we pay tribute to her on the 150th anniversary of her birth. i wanted to leave you a few resources created that you can see there's a guidto the lou henry hoover at the hoov institution. there are guides here at the presidenti museum library. 've also created at stanford a lou henry hoover, a 150 year lega site people to use. and down at the bottom is a link nford geological survey exhibit.acknowledge and f these people without whom this presentation could not have happened. all were instrumental in helping meo ct check dates and to find the pictures that were included here. so thanks to all of them and thanks to you for your attention.

ug■xmy name is edward maeder a'm here massachusetts at the kind invitation of tom schwartz who i've for many years because of my erstwhile involvement with abraham, which actually began in 71 by making the costumes for an abraham lincoln wax museum that was actually built in cedar falls, iowa, in 1971. so my so my connections go back. so when he contacted me last fall to talk about lou and fashions are i was one of the many people who knew very little about lou henry hoover i to say i immediately purchased the six books and read them and them and in a very short period of time fell sort of madly in love with

i up with several titles i really like sleuthing at the seams, which i thought was pr but i'm going to be talkingfashion people. think about her as this image that you see here on. a bit kind ofí taciturn and probably a bit thought full and scholarly. ah, but you wouldn't think of as a fashion plate. and coming from waterloo iowa, you know how the rest of the world thinks that nothing really happens in iowa. well, it's not it's just not true. she grew up in a in a family that was quite involved with a fashn see her as a as an unhappy one year old or six month old in 1874 with her mother andotr is the height

of fashion for 1874. you see an illtrion in here from harper'sazr of 1874 where she's arg almost the identical hairstyle. so she she came into the world of fashion. harper's bazaar, incidentally was founded in 1868, and the first international magazine in a fashion, and it was published all over the world with months of preparation shown at the same time. so the people in budapest and the people in milan and the people in rome and people in waterloo, iowa, all the same images to inspire them. as a nine year old, you can see she waslready interested in fashion. she's wearing athat is made witk satin. it ruched. and she's wearing this very unusual color, which, of course,

really came from, you know, who queen elizabeth first was inspired or the 1870s was a time of great revival. they were constantly revival. we've reviving the fashions of the past, very much like they are today, are, you know, we think you know, we think we are inventing what we're really doing is we're just grabbing from the past and reinterpreting her early iointerestingly it ha. 1883 when she and a friend of hers decided to have a fancy party and they had a fancy dress party for 150 little girls in oo iowa. the year after this book was published fancy dress, as described by arden holt. this is perhaps the most famous

publication on the subject. and in this book is a description called press or this is carried out entire in newspaper. thskirt■estofox pleated illustrations from papers coming to the waist with portraits d names of newspapers pasted across here. there the bodice with bertha to mah e bows of scarlet velvet quill pens, ink bottle and sealing wax stuck in the hair. it has a mucbeer effect than would appear and been a favorite dress. and fancy dress balls in paris the same ia s carried white satin dress having bands velvet bearing the words t mes various paris newspapers. sometimes they were trimmed, trimmed the skirt with■[ used postage stamps and they called the gown postage. so here is an example from harper's bazaar of some of the fancy dress dress gowns that

would have been worn in waterloo, iowa. thank you very much. he is the description from the waterloo courier of. may 23rd, 1883. the littol enjoyed a very pleasant party at the commercial house last wednesday eveni s.weet and lou henry being the hostesses. they wdrsed in handsome masquer etc. ms. and ss handtted in a costume made of the and looked very attractive. lou henry's costume was composed. the tribune so the two, the two battling newspapers were represented by the two young ladies at this. we've already talked her interest and athleticism and thisphotograph of her in an ice skating outfit.

and it's made of wool wool was theabc of choice at this time. everything was wool down to your underwr? and if were really say,our underwear was made of red wool because red was to protect you. erwas a man called gustav yeager. some of you may have heard of the yeager shops, the wool shops. well, gustav yeager in 1879 invented something called the sanitary wool system, in which he believed untied natural wool should be used for everything, including your corsets and shoes. and that is a whole other lecture. but here you see some some interesting illustrations of of these garments and of course, stripes were easy because stripes could be woven at the time the fabric was made wool does something that no else does and it breathes wool transports from your skin to the outside keeping your skin warm. it's why i'm sure you have not noticed. but i am wearing birkenstocks

with wool socks and i ar birkenstock with wool socks. 365 days of the year. wear two pair and my feet are perfect. you can see that there was an interest even though we saw images of her looking like a kind hellion. you see here. in 1893. and she's wearing airstyle at te she is with her and another colleague at stanford. and this is 1894. and you see her sleeves and i want to talk a bit about sleeves because sleeves changed shape and size every year and you c tell in 19th century image by the shape of the sleeves. from 1891 to 90 2 to 90 3 to 94, by 95, they were enormous in they were so enormous that sometimes gentlemen had to buy

three theaters seats for their for their companion because the sleeves were so large they took up a full seat. and of course, tiny waists and enormous, you yourself. the bigger a costume, the more important you are. that's why kings wear long robes. that's why the size and shape of your garment determines how present yourself. this is ■a photograph photograph that we've just seen. and florence henry said. she wore a brown traveling suit, as did mr. they were a perfect match. neither knew wwould, so i guesse sympathetic as. as regarding their clothes. and here you see it on their wedding day from the 10th of february, 1899. now he gave her, which i found

very, very interesting as a wedding, a piece of lace. it's called maltese lace because it's made on the island of malta. and here you see that that pattern i, i have a pointer here. you see this pattern here? here'the pattern. here's pattern on the lace. the maltese cross and this was de of natural natural silk that was untied. it was a kind of natural beige color. and it was very, very popular. in fact, it was it had been popular in the 16th century when it was done needle lace, and then it became bobbin, which is done inseeere, you can have as many as 150 boons. in fact, there are where there haveeen a thousand baboons. and it's really a of breeding. and the baboons are just aided around pins ptern.

and this was a big industry and it became it became important, which i will get into during the first world war. i found a reference where i whie a lace was preferred for tablecloths. it was reported that lou liked to be able to see the beautiful through so that's why she preferred lace to linen tablecloths. they, of course, went to china, landma of the boxer rebellion. and then surprise, surprise here we are. and i read an account at one point, her bicycle was shot out from under her. i don't know. that's if that's true or not. there's there a lot of interesting stories. and here you see her in 1900, just the boxers it's up and shes fashionable as.

you can possiblye was dressed f, fully on time, and he was sort of shocked, and she retorted on the boom of page that her previous had resulted because the tailor brought her gownust 15 minutes before she was to appear in it. a away. i'm sorry, this is not 18. 1988 is a typo. i did not catch that. i'm sorry. and here you see the height of fashion in 1900, the museum here has some wonderful items in its collection, including these marvelous hair ornaments, which are made of jade and are faux pearls and glass beads a this wonderful decoration, this iridescent which is made of kingfisher feathers feathers, are, in fact, it beo popular that i think several

varieties of kingfisher becam as a result of this fashion, now only year later, in 1901, you see her during stay in japan for baxter's and she's straight out of italian renaissance. she's wearing a beatrice shade dusty gown with that are done in ff she has she has a an inset with a collar of course it's a high stock collar, but it i absolutely by the renaissance and. she s t afraid of fashion here. you see her in a kimono. and these are very difficult ar the obeys are■y extremely and require a great deal of discipline. 'm not sure if she did this before or after her backnot surf was a help or a hindrance. so in 1903, london, we see her

in her vehicle of choice and she is, the lady of the hat she is wearing. what was at the time the butterfly hat. and here you see an example it. and yet anotr version the hat was was not just a frippery was the crowning glory the hat told people who you were anhow you wore it was just as important as the hat itself. another aspect of her of her garments was she was standing in what is called the fashionable shape. this is called a mano bosom. and it means that you don't have two bosoms. you have one. and it's kind of pushed together and it's sort of falling down in the front. in 1944, bernhard rudolf ski did an exhibition at the museum

modern art, which was called our close modern, and he made little sculptures, what the body would look like under, the fashionable clothes. and here you have these are about this tall and they are at the metropolitan museum of art but he did the hobble skirt and he d the twenties when you had no breasts and, so on. so these are really fascinating in terms of lou hoover. and if you take a look at that at the sleeve, i'm going to show you a bit later the sleeve right here that that in collection that i'm going to be talking about extensively. now. the collection from redfern and. john redfern began in the isle of wight and then to london and to paris and was the heart of, of the fashion industry. he, he competed witarfrederick . he was really one of the most foremost couture's and couturier

and is a dress in the collection. and here you see the label redfern, paris, and the label is always the band inside the bodice and it says here by special appointed into her imperial majesty empress of russia. and on the right it says to to the princess of wales who who would become queen very shortly because victoria on in january in 1901 and then she of course became the queen. this is the dress and this is just a detail of it and kind the kind of workmanship, the craftsmanship, the lace, the embroidery, the beads and so on are really quite stuing. but it must have been■? made son after their arrival in london. as you can see here now back to

1903, lou. and i'm sorry i said herbert junior. it's herbert. it's not herbert, because i've discovered that they have different middle names. and so he's really herbert is not herbert junior mia culpo, but here you see herbert with his mother very, very stylish and the tilt of the hat was everything howheonnected to the hairstyle all of this explain who you were towas evers the most fascinating designer called albert phillips and here you have on the interior of the garment mrs. hoover can you see the name is written written he is sorry he received the appointment to her majesty the

queen in 1901. and unfortunately i do not have an image to show you because this garment is in very complicated and challenge. it's a very challenging condition. but hopefully the next time i do a talk on this that that garment will have been put back order and you will be able to see it. she was really kind of picture perfect as the mother of of these two boys. and believe it or not, portland, oregon, postcard that you see on the right. i purchased two days ago on ebay because i was looking for a little sailor suit outfit that i would not have to worry about copyright. and so this is a 1907 postcard that is now in my possession. even in burma, in the in the in the middle of outback, you see her in a skirt that is pleated

that is that beautifully tailored. and her children are dressed her son is wearing one of these kind of little lord fauntleroy boy ruffled shirts. that's very elaborate. drawing, which i've been by, has a descptn. it sayla so fragile that it had to sewn on white cotton. the chiffon very fine tucks beeethe lace and places black velvet ribbon with black spangles sewn on it. spangled butterfly for and aft a very gown from mama for, the summer would be a blk doll is swiss made over black for day or white for evening. so she was very clearly interested in fashion because she did this drawing and she's talking it and here is an survived from 1910 in the collection. and you see that the the bands down the frontre embroidered

chains stitch on net and all of this hand embroidery done by masses of workers. in 1914, she was involved with an organization support lace makers in belgium and was part of the united states support of belgium during this during the first world war and she became very and in the exhibition here you will find this lace of saint michael and the pattern was■v de was drawn out and then it was pricked with a needle and then it was laid then it was laid over. a fabric. no, i'm sorry in this case, it's laid over a pillow. and then where the needles are, the pinsricked, and then it's all woven around of those pins. and you see the result of it here on the right.

and there's a there's a student, a young woman earning her living, and they earned two francs a week as opposed to trouble the with the germans. they were not a they were allowed to export lace but couldn't be political. there were someat actually haven flames and within within. lace, but those they could not transport. so these were were hidden by being wrapped around the bodies of the people leaving the country, which was alsoif you 'l find out that that's how lace and were smuggled out in 1748. it was illegal to have foreign embroidery in london and it could taken off your back and publicly burned. and the person and the person who sold it to you would be fined 100 pounds per item because they didn't want the

british of british gold to go to the king of france, who was their enemy. so they prohibited foreign embroidery by 1919. you see her with her in palo alto andha cl perhaps a rather unfortunate style. may have been fighting for winning any contest for beauty. it was was it was a practical, cal design, but it's a continuum. the world of fashion. this is actually a mistake. here we have a dress from 1920s that is on display. you can see it over here and it's silk crepe and it's it's layered in in these ruffles that

are cut on a circle. and the trimming on all of this is quite beautiful as their little pronged rnestone that e set into into a gold recording. now the interesting thing about the toes when it comes to fashion is that women in the twenties were not allowed to have. even in the in 1923 even in 18th century films, the wigs went from the from the eyebrow up, the foreade hidden. and this seems to be a style that lou henry hoover really liked because you see from the 1920s really onward, almost the end of her life, she wore hats that covered forehead here and she elaborate prints. she has a reputation of being motherly and wearing grays and

blacks and browns and all of that. but i'm going to show you some of her garments. and they are knockout here. again, you have the cloche. this is in the exhibition. these are these are printed sk chiffons. of, which there must have been millions. because i work for an auction house and every one of our auctions we have dozens, dozens and dozens of these from the 1930s. they were very popular and the were surprisingly strong. here you have that's that's called a resistha pattern printed on it of of a kind of glue and then you die it in black and then you rinse out the glue. and so you get beautiful design on silk, multicolored of silk iffon. so they alled garden dresses you wearing the blossoms. you were not only in garden and walk you were actually wearing them.

and of course, one of my favorite images of this is what liu wore to the inauguration. and she's certainly stood out because no one else was wearing. a girl scout uniform. but she she was she was she was definitely a standout in that particular case. but she. she wore this cloche hat, which is which imy topic of here you e collection. and you see how the face it's just the face becomes the important part of the expression the head is covered up. and at this time, the 1920s, there was a big move toward rayon because they were trying to they were trying to get away from the huge consumption of silk and fashion. so here you have aand round

crepe that is all done with chain stitch embroidery, the amount of handwork on all of this was quite, quite massive when lived in washington. she shopped garfinkel, julius store, which was an eight story department store that he erected. in 1929 and within years he had more than 500 employees. and she has many garfinkel, julius garfinkel dresses. he was dedicated to his stores. he never was bothered with things like marriage and and children he was really married to his store. and he was one of the first to have live models going through wearing fashions was. a this dress, as you can see, right there, you can see later on when, the lights are up and this is another one ofisery elaborate prints.

but look at the color. it's all about col inot gray, it is not gunmetal. it is not it is not black. i think part of it has to do with the images were in black and white and so many of the many of the images that people saw were black and white. and of course this dress is up there as well. and this is crushed velvet in blue. she had a reputation of loving blue. she had satin dresses and tulle dresses and everything in blue. in the course of all of this, i came across a dress was quite famous and it was made of cotton. so i started to investigate that and i came up with, believe it or not, in 1931, a telegram came from huey long long saying that we can restore the prospit matee balance of the world within ls two weeks time, if the cotton producing have governors and other officials who wl ve the courage to act and decide civilly, the only way that ts

can be donw once thraising of a single bale of growing states. during the year 1932, the used to have their tton and if action is immediately take along this line, they will benefit of the price because. cotton had gone down to $0.06, $0.06 a pound, and it was an absolute. so the governor of texas and the governor of of of louisiana decided that they were going to pass laws and they actually ssed laws that you could only use 30% of your property in cotton. and this was going to solve the problem. well, it did create was to norm from hundreds of thousands of cotton workers whom who moved who immigrated to the north. in 1931. there a growing movement movement the cotton holiday was promoted by huey long and was part of a promise to make ordinary people's lives better.

in hindsight, we can see clearly it was like so many other plans of his a ruse. sound familiar. lillian rors parks wrote a book called, my 30 years backstairs at the white house and she was responsible her mother was responsible for keeping a diary of first lady lou henry hoover of every single thing she wore every day. and this is the diary from 1932 in the morning, lunch, you know, blue shoes. sometimes it tells what color stockings what kind of and dinner a blue and white muslin colonial gown, black satin slippers, black velvet ribbon for hair. old fashioned blue velvet purse. well, she wore this again on the 22nd of april, and it says air,

but it's not the air. it was, in fact, in rcester, ohio, where she received a the lh detter litter litter litter rotten woman's room doctor. so she recan honorable doctoratand she wore this dress and it said a pageant play an important part of the formalities. mrs. hoo herself wilew the annual the annual color day parade at worcester college sharing honors with miss selma sage of marion, ohio queen of the may well here is the dress and her action in wearing a cotton dress to an official presidential function crea frome standpoint of fashion in the ongoing discussionf luxury goods sil every other fiber, the article in the manchester guardian said, though tongue in

cheek, was produced in the part of england where cotton had been the single most import since the late 18th century. so this colonial dress worn on february 4th is propitious. on february 5th. the banning cotton production was declared. so that law was ended. however, and the end of february this particular article about queen, about her dress, was while the queen buys cotton at the british urs fair. mrs. hoover, it seems, has ordered a cotton gown for a forthcoming stti in washington. her motive, however, is not to is said to encourage a boycott of. japanese silk. american wom areheubt that if largest consumers of silk in the world should seriously set themselves to boycott whence the er pt of their silk comes. the effect on japanese would be

disastrous. moreover it'ict to see how any american government, su a movement.ted to, could stop japan, of course, has a method of dealing with boycotts of mrs. hoover persists, and if she is folled a large number of her countrywomen. we expect to see japanese warships at the golden gate and japanese troops and purely in self-defense and for the protection of their nationals and their commercial rights in the united states. bombarding san francisco and dropping bombs over los angeles. so here you have here you have a a british newspaper making great fun of this. however, the newspapers said the woman who had nothing that old cotton dress to wear at her formal party nd tas away longing for a silk dress. at a recent white house party, the lady of the land set the ste cotton by receiving in a flower frock copied after one her mother had

hover, that has never been discovered so you see th■e froc. and you see several variations with with the way the accessories are worn. now, this was a time when they were receiving people from all over the world at the white house. and in 1931, they received, the king of sight of siam. researchs fascinated because he was the youngest of 44 sons. he h 44 brothers and he had 33 sisters. and he was the youngest one, but he somehowirulously. and i think there's a whole story there. he did abdicate four yea lat to form a constitutional monarchy. and here■ ie hoover

we all know and love with her favorite with her occupation knitting. how many of you here? knit. okay. i have to raise my. i've been living since i was five with two swiss grandmothers. there's no other possibility. so. and in fact, when i came here three days ago, i went to the knit shop in iowa city and there were five ladies sitting around it and i said, so how long have you been knitting any of you? and one woman said, well, i've dating since i was six. i said, oh, i've been eang since i was five, but i'm. and how old are you? and she said, well, i'm 76. and i said, well, i'm 79, so i guess i win. and it was one of those, one of those interesting■a eso. so here at the white house reception in 1931, you see her

wearing her favorite clothes hat. giving her face this kind of ra and herbeeve itays the 2. is this corre. is this image correct? is this date correct on this image? hello? e dates. okay, good. and i wanted to show you this. this beaded handbag that you see holding one. these were popular for about 80 years. and they were knitted and all of the pattern was put on to a single thread, all in order and then unit and you put a bead with each one of the stitches and there's famous story that om iowa, where a to knit one of these for her minister because. she thought he was wonderful

and. she got the pattern from a friend of hers and it had butterflies on it, but the friend screwed up the pattern and gave her the wrong pattern. so when she made it, it was a disaster. it was something else. so that's very much beside the. but but she's wearing something here that was fashionable for over 80 years. so i don't know if the one if the one she has around her wrist is from the 20th or it could even be as early as the 1840s. now, mrs. hoover had perhaps the largest wardrobe this from any first lady in the white house up to that time. pair of shoes. this this is from her staff who were preparing to have her move out of the white house. each pair of shoes were wrapped and labeled, as were the pocketbook. by thursday of the second week, we'd gotten to the evening, i was called in to help from o'clock in the morning until 9:00 friday night. i did nothing but fold evening gowns. we only had until saturday

morning to get ready for the next lady o was eleanor roosevelt. and this is the dress that probably many of you have seen at the smithsonian. it's made silk and metallic and it's on display. the first lady's gallery. the first lady's gallery was started in 1916. by the way, and i don't know how many of you subscribe to smithsonian magazine, to some of you get the smithsonian magazine. well, they had an article about washington's dress from the smiths and in it, and it's a hand-painted silk dress and it had flowers on it. and they said these were the flowers from her garden. and i wrote a letter to them which they published and. it's not true. the silk was made in china. it was all hand-painted in china. and import had nothing to do with the in her garden. a little fact that they forgot.

but lu■] lu. was the first lady of style charm and substances. as anybody interested in her will know. anybody who's read any of the books on will know. and■a this these speaker beforee made it very clear that we have a serious woman. but don't forget that fact. she was not bereft of fashion. thank you. you're a commentator is, ed