IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
IRENE HOOVER (1907-2001)
PAPERS, 1923-2001
10 linear inches
|
ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no.712) were donated
in 2000 by Dale Hoover. |
|
ACCESS: |
The papers
are open for research. |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright
held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PHOTOGRAPHS: |
Box 2 and
map case. |
|
PROCESSED
BY: |
Your name, year»Doris Malkmus, 2001. [HooverIrene.doc.] |
Biography
Irene Winifred Else Hoover, farm woman, 4-H leader, and volunteer, was born in Mahaska County and graduated from Oskaloosa High School in 1924. She married Carl W. Hoover, a fellow farmer, the following year. She devoted considerable time and care to their first child Elvin, who was born with significant health and developmental problems. Their second son Dale enjoyed an abundance of health, eventually graduating from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in Economics. During their childhood, Irene Hoover led a girls’ 4-H club. After they were older, she chaired the Mahaska County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee and served on its state board. She attended the Associated Country Women of the World conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1950 and represented the Iowa Farm Bureau Women at the annual meeting of the Rural Health Council of the American Medical Association in Portland, Oregon in 1956. That year, she was honored as a Master Farm Homemaker. She became involved in international exchanges in the 1960s, hosting many visiting international guests. She was a member of the Board of Social Welfare of Mahaska County for twenty years, beginning in 1962. She served on the Iowa Legislative Study Committee for Mental Health in 1956 and 1962. Nominated as Iowa Mother of the Year, she became a “Merit Mother” in 1963. She co-chaired the Mahaska County Republican Party for four years and belonged to various women’s clubs. She joined and was active at the national level in the Friends Church. Her husband, Carl W. Hoover, died suddenly in 1973. Irene Hoover and her son Elvin Hoover moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1988 to be closer to Dale Hoover, then on the faculty of the University of North Carolina. Irene Hoover passed away September 2, 2001.
Scope and Content Note
The Irene Hoover papers date from 1923 to 2001 and measure 10 linear inches. The collection includes folders concerning her family, Farm Bureau activities, activities with other organizations, her international visitors, and photographs. There are a few personal letters and a photocopy of a family photograph, but the collection consists primarily of publications, programs, and photographs of the various organizational events with which she was involved. There are notes of undated speeches she delivered, as well as notes taken during the 1950 tour of Europe. The collection also contains good records of the visits of the international guests to Mahaska County during the 1960s. The bulk of the photographs depict groups of women at various organizational events.
Box no. Description
1 Family
Biographical, 1949-2001
Oskaloosa
High School Yearbooks
1923
1924
Wedding trip, 1925
Trip to Europe (Associated Country Women
of the World)
Reports, 1950
Notes, 1950
Correspondence, 1950-1970
Newspaper clippings, 1963 and undated
Christmas letters, 1988-1998
Farm Bureau activities
Speeches, 1950-1953 and undated
Summer Conference programs, 1948-1956
Meetings, 1951-1990
2
Eleventh Annual Conference on Rural Health
(Portland OR), 1956
Master Farm Homemakers Guild, 1956-1989
Master Farm Homemakers award ceremony programs, 1956-1976 (1973 missing), 1979-1981, 1990, 1993
Iowa Mother of the Year scrapbook, 1963 [disassembled]
Committee on Leaders and Specialists
Correspondence, 1960-1965
Ong Kim Hoo (Korea), 1961
Misbahul Bar Chowdhuri (Pakistan), 1961-1962
Shyamlal Gupta (India), 1962-1963
Mutsu Hayakawa (Japan), 1963-1969
Birendra Nath Ganguli (India), 1964
Ahmad Burtadaga (Malaysia), 1967
Organizational activities, 1956 and undated
Photographs, ca. 1960s
Photograph of Associated Country Women of the World Delegate Dinner, New Jersey, 1948 [located in map case]