Spotlight at Stanford

A historic garden at Stanford University

This online exhibit explores the history of Stanford's Arizona Garden, the unique plants that make up the garden, the dedicated caretakers who have ensured the garden's longevity, and the importance of the garden to the broader community.

A History of Local Feminist & Queer Scholarship and Community

This exhibit showcases archival materials from the history of the Stanford Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, as well as feminist studies at the University more generally.

Data and More from Stanford's Cutting Edge Researchers

This collection includes research outputs from Stanford-associated researchers on the wide variety of topics and fields under investigation at Stanford University, including statistics, engineering, biology, chemistry, social sciences, humanities, medicine, physics, geosciences, and the environment.

Exhibit documenting the history of queer students at Stanford.

Publications, Oral Histories, and Program Recordings

Since 1976, SHS has sponsored programs, publications, tours, and oral histories on Stanford's multi-faceted history.

A Summer School of Science

With the financial support of Timothy Hopkins, the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory was established in 1892 on a treeless plateau in Pacific Grove, California. For the next twenty-five years, the seaside laboratory offered summer instruction to visiting students from the Pacific slope and laboratory space to visiting scientists from around the globe. This exhibit tells the history of those twenty-five years.

Selections from the work of DLSS Digitization Services

See examples of the various collection materials digitized at Stanford Libraries and learn about the factors, decisions, and special processes that go into producing and presenting digital library content.

This exhibit highlights the history of Latina/o/x students, staff and organizations at Stanford University.

An Anthology of Black Activism and Community at Stanford

A collaborative archive documenting Black activism and community at Stanford, including photographs, posters, publications, performance recordings, syllabi, and oral histories.

Statesman, Social Reformer, Public Advocate

Overview of the life and career of John W. Gardner, highlighting his papers and oral histories on his legacies.

Photographs, audiovisual materials, posters, and ephemera documenting activism at Stanford.

The Stanford Photograph Collection contains over 16,000 images of Stanford scenes including photographs of and relating to the Stanford family, views of the campus and individual buildings, photographs of students and student life activities, and photographs of faculty and administrative staff. The majority of photographs are black and white gelatin prints but nineteenth-century albumen prints mounted on boards are also represented. The collection spans the late 1890s through the 1990s.

Exhibit documenting the history of women at Stanford.

SLAC Director and Professor Emeritus

Highlights from the Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Papers, 1932-2008 at the Archives, History and Records Office of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The History and Meaning of Stanford's Insignia

This exhibit explores the historical elements underlying the design and adoption of Stanford's symbols. Most prominently featured are Stanford's coats of arms and other heraldic symbols; the Stanford Seal, which includes the German motto “Die Luft der Freiheit weht;” and the Palo Alto tree ("El Palo Alto").

Architectural drawings, maps, prints, and aerial photographs of the Stanford University campus and associated land holdings

This exhibit showcases the growth of campus using illustrative materials from several University Archives collections, including the Maps Collection, the Architectural Drawings Collection, the Hanna House Collection, the Prints Collection, the Birge M. Clark Architectural Drawings, Peninsua-Times Tribune Photographs, Hatfield Aerial Survey Photographs, and the Stanford Historical Photograph Collection.

Historical images of Stanford Medicine and of the field of medicine generally.

Stanford in Moments of Crisis

This site explores how Stanford students, faculty, and leaders responded to transformative events in Stanford history, and the longer term impacts on Stanford, including physical changes to the campus, its programs, and its policies.

Publications documenting Stanford University. Included are course catalogs, directories, newsletters, magazines, and more.

August 15-21, 1971

Materials documenting the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo.

Records of the Trustees pertaining to legal issues, financial affairs, investments, academic departments, student housing, gifts received, real estate, campus development, and other administrative concerns. Also included are records pertaining to the Leland Stanford Junior Kindergarten Trust and its major beneficiary, the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association, 1884-1979.

Agendas, minutes and supporting materials created by the Stanford Faculty Senate.

Stanford University

Hopkins Marine Station occupies an exposed rocky headland named China Point, as the site was once the location of the Point Alones Chinese fishing village. The University holds title to approximately eleven acres on and around the point which includes roughly one mile of shoreline. he chapters presented here outline a portion of the history of Stanford's seaside laboratory.

Correspondence, blueprints, drawings, photographs, and other records relating to the planning, design and construction of the campus home of Professor and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna. The collection focuses on the Hanna's work with architect Frank Lloyd Wright extending from the initial planning of the house through later renovations.

Combined holdings of Muybridge material held in Special Collections and University Archives.

This exhibit showcases 125 years of Stanford Stories, illustrated using materials from the Stanford University Archives.

An exhibit documenting the history of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band and Dollies. Included are photographs taken by long-time Band photographer Robby Beyers.

Exhibit featuring faculty papers, administrative records, publications, photographs, and audio and video recordings documenting the history of computer science at Stanford.

An exhibit documenting the history of Stanford's radio station KZSU.

Stanford University syllabi, 2007-2016.

This archive contains audio and video recordings from two meetings of service-learning practitioners (The Wingspread Meeting 1995; and, The Gathering 2017) reflecting on their practice and the state of the field. Service-learning is an educational approach that seeks to incorporate community service into the life blood of academic institutions to improve instruction, empower communities and enhance the civic life and skills of young people. The recordings explore the field’s emergence and ongoing institutionalization from its beginnings in the 1960s to the current time.

Exhibit commemorating university awards given annually during commencement, including the Cuthbertson, Dinkelspiel, and Gores awards.

Oral history collections and interviews documenting the Stanford community and associated projects.

Exhibit documenting the storied history of Stanford Athletics.

Exhibit documenting the history of community centers at Stanford.

Exhibit documenting the Stanford family, including materials created by Leland, Jane, and Leland, Jr., as well as Charles Lathrop and Thomas Welton Stanford.

Photograph collections in the University Archives documenting Stanford.

Photographs, audio and video recordings, and newspapers created by the Stanford News Service.

This collection contains transcribed meetings and interviews with Civil Rights workers in the South recorded by several Stanford students affiliated with the campus radio station KZSU during the summer of 1965. The project was sponsored by the Institute of American History at Stanford.

Exhibit documenting the life and career of Matt Kahn, Professor of Art at Stanford. Exhibit materials include professional files, teaching files (including lectures), and photographs.

Stanford University

A digital archive created on 15th Anniversary of the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking to preserve the history of the Center.

The Curatorial Legacy of Leland Stanford Jr.

Leland Stanford Jr., only son of Governor and railroad tycoon Leland Stanford Sr. and heiress Jane Lathrop Stanford, died suddenly in 1884, just shy of his 16th birthday. Renowned curators reckoned Leland Jr.’s early death a great loss to “the art-training” of the American people. Was his collecting that remarkable? Or was it a boyhood hobby amplified by his parents’ loss and remembrance?