Is not short for a female name. He raised her as a tomboy. One of her early pictures is with her father fishing at a stream. We have a picture of her carrying a rifle on top of it a burro. She had great joy in being outdoors. Susan how does that translate into her grownup years . Annette she stayed fascinated with the outdoors her entire life. Her decision to study geology at Stanford University is an outgrowth of that. Even as late as her night as her 60s, we have material of her going on a camping trip at the age of 63. She slept on the ground and rode into camp on horseback. Her other camp mates slept in tents. Susan from a Public Policy perspective, she also spent much of her years encouraging other young women to incorporate the outdoors and physical activity into their lives. , she wantedust her those benefits for other women. Annette there started to be some interest in women being more physically active. She took it to the next set. There were two areas where she got involved. With the girl scouts. An opportunity for her to promote a lot of outdoor activity. What we would call today camping, hiking, learning how to build a campfire and cook outdoors. Enjoying the outdoors. The other party was involved in amateur the National Athletics foundation, the Womens Division to make sure that physical activity for women was appropriate. Not just something for men that women did. Annette we hope you have been following susan we hope you have been following along with us on this series. You can join the conversation. Our phone numbers will be on the screen throughout the program. You can also tweet us and we will work as many tweets into the program as we camp. We also have a facebook conversation going on the cspan facebook page. You will see the henry huber hoover picturery and the conversation going on be beneath that. How did she get from iowa to california. Annette her father was in banking and he was a banker in waterloo. This is in the days before you the Federal Reserve or federal deposit insurance and so banks did not necessarily succeed. They went up and down with the economy and with the farm economy. Her father charles was looking for other opportunities and he was given the opportunity to, and start a bank in whittier, california. At the time that they moved, in 1887, they were building a brandnew community. It had been founded by the quakers. They said they were open to any fairminded people of any religion. The connection among president s. Whittier, california, that Quaker Community being established. Many years later, there would be a home for Richard Nixon there. He was also a quaker. There is a connection between these two first families. We have a video for you and we will be back to talk more about her life. [video clip] her father had always wanted a boy. She waswhy we think named lou. It is not short for anything. As a result of that, he takes becomes and she. Omboy of the era she learns how to shoot and fish and they go camping. She is learning about the outdoors and loving it. This is a 1914, 22 rifle that was owned i lou. What i love about that is that there is a photograph of her on top of this mule looking pretty rough and tough and then she has a gun right there. Meis very annie oakley to which is that type of era and independent girl. One of lous most famous essays was probably independent girl. It was written in january 1980. The last line of assessment the very last line of it is sooner or later he will meet a spirit equal to her own and there will either be a clash or they will unite forces with combined strength to go forth and meet the world. I think she means that person with Herbert Hoover. This is her diary from 1891 to 1892. This is when she was at college talking about different classes she was taking. Abouting she talks a lot his her bought me classes and going hiking. Classes. R botany palmerers here miss and i were a good match for climbing. We beat the others all to pieces. We found a lot of flowers including prisoner primroses as well as lizards and frogs. As part of that class, there were also sketches of flowers. This is lose a sketchbook. Lousare this is sketchbook with flowers and butterflies. There is also the latin name. Lou does not write about herself necessarily but she writes about her experiences in her life. She is a highly educated woman at this time. At thiss time time period. Parents were very openminded. If she wanted to learn something they encouraged that. We were commenting as we were watching the photographs thatbout how full of life comes through in these photographs. Everyone you look at she is smiling. Her decision to study geology and to go to stanford, a cop a viewer on twitter writes s this annette it was very unusual. We are not sure if she was not the first person the first woman to get a geology degree in the country. Students went out on a field trip and she was not allowed to go. Because she was a woman. Knowing how much he loved the outdoors and some of the field trip she had taken at normal school, which was the Teacher Training School she went to before she went to stanford, i can imagine how upset she was. Susan she graduated with a degree, and that is unheard of for women to have a degree. Were there any jobs . Annette no. She sends a letter to her friend evelyn white about three weeks after she graduated from stanford and she said here i which is the latin for bachelor of arts and she says she wishes it would stand for a boy. Susan how did her relationship with Herbert Hoover develop . Annette herbert was a senior at the time that lou started. Lou was six months older. He was a Lab Assistant in the lab of dr. John boehner. He had delivered a lecture on geology which had inspired lou to apply to stanford and study there. He took an instant liking to her. He writes about her whimsical smile, her laughing blue eyes, and what an intelligent and delightful young woman that she was. The 4 the part that i find so humorous is that i believe she needed some assistance. He was also an eye when and iowan and a quaker. There were connections. Susan what happened to their relationship after stamford . There were a lot of letters and a strong connection. His job took in two nevada and then to australia. He was working in australia and they were continuing to communicate. He was then offered a position in china. And at her a telegram telegram went through the post office and the post offices all the names lou and bert. It was not a formal proposal, it just said heading to china, will you join me . Postmaster posted it on the Bulletin Board for everyone to see. Susan that is like putting it on the internet today. Annette it was an invasion of privacy. Susan her nickname for him was bert. Robust website for this series and we hope you found it. It is that cspan. Org first ladies. If you go online to date you can see lou henrys ba degree from Stanford University. It did not serve her well on the job market but did introduce her to a lifechanging partner. She said yes to china. When did they go to china and what was it like . Annette they went to china the day after they got married. Married february 10, 1899. They were heading off to china on a steamer the next day. They spent a few days in japan and then they were there when the boxer rebellion a occurred. Didn tiffany wrote their time in china influence their Public Policies for the white house . Annette i think their time in travel weret their probably also influenced them. They saw what it was like to be in countries where freedom had been taken from people. Susan what influenced their joint philosophies . What about them in their Development Lead them to view the world in that way . I dont know if they had that view when they started because they were in china during the boxer rebellion, they were in europe during the outbreak of world war i. They had lived in countries where peoples freedoms had been curtailed. Andicans and being feeling strongly about individual freedoms and then visiting countries where people did not enjoy the same freedoms, they realized those freedoms were important. They acquired quite a bit of wealth and were very successful in their chosen fields. They were multimillionaires by 1914. Was a the boxer rebellion protest against foreign influence in china. Was their life threatens while they were there . Annette yes. A were under siege. They had barricades. Lou went out and manned the barricades. She was involved with the red to eight people. She was sitting in their house one day when a bullet came through the front door and she pulled out a deck of cards and started playing solitaire. Susan to calm herself down. But also, it did not faze her. She also wrote a letter to a friend and said that you have missed the was exciting summer, you should have been here. We have a graphic i want to put on the screen because it shows the breadth of their travels. We mentioned stanford. And then china. And then he was posted in london which put them in the middle of the lead up to world war i. And then he took a job as part of the commission for the relief of belgium. Later on, as head of the u. S. Food administration which became reliefd of the administration after world war i. He then served as secretary of commerce under harding and coolidge. I have read that she was a globetrotter . What other parts of the world that they see . Cambodia, a went back to australia together. They traveled in the countries of north africa. In the middle east. They were also in russia. That was just the short list. Time beforeg this the white house, they also published together. Published a couple of pieces on geology on her own. One of them was a biography of john milton who created the seismograph to measure the severity of earthquakes. The work that they did together was the translation of a 16th century treatise on mining. It was written in latin. It had a lot of technical latin terms. Lou had studied latin. They also used a professional translator. That book one and award. The first award given by the association for mining and metallurgy. Herbert was a member of that association but lou was not. She is the one who gave the remarks and accepted the metal. A call from take david and the we will look at a video of some the things that they collected during their world travel. David is from chicago. Ask thei just wanted to panelist about lose relationship with the white house staff. I read lillian parks book. It did not portray mrs. Hoover nice person. Apparently, she and the president did not speak to any of the white house staff. Like theyd them did not speak to the staff. Other places that mrs. Hoover would communicate using hand signals which drove the white house staff crazy because they did not understand what she was asking for. On the one hand, she was a compassionate woman. From whater hand, ive read, she was not very nice to the white house staff. Susan thank you. Lets find out how they how she approached the white house staff. Goodte that is a very question and there is a lot of material out there that supports what he raises. Have thee things we look at as historians is when did that material come out. In readingchallenges anything about the hoovers, especially if it came out while the roosevelt were in office, there was such a norm is antihoover sentiment that people actually had onortunities to capitalize an antihoover message. Some of the information is something we need to look at more carefully. What we do know is that the movers paid several white house Staff Members out of their own funds. They nature that all of their staff 83 meals a day and were able to keep their jobs. It is a mixed message about what was going on in the white house. It needs to be looked at more carefully. Susan katherine on facebook asks what were her opinions about the Womens Suffrage Movement . Annette we do not have any evidence of her being actively involved that she wrote an interesting thing when she was 15 years old in support of severed as a teenager talking about the fact that she did not think it was right that women should be classified in the same category as jailbirds and convict. In other words, being denied the right to vote. People who had been convicted could not vote. She was very much in favor of seeing women get the right to vote but she was not an active project. Agette. R annette she did believe in equality between men and women. Some ofets show you the items they collected from their travels around the world. [video clip] one of the things that lou was chinese porcelains. The blue and white. They tended to focus on the ming. The ming period. They started collecting these porcelains when they were living in china. They developed the best collection in the United States of chinese porcelains. Learned to speak chinese living in china, she researched each of the artists, and each of the pieces and places they were made. They were continuously trading these. They had as many as 400 at one time. They were trying to get sets. While in london, lou collected pewter. Here are some pieces of british wouldve been used for various teapots and things. The collecting of these does not seem to go beyond 1920. We have a large number of these. About 50 in our collection. One of the most unique things that she collected, throughout her travel, she wanted to collect something that was representative of the places they visited. She started collecting weapons. Boomerangscouple of that they got in australia. Were pretty sure this is an indonesian piece. Of iit had some sort think it was some sort of a weapon. I think it could do a lot of damage to someone. Then, there are other various pieces here is a day and that, a dagger with a bayonet and a dagger. While that video was going on, we brought another guest to our set. Let me introduce you to emily china. Syriana political horse political historian. He was the republicans choice for president in 1928. Set the scene for us about what the country was like during that election. Emily the American Economy had been growing in leaps and down through the 1920s. Herbert hoover had been this incredibly prominent secretary of commerce. Hadwords to hooverize come into the language. There were a lot of expectations and there was hope that he was the great humanitarian. He was the great engineer. He is able to get the nomination in 1928. Partly from the reputation that he had built up during his service in world war i at as well as secretary of commerce and the relief effort that he managed in 1927 with the great mississippi flood. Periodthis is a time when the mass media is starting to come into play. How did that affect his popularity with the public . Annette he got a lot of coverage. There were newsreels when they got ready to begin to push for nomination. An he had a film made called master of emergencies to show how competent and capable he was. Media was very important in getting his name, and his picture and what he had accomplished in front of the public. Susan what was the election like . It was a landslide. He win 60 of the vote. Which thelection in opposing side, the democrats had nominated al smith. The first catholic to be nominated as candidate for a National Major party. Herbert hoover in a way was the beneficiary of a divide that happened on the democratic side where all smith is essentially opposed from within because of his catholicism. Hisly concerns about position on prohibition and the like. Hoover escaped an internal battle and it shows at the polls. Anan he came in with overwhelmingly republican congress. Both houses by a large majority. How involved with Lou Henry Hoover in the campaign . Annette she was extremely involved. She went with him on all of his appearances. She was very visible. Part of the press that was out at the time in conjunction with housman being the democratic nominee was that his wife was from the Lower East Side of new york. There were comparisons of this woman who was not that knowledgeable or sophisticated which would have been katy smith, how smith wife versus Lou Henry Hoover who was a graduate of stanford, had traveled the world, and was a sophisticated woman. She had already achieved National Prominence on her own. Susan michael, you are on. Caller i just wanted to comment. Mrs. Hoover seemed very unorthodox for the late 1920s and early 1930s. She seemed way ahead of her time. I think she was eclipsed by Eleanor Roosevelt and maybe later i the glamour of jackie kennedy. She has kind of been forgotten. I was curious if any of you all know how she was perceived at the time of her reign as first lady by the press and the public. Also, the depression colored peoples view of her tenure. Annette when she came into office it was with the same expectations and enthusiasm that had greeted burts coming into office. There was a lot expected from this couple. Lou had been involved nationally with the girl scouts. She had been involved with the National Athletic amateur federation, the womens conference. Was very wellknown. One of the things that she did she was unorthodox in other ways. She not have inherited Grace Coolidges social secretary. She wanted lou to learn how to do things the Washington Society way. Lou did not want to do things that way. Those two parted company after one year and lou did not hire another social secretary. She did introduce a lot of changes. She was very unorthodox. Susan you know what theyre an inauguration looked at like . Did they have a ball . Annette it was pouring rain that day. They got soaked in the actual ceremony and in watching the parade. They did not attend the ball. Vice president curtis and his sisterinlaw served as his hostess and they attended the ball that evening. It was considered a charity ball, not what we would think about today as an inaugural ball. I do not know what charity it was for. I will tweet that after i find out. Jordan. Ello of thisi am a big fan series and i know all about the president s. Herbert hoover. My question is about them what was her favorite activity she did in the white house . Annette i am not sure there was just one. I will have to pick two. As far as in the white house, one would be taking care of the gardens