WEST BRANCH, Iowa – Joe Jaynes wants people to get to know Herbert Hoover.
Mr. Jaynes, a professor of history at Collin College in Allen, Texas, was one of the many visitors here to tour the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum on Saturday, Aug.10. He has visited all 15 presidential libraries and museums in the U.S., and the Hoover historical facility is one of his favorites.
“I like what they’re doing here. … They’re trying to keep Herbert Hoover relevant,” he said.
But he especially likes the fact that the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is about to become even more relevant to a new generation. That’s because a $20 million renovation of the library and museum is in the works.
The museum/library is expected to close when work begins early next year and be complete in the summer of 2026. “Right now, we are finalizing our exact closure date, but expect to be closed in early 2025,” Aaron Scheinblum, a public affairs specialist with the national museum, told the QCBJ on Monday, Aug. 12.
The library/museum, located in President Hoover’s hometown, opened in 1962 for the former president’s 88th birthday.
Hometown celebrates
Mr. Jaynes was one of hundreds of visitors and supporters who helped celebrate the start of that massive renovation project during Saturday’s ceremonial groundbreaking event. History buffs joined politicians, descendants of the Hoover family, and many other people from across the nation for the event, which was part of the Hoover Hometown Days celebration.
When the renovation is complete in a couple of years, the library and museum will have more room for visitors, modern user-friendly technology, and a lot more room to show the items from the lives of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover. (Currently, the museum has room to show off less than 1% of its Hoover artifacts with the remaining 99% always in storage. When the renovation is complete, more items will be on display or rotated into the displays.)
“It will bring Herbert Hoover’s story to a new generation,” Margaret Claire Hoover, the great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, said about the upcoming renovation during the groundbreaking.
Ms. Hoover, who also is an author and conservative commentator, told the crowd she remembers being a young girl when the first renovation of the museum and library was done more than 30 years ago.
This new renovation project is needed to tell the “full story of American excellence and American generosity,” she said. “Thank you for all your love and labor in this project.”
In addition to Ms. Hoover, the festivities also featured Iowa Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who urged the crowd to continue its support of the museum and library when it closes for renovations in a few months. He said the Hoover library/museum is special because it is thriving in a small Iowa town when most presidential libraries are located in big cities.
Educating a new generation
“If you think this museum looks good now, just wait until this renovation is done. … President Hoover still needs to be remembered and told well to a new generation,” Mr. Gregg added.
The upcoming renovation project has been in the planning stages for at least five years, said Betsy Corridan, chairman of the Hoover Presidential Foundation board. During Saturday’s ceremony, she added that the renovation will not only help improve the museum and library, but will also bring more people to the facility and inspire them to make the world a better place.
The event also featured former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, co-chair of the project’s capital campaign Timeless Values – Modern Experience. (Ms. Hoover is the other campaign co-chair.) Mr. Branstad did not speak at the ceremony, but greeted people in the crowd, posing for photos during the event.
Before and after the ground-breaking ceremony, hundreds of people visited the museum, which had free admission for the day. Those visitors got to see the many current displays on Mr. Hoover’s life. They featured his boyhood years in West Branch, his time as a mining engineer and director of American Relief Administration, his work as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, his election as the 31st president, The Great Depression years, and his continued humanitarian work after leaving the White House.
Mundi McCarty, president and CEO of the Hoover Presidential Foundation, called Mr. Hoover’s life journey an “uncommon life of leadership.”
Those working in the museum Saturday said they wanted the crowds of visitors to learn about some of the many aspects of Mr. Hoover’s uncommon life.
“I hope they get that he was a more complicated person than what they realized, if they know anything about him at all,” said Patrick Osborn, an archivist at the presidential library and museum.
Museum Specialist Sara Godin added that she hoped visitors would come away with at least a little more knowledge. “I just want people to learn more about the man,” she added.
Ms. Godin was kept busy greeting visitors to the museum, but had the help of her dog, Troy, who was greeting and sniffing people from a carrying pack on Ms. Godin’s back.
But the day’s festivities were much more than museum visits and a groundbreaking. Thousands of people were in West Branch on Friday and Saturday for the Hoover’s Hometown Days celebration and to honor the former president’s 150th birthday. The day featured music from the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid America, games, a picnic served just before the groundbreaking, birthday cake (with a recipe copied from the cake served at the former president’s 88th birthday in 1962), and re-enactors Brian Ellis and Jane Fellows portraying President Herbert Hoover and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover during many events of the day.
But for many attendees, the stories surrounding the real Mr. Hoover were the stars of the show.
“People need to know there’s so much more to him than just what they heard about The Great Depression years. … He lived to 90. He did so much in his life,” added Mr. Jaynes.
