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Hoover (Thelner B.) and Hoover (Louise E. B.) photographic collection
UARC.0647
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Thelner Barton Hoover (UCLA 1930) and Louise Eleanor Brown Hoover (UCLA 1930) photographic collection
Creator:
Hoover, Louise Eleanor Brown
Creator:
Hoover, Thelner Barton
Identifier/Call Number: UARC.0647
Physical Description:
122 Linear Feet
[41 cartons (41 linear ft.) 26 shoe boxes (5.2 linear ft.) 65 film reels (75.8 linear ft.)]
Date (inclusive): 1921-1982
Abstract: Record Series 647 contains the photographic and manuscript materials of Thelner Barton Hoover (UCLA 1930) and Louise Eleanor
Brown Hoover (UCLA 1930).
Language of Material:
English
.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance through our electronic paging system using the "Request items" button.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant
permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish or quote must
be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian, UCLA Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows:
© The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. See the Existence and Location of Copies note for the link to the digitized
materials.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9945140773606533
[Identification of item], Thelner Barton Hoover (UCLA 1930) and Louise Eleanor Brown Hoover (UCLA 1930) Photographic Collection
(University Archives Record Series 647). UCLA Library Special Collections, University Archives.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
The collection was a gift from the Louise Hoover Trust, donated April 4, 1991. Additional items were donated by Keith Brown
in December 1996.
Processed by Inez Gil; Karen Baxter; Laura R. Gonzales, 1997 April; 2001 February; 2008 Winter Quarter.
Preservation and archival processing of the Thelner and Louise Hoover Collection was generously supported by the Gold Shield
Alumnae of UCLA.
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interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
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Thelner Barton Hoover, photographer, and his wife, Louise Brown Hoover, both UCLA Class of 1930, served UCLA in various capacities
for over 50 years. Thelner B. Hoover began his career in 1921 as a student photographer for his Rockford Illinois high school
yearbook. When his family moved to California, he attended Pasadena Junior College, and was the official student photographer
for that campus from 1925 until graduating in 1927. T.B. Hoover attended the University of California, Los Angeles from 1927
until he graduated in 1930. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity. He was the official student photographer
for "The Southern Campus" yearbook, the Daily Bruin (student newspaper) and the Athletic News Bureau. As a student, he financed
and co-produced with Bud Graybill, a 35mm film entitled "The Bruin Review," which featured the move from the Vermont Campus
to Westwood. This film was a part of the student Charter Day event in March 1930. Thelner made films of UCLA football games
before Stan Troutman took over. He began a series of aerial photographs of the campus and the surrounding community in 1929
and continued this series after graduation. Thelner continued to document UCLA after his graduation. Some of his photographs
are included in "UCLA on the Move" by John B. Jackson and Andrew Hamilton, and in "California of the Southland" published
in 1937.
In 1938, Thelner became the manager of the Westwood Village Studio, a photography studio specializing in portraits. He was
the official photographer for the Southern California Tennis Association from 1929 until 1942. He photographed many events
and VIPs at many of the Westside country clubs and hotels, particularly the Beverly Wilshire. He photographed the Las Floristas
Headress Ball, national conventions of the Delta Zeta, Pi Beta Pi and Alpha Chi Delta sororities. His photographs were published
in many national magazines including color covers of "Sunset Magazine" and the "Los Angeles Times Home Magazine." Thelner
Hoover was a photography instructor for UCLA Extension Division for 20 years. He opened the Department of Journalism at Pasadena
City College and taught Pictorial Journalism for four years. Thelner also belonged to the Westwood Village Lion's Club for
39 years and served as its president. And he was a member of the Blue Key Men's Honorary. He was active in the UCLA Alumni
Association for many years and served as the Alumni Travel Chairman and official photographer. He was also co-chair with his
wife, Louise, for the 1975 reunion of the Class of 1930.
Louise E. Brown (Hoover) was a member of the Delta Zeta Sorority, Alpha Chi Chapter, UCLA. She was active in the University
Dramatic Society and worked for the Athletic News Bureau as a UCLA student. After graduation, she worked as a radio actress.
Louise Brown and Thelner Hoover were married in August 1930. Louise Hoover began an active association with many different
UCLA service clubs and organizations after she graduated. L. Hoover was a member of the Alumni Council from 1945 until 1947.
She was a life member of the Alumni Assocation, serving as Vice President from 1949 until 1951. She served on many Alumni
Association committees including the Scholarship, Charter Day and Homecoming committees. Louise was an active member of the
Gold Shield for 33 years and served both on the board and as Vice President. She was a charter member of the Westwood Women's
Bruin Club, and was a long-time member of the Affiliates, serving on the Board and as Vice President. Louise Hoover served
as the Class of 1930 secretary for many years and helped organize various reunions of that class.
Record Series 647 (The Thelner and Louise Hoover collection, spanning the years 1921-1982) consists primarily of Thelner Hoover's
photographs and negatives. The collection contains black and white photographs, color photographs, negatives, color slides,
16mm films, and a few daguerrotypes, tintypes, ambrotypes, glass lantern slides, glass negatives and two autochromes. The
collection also includes personal papers and manuscripts relating to Thelner and Louise's personal life, travels, their involvement
with UCLA, and Thelner's professional work.
The majority of the photographs are Hoover's professional portraits of individuals and groups, and of social, business, and
sporting events in the West Los Angeles area. There are photographs of brides and weddings; events at the Beverly Wilshire
Hotel; celebrities and political figures, including Ronald and Nancy Reagan; sporting events, including those of the Southern
California Tennis Association; many social events and conferences of various sororities, including Delta Zeta, Alpha Chi Delta,
Alpha Delta Pi; fraternities, such as Sigma Alpha Epsilon; various women's groups; the Las Floristas Headress Balls; and examples
of his product and architecture photography. The majority of these photographs are not specifically identified.
The collection also contains Hoover's personal family photographs. The earliest photographs, estimated to be in the late 1800's,
are of the generation preceding him and his wife. It may be that the daguerrotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes are Hoover or
Brown family members or it may be his collection of early photographic techniques, as these portraits are not identified.
There are early portraits of Thelner and Louise, their wedding portraits, and those of their two daughters, Janeen and Lisa.
The collection contains many photographs of social occasions and celebrations of holidays with their friends and family.
The Hoovers traveled a great deal and documented their trips well. Thelner's early artistic photography work focused on landscape.
His later travel photographs reflect some of this early interest in landscape, but expanded to include the documentation of
the place, its architecture and life. In addition to some of the fine art photography, the collection also includes many snapshot
travel photographs. The collection documents Sequoia and Yosemite from the late 1920s and early 1930s; Idyllwild in the late
1930s; Lake Tahoe in 1930 (taken during their honeymoon); Taxco, Mexico in the late 1930s; Lake Tagish (Yukon) in 1938; and
the Canadian Rockies in the early 1940s. There are photographs of Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, France, Holland, Denmark,
Yugoslavia, Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok, Tokyo, Bali, Hong Kong, Tahiti, and other locations.
The UCLA collection of photographs ranges from the State Normal School in 1925 through the Alumni Association Awards in 1982.
Thelner documented the history of UCLA beginning with the Vermont Avenue Campus in 1927; the Westwood Campus groundbreaking
ceremony in 1927; photographs of book illustrations of the Italian buildings which inspired the architecture of Royce Hall
and the Powell Library buildings; the construction of Royce Hall, the Powell Library, and Kinsey Hall (the Physics building);
the UCLA Band in 1928; models of the earliest buildings: Chemistry, Haines, Moore, and others; and the moving days to the
Westwood campus. There are only portions or strips of his film, "The Bruin Review" identified in the collection. A highlights
of the collection includes the construction of Royce Hall and the Powell Library building. There are 1929 glass negatives
which depict the Powell Library and UCLA's 1st registration; while the two autochromes show Haines Hall and Louise Brown.
Thelner began a series of aerial photographs of the UCLA campus and surrounding area of Westwood in 1929. He photographed
the campus from the air again in January and April 1930, in 1936 (from the Goodyear Blimp), 1938, and 1952. The collection
contains photographs of the dedication of his aerial mural which was hung in the UCLA Ackerman Student Union Westwood Room
in 1962 and was later moved to the University Religious Conference Building.
Thelner recorded the dedication of UCLA on March 26, 1930. The collection contains over sixty negatives and prints of this
ceremony, with portraits of President Campbell, Sproul, Moore, Barrett, Hedricks, Dickson, Dodd, John Dewey, Case, Gimble,
and others. It also contains photographs of the Mira Hershey Hall dedication, commencement, the Bookstore and Coop, football
practice, the first snowfall on campus in 1932, and the Clark Library fourth Annual celebration in 1948. Other events in the
collection include John Wooden's last game, the Class of 1930's 30th and 40th reunion, and the 1982 Alumni Association Awards.
There are various sports photographs of basketball, track, and tennis. And there are photographs of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon
(SAE) fraternity presenting UCLA Football coach Tommy Prothero with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Thelner photographed
many dignitaries and UCLA important people such as Dwight Eisenhower, Charles Young, Ralph Freud, Kenneth McGowan, Arthur
Ashe, Robert B. Campbell, Edwin Pauley, Franklin Murphy, and many others as yet unidentified. He photographed Ralph Bunche,
John Wooden, and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). However, these negatives or prints have yet to be located within the
collection.
In addition to the photographs, there are 65 cannisters of 16mm films, 12 reels of 16mm and 6 reels of sound recording tape,
and 5 reels of 16mm film identified as UCLA. These films have not yet been assessed for content.
Included in the personal papers and manuscript materials of the collection are publicity newspaper articles; UCLA Alumni Association
travel records and Alumni magazines; information about Gold Shield, the Affiliates, Westwood Women's Bruin Club, and the UCLA
University Club; information about Delta Zeta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon; records of his photography business; and miscellaneous
memorabilia. In addition, there are yearbooks from UCLA's "The Southern Campus," years 1941 and 1942; Pasadena High School,
years 1918, 1925, and 1928; Pasadena Junior College, 1928; and Pasadena City College, years 1948 and 1950. The collection
contains some objects, such as two 4 x 5 wooden negative holders, a slide attache case, and two boxes of mats imprinted with
his business name.
This is an inactive record series; no additional University records are expected to be added.
Existence and Location of Copies
Digitized materials are available electronically at
https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/3vb00000zz-89112.