The Hoover Archives has received a collection of documents, postcards and letters connected with the work of the American Relief Administration. Herbert Hoover organized and directed the ARA, providing assistance to millions of displaced and hungry victims of World War I. The collection, consisting mostly of stamped postal requests and acknowledgements from individuals and private organizations assisting in the American aid effort, covers the entire period of the ARA’s operation in Central and Eastern Europe, from its early 1919 start in Austria, Hungary and Poland, until the summer of 1923, the end of the American mission in Moscow. The materials illustrate the different communication channels utilized by the ARA as well as document the history of the various national mail services that facilitated ARA work in the region.
The donor, Arthur H. Groten, MD is a life member of the American Philatelic Society, a Fellow in the Royal Philatelic Society, London, as well as President of the Ephemera Society of America.
