Hoover museum adding $600K exhibit

WEST BRANCH – A new exhibit coming to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in April 2015 will include a simulation of a World War I trench and holographic imagery of Hoover’s life story.

The $600,000 exhibit, underwritten by the Hoover Presidential Foundation, will focus on the humanitarian work of Hoover, the 31st U.S. president, and will be the largest temporary exhibit the museum in West Branch has ever hosted.

The Hoover Presidential Foundation, Hoover museum and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site partnered to develop the exhibit, which also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the United States’ involvement in World War I. Access to the exhibit will be included with the price of museum admission, and the exhibit will run through October 2015, or longer.

Jerry Fleagle, executive director of the Hoover Presidential Foundation, said he hopes people viewing the exhibit will gain a better understanding of WWI history that led to Hoover’s humanitarian work, which includes hunger relief efforts to help civilians affected by WWI in Belgium.

The war trench exhibit will use sights and sounds to simulate both light and heavy battleground conditions.

“It will almost feel like you’re getting shot at,” Fleagle said.

Other attractions will include a Hoover “4D” experience chronicling the story of Hoover’s life as a young person, a replica of a Belgian village highlighting the impact of Hoover’s food relief efforts and a replica of a food relief ship.

Hoover museum and foundation staff plan to debut the food relief ship at the Iowa State Fair next week.

“We will be sailing the fairgrounds twice a day,” Fleagle said.

Staff also will give away “Hoover cookies” — biscuits Hoover invented that contain the necessary nutrients to stave off starvation — at the state fair, he said.

The exhibit at the museum will include outdoor elements and will fill the 3,100 square feet of temporary exhibit space.

Tom Schwartz, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, said he hopes the exhibit will help people rediscover Hoover and learn about how WWI shaped Hoover’s life.

Schwartz said he recalls stories his parents told him about what they experienced during WWI, but young people today may not have direct connections to history about the war.

He said immersive aspects of the upcoming exhibit may give visitors a sense of this history and that museum staff hope to discover ways they could incorporate similar features into permanent exhibits at the museum.

The immersive aspects might engage young people, in particular, Schwartz said.

“When you create a good immersive, it allows people to touch, to interact with the environment,” he said.

Hoover Elementary Principal Dennis Harnack said students from the Iowa City school visit the museum every year and that incoming students likely also will experience the new exhibit.

“I’m fairly confident we’ll be involved at some point,” he said.

Harnack said Hoover staff is preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Hoover Elementary, which opened in 1954. Preparations include plans for a float in a City High homecoming parade and to use Herbert Hoover dollar coins as rewards through the school’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program.

Reach Holly Hines at hhines2@press-citizen.com or at 887-5414.