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 Personal Papers of Shih Ming-te, a Revolutionary in Contemporary Taiwan
Twenty-five years in prison, thirteen of which were in solitary confinement. Discover the personal papers of Shih Ming-te, the legendary dissident whose unwavering commitment to democracy helped transform Taiwan from dictatorship to democracy.
News
Remarkable Pictorial Archive of Female WWII Photographer Agnes Pickering Comes to Hoover
Over two thousand previously unpublished photographs documents female military service throughout World War II. Agnes “Jo” Pickering captured these historic scenes, tracing her journey from California training sites to European Victory in Europe Day festivities.
News
Two Days in September
A Hoover oral history project asked Americans and Afghans where they were when the world changed, and found them living one event from opposite ends of the earth.
News
Rare Russo-Dutch Red Cross Field Hospital Photo Album Comes to Hoover
New archival album reveals the untold story of a Russo-Dutch Red Cross field hospital on the brutal front lines of the Russo-Japanese War.
News
Hoover Acquires the John S. Widdicombe Papers
A compelling archive detailing early postwar Poland from the perspective of an American UN worker shortly before the descent of the Iron Curtain.
News
Hoover Acquires Rare Photograph Archive of a U.S. Army Commander’s Controversial 1944 Tour of Saipan and the Marshall Islands
This unique window into Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson's 1944 tour of Saipan during the Pacific War illuminates the consequences of battle and the Army-Marine rivalry that threatened to undermine the Allied victory.
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.
