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
Hoover Acquires Papers Of Legendary Aviator Royal Leonard
A collection on pioneering American aviator Royal Leonard, best known as Chiang Kai-shek’s personal pilot before World War II, has come to the Hoover Library & Archives and joins significant holdings on American pilots in 1930s China.
News
The Hoover Institution Acquires The Papers Of Viktor Petrov
The papers of Viktor Porfirievich Petrov (1907–2000), a geographer and historian who wrote extensively on Russians in America and China, have been acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
News
Hoover Acquires The Papers Of Cold War Expert Gregg Herken
A new increment to the collection of Gregg Herken, American historian and professor Emeritus of History, has arrived at the archives. It contains documents, notes, photographs, and correspondence related to The Georgetown Set, a historical portrait of Washington DC Cold Warriors who helped shape strategy in the years after WWII.
News
Inaugural Course Introduces Hoover Library & Archives to Stanford Students
Stanford Winter Quarter course INTNLREL 25 introduced students to the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, its staff, and the work it takes to manage and make accessible a century's worth of collecting.
News
Hoover Acquires Personal Manuscript By Kuo Pin, An Insider Of The Nationalist Chinese Secret Service
A personal manuscript by Kuo Pin, an Insider of the Nationalist Chinese Secret Service, has been acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
News
Newly Cataloged Materials March 2024
Diverse resources, from Chiang Kai-shek's diaries and the Treaty of Paris to Imperial Russia and today's Russian Federation, are part of the newly cataloged library materials that will spark your curiosity.
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.