Hoover Headlines

Herbert and Lou Hoover were prolific mining engineers with a global impact. This program will explore the early lives of the Hoovers that led them to mining, their careers as miners, and an explanation of what made Hoover a remarkable mining engineer.  Join us to learn about the National Mining Hall of Fame's 11th and 60th inductees- Herbert and Lou Hoover.
About the Speaker: Elizabeth Dinschel is the director of the National Mining Hall of Fame in Colorado. She was previously the education archivist at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum and has vast knowledge on both subjects.  

In celebration of both Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and Presidents Day, this talk will examine the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Herbert Hoover highlighting the profound influence that the Sixteenth President had upon the thinking of the Thirty-First President.  
About the Speaker: Dr. Thomas Schwartz is the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Prior to coming to the Hoover Presidential Library, Schwartz was director of the Lincoln Library and will share his vast knowledge of both presidents.

Third Thursday program, Jan. 19, 2023 Sometimes called “the worst hard time,” the Great Depression touched every American community and citizen. This talk focuses on how Iowans experienced the 1930s. The presentation will discuss the ways that Iowans survived hard times, and how some residents turned to radical action in response to the ordeal.

About the Speaker: Park Ranger Peter Hoehnle is a National Park Service guide at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and holds a doctorate in history. He enjoys doing historical research and has been widely published on American communal societies, including volumes on Amana and the Shakers.

 The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum's entire collection of decorated Belgian Relief flour sacks from World War I was subjected to a close examination in June 2022. Annelien van Kempen, visiting researcher from The Netherlands, and Marcus Eckhardt, Hoover Presidential Museum curator, studied every detail and counted 360 items in this unique survey of war-time American and Canadian flour sacks, decorated by Belgian schoolgirls, women and artists, mainly in 1915. 

Gary Dolphin interviews Hoover Presidential Foundation president & CEO Jerry Fleagle about the Timeless Values | Modern Experience campaign for the  renovation of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

Christmas was very important to Herbert Hoover, and he celebrated the holiday many ways during his long life. Join us for a ranger talk about Hoover and Christmas, from the simple holiday celebrations of his Quaker youth to his globetrotting years as a mining engineer in many lands, to his years in the White House and a memorable Christmas Eve fire in 1929. 

In the last 20 years of his life, Hoover celebrated Christmas with elaborate decorations, gatherings, and gift giving from his suite in the Waldorf Towers. Based on the recollections of family and friends, and Hoover’s own writings, this talk will open a window into the private life of a president and his family, as they celebrated a favorite holiday.

About the Speaker: Park Ranger Peter Hoehnle is a National Park Service guide at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and holds a doctorate in history. He enjoys doing historical research and has been widely published on American communal societies, including volumes on Amana and the Shakers.

This Third Thursday at Hoover's program aired Oct. 20, 2022.
This presentation highlights the "homecoming" visit that Mr. and Mrs. Hoover and their two sons made to Iowa during the summer of 1928 after his nomination as the Republican nominee for the presidency. Although there was no official album, Juhl has arranged these seldom seen photographs to represent what could have been a family album.

About the Speaker: Paul Juhl, of Iowa City, has been writing about Iowa history for the past twenty years. Originally from Webster City, Juhl holds degrees from the University of Iowa in history, and the University of Northern Iowa in College Student Personnel Services. He is also an expert on photography in the late nineteenth century and often includes many images from all times periods in his books.

Prior to retirement, Juhl served several Iowa high schools, and also a school in Switzerland, as the school counselor and teacher.

The topics for his spiral bound books are diverse and include Grant Wood, Pulitzer Prize recipient, MacKinlay Kantor, Herbert Hoover and Abraham Lincoln’s grandchildren.

This talk begins with an overview of the Hard Winter of 1880-81 as found in the newspaper record, followed by an exploration of some of Wilder’s struggles to convert her family’s experiences into her nearly perfect novel, “The Long Winter.”
 About the Speaker: Cindy Wilson is passionate about history and enchanted by the prairie landscape. Her award-winning book, “The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, the Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81” can be purchased through her website TheBeautifulSnow.com or at various online and museum retailers.

Lou Henry Hoover and 17 other first ladies who, at one point in their lives knitted, crocheted, embroidered, quilted, cross-stitched, or sewed, are the focus of a new book, “Ladies, First: Common Threads,” by Debra Scala Giokas. Debra will discuss the research and stories that went into that work.
About the Speaker: Debra Scala Giokas is a professional member of the Crochet Guild of America. She earned her B.A. in English from Stony Brook University and began a career in marketing communications where she writes every day. She has been working in that field ever since. Debra enjoys learning and writing about women in American History. She taught a marketing course at a local college as an Adjunct Assistant Professor for 6 years, and still mentors students at her alma mater. Originally from Astoria, Queens, New York, Debra lives on Long Island with her husband George and their dog, Zoe Ana, a Maltese.

Hoover Presidential Foundation president & CEO Jerry Fleagle, Kat Reinbold, Creative Producer and Matt Solari, VP & creative director for BRC Imagination Arts, a premiere builder of exhibit spaces, look at the possibilities that lie ahead for the new exhibit renovation.