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
Kao Tsu, The Man Who Turned A New Page On Sino-US Naval Relations—A New Acquisition At The Hoover Institution
Kao Tsu was a Nationalist Chinese naval officer who served under Chiang Kai-shek. Learn about the role he played to help prepare postwar China’s contribution to the United Nations’ sea power for keeping peace in the Western Pacific, and his role in the Quemoy Defense Command during the 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis.
Press
New Exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives In A Time Of Famine Opens At The Hoover Institution Library & Archives
American medical relief in Soviet Russia and Ukraine is the subject of a new exhibition opening September 19 at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives and curated by Hoover research fellow Bertrand Patenaude. It brings to light an American rescue operation during a catastrophic famine a century ago, when food and medical relief were equally critical to saving millions of lives. The exhibition is open to the public in Hoover Tower through April 28, 2023.
News
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives Welcomes Taube Family Curator for European Collections
Dr. Katharina Friedla has joined the Hoover Institution Library & Archives the Taube Family Curator for European Collections. She will oversee one of the largest and most comprehensive parts of Hoover’s international holdings and succeeds Maciej Siekierski, Curator for the European Collections, Emeritus.
News
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives Welcomes New Assistant Director
With over 23 years of Library experience, Roxanne Peck brings a wealth of knowledge to the Hoover Institution Library & Archives as its new assistant director.
News
Papers of US Political Scientist, Brendan Kiernan on USSR and Russian Federation—a New Acquisition at the Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives has recently acquired the papers of Brendan Kiernan, a US political scientist and consultant whose research and activities took him to the USSR and Russian Federation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
News
Celebrating Herbert Hoover’s Humanitarian Relief Work
Scholars, family, and community members gather to reflect on Herbert Hoover’s food and medical relief operations during the 1921–23 famine in Soviet Russia and Ukraine.
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.
