A finding aid has recently been provided for the Susan Louise Dyer collection in the archives. The Dyer papers reflect her personal ties to Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, her work for the American Red Cross and the Girl Scouts, and her association with Stanford University.
While a student at Stanford, Susan Louise Dyer first became friends with Lou Henry Hoover and then Herbert Hoover, and she remained close to both Hoovers during their lifetimes. In 1932, she served as chairwoman of the Women’s Hoover for President Club in Palo Alto. Her papers contain correspondence with Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover, as well as numerous clippings about the latter’s political career and activities after leaving the presidency. Dyer’s friendship with the Hoovers was the focus of an extensive oral history interview conducted in 1966, a transcript of which can be found in the papers.
Dyer was a volunteer with the American Red Cross in France and Germany after World War I. Her papers contain detailed descriptions of her experiences in the many letters she wrote at the time to her friend Louise B. Fuller. The papers also contain materials concerning Dyer’s long involvement with the Girl Scouts movement in the United States, as well as to her fund-raising activities on behalf of Stanford University and the Hoover Library.
