Lou Henry Hoover beyond Akron's launch ceremony

First Lady Lou Henry Hoover's role extended far beyond sponsoring Akron's launch. She worked with the Girl Scouts and spoke several languages. She is credited here, with some uncertainty in the recollection, with translating the sixteenth-century mining and metallurgy treatise De Re Metallica. The Hoovers also lived in China during the Boxer Rebellion and were present during the fighting at Tientsin. Akron's ceremony therefore leads into her work in education and technical history as well as her experience during an earlier international crisis.