On September 4, Andris Rāzans, the Latvian ambassador to the United States, and Dace Melbarde, the Latvian minister of culture, visited the Hoover Institution Library & Archives and viewed items from the archives’ Latvian collections, including treasures that are shown to such visitors. Later that day, Pēteris Kārlis Elferts, ambassador at large for the Latvian diaspora, spoke at Hoover on “Protest and Civil Disobedience: The Struggle for Baltic Independence.”

The Hoover Institution Archives has recently acquired the papers of Jan Jasiewicz, a Polish officer imprisoned in Germany during World War II. Jasiewicz was one of the organizers of the prison camp theater, as well as its archivist and chronicler. The collection includes hand-painted announcements, programs, costume designs, detailed lists of participants, and photographs taken by German guards.

On August 8, Eric Wakin, the Robert H. Malott director of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, was the keynote speaker at the annual Hoover Hometown Days festivities in West Branch, Iowa. He spoke about Herbert Hoover and the founding and history of the Hoover Institution and the connections between Stanford and West Branch. The celebration was hosted by the Hoover Presidential Foundation and held on the front lawn of the Hoover Presidential Library Museum.

Hoover Library & Archives have acquired the records of The Society of Russian Veterans of World War I in Los Angeles (cataloged under its Russian name as Obshchestvo russkikh veteranov Velikoĭ voĭny v gorode Los Anzhelose), an organization founded in 1925 to unify the veteran officers and soldiers of the Russian Imperial and White armies who had moved to Southern California at the end of the Russian civil war. The records include the organization’s bulletins, correspondence, and flyers, as well as members’ papers detailing their lives and achievements.