The Monroe Room as created by First Lady Lou Hoover. with reproductions of President Monroe's furnishings. Both heart-backed side chairs were bought for the White House by President James K Polk.
pressured to provide work for the men at her person al expense. The agreement between Mrs. Hoover and Grant stipulated that she pay for the labor, materi als, and processing; in return, she retained full and sole ownership of the plates, prints, and rights to the photographs. She was also persuaded by Grant's argument that some of these photographs could be reused for the official records of the White House. 22 With the terms laid out, she hired Sergeant F. W. Hines from the Army Signal Corps to photograph the rooms and some of the objects in the White House for the catalog. Sergeant Hines was paid directly by Lou Hoover for the work, and some copies of the photo graphs were given to the government for official use. Without her consent or knowledge, Colonel Grant later sold prints from Lou Hoover's collection through his office to Ava Long, a writer and a White House housekeeper who helped with decorating the White House and to whom Lou Hoover had given a few "souvenir" pictures as a personal keepsake.23 In mid-August of 1933, Lou Hoover saw the photographs she paid for in the September issue of the Ladies' Home Journal.24 The confusion about the status of the photographs led to cease and desist
orders from Lawrence Richey, President Hoover's secretary, to Ava Long, author of the article, and to the Ladies' Home Journa/. 25 It was too late to stop the press run that already was delivered, but two subsequent printings were halted. Nevertheless, Charles Scribner's Sons, which was then in the process of publishing the catalog,26 withdrew from the project because the photographs had already appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal. There were attempts to publish the book before and after Lou Hoover's death, but an agreement was never reached. The records at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum indicate that the volumes of the catalog were never copied but that other versions were written by McMullin at the request of the Hoovers. Against the wishes of Philipi Harding Butler, manager of Lou Hoover's papers at the Hoover Institution, President Hoover gave one of the volumes to First Lady Marnie Eisenhower before they were donated to the Herbert Hoover Library and Museum. He stated explicitly, however, that it was not for the White House Library. 21 To date, the third volume is not accounted for. Thus Lou Henry Hoover's remarkable accom-
First Lady Lou Henry Hoover and the First White House Catalog 37