Collections
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives holds more than one million volumes and over 6,000 archival collections that document war, revolution, and peace and social, political, and economic change that shaped our world in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Search Our Collections
Our collections contain rare and unique library materials and archives that include posters, photographs, texts, sound recordings, moving images, and art and memorabilia.
Documenting war, revolution, and peace, along with political, social, and economic change in the modern era, our collections come from across the globe and in many formats and languages. Search and discover rare materials from all political persuasions which highlight a spectrum of voices and experiences that shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. Personal papers form the bulk of our collections, however we also have extensive photographica, digital records, rare publications, and other formats spanning roughly 30 miles of shelving and evergrowing terabytes of data.
Collecting Areas
Our curators oversee and actively acquire collections which currently originate from 171 countries.
Featured News
News
Alex de Waal Speaks at the Hoover Institution and Explores Family Documents at the Library & Archives
Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and a leading authority on Africa and the history of modern famine, delivered a talk at the Hoover Institution and reconnected with his grandmother through the archives.
News
Hoover Institution Acquires Valuable Photo Album on the East River Column, an Anti-Japanese Communist Guerrilla Unit during World War II
A photo album acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives as part of the Huang Xinbo 黄新波 papers, documents the column’s guerrilla activities and will provide valuable insights into the history of Hong Kong and China during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).
News
Hoover Institution Acquires the Archives of Reason Magazine Co-founder Robert W. Poole Jr.
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives recently acquired the papers of Robert W. Poole Jr., a co-founder of Reason magazine, and an expert on public policy related to aviation and surface transportation.
News
Hoover Institution Acquires The Kamil Bena Papers
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives has acquired the papers of Kamil Bena, a fantastic resource for researchers interested in Czechs in exile, from Europe and Canada to the United States and Australia. These papers reflect the activities of an array of organizations from the political and cultural to youth organizations.
News
Hoover Institution Library & Archives Reconnects With Taiwan in The Post-Pandemic Era
Hoover Institution Library & Archives Director Eric Wakin and Curator of Modern China and Taiwan Hsiao-ting Lin visited Taiwan at the invitation of a number of institutions and organizations on the island state.
Featured Collections
Japan and Japanese Diaspora Collections
These collections focus on social, political, and economic change from the Meiji (1868–1911) to post–World War II reconstruction (1945–52) periods in Japan and overseas Japanese communities.
Ukraine Collections
Covering the emergence and development of Ukraine as an independent state since 1991, as well as earlier periods.
Chiang Kai-shek & Chiang Ching-kuo Diaries
The Hoover Institution has been helping preserve the handwritten diaries of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo since Chiang family members deposited them at Hoover in 2005.
Policies & Practices
We continue to advance Herbert Hoover’s mission by fulfilling our strategic priorities of acquiring important historical collections on war, revolution, and peace. Our collections deal in subjects that encompass a broad range of human experiences. Policies and practices are in place to ensure that materials are cared for and made available for their ongoing use. Learn more about collection donations, description, digitization, preservation practices, and potentially harmful language and visual materials.
