Videos by Elena S Danielson
Presentation by Elena S. Danielson for the Stanford Historical Society, January 26, 2021, on the ... more Presentation by Elena S. Danielson for the Stanford Historical Society, January 26, 2021, on the impactful life of Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944). She was one of the first women to major in geology in the United States, and in 1912 published a heavily researched and annotated English translation of the 1556 mining treatise "De Re Metallica," originally written in cryptic Latin by Georgius Agricola. She had other careers as an architectural designer and philanthropist. Throughout her life, including as First Lady, she actively promoted women's rights. Her work with the Girl Scouts had a lasting impact on the welfare of women in the United States. 80 views
Lou Henry Hoover and her friend the music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge spent over ten years ... more Lou Henry Hoover and her friend the music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge spent over ten years developing a music program, appropriately named the Friends of Music at Stanford. Between 1933 and 1944 they recruited supporters, raised funds, cultivated musicians, and sponsored concerts, lectures, and instruction. They built a platform for the appreciation of fine chamber music on the Stanford University campus, all during a time of financial stress and political turmoil. For them music was not a luxury, but rather a necessity, especially in difficult times. Once World War II was over, the funding, interest, and expertise were all in place to establish the first Department of Music at Stanford in 1947. The dream that Lou Henry Hoover and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge shared in 1933 was finally realized. 35 views
Papers by Elena S Danielson
The battle artist Ivan Vladimirov created a priceless eyewitness account of the aftermath of the ... more The battle artist Ivan Vladimirov created a priceless eyewitness account of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in a series of paintings, some of which praise the revolution, while other document the destruction that was unleashed. Both views emphasize the human experience during times of turmoil. This volume includes full color reproductions of his finest work.
Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University eBooks, 1983
This bibliography is based on the Russell J. Bowen Collection at Georgetown University, contains ... more This bibliography is based on the Russell J. Bowen Collection at Georgetown University, contains more than 5,000 entries, and is classified according to 372 headings and subheadings. Text includes author index, list of titles, and list of sources. Major classificatory divisions include national intelligence establishments, collection of information, research and analysis, counterintelligence, covert action, subversion, intelligence support, legal and moral consideration, and criticisms and exposes. A second part arranges such intelligence-related topics as anticommunist and other extremist movements, assassinations, censorship, escape and evasion, foreign relations, law enforcement, political dissent and secret societies, psychological warfare, unconventional warfare, warfare, wars, and weapons.
American Archivist, Sep 1, 2004
Three forces collide when security police files surface: the right to privacy, the right to state... more Three forces collide when security police files surface: the right to privacy, the right to state security, and the right to access information. In the case of the East German "Stasi" files, communists tried to destroy them, West German archivists and politicians tried to restrict them for decades, and dissidents tried to open access to them. A unique solution, pushed into law in 1990-91, has now stood the test of time. Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the formula devised by Joachim Gauck is a tested model for balancing the conflicts between transparency, privacy, and security.
Slavic & East European Information Resources, Oct 1, 2020
When Herbert Hoover established the Hoover War Library in 1919, he was building on traditions and... more When Herbert Hoover established the Hoover War Library in 1919, he was building on traditions and values that he had absorbed as a student at Stanford University, where he matriculated with the pioneer class in 1891. While international studies, as such, was not yet an established field in those years, Leland Stanford and the historian Andrew D. White (advisor to Stanford on creating the university), were both deeply concerned with issues of war and peace. White, who served terms as ambassador to Imperial Germany and then Imperial Russia, always emphasized the importance of studying primary sources such as contemporary posters, newspapers, and correspondence. The founding university president David Starr Jordan projected a global outlook from the beginning and eventually would become a widely traveled peace activist. Jordan, Ray Lyman Wilbur (the university's third president), and Herbert Hoover all credit Andrew D. White for inspiring them to study the causes of war, revolution, and peace.
The American Archivist , 2004
The opening of the East German Secret Police or Stasi files provides a useful case study in balan... more The opening of the East German Secret Police or Stasi files provides a useful case study in balancing privacy rights, the requirements of state security, and the citizens' right to transparency.
"For Peace Alone Do I Ring", 2021
The history of the Lou Henry Hoover carillon at Stanford University by Elena S. Danielson with a ... more The history of the Lou Henry Hoover carillon at Stanford University by Elena S. Danielson with a Foreword by Condoleezza Rice. Designed by Arthur Brown, Jr., Hoover Tower was completed in 1941 in time for the 50th anniversary of Stanford University. It was crowned with a carillon from Belgium. The carillon was expanded in 2002, and rechristened in honor of Lou Henry Hoover in 2021. (Expanded reprint of 2002 pamphlet)
BYU website
Agnes Peterson served as reference librarian and curator of the central and Western European Coll... more Agnes Peterson served as reference librarian and curator of the central and Western European Collections of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University for 41 years.
Academia Letters, 2021
Cynthia Haven's portrait of Czesław Miłosz as a Californian poet prompts many questions about poe... more Cynthia Haven's portrait of Czesław Miłosz as a Californian poet prompts many questions about poetry in exile and poetry in translation. [1] First, is it even possible to translate the essence of poetic speech? And why does Haven characterize him as a Californian when we all know he was Polish? Or was he? Why did he insist on writing in Polish, and not eventually switch to English even after 40 long years in exile. His writing was banned in communist Poland, and most of the people around him could not understand the original Polish language he wrote in. He could only find an audience with translations. Why read this "foreign" poetry of his, written in awkward circumstances, when readers in the United States often cringe at their own home-made American verse? One issue is that American English has been so battered and abused by commercial jingles and saleable Hallmark sentiments that it becomes difficult to accept any lofty notions or noble ideas in this poor bruised language. The quasi-biblical rantings of mis-educated fundraising evangelical TV preachers have brought down even the magnificent language of the King James Bible. Maybe during a quiet moment, readers can enjoy something like "Hope is the thing with feathers," simply because we know Emily Dickinson never wanted to market her words. [2] But if readers did not know she wrote it, and if they did not know she led a life of seclusion, would it still sing. It seems to take just the right context in order to enjoy reverie. This case suggests that, in fact, it helps to read fine English translations from what seems like an obscure or distant language. And it may even help to know Miłosz wrote originally in Polish rather than a language more familiar to most of his audience. This way the sense of nobility is recovered from a world at a far distance from the reader's native language, preferably with a seemingly obscure orthography like Chinese or Russian. And no advertising. The beauty and charm of Sung dynasty Chinese poetry transcend time, space and linguistics.
The American Archivist, 1989
The principle of providing equal access to archival resources is enshrined in various guidelines ... more The principle of providing equal access to archival resources is enshrined in various guidelines and codes of ethics for archival practices. The professional archivist has the responsibility to balance the conflicting interests of heirs, donors, collectors, researchers, and home institutions. An examination of the access problems associated with the restricted papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Sigmund Freud, and recently opened files on Ferdinand Marcos and Kurt Waldheim reveals the difficulties inherent in implementing such a deceptively simple principle. Several hypothetical situations are posed to demonstrate the practical difficulties of implementing the concept of equal access to open collections.
The American Scholar, 2011
, the elusive head of the organization WikiLeaks, stormed into the London offices of The Guardian... more , the elusive head of the organization WikiLeaks, stormed into the London offices of The Guardian to confront the newspaper's editor, Alan Rusbridger. For months, WikiLeaks had been exclusively supplying The Guardian, The New York Times, and Germany's Der Spiegel with hundreds of thousands of leaked classified dispatches from the fronts of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Editors from the three publications had been allowed to sift through the documents, assess their authenticity and veracity, then publish stories based on the material (though not before WikiLeaks dumped the documents on its website). The arrangement represented a sensational news coup, the ultimate exercise of the power of a free press. But over the course of several months, Assange's relationship with the editors became strained. He was especially furious with the Times (in part because the paper ran an unflattering front-page story on Assange), so much so that when he provided The Guardian in October with another massive collection of documents-250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. State Department and its embassies-Assange demanded that the information not be shared with the Times. He had other grievances as well. And when he arrived at Rusbridger's office in November, he had worked himself into a rage. During the contentious eight-hour meeting that ensued, Rusbridger-along with Georg Mascolo, the editor of Der Spiegel, and Times editor Bill Keller, who had joined the conversation by telephone-expressed the journalists' own frustrations, namely that WikiLeaks activists were
Academia Letters, 2021
to honor their joint translation and annotation of a treatise on mining, De Re Metallica. Written... more to honor their joint translation and annotation of a treatise on mining, De Re Metallica. Written by the German polymath Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) [1], the original work was published in 1556 in medieval Latin and had never before been adequately translated and decoded into a comprehensible modern language. Agricola was revered by such intellectual giants as the explorer Alexander von Humboldt and the poet Goethe, both of whom had worked as mining managers as young men [2]. The treatise was often consulted, but rarely completely understood until the Hoovers' English version was first published in 1912-1913. The footnotes contain lengthy essays on the history of metallurgy and its role in civilization. The Hoovers' thesis is expressed at the end of their introduction: "Science is the base upon which is reared the civilization of today ." [3] In accordance with protocol, Herbert Hoover's name came first on the title page, then his wife's name. Both Hoovers held bachelors degrees in geology from Stanford. While he was a brilliant manager, Herbert Hoover was better at mathematics than languages and almost did not graduate from Stanford because of his deficient English. He failed his German class and never learned Latin. The members of the engineering profession in the United States knew the high-profile couple well, and understood what his remarkable pragmatic talents were, and also what her extraordinary intellectual talents were. The March 14, 1914 edition of the Engineering & Mining Journal simply stated what everyone knew: "In all of Mr. Hoover's literary work, Mrs. Hoover has been an important collaborator. In the preparation of his 'Principles of Mining' she revised the manuscript,
Stanford Historical Society Blog, 2020
Lou Henry Hoover and Mary Austin followed events leading to the 19th Amendment in 1920.
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Videos by Elena S Danielson
Papers by Elena S Danielson