Stanford Historical Society upholds a community and its global contributions
When UC-Irvine political scientist Kristen Monroe was editing her new book on Stanford Nobel economics laureate Kenneth Arrow, she drew on Arrow’s oral history conducted by the Stanford Historical Society.
When Wayne State University historian Marsha Richmond was researching the role of gender in early 20th-century genetics, she cited the Stanford Historical Society’s article on early Stanford cytologist Nettie Maria Stevens.
When author Frances Dinkelspiel, ’81, was writing her New York Times bestseller, Tangled Vines, on California’s early wine industry, she cited research on businessman and Stanford trustee Percy Morgan that was published in the Stanford Historical Society’s journal, Sandstone & Tile.
For 40 years, the society – staffed almost entirely by volunteers – has worked to document, preserve and disseminate the history of its community, much as similar groups do everywhere.
Yet because Stanford has made a global impact, the work the society does to preserve Stanford history has global significance as well.
Since 2006, more than three dozen writers in several countries have cited Stanford Historical Society research and publications in works ranging from urban studies to business to physics.
As a resource for the Stanford community, the society bridges generations and fosters undergraduate learning.
Natalie Marine-Street, MA ’14, PhD ’16, manager of the society’s oral history program, speaks on oral-history methodology in Stanford history Professor Estelle Freedman’s course History 161: Women in Modern America and at Stanford’s Native American Cultural Center and Muwekma-Tah-Ruk Theme House. Marine-Street also collaborates with Freedman on an annual one-unit directed-research course in which students conduct oral histories of significant Stanford women.
Working closely with the Stanford University Archives and other entities on campus, the society produces many other programs, books and exhibits each year.
The Stanford Historical Society is, in some measure, the conscience of the university. You have these dedicated and devoted faculty and staff members who make their careers here and retire, and they contain within them incredible stories of Stanford.
— Laura Jones, SHS president and Stanford’s director of Heritage Services
Free monthly public programs with distinguished speakers, including Nobel laureates, explore not only Stanford’s history but also the role the university has played in shaping today’s world. A recent program spotlighted the fact that seven of NASA’s female astronauts have been Stanford affiliates.
With the Office of Public Affairs, the society coordinates Stanford’s annual Founders Celebration each October, when the Stanford Mausoleum is opened for public viewing and floral tributes.
The society has published several books on Stanford lore, including a detailed chronology of the university, books on Stanford trees and street names and a critically acclaimed series on Stanford historic houses that received the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award from the state of California in 2007.
It provides a way for Stanford retirees to maintain their ties to the university and to remain resources for Stanford in matters of history, protocol and continuity. In 2014, the university launched a three-year program to give introductory memberships to each of the more than 200 faculty and staffers (from a workforce of 13,000) who retire from Stanford every year.
There are so many great Stanford stories! … I’ve known Stanford students who grew up homeless in migrant farm labor camps in California and managed to graduate from Stanford. There are lots of inspiring stories of people who came to Stanford and how it changed their lives. But they also changed Stanford.
— Laura Jones
Listen to iTunes podcasts of more than 60 Stanford Historical Society programs.
Read or listen to oral histories in the society’s collections.
Learn more in the society’s quarterly journal, Sandstone & Tile, online.