Stanford Historical Society Stanford University

Alexander Kerensky was the charismatic leader of the Provisional Government that held a tenuous grip on power in Russia between the fall of the Romanovs in February 1917 and the storming to power of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. Kerensky first visited Stanford in 1955 and spent much of the next ten years on campus, conducting research in the Hoover Library & Archives, teaching seminars, giving guest lectures, and appearing on panel discussions devoted to the latest developments in the USSR. He left lasting impressions on Stanford students and faculty—and is even alleged to have carved his initials into a table at the Oasis. Dr. Patenaude, a Stanford History PhD, discussed Kerensky's sojourn on the Farm and attempted to separate fact from fiction.

Through some simple archival detective work, the staff of Stanford University Press (SUP) unearthed the long and lesser-told history of the Press, from its humble origins in 1892 to its myriad transformations over the course of the 20th century. This history, studded with the stories of plucky pressmen, master craftspeople, and intellectual luminaries reveals a deep tradition of the Press’s pioneering spirit, its indelibly Californian character, and an unremitting commitment to plumbing even the most obscure corners of human inquiry. SUP Director Alan Harvey provided an update on this ongoing historical survey and presented some of the more intriguing, amusing, and even alarming events SUP staff have uncovered.

Laura Jones, Joseph Stagner and James Sweeney talked about the history, the transformation, and the current state of the energy system at Stanford.

Elena Danielson, Hoover Institution Archivist, Emerita, gave a talk on Herbert Hoover, a geology graduate at Stanford, and how he was the original Stanford techie.

With the re-opening of Roble Gym in the fall of 2016, the Department of Theater & Performance Studies reflected on the rich history of theater, dance, and performance at Stanford. In a conversation with TAPS Chair Branislav Jakovljevic, Professor Janice Ross and Professor Emeritus Bill Eddelman traced the evolution of the performing arts in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Leland and Jane Stanford founded their university amidst the kinetic tumult of Gilded Age America. It was a time of swashbuckling capitalist ambition, let-‘er-rip financial finagling, and epic corruption. It was also a time of accelerating immigration, the rapid peopling and development of the great American West – and the golden age of American philanthropy, when so-called Robber Barons like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Stanfords' lavished their millions on building lasting institutions to serve the common weal (well before the tax code conferred any advantage for doing so). James Campbell and David Kennedy revisited that founding moment, exploring the ways in which the circumstances of Stanford's birth might give guidance to the university in its second century and beyond.