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Hoover (Herbert) subject collection
62008
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Title: Herbert Hoover subject collection
Date (inclusive): 1895-2006
Collection Number: 62008
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
355 manuscript boxes, 19 oversize boxes, 31 card file boxes, 2 oversize folders, 91 envelopes, 8 microfilm reels, 3 videotape
cassettes, 36 phonotape reels, 35 phonorecords, memorabilia
(218.4 Linear Feet)
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.
Boxes 382, 384, and 391 closed. Boxes 395, 398-405 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.
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
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.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1962.
[Identification of item], Herbert Hoover subject collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library &
Archives.
Digital copies of select records also available at
https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
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
Director
| 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 |
Scope and Content of the Collection
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:
- American Children's Fund, 1923-1950
- Better Homes in America, 1923-1935
- C.R.B. Educational Foundation, 1921-1956
- Citizens Committee for the Reorganization of the Executive Branch of the Government, 1949-1958
- Commission for Polish Relief, 1939-1949
- Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1919
- Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1940
- European Technical Advisers, 1919-1923
- Fight for Freedom Committee, 1940-1942
- Finnish Relief Fund, 1939-1946
- First Aid for Hungary, 1956-1957
- National Committee on Food for Small Democracies, 1940-1942
- Paderewski Testimonial Fund, 1941-1959
- President's Research Committee on Social Trends, 1929-1932
- Red Cross. U.S. American National Red Cross, 1917-1921
- Stanford University. Food Research Institute, 1919-1955
- U.S. American Relief Administration, European Operations, 1919-1923
- U.S. American Relief Administration, Russian Operations, 1921-1923
- U.S. Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, 1947-1949 and 1953-1955
- U.S. Food Administration, 1916-1919
- U.S. Fuel Administration, 1916-1919
- U.S. National Industrial Conference, 1st, Washington, D.C., 1919
- U.S. National Industrial Conference, 2nd, Washington, D.C., 1919-1920
- U.S. President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership, Washington, D.C., 1931
- U.S. President's Famine Emergency Committee, 1946-1947
- 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:
- Adams, Ephraim D.
- Allen, Benjamin S.
- Allen, Ronald
- Arnold, Ralph
- Axentieff, N.
- Babb, Nancy
- Bailey, H.S.
- Baker, Elizabeth N.
- Baker, George Barr
- Bane, Suda L.
- Barber, Alvin B.
- Barker, Burt Brown
- Barringer, Thomas C.
- Bayne, Joseph Breckinridge
- Bekeart, Laura H.
- Bell, James F.
- Blackwelder, Eliot
- Bland, Raymond L.
- Bliss, Tasker H.
- Brandt, Karl
- Brooks, Sidney
- Brown, Everett S.
- Brown, Hugh S.
- Brown, Walter Lyman
- Bruns, Armin R.
- Burr, Myron C.
- Caetani, Gelasio Benedetto Anatolio
- Carroll, Philip H.
- Chadbourn, Philip H. and William H.
- Chatfield, Frederick H.
- Childs, James R.
- Christol, Carl Q.
- Clark, Birge M.
- Cleveland, Maude
- Collins, James Hiram
- Colton, Ethan T.
- Cooper, Merian C.
- Cotner, Robert A.
- Crandall, Berton W.
- Cripe, Harry E.
- Crispell, Reuben B.
- Curtis, Charles
- Darling, Jay Norwood
- Davis, Joseph S.
- Dickenson, Thomas H.
- Dobson, Helen Cutter
- Dolan, John A.
- Dyer, Susan L.
- Egbert, Edward H.
- Eloesser, Nina F.
- Emparan, Madie Brown
- Exton, Frederick
- Ferriere, Suzanne
- Fisher, Harold H.
- Fleming, Harold M.
- Fuller, Adaline W.
- Fuller, W. Parmer II
- Galpin, Perrin C.
- Gaskill, C.A.
- Gay, George I.
- Gibson, Hugh
- Golder, Frank A.
- Goldsmith, Alan G.
- Good, James W.
- Goodyear, A. Conger
- Green, Joseph C.
- Gregory, Thomas T.C.
- Gugenheim, Alice A.
- Hall, Charles L.
- Hall, William Chapman
- Hamilton, Minard
- Hartigan, John D.
- Hatfield, Mark O.
- Haws, R. Calvert
- Healy, James A.
- Henry, Charles D.
- Henry, John M.
- Herrington, Dorothy
- Hilton, Edna M.
- Hinshaw, David
- Holden, Frank H.
- Holman, Emile
- Hoover, Hulda Randall Minthorn
- Hoover, Lou Henry
- Hoover, Mildred Crew Brooke
- Hoover, Theodore J.
- Howe, Esther B.
- Hruska, Roman L.
- Huber, Johann Heinrich
- Hudson, Ray M.
- Huenergardt, Mrs. John F.
- Hunt, Edward Eyre
- Hutchinson, Lincoln
- Irwin, William H.
- Isabelle, Reno
- Jacobs, John F. de
- Jacobs-Pauwels, F. Marguerite
- Jessey, Joseph
- Johnson, George S.
- Jones, Warren Arnold
- Jordan, David Starr
- Kelland, Clarence B.
- Kellogg, Charlotte H.
- Kellogg, R. H.
- Kellogg, Vernon Lyman
- Kershner, Howard
- Kirby, Gustavus T.
- Kirwan, J.W.
- Kittredge, Mabel Hyde
- Kittredge, Tracy B.
- Klein, Julius
- Lapteff, Alexis V.
- Large, Jean Henry
- Leavitt, May Hoover
- Lusk, Graham
- Lykes, Gibbes
- Lyle, Annie G.
- MacLafferty, James H.
- MacRae, Lillian Mae
- Mason, Frank E.
- McCormick, Chauncey
- McLean, Hulda Brooke Hoover
- McMullin, Dare Stark
- Merritt, Ralph P.
- Merritt, Walle W.
- Miller, Bernice
- Moley, Raymond
- Munro, Dana C.
- Murphy, Merle Farmer
- Murray, Augustus T.
- Myers, William Starr
- Nelson, David T.
- Newsom, John F.
- Orbison, Thomas J.
- Paradise, Scott Hurtt
- Patterson, David S.
- Pennington, Levi T.
- Pier, H.W.
- Platt, Phillip S.
- Poland, William B.
- Potter, Mrs. W. T.
- Requa, Mark L.
- Richardson, Gardner
- Ringland, Arthur C.
- Robinson, Henry M.
- Rodgers, Marvin
- Rogers, James Grafton
- Rosenbluth, Robert
- Russell, Tom
- Sabine, Edward G.
- See, Elizabeth M.
- Seward, Samuel S.
- Shelton, Frederick D.
- Sherwell, G. Butler
- Simmons, Robert G.
- Slaughter, Moses Stephen
- Smith, Henry B.
- Smith, Robinson
- Snell, Jane
- Snook, Mrs. John
- Snyder, Frederic S.
- Sprague, Joe S.
- Stader, James A.
- Starr, Walter A.
- Stephens, Frederick Dorsey
- Stilson, Fielding J.
- Stockton, Gilchrist B.
- Strauss, Lewis L.
- Strench, Mary Minthorn
- Sullivan, Mark
- Surface, Frank M.
- Taylor, Alonzo E.
- Terman, Lewis M.
- Thane, Mrs. J.E.
- Thomas, Mrs. Jerome B.
- Thurston, E. Coppee
- Treat, Payson J.
- Tuck, William Hallam
- Upman, Frank
- White, William L.
- White, Helen Hartley Greene
- Whitlock, Brand
- Wilbur, Ray Lyman
- Williams, Thomas
- Willis, Edward F.
- Wilson, Carol Green
- Withington, Robert
- Wolfe, Henry C.
- Work, Hubert
- Znamiecki, Alexander
- 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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiotapes
Video tapes
Sound recordings
World War, 1914-1918 -- Civilian relief
Motion pictures
United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century
International relief
World War, 1939-1945 -- Civilian relief
United States -- Politics and government -- 1929-1933
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964