Celebrate the Holidays with Herbert Hoover and His Family!
New Exhibit Opens on November 20 and Documents a Lifetime of Generosity

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum’s new exhibit, Holidays with the Hoovers, opens November 21 and runs through January 3, 2010. This exhibit features 20 decorated Christmas trees based on the life and travels of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover.
As a man who saved many people from starvation during and after two world wars, Herbert Hoover lived the message of Christmas just about every day of his life. “Peace on Earth, goodwill to men,” could easily have been his personal motto.
           
The exhibit begins in the rotunda with a “White House Tree” which is covered with presidential ornaments – many of these ornaments from the White House Historical Association.
           
The rest of the trees in the exhibit document the varied chapters in the life of Herbert Hoover and his family. Three trees trace his life from Iowa to California. The “West Branch Tree” is filled with replicas of his early childhood, a second tree features train memorabilia – a reflection of the long trip that took him first to Oregon and then on to California. The third tree is the “Stanford College Tree” – where Hoover attended college – and is filled with cardinal and white ornaments.
           
Herbert Hoover’s early career as a mining engineer took him to Australia and China among other exotic places. The “Australia Tree” is ….upside down! It’s from the “land down under!” Two trees represent China, one featuring red and yellow ornaments; the second is filled with blue and white ornaments – a reflection of the porcelains that the Hoovers collected all their lives.
           
 Next are two trees from the first decade of the twentieth century, the first celebrates Edwardian England, where the Hoovers lived. And the second focuses on exotic Egypt where the Hoover’s once celebrated Christmas on board a ship in the Suez Canal. Both trees reflect the exceptional relationship between Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover and their growing family of two rambunctious sons.
           
The trees turn to a more serious theme when the focus is famine. The “Relief Efforts Tree” features the insignia of the Red Cross, Belgian flags, and even sheaves of wheat – all symbols of the Hoover’s work as head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the American Relief Administration. Another tree is covered with lace – a symbol of the gratitude for Hoover’s food relief work.
           
It was not a surprise when Herbert Hoover won the presidential election in a landslide in 1928. So there is a tree decorated in campaign memorabilia – elephants and campaign buttons galore. And a “South American Goodwill Tour” tree –covered with travel stickers, South American flags and even small ships!
          
One of the central trees in the exhibit recalls the famous fire at the White House on Christmas Eve, 1929. The Hoovers were hosting a party for neighborhood children when a fire broke out in the West Wing.
           
First Lady Lou Hoover refused to let the fire dampen her Christmas spirit. She carried on the party so that her young guests would not be disappointed. The following year, the same children were invited back to the White House for another Christmas party and each boy and girl was given a toy fire engine. Our tree is covered with fire engines and related paraphernalia.
           
There is a tree to commemorate Camp Rapidan – where the President and First Lady would go to get away from Washington, and a tree that focuses on Mrs. Hoover’s service with the Girl Scouts of America.
           
Mr. Hoover was a man of many passions, not the least of which was baseball and fishing and we have trees decorated to represent both of these pastimes. Both trees are filled with memorabilia from these two Hoover hobbies. Two more trees focus on the last twenty years of his life.
Rounding out the exhibit are two trees decorated by the Cedar Rapids chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. These trees will sparkle with the art of needle and thread and are decorated in the tradition of the season.
           
 Holidays with the Hoovers will remind us of the extraordinary life and achievements of our 31st president. The exhibit opens on November 21st  and runs through January 3rd , 2010. The museum is open daily from 9 – 5, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.