Herbert Hoover subject collection, 1895-2006

Summary

Abstract:

Correspondence, writings, printed matter, photographs, motion picture film, and sound recordings, relating to the career of Herbert Hoover as president of the United States and as relief administrator during World Wars I and II. Sound use copies of sound recordings available. Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.

Extent:

356 manuscript boxes, 19 oversize boxes, 31 card file boxes, 1 AV tray, 2 oversize folders, 92 envelopes, 8 microfilm reels, 3 videocassettes, 34 sound tape reels, 2 sound cassettes, 35 phonorecords, memorabilia (218.8 Linear Feet)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Herbert Hoover subject collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

Between 1919, when he founded the Hoover Institution, and his death in 1964, Herbert Hoover routinely deposited papers of historical value at the Hoover Institution, including, in 1933, papers he accumulated as secretary of commerce and president of the United States. In 1962, the Department of Commerce and presidential files were transferred to the then newly established Herbert Hoover Presidential Library at West Branch, Iowa, administered by the U.S. National Archives and Records Service. When he deeded these papers to the federal government, Mr. Hoover specified that records relating to war and peace and certain other materials were to remain at the Hoover Institution. It is this latter group of materials, together with some items added after his death, that is described here.

The Herbert Hoover Collection in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives covers the years from 1895 to 1976 and contains some 278,000 items (185 linear feet). These materials document Mr. Hoover's relief activities during and after World War I and II, his relationship with President Woodrow Wilson, his political and personal philosophy, his post-presidential career, his public service activities, and his public reputation. The principal series include a biographical file; correspondence with Woodrow Wilson; speeches and writings; articles, clippings, press summaries, and press releases about him; analyses of editorial comment published during the Hoover administration; correspondence; subject file and card file, as well as memorabilia, microfilms, motion picture films, sound recordings, and photographs. Selected materials on his service as secretary of commerce and president are also present.

The biographical series in the collection documents much of Mr. Hoover's personal and family life, including his education at Stanford University, his early business career in mining, and the honors and awards he earned. Of particular importance as a record of his daily activities are his original appointment calendars for the periods 1917-1920 and the presidential years 1929-1933 (boxes 1-2). A sizeable file of obituaries and eulogies (box 3) is also present.

The correspondence between Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson constitutes a valuable part of the collection. These letters reveal major policies of the relief and conservation programs directed by Mr. Hoover during World War I, the characteristics of Wilson's administrative style, and the special relationship of trust and confidence that developed between the two men. Many of these letters were published in The Hoover-Wilson Wartime Correspondence: September 24, 1914 to November 11, 1918(Iowa State University Press, 1974) and Two Peacemakers in Paris: The Hoover-Wilson Post Armistice Letters, 1918-1920 (Texas A & M University Press, 1978), both edited by Francis William O'Brien.

The U.S. Commerce Department and presidential files consist primarily of selected copies of papers located at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. Some important original material is present, however, including a portion of Mr. Hoover's Commerce Department correspondence (boxes 11-12), Gen. Douglas MacArthur's report to the attorney general and other documentation on the 1932 bonus march on Washington, D. C. (boxes 23-24), material on the presidential campaigns of 1928 and 1932 (boxes 74-77), as well as a lengthy memorandum defending the Hoover administration by Edward Eyre Hunt, economic adviser to Mr. Hoover (box 73).

The series of addresses, letters, magazine articles, and press statements, commonly referred to as "the Bible," is an extensive collection of Mr. Hoover's non-book writings and addresses. A detailed calendar identifying and describing all items in this series may be consulted in the archives' reading room. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library maintains a duplicate set of this series, together with a subject card index.

A second series of Mr. Hoover's speeches and writings contains material not in "the Bible," including printed copies of speeches, articles, and press statements, as well as original drafts of unpublished memoranda and published books. Memoranda relating to the U.S. Food Administration, the Paris Peace Conference, and relief in Europe (boxes 149-152) are of particular interest, as are those written between March and May 1933 and between September 1942 and November 1943, about critical political and international issues (box 153). This series also contains manuscript drafts and annotated galleys of several of Mr. Hoover's books, including Addresses upon the American Road; An American Epic,volumes I-IV; American Individualism; Challenge to Liberty;and Memoirs of Herbert Hoover (boxes 158-215). A published bibliography of his writings is Herbert Hoover: A Bibliography of His Writings and Addresses, compiled by Kathleen Tracey (Hoover Institution Press, 1977). Additional bibliographies are located in the biographical series (box 2).

Three series--writings about Herbert Hoover; clippings, press summaries, and press releases; and editorial analyses--provide a comprehensive record of how others saw Mr. Hoover and show the changing attitudes toward him over the years. They also give considerable information on various phases of his public career.

The correspondence series represents an uneven assortment of letters, sent and received by Mr. Hoover. Substantive matter may be found in the correspondence folders on Julius Barnes, Bernard Baruch, Hugh Gibson, James P. Goodrich, Joseph C. Grew, James A. Healy, Edward Eyre Hunt, Vernon Kellogg, John Callan O'Laughlin, John J. Pershing, Edgar Richard, H. Alexander Smith, George Sokolsky, Alonzo Taylor, Arthur H. Vandenberg, and William Allen White. The greater part of Mr. Hoover's correspondence file is located at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.

The subject file contains a variety of material collected by Mr. Hoover. Of particular importance are the folders on the Commission for Relief in Belgium (boxes 329-330), the American Relief Administration in Hungary and Russia (boxes 326-327), the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1914-1923 (box 336), the Republican Party (box 341), the 1937 attempt to pack the Supreme Court (box 344), and Mr. Hoover's position on national defense and U.S. involvement in World War II (box 355). This series also includes writings by A. R. Lamb on the Paris Peace Conference (box 337), by Hugh Gibson on isolationism and the United Nations (box 332), and the unfinished memoirs of Edward Eyre Hunt (boxes 335-336).

Motion picture films relate primarily to his World War I relief work, his reminiscences, presidential campaigns, his presidency, reorganization of the executive department in the federal government, and his funeral and memorial services. They consist of several titled productions, as well as numerous short newsreels. Titled films include "Herbert Hoover: Master of Emergencies," "We Fed Our Enemies," "Ordeal of Wilson: A Personal Memoir," and "Washington Service for Hoover." The newsreels cover the years between 1916 and 1949, with emphasis on the 1920s.

Other audiovisual materials include photographs and sound recordings. Over 3,000 photographs from individuals, news services, and government sources depict scenes from Mr. Hoover's life. A photograph card index may be consulted in the archives' reading room. Sound recordings are present for many of Mr. Hoover's speeches and addresses, 1938-1962, and for a memorial service recorded by the National Broadcasting Corporation on October 22, 1964.

In addition to the Herbert Hoover Collection, other materials on Mr. Hoover are available for research at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. The Herbert Hoover Oral History Collection contains transcripts of interviews with 315 individuals who knew Mr. Hoover. Records of organizations in which Mr. Hoover played an active part, as well as papers belonging to many of his friends and associates, are accessioned as individual collections. They provide substantial documentation on international relief activities, conservation in the United States during wartime, economic organization of federal government, and other subjects. These record groups total approximately 2,100 linear feet. Together with the Herbert Hoover Collection, they constitute one of the largest bodies of materials available anywhere to the student of Herbert Hoover's life and times.

Organizations closely associated with Herbert Hoover, which have deposited archives here, include the following:

1. American Children's Fund, 1923-1950
2. Better Homes in America, 1923-1935
3. C.R.B. Educational Foundation, 1921-1956
4. Citizens Committee for the Reorganization of the Executive Branch of the Government, 1949-1958
5. Commission for Polish Relief, 1939-1949
6. Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1919
7. Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1940
8. European Technical Advisers, 1919-1923
9. Fight for Freedom Committee, 1940-1942
10. Finnish Relief Fund, 1939-1946
11. First Aid for Hungary, 1956-1957
12. National Committee on Food for Small Democracies, 1940-1942
13. Paderewski Testimonial Fund, 1941-1959
14. President's Research Committee on Social Trends, 1929-1932
15. Red Cross. U.S. American National Red Cross, 1917-1921
16. Stanford University. Food Research Institute, 1919-1955
17. U.S. American Relief Administration, European Operations, 1919-1923
18. U.S. American Relief Administration, Russian Operations, 1921-1923
19. U.S. Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, 1947-1949 and 1953-1955
20. U.S. Food Administration, 1916-1919
21. U.S. Fuel Administration, 1916-1919
22. U.S. National Industrial Conference, 1st, Washington, D.C., 1919
23. U.S. National Industrial Conference, 2nd, Washington, D.C., 1919-1920
24. U.S. President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership, Washington, D.C., 1931
25. U.S. President's Famine Emergency Committee, 1946-1947
26. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Washington, D.C., 1930

The papers of friends, associates, and relatives of Herbert Hoover are accessioned as individual collections under their own names and include the following:

1. Adams, Ephraim D.
2. Allen, Benjamin S.
3. Allen, Ronald
4. Arnold, Ralph
5. Axentieff, N.
6. Babb, Nancy
7. Bailey, H.S.
8. Baker, Elizabeth N.
9. Baker, George Barr
10. Bane, Suda L.
11. Barber, Alvin B.
12. Barker, Burt Brown
13. Barringer, Thomas C.
14. Bayne, Joseph Breckinridge
15. Bekeart, Laura H.
16. Bell, James F.
17. Blackwelder, Eliot
18. Bland, Raymond L.
19. Bliss, Tasker H.
20. Brandt, Karl
21. Brooks, Sidney
22. Brown, Everett S.
23. Brown, Hugh S.
24. Brown, Walter Lyman
25. Bruns, Armin R.
26. Burr, Myron C.
27. Caetani, Gelasio Benedetto Anatolio
28. Carroll, Philip H.
29. Chadbourn, Philip H. and William H.
30. Chatfield, Frederick H.
31. Childs, James R.
32. Christol, Carl Q.
33. Clark, Birge M.
34. Cleveland, Maude
35. Collins, James Hiram
36. Colton, Ethan T.
37. Cooper, Merian C.
38. Cotner, Robert A.
39. Crandall, Berton W.
40. Cripe, Harry E.
41. Crispell, Reuben B.
42. Curtis, Charles
43. Darling, Jay Norwood
44. Davis, Joseph S.
45. Dickenson, Thomas H.
46. Dobson, Helen Cutter
47. Dolan, John A.
48. Dyer, Susan L.
49. Egbert, Edward H.
50. Eloesser, Nina F.
51. Emparan, Madie Brown
52. Exton, Frederick
53. Ferriere, Suzanne
54. Fisher, Harold H.
55. Fleming, Harold M.
56. Fuller, Adaline W.
57. Fuller, W. Parmer II
58. Galpin, Perrin C.
59. Gaskill, C.A.
60. Gay, George I.
61. Gibson, Hugh
62. Golder, Frank A.
63. Goldsmith, Alan G.
64. Good, James W.
65. Goodyear, A. Conger
66. Green, Joseph C.
67. Gregory, Thomas T.C.
68. Gugenheim, Alice A.
69. Hall, Charles L.
70. Hall, William Chapman
71. Hamilton, Minard
72. Hartigan, John D.
73. Hatfield, Mark O.
74. Haws, R. Calvert
75. Healy, James A.
76. Henry, Charles D.
77. Henry, John M.
78. Herrington, Dorothy
79. Hilton, Edna M.
80. Hinshaw, David
81. Holden, Frank H.
82. Holman, Emile
83. Hoover, Hulda Randall Minthorn
84. Hoover, Lou Henry
85. Hoover, Mildred Crew Brooke
86. Hoover, Theodore J.
87. Howe, Esther B.
88. Hruska, Roman L.
89. Huber, Johann Heinrich
90. Hudson, Ray M.
91. Huenergardt, Mrs. John F.
92. Hunt, Edward Eyre
93. Hutchinson, Lincoln
94. Irwin, William H.
95. Isabelle, Reno
96. Jacobs, John F. de
97. Jacobs-Pauwels, F. Marguerite
98. Jessey, Joseph
99. Johnson, George S.
100. Jones, Warren Arnold
101. Jordan, David Starr
102. Kelland, Clarence B.
103. Kellogg, Charlotte H.
104. Kellogg, R. H.
105. Kellogg, Vernon Lyman
106. Kershner, Howard
107. Kirby, Gustavus T.
108. Kirwan, J.W.
109. Kittredge, Mabel Hyde
110. Kittredge, Tracy B.
111. Klein, Julius
112. Lapteff, Alexis V.
113. Large, Jean Henry
114. Leavitt, May Hoover
115. Lusk, Graham
116. Lykes, Gibbes
117. Lyle, Annie G.
118. MacLafferty, James H.
119. MacRae, Lillian Mae
120. Mason, Frank E.
121. McCormick, Chauncey
122. McLean, Hulda Brooke Hoover
123. McMullin, Dare Stark
124. Merritt, Ralph P.
125. Merritt, Walle W.
126. Miller, Bernice
127. Moley, Raymond
128. Munro, Dana C.
129. Murphy, Merle Farmer
130. Murray, Augustus T.
131. Myers, William Starr
132. Nelson, David T.
133. Newsom, John F.
134. Orbison, Thomas J.
135. Paradise, Scott Hurtt
136. Patterson, David S.
137. Pennington, Levi T.
138. Pier, H.W.
139. Platt, Phillip S.
140. Poland, William B.
141. Potter, Mrs. W. T.
142. Requa, Mark L.
143. Richardson, Gardner
144. Ringland, Arthur C.
145. Robinson, Henry M.
146. Rodgers, Marvin
147. Rogers, James Grafton
148. Rosenbluth, Robert
149. Russell, Tom
150. Sabine, Edward G.
151. See, Elizabeth M.
152. Seward, Samuel S.
153. Shelton, Frederick D.
154. Sherwell, G. Butler
155. Simmons, Robert G.
156. Slaughter, Moses Stephen
157. Smith, Henry B.
158. Smith, Robinson
159. Snell, Jane
160. Snook, Mrs. John
161. Snyder, Frederic S.
162. Sprague, Joe S.
163. Stader, James A.
164. Starr, Walter A.
165. Stephens, Frederick Dorsey
166. Stilson, Fielding J.
167. Stockton, Gilchrist B.
168. Strauss, Lewis L.
169. Strench, Mary Minthorn
170. Sullivan, Mark
171. Surface, Frank M.
172. Taylor, Alonzo E.
173. Terman, Lewis M.
174. Thane, Mrs. J.E.
175. Thomas, Mrs. Jerome B.
176. Thurston, E. Coppee
177. Treat, Payson J.
178. Tuck, William Hallam
179. Upman, Frank
180. White, William L.
181. White, Helen Hartley Greene
182. Whitlock, Brand
183. Wilbur, Ray Lyman
184. Williams, Thomas
185. Willis, Edward F.
186. Wilson, Carol Green
187. Withington, Robert
188. Wolfe, Henry C.
189. Work, Hubert
190. Znamiecki, Alexander
191. Zolin, Fred H.

Detailed descriptions of both the organizational records and personal papers listed above may be found in Guide to the Hoover Institution Library & Archives (Hoover Institution Press, 1980) by Charles G. Palm and Dale Reed. These materials as well as the Herbert Hoover Collection may be examined in the archives' reading room in the Herbert Hoover Memorial Building (courtyard level) of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A limited number of photocopies may be purchased; a reproduction price list and policy statement are available on request. Inquiries should be addressed to the archivist.

Biographical / historical:

Date	Event
1874	Born, August 10, West Branch, Iowa
1895	A.B., Geology, Stanford University
1897-1914	International mining engineer
1899	Married Lou Henry (1874-1944)
1912-1962	Trustee, Stanford University
1914	Chairman, American Relief Committee Received first gold medal of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America
1914-1916	Vice-president, American Institute of Mining Engineers
1914-1920	Chairman, Commission for Relief in Belgium
1917-1920	Administrator, United States Food Administration
1918-1919	Alternating chairman, Inter-Allied Food Council Director-general, Relief for the Allied and Associated Powers Member, President's Committee of Economic Advisers, Paris Peace Conference
1919-1923	Director-general, American Relief Administration
1919	Founder, Hoover War Collection (later called the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace), Stanford University
1919-1920	Vice-chairman, President's Industrial Conference
1921	Member, Advisory Committee, Limitation of Armaments Conference
1921-1923	Director, Russian Famine Relief
1921-1928	Secretary of Commerce of the United States Chairman, Colorado River Commission
1922	Chairman, President's Conference on Unemployment
1922-1925	Chairman, National Radio Conferences
1922-1926	Chairman, Annual Aviation Conferences
1922-1927	Member, World War Foreign Debt Commission
1923-1938	Chairman, Rio Grande River Commission
1924-1928	Member, Federal Oil Conservation Board
1924-1928	Chairman, Committee on Coordination of Rail and Water Facilities Chairman, National Conferences on Street and Highway Safety Chairman, St. Lawrence Waterway Commission
1926	Member, Cabinet Committee on Reorganization of Government Departments
1927	Director, Mississippi Flood Relief
1929-1933	President of the United States
1936-1964	Chairman, Boys' Clubs of America
1939-1940	Founder, Finnish Relief Fund
1940-1942	Chairman, Committee on Food for the Small Democracies
1946	Initiator (through General William H. Haskell), CARE
1946-1947	Cofounder, UNICEF Coordinator, food supply for thirty-eight nations in the world famine of 1946-1947
1947	Head, special mission to investigate the economy of Germany and Austria at the request of President Truman
1947-1949	Chairman, Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government
1953-1955	Chairman, Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government
1954	Chairman, mission to Germany at the request of President Eisenhower and Chancellor Adenauer
1956-1957	Honorary chairman, First Aid to Hungary
1958	United States Representative, World's Fair, Brussels
1962	Recipient of gold medal, Stanford University, fifty years as Trustee
1964	Unanimous Resolution of Appreciation, United States Congress (third such resolution during his lifetime) Died, October 20, New York City

Acquisition information:

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1962.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Alternative form available:

Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.

Other descriptive data:

I am pleased to present to the public and to the scholarly community this detailed inventory of the Herbert Hoover Subject Collection, which are deposited in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University. These papers total over 278,000 items and cover more than 75 years in the life and times of a great humanitarian and statesman.

One of Herbert Hoover's achievements was the founding in 1919 of the Hoover Institution, which became the focal point for his extensive collecting and scholarly interests. The Hoover Institution served as the only repository for his papers until 1962. At that time, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library was created at Mr. Hoover's birthplace, West Branch, Iowa, and his presidential and certain other papers were transferred to this new repository. Nonetheless, as this published inventory reveals, many of his files (along with those of his friends and associates and the records of many organizations he served) still reside here.

In 1977, the Hoover Institution published Herbert Hoover: A Bibliography of His Writings and Addresses, which listed his numerous published works. I hope this companion volume, describing Herbert Hoover's unpublished papers and collected documents, will further facilitate the growing interest in his career and achievements among scholars and laymen alike.

W. Glenn Campbell
Director

Indexed terms

Subjects:

World War, 1914-1918 -- Civilian relief
International relief
World War, 1939-1945 -- Civilian relief
Audiotapes
Video tapes
Sound recordings
Motion pictures

Names:

Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964

Places:

United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century
United States -- Politics and government -- 1929-1933

Restrictions:

Boxes 382, 384, and 391 closed. Boxes 395, 398-405, FH5, and FH25 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

Published as:

Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace.
Herbert Hoover, a register of his papers in the Hoover Institution archives / compiled by Elena S. Danielson and Charles G. Palm. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, c1983

For copyright status, please contact Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Herbert Hoover subject collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:

Hoover Institution

Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US

Contact:

(650) 723-3563

hooverarchives@stanford.edu

Website