desire to go on a date of any kind.. it's not easy living in the white house.the and that's why the resident staff tries to provide that kina of privacy for the first family. there's a point at which nobody goes without permission and that point is determined by the first family. >> is it anything like donton abby? is no >> no. the residence isn't quite as ao formal as some of theug europea great houses. although the name chief usher comes from an older british term, which meant head of the household. there are customs that still -- that remain at the white house. the staff still is very

respondent to being in service to the president.is. but i think it would be a far reach to see anything like duri dowton abby. >> mr. walters, i have a very simple question to ask you. during your tenure, who was your favorite social secretary that you worked with? >> somehow, i thought a former social secretary might come up with that question. and, of course, it had to be caprica marshall.th we spent probably more time with each other than we did with our spouses for eight years. this is working, yes, absolutely workinu at the white house. >> this is a light hearted question, but i noticed when yo. were talking about the ping-pong, you never said who won. >> that's right. i didn't. tt.g

>> you mentioned that at one time there was the suggestion during mr. truman's administration that they tear down the white house and start over again. and i wonder, have there ever been serious recommendations that it might be healthier if the president and his family lived separately from their office? at least some studies have shown that it's good to have a chancek to get out of one's residence and work apart from it, rather than having it all in one ery building. has there ever been thatan proposal? >> i'm sure that every president and first lady feels that way, that they could leave the white house behind andel go elsewhere. that is one reason why camp david is such a benefit to the presidencymp. d

the president, first lady can get on the helicopter or drive d to camp, david, in the helicoptr in less than half an hour, in a car in about an hour and a half and they can spend their weekent there.say there's probably some people on the staff that don't want to hear me say this because it -- e we found that it is true, that white house staff is much more reluctant to call the presidenty or the first lady at camp davidi than they are if they're just next door in the white house. so i -- i think there have beeno considerations, but having the benefit of the white house home and office so close at hand witl everything that goes along withl it, i think, are extremely important for the presidency. i don't ever see it changing. >> i was curious about the personal expenses which you said the president and first lady pat themselves, things like toothpaste and personal items, they pay all that themselves and

i realize that they're that entertaining, you know -- if they're entertaining anything that has to do with the presidency, thatasnd is picked d and they don't pay for it, but m you're saying any personal friends that come in, they would have to pay for the meals that you prepare and could you detain that a little more? >> certainly. any item that they use personally or that their guests use personally and that of an individual is not an official guest, like at a state dinner o, a reception held by a politicald committee, state dinner reimbursed to the white house via the state department, politicacaly events are reimbur. by the political entity that was responsible for the event, but any of the personal items that r the president and the first lady, their family and their personal guests use are paid fo, by the president. bottle of water.te and the accounting that i talked

about, keeping account of d two things, if we get a crate of eggs for the kitchen and two eggs go to the president's breakfast in the morning, those two eggs are accounted for. if three dozen of the eggs go to a dinner for the state department, that's accounted for.h, a if three eggs go to somebody's lunch, a guest of the family, that gets charged along with the two eggs in the morning. so we kept track of everything. of course, if there's a broken egg, it's spoilage and we keep track of that, too.ay for but, no, they pay for all of their own personal expenses. >> first of all, thank you for the most enlightening session.ae i was wondering if there's something you can share with us, the most outrageous or memorable request that was ever made.pres >> i've never had an outrageous request by the president of the united states or his wife.

at least none that i'll share.ie >> your remarks, i think, are yu incredible because they humanize the people in the white house that the american people don't see. you plan to write your memoirs or at least this kind of thing and put it in print for people to read? >> at this time, no. i was able to get and was probably the only person that spoke to both the president and the first lady on a daily basis. and i believe that their privacy is more important than my telling that part of the story.a most of there things that i related here today, either the president or the first lady have mentioned in casual conversations with friends and r know that that information is out there.or and i just believe that it is ym their history, w not mine. as i get further away from when i retired in the second bush th

administration, i have a memory of historians that have asked sd me, you know, you ought to put this down. and some of these stories ought to be told and i had an and i incredible opportunity to see ao incredible amount of history. i owe the thank you to the presidents that kept me there. >> i wondered what your typical day was like as far as how many hours a day you worked and if you have children, did they get to interact with any of the family members? >> yes. my typical day was not very typical.lly i usually got to work at about 6:15 in the morning. to establish the routine for the day, pick up notes that came in overnight. and i never knew what time i was going to go home in the around. it depended on the president and the first lady's schedule, what activities were going on. certainly if there's a world

situation that occurs, i have spent three, four, five days there at a time. at th so i really can't say that thera is a typical day. they were all memorable and i can't say they were all enjoyable, but most of them were very enjoyable but very tiring.d the staff was the same way.theyw i knew that i could count on them. they had regular hours. they were there from such and touch time to such and such time. but i knew if i said, look, pred something justen happened in th middle east, and the president is going to have a news conference at 9:00 at night so i need you seven people to stay ta here, you can't go home at 2:30e 3:30, you need to stay here and be prepared for that. they knew that that was their pa responsibility and there was never any question. they knew that was what we were there for. i hope that answers your question. >> i have a daughter and my wifl

could tell you many stories about burnt meals and yelling at me for not et getting there in time to have dinner with she ano my daughter. but we do have a wonderful collection of photographs with my daughter with the presidents and first ladies were very kind. each christmas, they invited the residence staff in for a personal christmas party and they always took photographs. so i have photographs of my daughter from the time she was born until the time she went to college and, in fact, when she d was in college the first year, y she called home and said, dad, am i going to be invited to the christmas party this year? >> any other questions? >> could i just add one thing.f i made a couple of notes.pops - in keeping with the first lady's theme here today, there were just some things that i think i need to see about to say about r the first ladies and what they

meant to the white house as it related to the years that i was there.iginal mrs. nicks crone, she brought ae significant amount of original white house antique american furniture to the white house.us mrs. kennedy, in 1961, 6/3, did a tremendous job as we heard -- earlier today. but mrs. nixon, about ten years later, working with the curator of the white house, did a gainin tremendous amount of behind the scenes work gaining original white house items and original white house antiques furnishings... mrs. ford, a great promoter of women's rights, breast cancer, e drug and alcohol awareness and she was very involved in the white house tours.ite

mrs. carter, her efforts to broaden awareness. not many people know about that, but she did a tremendous effort there. mrs. reagan raised private funds for redecoration. once again, this is ten years later.a 10 y 61, 7 1, 81, there seems to be s ten-year theme on redecorating the white house. the monies that she raised for private funds redecoration and the white house china service that she was criticized so terribly for.na servi we hadn't had a china service for so many years that we didn'v even have enough pieces of china from one service to serve a state dinner. in fact, her first question to chiethf usher rick scouton when they were coming into the white house is what does the white house need the most? and he told her a white house china service for 200 people. that's what she went about doing and i used the line just say no

program on drugs. mrs. barbara bush, her promotion of childhood literacy and literacy for adults increased support for the white house committee for preservation of the white house and the redecoration efforts throughouti the executive residence and establishing the white house endowment fund, a $25 million fund so that private funds are available to keep the public rooms of the white house the way you see them when you go and visit.closed and certainly mrs. clinton was a major supporter of that effort and closed out that effort. thor $20 million endowment which is handled c by the white house historical association. and mrs. clinton expanded on that idea and people who wanted to give money for specific acqu purposes, now there is a white house major acquisitions trust.n so that when major paintings or if there's a piece of furniture, people can give money for a buh

specific purpose. a tremendous effort on behalf of the white house. and laura bush, her activities a on literacy and the major renovation of the white house, once again on a ten-year cycle and also a major renovation of the truman bedroom -- i mean thu lincoln bedroom which hadn't e o been done since the truman administration, which she allowed c-span to come in and d a tour of that room when it was made. i wanted to mention those first lady that's i several and what they did for the white house and for all of us because the white house is our house.audience memt

you silence all electronic devices.

and now, to begin our first session, entitled "paving the way," will you please join me in welcoming the moderator for the session, the director of education and special events, of education and special events, lucinda. >> [applause] >> thank you. >> [applause] >> thank you, and thank you, everyone, who is involved with the harding symposium. you have absolutely no idea how thrilled my colleagues and i are all to be here. anytime we get a chance to present first the ladies, we always -- first ladies, we always present our mission, -- you can tell i'm really good today. [laughter] which is to to get the public about the lives and the activities of the first ladies of this country. and believe me, they were all wonderful. and as i was talking to somebody last night at the reception, we think all the presidents were

quite intelligent. everyone of them. because they were smart enough to marry the woman who'd -- who became the lead partner and the first ladies of our country. we want you to be wowed. thank you. [laughter] a re-all right? -- are we all right? day, it is a every privilege to work with them. introduced like to friends that we know very well through the years. as a introduce each one in the harding,-- of florence followed by grace coolidge, followed by hoover, their representatives will give a brief biography to you of how

wonderful they really were. first, a good friend of ours, sherry holmes. of the warren g. harding presidential site. this is very unusual. sherry is a former journalist. she is one of the two newspapers, -- [indiscernible] was at the canton repository. [bad audio quality] she is a lector and an author. and has authored several books. would you please introduce ms. harding? >> i would be happy to.

[indiscernible] was a native of marion, ohio. she and her two younger brothers -- [indiscernible] an industrious and self-made businessman, -- [indiscernible] she attended the cincinnati conservatory of music as a teenager, studying piano. and it shocked her parents when she awoke at the age of 19, literally, with the boy next door. the marriage produced a son, marshall, before imploding in divorce. in 1891, 30-year-old florence married 25-year-old warren harding, editor of the "marion daily star" newspaper. florence embraced newspapering as a family

business and quickly jumped in to revamp the circulation department. she was not a woman to make housekeeping and cooking her life possible. thewhatever reason, harding's did not have children other own. thistion that life-threatening malady severely impacted her quality of life and her philosophy of how to the for life. as her husband entered and 60 did in national republican politics, florence was always his most enthusiastic supporter. the harding's entered the white house in march of 1921, following the presidency of woodrow wilson. they spent just what a nine-month there before his first term was over. president harding died of a heart attack and congestive heart failure in august of 1923. florence died just 15 months later. she died of kidney disease and heart failure in november of 1924. she was 64 years old.

cynthia. cynthia is the former executive director of the calvin coolidge memorial foundation. she is a lector and author, as well as we found out a commentator. and you have a column of your own now and then that keeps you very active. cindy has authored the book, star,coolidge," southern and when i'm really excited to get a hold of. cynthia, will you please introduce -- grace? >> grace was born 10 we third, 1879 in burlington, vermont. one of vermont's larger cities. you probably know vermette does not have very many large cities. she was an only child and her very middle-class parents could afford to send her onto the

university of vermont. she graduated in 1902 and immediately set out for northampton, massachusetts to be trained to teach deaf children in the oral method. which is a very, very tough way of teaching. she then taught until her marriage to calvin coolidge, a young lawyer in town. her mother had wanted her to stay in burlington so she could find a nice, handsome doctor for her, but grace said you was going to northampton, the home of smith college where there weren't hardly any men. but she found the one guy in town. they lived in a two family house in north hampton and raised two sons there. she stayed at home while her husband commuted by train to boston to the legislature. when calvin was tapped to run for vice president, they relocated to the willard hotel in washington dc. i think we'll hear through our discussions today what happened at the white house next.

>> thank you. and another dear friend of ours. an historian, lecturer, and author. her books, one of my favorite because she is a near and dear to my heart, the story of frances wilson cleveland, america's youngest first lady. she has also written a book that is very personal to her. dunlap here has a few books to come out very soon. 2016, charles g dodd. the other in 2017, i can't wait to get a hands-on, is -- i'm sorry, i have the right title today. she is working on -- a biography.

women." among -- "a woman among women." >> her middle name, short for louise, was born on march 29, 1874 in waterloo, iowa. her parents were charles and florence henry. and, yes, daddy wanted a boy. and so momma allowed her eldest daughter to be named lou. we all think that that is modern. in many ways, lou was raised as a boy. she was touched or hunt, shoot, fish, and read a horse, but her mother also major she learned how to sew, cook. the fact that she was brought up with those twin threats from both of her parents contributed to the quite unique woman that she did eventually become. when she was 11, her father took a banking job in california. they moved there in 1885. and lou pretty much consider

there to be her home. she entered originally los angeles normal school. then when her family moved, she ,ransferred to san jose college where she got her teaching certificate. she wanted to teach the upper grades because of her love science and because she was so young and a woman, she could not find a position in that field. she was attending lectures that were available there in the area by the recently opened stanford university. and she heard a series of lectures by dr. grammar on matters related to the allergy. stanford, when it was opened, was coeducational and was one of the first private universities founded in this country that was not affiliated with a religious institution. it is also completely tuition free.

brennerlou wrote to dr. and asked if it would be possible that she, as a woman, could come study theology. she was admitted and became the first woman to receive a bachelors degree in geology and that university. it was there that she met hoover, whom she is actually older than, but because she had excuse me,evious -- teachers education, she was obviously a freshman when he was a senior. the courtship eventually developed. he graduated and left for australia, where he found a position in mining. and the two of them continued their correspondence and lou eventually agreed to marry him. dr. brenner, who is tying to find her a job after she graduated from stanford, learned of the engagement and wrote them a letter saying, here i am trying desperately to find you a

job and yet you have decided to get married and to leave us. and he signed it, your loving professor in law. >> [laughter] >> the hoovers were married on february 10, 1899. and the left the very next day for china. where bert had a mining job. over the next several years, the couple traveled all over the world. lived in many different places. lou went into the minds with bird. she was kind of like the -- what we see so often with many women of professional men who had the same educational background -- she was sort of the unpaid employee. they lived in london for a number of years. lou was very instrumental and active in helping when world war i broke out, which will get to later, and then when they return to living full-time in the united states, she was involved with many organizations here until they eventually came to the white house. >> thank you.

these ladies were outstanding in their own way and a time when not supposedwere to succeed on that level, and they did. the first question i would like to pose to the lady of the day, mrs. harding, this is the harding symposium, that it is also important. abigail adams, if we can go back to her, she wrote to her husband when he was in philadelphia -- remember the ladies, we have all heard this. however, she was really angry with john because he didn't remember the ladies. . . rights like to in education, really. you don't have rights to our own property. lady washington -- to give you an idea, lady washington did

inherit money from an inheritance from her first husband, but lady washington really needed to get married because it had to be in the hands of a man because a woman couldn't. this was the way it was for women. so, when he called her, oh, you are so soft, she wasn't too happy. well, we, many years later to another first lady -- we come many years later to another first lady, florence harding, who is the very first first lady to cast a ballot to vote for her own husband as president of the united states. yes, the 19th amendment has passed. and cynthia, we are going to follow it do because they were on the same ticket. you have to -- forgive us. it is not about the presidents. it is about the ladies. she was the vice president's wife, but she was to secede mrs.

harding into the white house. can you please talk about the campaign a little bit and how, and a time when women were not supposed to be out in front, and they weren't, mrs. harding was it true that she rather knew that women would kind of be instrumental? is that safe to say to echo> i -- to say? >> i think it is very safe to say. all three of these women were in the same administration. mrs. hoover, the wife of herbert hoover, he is the secretary of commerce in the harding administration. so all three of them knew each other and were linked in that harding administration. is. harding, of course, reluctantly put in the place of campaigning for her husband. so she says. enthused about him running for president at first,

but once he decides that throw his hat in the ring, she is at 110%. and she really demonstrated that through the campaign. she was comfortable with the press. because she considered herself to be a newspaper woman. writer for the newspaper, as her husband was, but she knew all the newspaper editors, she knew the reporters at a lot of different newspapers, she absolutely thought it was her business as much as it was her husband's. she knew all the slang, the lingo of the newsroom. so she could talk they easily with the press. and by 1920, you really have the press stepping up. and we had news we -- reel footage, newspaper reporters are working out of the press house, which was built especially for the press r and to theear of the harding home -- press at the

rear of the harding home. wouldn't we like to have that today, a three-month presidential campaign? >> [laughter] >> >> good point. >> so she gave interviews. but she didn't call them interviews. she chatted, she said, with the newspaper reporters. saying she didn't want to be quoted but knowing all the time she wanted to be. but that was okay. she knew how to play the game. it would have been unseemly if she had gone out in front and called her own news conference. that would have been undermining her husband. so she goes around the back door a little bit and says, well, sure, i'll chat with you. with her knitting in her lap. florence harding knew how to play the game. she was not someone who would knit or embroider in real life.

but, boy, she could do it. she sat on the porch and played the game. she could play the game. on the other times she could play up other parts of her life. like all of this women are complicated, multi-layered woman. and she could talk the business game. she said i love working women because i did it. she knew what that felt like. during the time between her two marriages with her young sons she did try to support herself by giving piano lessons. and it didn't work very well. she knew about that loneliness. she knew about that heavy responsibility. she could identify with those women and they could identify with her. and with this whole new contingent of voters, the women voters in 1920, she filled this very vital role very adequately in relating to those women voters and bringing them into the game. she thought it was important for them to know about politics and

government. so she's right there front and center. >> thank you. cynthia, grace was a very different kind, very different, opposite in the way of mrs. harding. what was her role, if any, in the -- >> grace coolidge stayed home, as i stated, when calvin went to the legislature. there was no governor's mansion in boston. so even though frank waterman-sterns, a friend of calvin coolidge, said i'll buy you a brownstone. i'll put in 32 servants. i'll set you all up. can't you come to boston. and grace will be released to entertain and help you with your role as governor. and calvin coolidge said, no, that's beyond our means and we will not do that. when it comes to the vice presidency, grace did not campaign again.

she stayed home. and calvin did a little campaigning since the hardings were on their front porch pretty much, right? >> right. >> and then when it came to calvin running in his own right, their son had just died. and i'll be telling you about that a little bit later. so there wasn't a whole lot of campaigning. but thomas edison, harvey firestone, and henry ford all came to visit plymouth, vermont. now, i don't know how many of you have been to plymouth, vermont. it's a very small town. and when they came to town they talked and grace coolidge was right there talking with these folks and talking about politics. so she seems to have come into her own a little bit in this time period. and then when they did win and went back to the white house, she had a little bit more of a role. but in terms of campaigning, i would say this. william allen wright said when looking at the campaign, one flag, one country, one

conscience, one wife, and never more than three words will do calvin all of his life. and then the "washington post" article about the campaign said, mrs. coolidge's million dollar smile is the greatest political asset. >> absolutely. >> there you go. >> we would agree with that. and annette, correct me if i'm wrong, but of the panelists here, the hoovers were not political. they did not have a political background. is that truthful to say? but yet these brilliant people both, he's running for president. >> well, the interesting thing is that hoover did attempt to run for the president in 1920. and there was a campaign biography that was written, if my memory serves me correctly,

by vernon kellogg, a friend of the hoover's, and lou oversaw the writing and editing of that bio. so then when the selection of harding was made, being good republicans and loyal to the party, the hoovers obviously stepped back and supported harding. but hoover's loyalty was rewarded because he was named secretary of commerce in the harding administration and actually held that position through both the harding and the coolidge administration. their politics was of the covert type instead of the overt type. so they were working the relationships and the connections behind the scenes. so once coolidge announced that he was not going to run, burt rose to the top pretty quickly as the top candidate. and once the nomination was secured, as i had already mentioned, this is a very well-traveled couple and very traveling.

so they hopped a train. and many times it would stop. and burt and lou would come out the back and wave to people. and lou would say a few words. burt would give his speech and they would go on. she functioned in the role as an adviser monitoring what the press was saying about him. kind of keeping the two sons abreast of what was going on. so she was active and likely more active than her two immediate predecessors. and i would just piggyback on what we have said about florence harding being the first, first lady to be able to cast a vote. we have to realize we're just now to the third election where women are given the opportunity to vote. and we're just beginning to see changes in the role that women are playing in candidate selection and being delegates to the national conventions.

so there's a lot going on under the radar that we sort of need to keep in mind when we look at the political involvement of these women. >> so they really are paving the way. >> very much. >> okay, ladies, we have to talk about it. fashion. let's just link it right now to the campaign. because actually and truthfully let's be honest. the first impression sometimes we get of the were candidate's wife is at the convention or on the campaign trail. it sort of sets the tone for the white house years. mrs. kennedy once said in private that -- she referred to her gorgeous ensembles as her state clothes. she was much more casual in private life than anyone ever realized. these ladies had to have the same sort of thing. how important was it? i think we're going to start

with cynthia, because mrs. coolidge, she was younger, 40 some years old, a fashion plate. just a beautiful woman. and was a wonderful -- kind of like dolly madison for james madison, who was quite retiring. she was the foil. and you have already alluded to that, for calvin. >> yes. >> how much did that physiology play into her -- >> well, the fashions of the day were quite something. this is the roaring '20s, folks. and we have flappers and shorter skirts and your arms showing. i know we're all hearing about michelle obama letting her arms show. but grace did a little of that. but she still had to keep some decorum because her husband was very concerned with being proper. >> i don't mean to interrupt. but her official portrait was

sleevelessless, wasn't it? >> that's right. >> and i've just been back to plymouth, vermont and looked at some of her gowns and some of her purses and so on. and i did know from reading her letters made her own dresses at the white house. >> she made her own things. but calvin didn't like this. he said they're too frumpy. you have to look better than this, grace. and as grace said, i think it's half the secret of a happy married life, dressing to suit one's husband. so she did want to look good. and mary randolph, her social secretary, said, i have never known any man more interested in his wife's clothes than mr. coolidge. and the more elaborate her dresses were, the better he liked it. i have seen magnificent gowns. one was all gold filigree. they were ordered from garfinkel's and stearns.

maybe he gave them a discount. and then she had a beautiful coat. on the back is a peacock in gold and blue all the way down the back. these are very, very nice. but she didn't worry too much about her clothing. but since she didn't give interviews, they took a lot of pictures for her. she was happy to pose. that's how the nation knew a lot about her. and calvin wanted her to wear something different every day. i don't know how they could do that. but he said, that's where we're going to spend our money, grace. >> i like that kind of guy. okay, annette. >> well, fortunately, or unfortunately, this photograph of lou in her girl scout uniform, there is a quote by someone unattributed that said that this is the only way he has ever remembered lou henry

hoover, and that is she always wore her girl scout uniform. and that's fortunate in one respect because it was great promotion for the girl scouts. not so great because she was quite a fashion plate. if any of you, particularly you women have ever noticed "vogue" magazine you will notice there is always a cover of a first lady at least in all of our lifetimes. the first lady to be photographed for "vogue" magazine was lou henry hoover. by the very famous and well-known frank steigen. so she was actually quite fashion conscious. she designed a lot of her own clothing. she loved color. she loved florals. she loved chiffon fabrics. there are some gorgeous gowns that are in storage at the hoover library with gold metallic and silver metallic

woven into brocades and other very expensive fabric. and i contacted a fashion historian and asked about that, and she said these were highly fashionable garments and designs at the time. lou wore a lot of velvet and brocades for the gowns she wore for state dinners. but when the price of cotton dropped in 1931, she ordered a gown of calico, which is cotton, made for a state dinner for the officials from the department of agriculture and the department of labor in february of 1932, do her best to try to promote the cotton industry. and she was roundly criticized by the society editors for not wearing either velvet or satin. >> criticism even then. >> yes. >> and mrs. harding. >> florence comes into the white house at age 62. she's well aware that she's a

lot older than grace. and she dresses what is described as very appropriate for her age. she wears a lot of grades, a lot of lilacs. she likes clothes. and when she was -- when warren was in the senate, she spent quite a bit of money on clothes. but when she entered the white house, her -- she's got a contradiction here. she still knows she needs to dress like a first lady. and she says, even in letters to her daughter-in-law, that the public expects her to change her clothes several times during the day. but she would get criticism, she knows, if she had the same thing on in the morning as she did at a function late in the afternoon. so she has to have this wardrobe. by this time, though, in the

white house, her kidney disease makes it hard for her to change clothes several times a day. physically difficult for her. so clothes don't have as much meaning for her in the white house as they did in the senate years. she was asked by a woman journalist, who she liked to give preference to, what's your opinion on the length of skirts? because, of course, they were creeping up. she wanted to know specifically what would you tell these young girls across the country who have skirts almost up to their knees? and she said, i'm not going to even utter a comment about that. it's up to their mothers. which i thought was pretty smart. her skirt lengths tended to be just a few inches above the tops of her shoes. because she is mindful of her age. and she's got swollen ankles because of her kidney disease.

now, when she goes into the white house, there's all this fuss made about the harding blue. she has a gown made of harding blue. there's all this description about how it's not quite a royal blue. we've had this discussion with the first ladies library. what shade of blue was it? well, it's in between electric blue you and -- i don't know. there was also a marion blue, which is a navy. there is also a florence harding lavender. and clothes were being made in these colors. grace coolidge, during the same time period when they're going into office, she had a veil designed, the grace coolidge veil in navy blue. florence had a veil in black. so you could dress like your favorite first lady or vice presidential wife, i guess. a big fuss is made about this. but she's going to cover her arms usually.

again, mindful of her age. she's going to dress appropriately. she does get a little bit of criticism about being a tad on the frumpy side. but by and large, women across america think she's dressed just fine. >> she was liked. she was very popular. very popular. ladies, i'm going to kind of combine these next few. and i'll tell you where we are in it. i want to make sure we get in every question. you can take this anywhere you want to go. but this has to do with the press, the relationship with the press, the public and private persona of each, and how each coped that way, which kind of goes into their partnership somewhat with their husbands on how they supported them in policies, with how did world politics -- or how did world

events shape what happened. annette, i would like to start with you because we were talking about this. >> yeah. >> i mean lou hoover is just mind blowing when you figure -- really. i'm not kidding. this is a woman who spoke mandarin chinese. rebel yon. she had no fear. the chinese were hiding out in a little commune where they were staying. and lou is the one going out and getting supplies and her tires is being riddled by bullets on her bicycle as she rides. this is a brave woman. >> and she writes a friend and said you missed all the excitement. you should have been here. >> she has traveled country to country. she is an organizer in london. you mentioned this. if anybody should have a succeeded, it should have been the self-made couple. they were wealthy and generous to a fault.

here we have the press going along with how they are using the press or the press is not being used, how the public is seeing them, not seeing them. and world events. or maybe something else interfering and changing the road that the couples took. can you start that off? i know that's a lot to go on. but it's kind of tied in. >> so the hoovers inherited an extremely booming economy, which we'll hear about when we talk about florence and grace. so the roaring '20s were also a time of enormous prosperity. and when herbert hoover comes into office in 1929, march of 1929, part of what he says in his inaugural speech is that he has great optimism for the country. there's no hint, at least in the

over horizon, that waters underneath may be a little bit troubled. so there was a bit of a stock market crash october 23rd or 24th. and it's giving an inkling that there's going to be some problems. and then the day we now refer to as black tuesday, october 29th, 1929 hits, and the stock market tanks. and you have to understand that after coming out of these years of tremendous prosperity, it is really difficult at first to determine whether or not this is just a blip on the economic radar screen or if this is the beginning of a problem. and of course as we know, because we have the benefit of 2020 hindsight, it was the beginning of a very severe problem. and so as you move into 1930, it becomes very clear that the economy is in very dire straits with a depression that probably hadn't been experienced in most of the lifetimes of those people.

probably the last time there had been a depression of that severity would have been during the benjamin harrison/grover cleveland years before mckinley took office. so the white house is scrambling on how they are going to deal with this. and hoover is dealing with a very uncooperative congress. there are several different reasons for that lack of cooperation. he's trying to get them to pass a variety of relief measures. hoover was not a republican in the sense of we think of many republicans today whereas you want to reduce the amount of government involvement in what's going on. hoover was very much someone who said, find ways deposit can be beneficial and let's facilitate that. he had a lot of enemies in congress for a lot of different reasons. and there was not that support. he formed what was called the president's emergency committee for employment, which got this ak kro acronym pece or peace.

if any of you ever read the story -- i can't forget it now. it's about the dozen children. some of you may remember that. "cheaper by the dozen." lillian was the mother of that dozen. and she was an engineer. and a close friend of lou's. and lou recruited lillian to come help on this pece committee to try to find employment for women. lou used her relationship with the girl scouts because she had been national president of the girl scouts. she got on the radio and encouraged girl scouts to look for ways they could help and volunteer in the communities. lou used the radio to encourage volunteerism amongst communities for people to help one another and support one another during this difficult time. and what is lesser known about her and really wasn't known until after her papers became opened, is she was privately supporting people who would come to her attention. as my colleagues up here are

well aware from looking at the correspondence, every single first lady gets letters from members of the public asking for various forms of assistance in one way or the other. and lou was no exception. and she had enough of a radar to be able to figure out what was legitimate and what needed to be passed on to a staff member to handle. but if she got a particularly interesting letter that she thought had some merit, she had a network of people all across the country and she would pass that letter to someone in that geographic area. she basically asked, would you look this person up and do it anonymously. is this legitimate? what are the needs of this individual? how could it be helped. lou was sending money to a lot of people across the country anonymously, through these conduits to give support, including a lot of

african-american women, to help them fund college educations. and much of this about lou did not come into the public arena until after her papers were opened up in 1984. to get to the press question that's really the downfall of both hoovers. their press secretary begged both of them to go public with many of their private philanthropic acts. because burt had been an orphan. and he would periodically invite children to the white house and just let his hair down, so to speak, and play ball with them, entertain them, allow them to have meals and enjoy themselves in the white house. and he wasn't doing it as the president. he was doing it as a little orphaned boy who now was in a position to be able to assist with that. particularly when the 1932 campaign started to get really heated, there was just pressure on the part of their press secretary. let us do some photographs. hold some press conferences. let people see this human side of you because people perceive both of you as being stiff and stuck up and rich and not

caring. and this press secretary knew the whole other side. and both of them said no. burt had been raised a quaker. he had taken on a lot of teaching of modesty. they said, no, we're not doing this for press. we are doing it because it's the right thing. we don't want to exploit the people we have given assistance to. so in the end their decision not to play to the demands of the press played a significant role in the public's perception and thus their loss in the election in 1932. >> thank you. can we work backwards? of course we're coming into a little bit better time now. grace coolidge. >> basically, when the coolidges came into the white house, warren harding had just died. >> right. >> so there was a period of mourning for 90 days. there was great respect for president harding. and being here today and seeing

the wreath delivered to the memorial, i understand that this area especially revered president harding. remember, this is an inner war time period, between world war i and world war ii. so they were cutting back on the budget, scaling back the navy. it was not a time to engage the world. there was isolationism. that's the watch word. grace carried on florence's devotion to the veterans and having musicals with them as guests and visiting walter reid hospital, visiting the veterans there. she wanted to highlight american music. so she followed florence's lead on having wonderful music at the white house. but many say the coolidges didn't really fit with the time. she and her husband were thrifty in an age of excess, quiet in a period of verbosity. she was warm and gracious and that was very important and that

gave stability to the nation. when the flood of 1927 came, it did devastate vermont. and she and her husband toured the state afterward. they waved at people and their train stopped many times. one time calvin coolidge went out and said, vermont this is a state i love. that's where he got his bride grace. she was born in burlington, so on. and grace turned to the newspaper men and said, did you get that? that was really good. and she was right. she also devoted herself to deaf children. she hosted helen keller at the white house. she and her husband have the thrill of reading charles linworth when he came back from europe. calvin sent a destroyer to pick him up. i thought that was wonul