Description:

Hoover Herbert

 

Single page 6" x 9.5" on letterhead of "The President's Engagements". Dated "Wednesday, August 7, 1929". Includes graphite doodles and autographed notes in the hand of President Herbert Hoover.  Slight smudging of the graphite, else in near fine condition. Ex-Forest Sweet and Robert Douglas Stewart, with attached biography and Forest Sweet's original folder.

 

An outstanding example of President Herbert Hoover's doodles, and autographed notes located on an intriguing important page of his "Engagements" representing the meetings scheduled for that day. Hoover brought an engineer's mind to his reflective scribbles. He was known to draw pictures  that are consistently geometric, intricate, and clever in the way they link disparate pictures into a larger whole. A visual Technocrat-In-Chief, he clearly did not lack for imagination. Hoover loved the study of engineering. He was known to have said it "is a great profession, there is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and home to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege." This spectacular sheet includes a fantastic 3-D engineered doodle surrounding the word "Robinson" written in Hoover's hand, in addition to Hoover's note for his 3pm meeting with Senator King "3 pm Sen. King"

 

Considering the date on this Presidential sheet, this would have been from within the first 6 months of Hoover's administration. Two unrelated "Robinsons" were important to Hoover. The first of which was Joseph Robinson who was on the democratic ticket as VP and ran against Hoover. (Hoover ran against Al Smith and Joseph Robinson). Perhaps Joseph Robinson was still on Hoover's mind when he was doodling. Herbert Hoover recognized Joe Robinson’s ability and appointed the Arkansas senator to the American delegation attending the Naval Disarmament Conference in London. Robinson returned to his post in the Senate and pressed for and won passage of the treaty resulting from the London conference. However Robinson would become a thorn in Hoover's side as shortly after Hoover came to office, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Senator Robinson was an effective leader for Senate Democrats and he kept them well organized in opposing many of President Hoover’s policies.

 

Alternatively, only 6 weeks after his inauguration, President Hoover also meet with Henry Robinson, President of the First Security National Bank of Los Angeles and requested he go to New York to talk in his name to the promoters and bankers behind the (stock) market. Robinson apparently fully agreed with Hoovers assessment as to the dangers of the situation. But the New York bankers all scoffed at the idea that the market was not "sound". They were certain this was a "New Era", to which old economic experience did not apply … (we all know how this ended). In Hoover's memoirs written after his Presidency, he wrote "The stock book was blowing great guns when I came into the White House … to ask Congress for powers to interfere in the stock market was futile … therefore (I ) resolved to attack the problem from several directions in addition to securing cooperation from the Federal Reserve System  … President Coolidge, a few days before he left office, assured the country that is prosperity was "absolutely sound" and that stocks were "cheap at current prices".

 

An excellent example of President Hoover's doodles on an important Presidential sheet demonstrating the intensity of a day in the life of a President who runs from meeting to meeting in 15 minute increments, with the added intriguing element of which "Robinson" was on his mind at the time! Known for his abstract doodles, Hoover would create dynamic shapes that suggest diamonds, bow ties or kites, this being one such classic example. In addition one can see the salient thoughts of his meandering reflection when one studies his seemingly randomly placed words.

 

 President Hoover was the first president recognized in his own day as a skilled doodler. One such set of Hoovers signed geometric doodles (without any autographed notes) previously sold for a sizable sum considered at the time to represent "a fair portion of the President's annual salary."


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