The first woman in the United States to earn a degree in geology, Louise (Lou) Henry Hoover led an adventurous life. Whether globetrotting with her husband and two sons or serving actively in Washington, D.C., as the wife of a politician, "Lou" had a wide range of hobbies and interests. Her husband once referred to her as "my good lady who already knows all about a thing or else finds out."

Lou and Bert meet at Stanford

Like her future husband, Lou Hoover was a native of Iowa, born in the town of Waterloo in 1874. Her father, Charles D. Henry, was a banker who inspired in his daughter a love of the outdoors. When Lou was ten, her family moved west to California, hoping that a warmer climate would improve the weak health of her mother, Florence. Living in Monterey, Lou learned to hunt and...