page_title: J. Edgar Hoover
section_title: Early leadership
hierarchical_section_title: J. Edgar Hoover / Department of Justice / Bureau of Investigation / Early leadership
caption_attribution_description: English: Dec. 23, 1929 – A rare photo of J. Edgar Hoover as he oversees the protection detail for the visiting Japanese Naval Delegation in Washington, D.C. The Japanese delegation were were on their way to attend negotiations for the 1930 The London Naval Treaty (officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament). The delegation was greeted at the Washington Union (train) Station by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson and the Japanese Ambassador Katsuji Debuchi. The delegation then went to the White House to meet with President Herbert Hoover.
context_page_description: John Edgar Hoover was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI's predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director for another 37 years until his death in 1972 at the age of 77. Hoover has been credited with building the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency than it was at its inception and with instituting a number of modernizations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Hoover is also credited with establishing and expanding a national blacklist, referred to as the FBI Index or Index List, renamed in 2001 as the Terrorist Screening Database which the FBI still compiles and manages.
  Later in life and after his death, Hoover became a controversial figure as evidence of his secretive abuses of power began to surface.
context_section_description: Hoover was sometimes unpredictable in his leadership. He frequently fired Bureau agents, singling out those he thought "looked stupid like truck drivers," or whom he considered "pinheads." He also relocated agents who had displeased him to career-ending assignments and locations. Melvin Purvis was a prime example: Purvis was one of the most effective agents in capturing and breaking up 1930s gangs, and it is alleged that Hoover maneuvered him out of the Bureau because he was envious of the substantial public recognition Purvis received.
  Hoover often praised local law-enforcement officers around the country, and built up a national network of supporters and admirers in the process. One whom he often commended for particular effectiveness was the conservative sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, J. Howell Flournoy.
  A rare candid photo of J. Edgar Hoover was discovered while doing research on U.S. Japan relations. On Dec. 23, 1929 - Hoover oversaw the protection detail for the Japanese Naval Delegation who were visiting Washington, D.C., on their way to attend negotiations for the 1930 London Naval Treaty (officially called Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament). The Japanese delegation was greeted at the Washington Union (train) Station by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson and the Japanese Ambassador Katsuji Debuchi. This Dec. 23rd, 1929 photo is shown on the right. It presents the members of the Japanese delegation, the Japanese ambassador, and the secretary of state, with J. Edgar Hoover in the background adjacent to a police officer. The Japanese delegation then visited the White House to meet with President Herbert Hoover.
caption: December 23, 1929 - This photo offers a rare candid view of J. Edgar Hoover, who is wearing the straw hat in the background and standing near a policeman. It is a sectional view of the larger group photo. This sectional view allowed the enlargement necessary to clearly view J. Edgar Hoover. It presents a unique glimpse of Hoover during a Bureau of Investigation (prior name of the FBI) field operation, when he wasn’t posing for the camera.[36]