Item: i95831
 
Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal
First Lady – Lou Hoover
1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (33.16 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW)
LOU HOOVER 1929 1933 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Lou facing 3/4 left.
Lou Hoover 1875 – 1944 Filled White House with books and art objects; spoke 5 languages; helped establish the Girl Scouts of America, White House facade atop.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Lou Hoover (née Henry; March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was the wife of President Herbert Hoover and served as the first lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933.

Marrying her geologist and mining engineer husband in 1899, she traveled widely with him, including to Shanghai, China, and became a cultivated scholar and linguist. She made extensive study of languages including Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian and French. As First Lady, she oversaw construction of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Madison County, Virginia, and was the first First Lady to make regular nationwide radio broadcasts.

Mrs. Hoover distinguished herself by becoming the first First Lady to broadcast on a regular and nationwide basis. Although she did not have her own radio program, she participated as a guest speaker on a number of occasions between 1929 and 1933, often advocating for volunteerism, or discussing the work of the Girl Scouts. Radio critics praised her for having an excellent radio voice and for speaking with confidence.

As First Lady, she discontinued the New Year’s Day reception, the annual open house observance begun by Abigail Adams in 1801.

She played a critical role in designing and overseeing the construction of a rustic presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Madison County, Virginia. It was a precursor of the current presidential retreat, Camp David.

She served as the national president of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1922 to 1925 while Hoover served in the cabinet of Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. She served as president again after leaving the White House, from 1935 to 1937.

Camp Lou Henry Hoover in Middleville, New Jersey, is named for her and run by the Heart of New Jersey Council of the Girl Scouts. She funded the construction of the first Girl Scout house in Palo Alto, California. The oldest Girl Scout house in continuous use, it is now called Lou Henry Hoover Girl Scout House.

Lou Henry was an avidly athletic young woman, and by her senior year at the university, she was a member of the Basket Ball Committee, Vice President of the Women’s Athletic Association and an active member of the Archery Club.

The Lou Henry Hoover House, which she designed and where the Hoovers lived, on a hill in the Stanford University campus is now the official residence of the President of Stanford University. It is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School in Whittier, California was built in 1938 and was named in her honor. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.) from Whittier College in 1928. Lou Henry Hoover Memorial Hall built in 1948 at Whittier College, where she had been a trustee until her death, is also named for her. In 2005 Lou Henry Elementary School was opened in her honor in Waterloo, Iowa. One of the brick dorms known now as “The Classics” at San Jose State University is named “Hoover Hall” in her honor.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.