Hoover School at Rapidan

Object NamePrint

Artist / Maker Jay Norwood Darling (American, 1876 - 1962)

Date1929 or 1930

MediumEtching and drypoint

Dimensions3 15/16 x 6 in. (10 x 15.2 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM82.145

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextThis etching was made as a Christmas gift for President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover. Darling had been an occasional guest at the Hoovers' camp at Rapidan, Virginia, and he must have made this etching of the school there after a visit in 1929 or 1930. On another impression of this print Darling wrote: "a modest reminder of the pleasant days we spent at the President's summer camp. The jaunt to the School House built for the children of the Blue Ridge mountaineers who had never even heard of 'Lindy'- and our visit with the Buraker children of whom William Grant, the eldest, and his o'possum furnished the impetus for the building of the school. With best wishes for a Merry Christmas J.N. Darling" Darling wrote to Mrs. Hoover in 1930 that he had been so astounded by the fact that the children never having heard of Lindbergh that he almost took to sending the family the "Sunday Herald Tribune," except "for the fear of an unwelcomed intrusion." Although this impression is dated 1929, the date has been questioned by Phyllis E. Foster, curator of the Hoover Library, who wrote in a letter of March 1, 1984, that "The school did not open until February 23, 1930, and Ding Darling visited the President's camp in the Spring of 1930. Charles Lindberg was a frequent visitor to the camp, but the 'possum' was a birthday gift to President Hoover on August 10, 1929." The oppossum was apparently live.

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