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Greetings to all of the friends and supporters of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Let me begin with a happy Labor Day and happy belated birthday to our founder Herbert Hoover, who was born in West Branch, Iowa on August 10, 1874. Mr. Hoover's humanitarian efforts and the centennial of his food and medical relief efforts in Soviet Russia and Ukraine are celebrated in a new exhibition, Bread + Medicine, guest curated by Research Fellow Bert Patenaude.
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We also recognize the one-year anniversary of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and note that we continue actively collecting and documenting the historical records from Afghanistan and oral histories of Afghans who escaped the Taliban, keeping in mind Mr. Hoover’s words: “The purpose of this institution is to promote peace. Its records should stand as a challenge to those who promote war. They should attract those who search for peace.”
Finally, this summer marked the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, just in time for our opening of the rich and long hidden collection of Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman.
Wishing good health to you and yours.
-Eric Wakin, Director
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[Poster "United we win.” US 6031]
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Commemorating Hoover’s Food and Medical Relief Efforts in Soviet Russia & Ukraine
Scholars, family, and community members gathered this month in West Branch, Iowa, to commemorate the centennial of the great humanitarian effort of Herbert Hoover’s American Relief Administration (ARA), whose food and medical relief operations in Soviet Russia and Ukraine helped millions. Research Fellow Bertrand Patenaude’s article in the Hoover Digest “Present at the Creation" describes famine relief in Ukraine.
[Photo (l. to r.): Margaret Hoover, George H. Nash, Bertrand Patenaude, Charlie Laderman, and Olga Ovcharskaia pose with a standee of Herbert Hoover in the lobby of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, August 6, 2022.]
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New Exhibition Bread + Medicine
Opening on September 19, 2022, in Hoover Tower, Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine, guest curated by Bert Patenaude, will showcase the medical relief operations of the ARA in Soviet Russia and Ukraine during the famine. While food saved many lives, the ARA’s medical relief proved to be equally critical to the mission’s success.
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Through photographs and archival material, visitors will learn about those suffering from starvation and meet the American doctors and local medical teams who worked together to prevent a potentially devastating spread of disease. For more information please visit the Hoover Institution Library & Archives Exhibitions web page.
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Chosin Reservoir Archive
Colonel George A. Rasula, was a career Army officer who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He fought in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War and became the official historian of the Chosin Journal. The collection includes extensive correspondence with veterans of the Chosin battle. Rasula later became the logistics advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War (1962-65) and Army Attaché to the American Embassy in Helsinki.
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Sergeant Leo McDowell
Sergeant Leo McDowell, was a decorated African American Marine who served during three American wars (World War II, Korea, and Vietnam) and earned accolades as a Marine recruiter. He was asked to serve on the Steward Inspection and Demonstration Team, which sought equality for Black stewards serving under officers. McDowell was a lifelong Republican who supported President Nixon and served Ronald Reagan while Reagan was governor of California and later President of the United States. His collection represents a notable career and changing policies concerning race that affected the United States military from the 1940s to the 1980s.
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Collections Open for Research
This summer marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, a watershed moment in American political history. The entire collection of John Ehrlichman, who was one of Nixon’s most trusted advisers and a key figure of the era, is now open for research. The collection contains information on Nixon administration domestic policy; policy relating to the Vietnam War; the 1972 presidential elections, the Watergate controversy, other topics, and personal notes and illustrations.
In addition, here are several more collections that also opened for research:
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Victims of Communism Foundation
The Victims of Communism Foundation recently opened a new museum, that memorializes the more than 100 million people murdered by communist regimes. Research Fellow Paul Gregory was a member of the VOC Academic Advisory Board. The museum curator is Lee Edwards (of the Heritage Foundation) and just a few months ago we received a new increment to add to his collection, which contains the files on the formation of the VOC Foundation. The museum has on display a handful of Soviet propaganda posters from the Library & Archives’ poster collection, which are also used in the Foundation’s Middle and High School Curriculum as examples for their readers.
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Modern China Workshop
The Modern China Workshop returned to the Library & Archives. Organizer Hsiao-ting Lin, research fellow and curator of the Modern China and Taiwan Collection, brought an international roster of scholars in Asian studies together to discuss subjects that ranged from the imperial Chinese legal system to Chinese collaborators with Japan during WWII, and from the February 28, 1947, Incident of Taiwan to the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
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KZSU Radio Interviews
Listen to curators Jean Cannon for North American collection and Kaoru (Kay) Ueda for Japan and the Japanese Diaspora collection as they talk about the Library & Archives collections, the reading room, exhibitions in Hoover Tower and answer other interesting questions during an interview for Modern Tek News Radio broadcasted in July on KZSU 90.1 FM, Stanford radio station.
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Supporting Voices from Afghanistan
The Library & Archives, in partnership with the Hoover Institution's Afghanistan Research & Relief Team and oral historian Halima Kazem who has a background in journalism and human rights, is actively documenting the experiences of refugees from Afghanistan. Kazem was recently featured on KQED News which highlights the Afghan Visiting Scholars Program, a program she founded last year.
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2022 Leadership Forum
We welcomed fellows from Stanford Global Studies' Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Community College Faculty Fellowship program. The program hosts a year-long professional development fellowship for community college educators who are working on projects to internationalize their curricula and empower students to develop their global competencies. Fellows enjoyed a presentation of archival materials by Jean Cannon, curator for North American Collections, followed by a tour of the Hoover Tower galleries and observation deck.
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Hoover's Website Redesign
In July, the hoover.org website launched with a new look. In addition to showcasing the research of Hoover fellows and directing visitors to the Hoover Institution research priorities, the site’s Library & Archives section has been restructured for intuitive navigation and searchability. It also includes more details about accessing our collections, planning a research visit, and other ways to learn and explore the meaning and role of history. Visit the Library & Archives to discover more.
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New Colleagues
We are pleased to welcome our newest colleagues to Hoover: Curator of European Collections Dr. Katharina Friedla (left) and Roxanne Peck (right), assistant director of the Library & Archives.
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Featuring Our Collections
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![Fellowship participants looking at archival materials on a table. [Photo by: Stefanie Pietkiewicz, 2022]](https://mcusercontent.com/de744b88c98cf7f8a268b1808/images/c90ee37d-18fc-147b-89b0-f89262381f26.jpg)
