just to make sure im asked and that if shell repeat the question before she answers it. So just raise your hand if you want the mic. Thank you so much for the lovely. Lecture on on henry hoover, so you mentioned that she used a lot of her personal funds, you know to promote. The her values and what she wanted to see . And promote although she had difficulty selfpromoting. She was an excellent promoter of everyone else. What was that source of funds would it come from her family was it . You know the funds that she and accumulated over the air statistics exactly was what was our source of personal funds . Okay. Thank you. All right, so to summarize the question. The gentleman makes a really good point in which he says that lou was outstanding at promoting the organizations that were important to her. Even though she had no real interest in promoting herself, which is an excellent observation and thank you for that. So the question is what is the sense of excuse me, the source of lose funding for the monies that she gave out of her personal funds. Thats an excellent question. And unless something has changed since ive done my research the hoover financial records are sealed. So my best guess is her father left and mother left the girls jean and lou a certain sum of funding. Lou with probably with edgar records help. Probably did some of her own investing. I did was able to kind of fare it out that she and jean owned rental properties together. So there would have been some revenue from that. And she probably has some kind of arrangement with burke for how the funding that came into the home. Got dispersed into her accounts. She did maintain her own separate accounts that he did not have his hands on but thats an excellent question and there i dont know if it will ever be fully and completely answered if the records stay sealed. Do you know if Jackie Kennedy as a kid . I remember her doing a tour of the white house after it was refurbished. Do you know if she ever referenced any of the photographs that were done at lous . Instigation my guess is i dont know with absolute certainty. So the only partial information i have and i do want to underscore partial and by the way, im sorry. The question is do i know if Jacqueline Kennedy when she did the tour of the refurbishment of the white house referenced any of lose photographs, so i am not aware of a reference to that and i do know that the White House Historical association, which was founded by mrs. Kennedy spends a lot of time talking about mrs. Kennedys refurbishment, and i remember when they had one of the programs on that that i sent in a i was what it was a zoom program and i had sent in a comment about what lou had done and it was sort of, you know, briefly acknowledged, but i am not sure that lou has gotten the attention of that and im one of my little todo list is to try to remedy that. Yes, sir. Actually, i can answer that wonderful. Lou paid a professional photographer from the us signal corps out of her own pocket for all of those photos there are three drafts of her work that she did with the help of dare stark mcmillan the problem was that the commissioner of public buildings thought that because a signal corps photographer had taken them. Use those photos without mrs. Hoovers permission for an article and a popular magazine. And which also put in question the contract who had with a publisher. So the book never saw the light of day. Mrs. Kennedy knew about the existence of lose research but she didnt know where to find a copy. Loose papers were sealed until 1985. Researchers didnt have access to her papers here. Until that date, which also helps explain. The absence of more biographies about her are and so as result, this is kennedy. Um did her own Research Without the benefit of of lose um since then made digital copies. Presented one to the white house curator and one to the White House Historical association and they have found information in Loose Research that theyve found no other place. And and i would also add to that that in one of the issues of White House Historical quarterly. I believe in the 2016 year year there is an insert. Of a porsche. I dont think its all of it, but theres a portion of it in. And i think are our former Education Specialist elizabeth dental. Um did Extensive Research and shes and some volunteers that she recruited are responsible for digitizing it . But if you get a copy of that issue, its got about the her first 135 pages reproduced. Of the original so you can get a flavor of what her research was like thank you, tom. Do you know what impact or involvement . Lou henry hoover had in terms of the architectural work on the house in palo alto so the question is what impacted lou have on the architectural work of the house in palo alto. She pretty pretty much designed the house. And she worked with the architect burge clark in the construction of the house. There is an excellent Youtube Video of one of the stanford professors who discusses lose work in the construction how she would climb ladders to stand on the scaffolding and get different views of the house and talks about the different architectural styles that are in the house and probably have to email me so i can find out remember the name of who that professor is, but he had material of quotes from the architect and also some quotes from lou that i hadnt been able to find anywhere else that talk about her very extensive involvement in the design and construction of that home. We have a copy of a video from stanford on the construction. I think it might be called these pueblo walls. Thats a guess. In vhs tape that someday well probably horizon with stanfords permission, maybe get available right and and this talk is not the same as these this these pueblo walls. Its a separate talk. Okay. New information because she was a geologist. Is there evidence of her promoting Stem Education among the women that she worked with and scouting and so forth or use that geology degree. In ways that were evident. Okay. So the question is did lou do any promotion of what today we call stem with the girl scouts or how else did she use her geology degree . So thats thats a multipart answer. So let me answer the first part. One of the things i left out was that in and im probably got my date wrong nine 1912. 1913 somewhere in that time frame was the publication of a book called daray metallica. It was the translation from the latin of a seminal work on mining that had been published by a name by agricola back in the i believe was the 1500 16th century. The work was a very challenging work because agricola not only wrote he was german, but he also wrote in latin but because there were not necessarily latin terms for some of the mining terminology. He sometimes made them up to reflect it. Well lou was is was a linguist. She was fluent in multiple languages. She was good with latin bert had the mining knowledge between the two of them. They were able to get into this day Raymond Metallica and figure out what agricola was saying and they translated this book and then edgar ricard arranged for its publication and it was the hoovers paid for all this out of their own funding and the published book it was done on very very high quality vellum paper leather binding the whole thing. The couple won a gold award for that book by the american mining and metallurgy society. I probably have the name of that organization. Not a hundred percent, right but close enough. For for their work, that book is still in use today. So that was one use of her geology degree another she did promote the sciences in girl scouts, and i have excerpted in the book a very interesting letter. I ran across where a woman who was an engineering student at ohio State University sent lou this questionnaire and wanted to know and among the list of things in the questionnaire was do you think being an engineer causes a woman to lose her femininity . And lose response to that is what do you mean by this question . And you know, it was also you know, how do you stay fit . And how do you do a good job . And we said by taking care of yourself . You know being physically fit eating right . So id love to promote my book so you can read the excerpt of that letter to the to this student. But yes lou continue to she was also a member of of Womens Divisions of professional organizations and and continue to promote that she also wrote a monograph on great. Its getting late and my brain is starting to slow down seismologist that one one recognition. So yeah, john milne. So she she yes, she did continue to use it and she also edited all of birth stuff. She entered his reports. She would edit has some mining work that he did again. Just this totally behind the scenes no clue kind of person. Great question. Thank you. So we can continue this in the lobby as you purchase a book to have a net sign just a reminder. Our next program will be august 6th, which will be a conference. Dealing with hoovers food relief efforts during the russian famine. So please take some time see the exhibit and just a reminder. We are one of 13 president ial libraries and museums operated by the National Archives and records administration. So we hope you come back for a visit here and visit some of the others. So please lets show our appreciation for annette. Thank you for coming and safe well when i was very little i fell in love with American History and Abraham Lincoln was my first hero. And i was so so much in love with Abraham Lincoln that the summer between first and second grade. We my family took a trip Cross Country from california to new york and my parents made a detour in springfield, illinois. So that i can see lincolns home and all the things connected with lincoln and one day i asked my mother. Whos your favorite president . And she said