Cynthia Adams Hoover

Cynthia Adams Hoover (born December 16, 1934) is an American curator specializing in musical instruments. Born in Nebraska, she worked at the National Museum of American History as a curator of musical instruments from 1961 until 2004, and she was president of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music from 1989 until 1995. A 1985 Guggenheim Fellow, her work includes the Smithsonian's project on the diary of piano manufacturer William Steinway. Biography Cynthia Adams Hoover was born on December 16, 1934, in Lexington, Nebraska. She obtained her BA (1957) from Wellesley College, MAT (1958) from Radcliffe College, and MFA (1961) from Brandeis University. She was the first chair of the Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture, serving from 1988 until 1996. among the projects completed on that fellowship was Piano 300, Other exhibitions she curated include Music in Early Massachusetts, Music Machines—American Style, and Nineteenth-Century American Ballroom Music, 1840–1860, and she also helped bring the diaries into Smithsonian custody. In 1989, she became president of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music (CIMCIM), serving until 1995.

In 1962, she married Roland Armitage Hoover, a printer and graphic designer. The couple had two daughters. (with Edwin M. Good and Patrick Rucker) Piano 300 (2001)