Month: March 2020

Herbert Hoover Cutting Large Things

One of my favorite ways to distract myself while preparing lectures for class is searching for Powerpoint slides in the photo archives of the Library of Congress. My goal, always, is to find photos of the people that we’re discussing in class that are weird or stupid. Last week in my “America in the World” class, we discussed American foreign policy in the 1920s, which allowed me to peruse the LOC’s Herbert Hoover holdings. They are good. My favorite findings were the following two photos of Hoover cutting large food items in front of crowds of people.

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“Herbert Hoover cutting large melon, with group” (LOC)
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“Herbert Hoover cutting a large pie” (LOC)

Such grotesque proportions! And as Americans were starving in the streets, no less!

(okay, the photos were from before the Great Depression)