Lou Henry Hoover Draws a Map
Created | Updated Mar 21, 2021
Lou Henry Hoover Draws a Map
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library shared this amazingly good hand-drawn map of the Siege of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. It was drawn by Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover and future First Lady.
Mrs Hoover was really talented: she spoke Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian and French. She and Mr Hoover used to speak Chinese when they didn't want to be overheard. (Her Chinese name was Hu Lu.) She and her engineer husband also translated a Latin text, Agricola's De Re Metallica.
When she and her husband married, she became a Quaker like him. She was very involved in charitable activities during the First World War, including providing ambulances for Belgium. She was the first First Lady to speak on the radio.
Learn more about this remarkable woman at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
