“A Hoover Homecoming Photo Album: August 1928,” October 20

Thursday, October 20, 6 p.m.

Davenport Public Library Main Branch, 321 Main Street, Davenport IA

Presented on October 20 as part of the Davenport Public Library's 3rd Thursday at Hoover's Presidential Library & Museum series, the virtual program A Hoover Homecoming Photo Album, August 1928 will find Iowa City's Paul Juhl highlighting the "homecoming" visit that Herbert Hoover, his wife, and their two sons made to Iowa during the summer of 1928, a trip taken not long after Herbert received his nomination as the Republican nominee for the presidency.

An eventual mining engineer and U.S. Secretary of Commerce, as well as the 31st President of the United States, Hoover was the son of Jesse Hoover, a blacksmith, and Hulda Minthorn Hoover, a seamstress and recorded minister in the Quakers' Society of Friends. Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, in 1974, where he would go on to enjoy fishing in the local creek and working in his father’s blacksmith shop. Although he is famously associated with the state, Hoover actually only lived in Iowa for the first decade of his life. Orphaned at the age of nine, he left the state in November of 1885, bound for Oregon and the home of his maternal uncle Henry Minthorn. He, his wife Lou Henry Hoover, and their sons Allan and Herbert Jr., however, visited Iowa in the summer of 1928, and although there was no official one, the A Hoover Homecoming Photo Album: August 1928 presentation will include seldom-seen photographs representing what could have been a family photo album.

An Iowa City resident, presenter Paul Juhl has been writing about Iowa history for the past 20 years. Originally from Webster City, Juhl holds degrees from the University of Iowa in history and the University of Northern Iowa in College Student Personnel Services. He is also an expert on photography in the late 19th century, and often includes images from all time periods in his books. Prior to retirement, Juhl served several Iowa high schools, and also a school in Switzerland, as the school counselor and teacher, and the diverse topics of his spiral-bound books include Grant Wood, Pulitzer Prize recipient MacKinlay Kantor, Abraham Lincoln’s grandchildren, and his new program's focus Herbert Hoover.

A Hoover Homecoming Photo Album, August 1928 will be presented virtually on October 20, participation in the 6 p.m. Zoom event is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-visiting DavenportLibrary.com.