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Register of the Herbert Hoover subject collection, 1895-2006
62008
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Title: Herbert Hoover subject collection,
Date (inclusive): 1895-2006
Collection Number: 62008
Creator:
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964
Collection Size:
352 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 31 card file boxes, 2 oversize folders, 92 envelopes, 8 microfilm reels, 3 videotape
cassettes, 36 phonotape reels, 31 phonorecords, memorabilia
(166.4 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
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.
Language:
English.
Collection open for research except for Boxes 382 and 384.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
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 Archives.
[Identification of item], Herbert Hoover subject collection, [Box number], Hoover Institution
Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1962.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
International relief.
World War, 1914-1918--Civilian relief.
World War, 1939-1945--Civilian relief.
United States--Politics and government--20th century.
United States--Politics and government--1929-1933.
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964.
Phonotapes.
Video tapes.
Phonorecords.
Moving-pictures.
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 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
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 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 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 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.
| 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 |