ICON | First Lady Lou Hoover


Photo of Lou Hoover inspecting one of the "big guns" at a Chinese fort that shelled the community of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion, 1900, via The Omaha Project.

"The independent girl is truly of quite modern origin, and usually is a most bewitching little piece of humanity." —Lou Henry Hoover

"Lou grew up something of a tomboy in Waterloo. Her father, Charles Henry, took his daughter on camping trips in the hills—her greatest pleasures in her early teens. Lou became a fine horsewoman; she hunted, and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist; she developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining. She enrolled at Stanford University as the school's only female geology major." —Anne Beiser Allen in an excerpt from An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover

Comments

Meri said…
I have to say I don't know who she is but she sounds like an interesting character.
Just found your blog, I love the insight you have and your take on topics is very unique:)
Anonymous said…
Oh, what a delight to open the page today and have your subject be one of my favorites! Granted, as an avid follower of your blog and a tomboy enthusiast, your subjects usually are among my perennial favorites, but Lou is an often unsung hero of tomboy glory.

She somehow managed to make being a female geologist (at a time when there was no such thing), mining engineer, horsewoman, gun enthusiast, avid cyclist, world traveler, author, wife, mother, and, oh yes, First Lady, seem perfectly effortless. And her marriage to Herbert was a match made in heaven. No one valued a good tomboy quite as much as he, it would seem!

Thank you so much for giving her a bit of spotlight.

Rose Hall,
curator,
Hoover-Minthorn House Museum
Lizzie said…
Thank you! I stumbled upon her in an old book a friend picked up for me in a thrift store about the Presidents and their wives circa 1961. Unsung indeed!

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