The Hoover Library & Archives: 100 Years of Historical Studies at Stanford and Beyond

East European Studies and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

The Hoover Institution Library & Archives, with its vast collections of original material on war, revolution, peace and human freedom, are a core component of the institution that Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) founded at Stanford in 1919. Originally built around material relating to Hoover’s food relief efforts during World War I, the Archives grew with an emphasis on saving materials that would ordinarily be quickly lost: publications intended to respond to a specific historical moment, eyewitness accounts of historical events, correspondence and memoranda by public figures, and the documentation of global social movements. Hoover was especially prescient in collecting source materials on ideologies which he saw shaping the new global politics. As the Hoover Institution celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, we examine the history of these collections, their meaning for historians, and how they are used by students, faculty, and researchers in their scholarly work.
Eric Wakin is the Robert H. Malott Director of Library & Archives and Deputy Director of the Hoover Institution. Before coming to Hoover, he was the Herbert H. Lehman Curator for American History and the Curator of Manuscripts at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University, where he also taught courses in the history department.
Norman Naimark is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in East European Studies and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He previously served as the Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program, Director of Stanford’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, Chair of its History Department, and Director of Stanford’s interdisciplinary programs in International Relations and International Policy Studies.
Reception to follow