100 Years of Girl Scouts
On My Honor, I Will Try … 100 Years of Girl Scouts New Exhibit at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum
January 21 – March 25, 2012 West Branch, Iowa – 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts and because of Lou Henry Hoover's close involvement with this organization the new winter exhibit at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum is, 100 Years of Girl Scouts, January 21 through March 25. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover joined the Girl Scout movement in 1917 and remained involved until the end of her life. The Girl Scout movement became one of Lou's primary interests. She served as the national vice president in 1921, was elected national president in 1922, and reelected in 1924. But Lou Henry Hoover was a scout all of her life, she once said, "I was a Scout years ago, before the movement ever started, when my father took me hunting, fishing and hiking in the mountains. Then I was sorry that more girls could not have what I had. When I learned of the movement I thought, here is what I always wanted other girls to have." Some of the items featured in 100 Years of Girl Scouts are pictures, newspaper articles, and film footage paired with Girl Scout uniforms of the era and other Girl Scout memorabilia. Lou Henry Hoover's original Girl Scout uniform will be on display. A special feature of this display will be the exact reproduction of the Girl Scout "Little House". The "Little House" was an actual house set up in the early 1920s in Washington, DC to serve as the headquarters for demonstrating the home-making activities of the Girl Scouts. In 1930 Mrs. Hoover commissioned a New York craftsman to make, at her expense, an exact reproduction doll house of the original "Little House," including dolls dressed in Scout uniforms and even the paper on the walls. 100 Years of Girl Scouts will focus on:
