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
Hoover Acquires the Archives of Award-Winning Biographer Heath Hardage Lee
This collection offers insights into the craft of modern biography, the recovery of women’s voices in American political history, and the transformation of archival evidence into public knowledge.
News
Hoover Acquires Family Papers of Yang Yongtai, An Influential Bureaucrat in Chiang Kai-shek’s Regime
Donated by Yang's descendants, these rare materials include family photographs and personal papers that shed new light on leadership, politics, ideology, and conflict in Republican China during the 1930s.
News
Newly Cataloged Library Materials Fall 2025
From Cold War accusations of biological warfare and debates over the role of journalism to the dynamics of postwar Yugoslav repression and the literary culture of Soviet intelligence, this fall's newly cataloged items cover a broad spectrum of 20th century history. Reserve a seat in the Reading Room to explore them.
News
Hoover Acquires Collections Documenting Lives Of Imperial Japanese Navy Aviators, Including Kamikaze Pilots, During Final Stages Of World War II
The newly acquired Yokaren collection offers a rare and human window into the lives of young Imperial Japanese Navy aviators — many of whom became kamikaze pilots. By making these materials accessible, Hoover enables the continued study of World War II in the Pacific.
News
Hoover Acquires the Collection of Oral Historian Griffin Fariello
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives has acquired an extensive collection of oral histories related to the Red Scare that were conducted by Bay Area author and Stanford alumnus Griffin Fariello.
Russia Abroad Digital Collection Surpasses One Million Pages Digitized In First Year
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives' launched the Russia Abroad Digital Collection in November 2024 and today celebrates a major milestone: more than one million fully searchable pages from nearly six hundred Russian émigré newspapers are now available worldwide through its open-access platform.
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.
