Blue and Herbert Hoover came to the white house is trained geologists, an experience world travelers who were successful in both the private and public sectors. But just months into hoovers term, the market crashed. First Lady Lou Hoover used her office to advocate volunteer is a man charity, but as the Great Depression deep into, theyre one term and it amidst great public frustration. Good evening, and welcome to first ladies influence an image. Tonight the story of Lou Henri Hoover the. Hoover administration in 1929 to 1933 and what an interesting life she had. Here to tell us about her years before the white house as we get started tonight is annette dunn lap. Historian author first ladies biographer scholar with the Hoover Institution and working on a biography of Lou Henri Hoover. What is to just interested you to dispensable years of your life looking into this one. I got interested in her with talking with a friend of mine through the library up in canton ohio and when i started looking at lieu, a realize that this is a woman whose story has not been fully told. There are so many layers to her, so many different activities that she has been involved in, and a legacy that she has left for women particularly even today that i would like to see arrest of people know about. Lets start with her growing up here, she was born in waterloo iowa, and the tails i read is that her father really wanted a boy. So they say. And so the name blue which is not short for louise or any other type of genuinely feel name, and he did pretty much raise her as what we would call a tomboy. She, one of the earliest pictures of her with her father was of the two of them fishing stream. I know that youve got a fix that were going to show later of her carrying a rifle and on top of a borough. And a lot of her diary talks about just her joy at being able to hunt, fish and be outdoors. How did that translate into her grownup life . She stayed somebody who was totally fascinated with the outdoors through her entire life. Obviously, her decision to study geology at Stanford University was an outgrowth of that. And even as late as her sixties, we have material when she went on camping trips at the age of 63, 67, rode horseback into her campsites and slept on the ground while her other camp mates, other women slept in tents on pallets. 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, so was just for her, she saw benefit from other young women, at a time when women really werent doing this. There has started to be some interesting women being more physically active. But yes, she really took it what we would call the next step. So there are two areas where she got involved with that, the first area was with the girl scouts, because that was an opportunity for her to promote a lot of outdoor activity, but we would today call camp craft or outdoor crafts such as camping, hiking, learning how to build a campfire, learning how to cook outdoors and join the outdoors. And the other part of what she was involved in was with the National Amateur athletic foundation, the womens division. To make sure that sports and physical activity for women were appropriate to women, not just something for men that women did. We hope youve been following along with us in this series and you know that what makes it really interesting or your questions. You can do that in many ways, our phone numbers will be on the screen throughout the program so you can dial in with a question. You can also tweet us at first ladies and we will work as many tweets as we can into the program. And we have a facebook conversation going on, cspans facebook page, you will see the Lou Henri Hoover photograph and there is already a conversation going on underneath that photo. We will work it as some of those comments as well. We start in the conversation tonight, much to learn about this very interesting woman. So, how did she get from iowa to california . California was so important in the woman she became. Yes. Her father was in banking, he was a banker, it started as a clerk as a bank in waterloo. And of course, this is in the days before you have the Federal Reserve or federal deposit insurance and so banks didnt necessarily succeed, they kind of went up and down with the economy and with farm economies. So her father charles was looking for other opportunities and he was given the opportunity to come and start a bank in wittier california which at the time that they moved was was in the early 1887. They were building a Brandnew Community it had been founded by the quakers. But they said they were open to any fair minded people with any religion. Here is the connection of sorts among the president s wittier california, that Quaker Community just be an established in california. Many years later would be the home, birthplace of Richard Nixon who also was a quicker. So there is the connection of sorts and biographies of these two first families. We have a video to show you about Lou Henri Hoovers early years, then we will be back and talk more about her life. Her father had always wanted a boy and which is why we think the name loop, it is not short for anything, it is actually lou. And as a result of that he takes are out just like she becomes a tomboy of the era. She is out learning how to shoot, at a fish, they go camping. They are up in the mountains a lot. She is learning about the outdoors and loving it. This is a 1914 22 rifle which was owned by lou, what i love about that then it is you have this photograph early photograph. Of her on top of this mule, looking pretty rough and tough there with a bunch of provisions within shes got this gun right there that she is holding. Very anti oakley to me which is that type of era, that type of independent girl. One of lous most famous essays is probably independent girl. And it was written in january 31st of 1890, about what is interesting about it was at the very last line of it when she says being independent, as someone who will do her own thing, but at the end sooner or later she will meet a spirit equally as independent as her own and then there is a clash of arms and again mortal combat or they unite forces with combined strength and go forth to meet the world. I think shes that person with Herbert Hoover. This is lous diary from 1891 to 1882. And she is at college talking about different classes that she takes and she is talking about her life in one of the things you talked about a lot is her botany classes and going out hiking because she really likes to be the outdoors. And so she refers here, and this poem and i are good match for climbing. We beat the others all the pieces. We found lots of flowers, luke inns, from roses, forgetmenots, its that. Era lizards and frogs just a lot of fun to be outside in the world. So as a part of that cost, they are also drying sketches of flowers. And things like that. This is lou sketchbook, one of her student sketchbooks, flowers, butterflies. Different kinds of things. They had the latin name with them as well. We should be something that she wouldve known from her quest. So who doesnt write about herself necessarily. But she writes about her experiences of her life, so she is a highly educated women at this time period. Her parents created both her mom and dad created a very loose open here you go, if you want to learn something we will encourage that and we will allow you to do that. And she was able to do that, and explore that is fully as she could. We were commenting as we were watching the photographs of how full of life just comes through the still photographs, all these years later. And you said everyone you look at you seem to be smiling. Yes and her decision to study geology and to go to stanford, warren on twitter lou hoover was one of the first ladies to win a degree from stanford, a different if not rocky path for women in her day. How unusual was it for a woman in the United States in the late 1890s to study geology . It was very very unusual. We werent 100 percent sure we think she may have actually been the first woman in the entire country to get a degree in geology. One of the things that i recently learned was that the male students went out on fuel trips and she was not allowed to go. Because she was a woman and knowing how much she loves the outdoors and some of the future if she had taken when she was at Normal School which was the Teachers Training School she went to before she went to stanford, i can imagine how upset she was. When she graduated with a degree, since it was unusual and unheard of for women to have a degree, where the rain Jobs Available for . Her know and there is a lovely letter that she sensed to her friends have been white about three weeks after she is graduated from stanford and she says here i am the a period b period which was actually supposed to be mean a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of arts and what i would give if it meant a boy because she cannot find a job in her field. But she did meet Herbert Hoover a fellow geology student at stanford so how did that relationship develop . The way that relationship developed is herbert was a senior at the time that lieu started even though interestingly enough flu was actually six months old or they were both born in 1874 but he was born in august she was born in march. And he was what we would call a Lab Assistant in the lab of dr. John banner than are. Doctor banner delivered a lecture on geology we should inspired them to go ahead and apply to stanford and study there. And he took an instant liking to her. He writes about her whimsical smile, her laughing blue eyes, what an intelligence and delightful young woman she was and the part that i found so totally humorous was that he says, and i believe that she needed some assistance. He himself was also in iowa . Yes he was. So they had that in common. Yes. He was a quaker. Correct. So she lived in a quick a community so that wasnt uncommon, there were connections that brought them together. Absolutely. Yes. But he took a job, and left her so what happened to the relationship after the stanford . Well, i think there were just lots of letters. But obviously there was a strong connection in a strong interest there his jobs took him to nevada, and then to australia. And so he was working in australia, they were continuing to communicate and then he was offered a position in china. And he Center Telegram and the telegram went through the post office in the post office saw these names loo and burt and it wasnt a formal proposal it just said we are heading to china, would you join me . And so the postmaster posted it on the Bulletin Board for everybody to see it. That is like going on the internet today. Today we dont think anything about it but then it was sort of an invasion of privacy. And we should say that her we call it hover, over but her nickname for her was. But he was known as bernie has. We have a really robust website for this series i hope you founded, instead cspan. Org first ladies. Every week theres a special item attached to the lady were looking at. Today if you go online you could see louisiana ease va degree from university. It didnt server well on the job market but introducer to a lifechanging partner. So she said yes to china. When did they go to china and what was china like at the time . They went to china the day after they got married. They got married february 10th 1899 they were head off to china on a steamer the very next day. Its been a couple days in japan, and they were there when the rebellion occurred. Defining asked on twitter did the hoover stay in china influence their policies or political ideas well in the white house . I think theres stay in china did but a lot of Different Countries did influence them. I think one of the things they were really interested in when they got to the white house was looking for ways to help us keep our freedom. They saw what it was like to be in countries where their freedom had been taken away from people. What influence their joint philosophy in as he described it, what was it about in the development would lead them to be the world in that way . I dont know if they necessarily had that view when they first started out. I think over time they were in china during the box rebellion they were in europe during the outbreak of world war i. They had lived in countries or peoples freedoms have been curtailed and being americans and being taught in the importance of individual freedom and when they saw countries people not enjoying that freedom of choice they realize that was something very important. Also that approach enabled the hoovers to acquire quite a bit of wealth and beer be very successful in their chosen fields. Multimillionaires was by the time to get to the white house. Yeah by 1914. That protest was against foreign influence in china. Was their life threatened while they were there . Yes they were. They were under siege, lou went out and man the barricades. She was out there where the weaponry was, she was involved with the red cross getting supplies for aids. To eight people. She was sitting in her house when a bullet came straight through the front door. She just pulled out a deck of cards and started playing solitary. Didnt faze or. She said to a friend that you miss the most exciting summer you should have been here. Their travels we have a graphic i want to put on screen it shows the breath of the position taken to places around the world. We mentioned stanford. Then china. Then it was posted in london which put him in the middle of the lead up of world war i here. They took the job as part of the commission of the relief of belgium. They are on the head of the u. S. Food administration which then became the head of the American Relief administration after world war one. A survey secretary of commerce under hoover. One question from halle high i heard that hoover was a globetrotter how many countries did she live in what other parts of the world that they see before they were in the white house. Southeast asia, burma cambodia, they obviously went back to australia together. They travel in the countries of north africa, in some of the countries in the middle east, and they were also in russia. That is just the shortlist. They also during this time they published in the white house . She published a couple pieces of geology on her own. One was a biography of john mill, who created the seismograph to measure the severity of earthquakes. The work they did together, was the translation of a 16th century it was written in lawton and had a lot of technical latin terms. Lou had studied latin but they also use the professional translator. That book won an award. It was the first award given by the association for mining and metallurgy. Herbert was a member of that association. But lieu was not. She is the one who gave the remarks in accepting the metal. Lets take a call from david and will look at a video of some of the things that they collected during their world travels. David is from chicago youre on the air. I i want to ask the panel about her relationship with the white house staff. Ive read lillians parks it didnt portray mrs. Hoover as a very nice person. Apparently, she and the president did not speak to any of the white house staff, and if they wanted them to literally disappear. They reported they were jumping into closets, theyre hiding behind curtains. They did not speak to the staff. In addition, i read and several other places, mrs. Hoover would communicate using hand singles. Which drove the white house staff crazy caused and senators asking for. On the one hand is very compassionate women, on the other hand from what ive read, was not very nice to the white house staff. Thanks david lets find out how she approaches the white house staff. And out squared away with her public image. He raises some very good questions theres material that supports what he read in miss parks book. One of the things that we have to look at as historians is when did that material come out . Because one of the challenges of reading anything about the hoovers, particular anything that came out while the roosevelt were in office, there was such an enormous anti hoover sentiment. People actually had opportunities to capitalize on an anti hoover message. Some of that information but things that we need to look at more carefully. But we do know is the hoovers did pay several the white house staff out of their own funds. They make sure that all of their staff a three meals a day, and rebel to keep their jobs. Its a pretty mixed message about what goes on with the white house. And certainly needs to be looked at more carefully. Catherine on facebook asked for mrs. Movers opinion of the Woman Suffrage Movement was she ever involved with it in any way . We dont have any evidence of her being actively involved. She wrote a very interesting thing when she was 15 years old in support of suffrage as a teenager. Talking about the fact that she didnt think it was right, that women should be classified in the same category as jailbirds and convicts. In other words be denied the right to vote. Because people being convicted could not vote. Convicted felons cannot vote. She was very much in favor of seeing women to vote but she was not a suffragette. Being somewhat a tomboy, did lou believe inequality between men and women . Absolutely. Lets show you that promise video better travels around the world, and some of the artifacts they brought back to collect. Some of things that look like its right or life was the chinese porcelains, the blue and whites. They tended to focus on the meaning and quincy period. Three 400 years ago. They actually for started collecting them when they were living in china. Theyve been collecting their whole life. They developed what was probably the best collection in the United States of chinese porcelains. Who having learned to speak chinese well in china, she would research each of the artists and each of the pieces where they were made. They were always treating, that is money is 401 time. And trying to get matched sets. Well living in london. This started collecting pewter. Heres