NARA Collection hh-lhh — Collection hh-lhh

An unpublished, illustrated history of White House furnishings and social customs. Surprised to find that the White House staff knew little about the history and significance of its furnishings, Mrs. Hoover researched and wrote a definitive study which she intended to have published. Includes separate chapters for each administration.

In an extraordinary letter to her sons and gradchildren, written during the 1932 presidential campaign, Mrs. Hoover defends her husband. She took special exception to allegations that her husband was aloof and uncaring with no feelings for the plight of "the common man in the street". To prove her point, she reminds her children that their father's miners and workmen were always the best paid and best cared for. Also points out that although he could have made millions as a war profiteer in the munitions industry, he abandoned his profession as one of the most successful mining consultants of the day to donate his services as head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U. S. Food Administration and the American Relief Administration during and after WWI. With remarkable candor she also relates the emotional toll of his wartime experiences and his reluctance to seek the presidency in 1920 and 1928.

Mrs. Hoover comments, in a 1942 letter to Mrs. George T. Gerlinger, on her husband's lack of interest --in 1920 -- in becoming President. He had purchased Hearst's Washington Herald and hoped to make an "honest newspaper" out of it because he "felt that actually more good could be done our country by reforming . . . journalism than by any other activity." An unusual, insight about one of our least "politically minded" Presidents

A brief handwritten essay by Lou Henry Hoover, wife of the 31st President of the United States. Shortly before her 15th birthday she wrote a very intriguing essay entitled "The Independent Girl" which reveals much of her own vivacious and indpendent spirit. The essay closes with the almost eery prophecy that the independent girl will sooner or later "meet a spirit equally as independent as her own . . . and with combined strength go forth to meet the world."

A brief handwritten essay by Lou Henry Hoover, wife of the 31st President of the United States. Mrs. Hoover was 14 when she wrote this an essay on "Universal Suffrage".