For Teacher Appreciation Week, here’s an article written by Herbert Hoover dedicated to a teacher in Salem, Oregon. Miss Gray helped him develop a love of reading.
Readers Digest asked Herbert Hoover to prepare an article on the best advice he had ever received. “Thank You Miss Gray” was published in July 1959.
(Images: “The best advice I ever had” article by Herbert Hoover, 7/1959. From Hoover’s Articles, Addresses and Public Statements in the Herbert Hoover Papers in the Hoover Presidential Library. More teacher-inspired records are being posted at the National Archives Education page.)
Herbert Hoover does his part to #ThankaTeacher, and #ThankaLibrary.
(Hey #Tumblarians - a bit astonished that #thankalibrary returns “No Posts Found” ?!)
“This temple of our history will appropriately be one of the most beautiful buildings in America, an expression of the American soul.”
— Herbert Hoover, February 20, 1933, at the laying of the cornerstone of the National Archives Building. (Photo: 64-NA-136)
via Prologue: Our Story — How the National Archives Evolved Over 75 Years
Letter from Helen Keller to Herbert Hoover Regarding His Donation to the American Foundation for Overseas Blind, 12/18/1958
“I wish you a most successful administration…”
-Herbert Hoover to Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932
On November 8, 1932, FDR won forty-two of the forty-eight states, an electoral vote margin of 472 to 59, and a popular vote of 22.8 million to Hoover’s 15.7 million.
Herbert Hoover casts his ballot on November 8, 1932 in Palo Alto, California.
Forget the Olympics - the Hoover-ball Championships are tomorrow!
It’s time to play Hooverball! Hooverball was played each morning on the White House lawn during President Hoover’s administration.
The game was created by Hoover’s doctor to help the President slim down and keep fit.
“It is more strenuous than either boxing, wrestling or football,” wrote Will Irwin, a friend of Hoover’s, in a 1931 article “The President Watches His Waistline” in Physical Culture magazine. “It has the virtue of getting at nearly every muscle in the body.”
Every year, eager Hooverball enthusiasts compete in a tournament during Hoover’s Hometown Days. This year is the 25th Annual National Hoover-Ball Championships.
Learn more about the history of Hooverball on the Hoover Presidential Library web page.
American Relief Administration Food Distribution, Poland. Circa 1919
On July 12, 1919, Herbert Hoover founded the American Relief Administration which fed 350 million people in 21 countries in the aftermath of the Wold War I.
-from the Hoover Library
“A garden for every child, every child in a garden.”
On May 5, 1917, Herbert Hoover was appointed by President Wilson to be the United States Food Administrator.
The U.S. had just entered World War I, and Hoover mobilized Americans to produce and conserve food supplies. Among the kitchen war efforts were Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays.
Across the country, a movement to grow food in school gardens also took off. Children, women, and other civilians tended and harvested gardens to feed WWI troops.
What are you growing in your school garden?
102 Floors, 6,500 Windows, 73 Elevators, 410 Days to Complete - The Glorious Empire State Building
President Hoover dedicated the Empire State Building on this day, May 1, 1931.
Herbert Hoover’s dedication was delivered from the White House where a ceremonial switch had been set up. The President touched the switch and an operator in New York was cued to turn on the Empire State Building lights.
Photographer Lewis Hine documented incredible aerial scenes of workers constructing the Empire State Building. Here’s one of Hine’s photos of a workman on the framework of the skyscraper.
First telephone installed in the Oval Office
Some White House history for your day:
- President Herbert Hoover had the first telephone installed in the Oval Office on March 29, 1929.
- The Oval Office used by President Hoover is not the current Oval Office.
- FDR moved the President’s official office to its current location to make it wheelchair accessible.
- Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House in 1879.
Shown here, the original Oval Office telephone. It now resides in West Branch, Iowa at the Hoover Library.
- Who: Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone
- Why: Thomas Edison’s 82nd birthday celebration
- Where: Florida
- When: February 11, 1929
Herbert Hoover relaxes in Florida with his old friends. Next on their calendar? Hoover’s presidential inauguration on March 4, 1929.
Happy birthday President Hoover!
Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, or was it August 11, 1874? We’ll never know for sure because nobody glanced at the clock. Was it a few minutes before midnight or a few minutes after? When Bert was old enough his father let him choose the date, and of course a young boy would choose the earlier date over having to wait an extra day.
