On September 26, 2016 one of the numerous artillery shells that the Chinese Communists had dropped on Quemoy Island in 1958 arrived at Hoover as a gift from the Taiwanese government. Joseph Ma, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, presented the artillery shell at a ceremony at Hoover to Eric Wakin, the Robert H. Malott Director of the Library & Archives. The artillery shell, which will join the pieces of the Berlin Wall as part of Hoover’s unique holdings on the Cold War, will be displayed at the new exhibit entitled Unpacking History: New Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.  The exhibition opens on September 27, 2016 and runs until February 25, 2017.

This week, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives announces the debut of its GitHub page. GitHub is the world’s leading repository of open-source software, and we are thrilled to be able to share some tools we developed for our audiovisual labs.

On September 15^th, Hoover Library & Archives welcomed a group of former pilots and crew members who once flew with the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), many of whom have donated archival materials that enhance the significant holdings on modern China at Hoover Archives. CNAC was the most significant airline operating in China during the 1930s, and during World War II CNAC pilots became known for flying the route across the Himalayas known as “The Hump”—at the time, perhaps the most dangerous path of aerial travel in the world. During their visit, the former CNAC employees and their family members viewed rare archival materials from Hoover’s collections, spoke with curators and conservators about preservation and access to materials, and enjoyed a talk entitled “China’s Wings: A Conversation with Legendary Chinese National Aviation Corporation Pilots and Crew Members.”