Elena S. Danielson
Archivist Emerita, Consultant
elenad@stanfordalumni.org
Elena S. Danielson, PhD, worked for 27 years in the
Hoover Archives at Stanford University, serving as
head of the archives for the last ten of those years
until she retired in 2005. She began writing about
the ethical dilemmas of archival practice in 1985. In 2005 she won the Posner prize for an
article in the American Archivist about access to East German political police files. Her
book The Ethical Archivist (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2010) analyzes
topics such as equitable access, privacy, restitution, and authenticity. College and
Research Libraries called her book a “masterpiece” (May 2011). In 2011 she published
“Secret Sharers,” an article about appropriate use of confidential U.S. documents for The
American Scholar. In 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2011 she taught the ethics and law section at
the Western Archives Institute. In 2012 she was an instructor for Stanford Continuing
Studies. She is scheduled to speak at the annual meeting of the Society of American
Archivists on August 14, 2014 in Washington DC on “The Ethics of Secrecy and
Transparency.”
Employment
HOOVER INSTITUTION LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
Stanford University, California
Archivist emerita, Stanford University
9/3/2005 - present
Associate Director, Hoover Institution
1/1/2002 - 9/2/2005
Director of the Hoover Library and Archives
1/1/2002 - 9/2/2005
Head of Hoover Library and Archives
9/1/2001 - 1/1/2002
Archivist
1997 - 2005
Archivist (Acting)
1996 - 1997
Associate Archivist (collection development, bibliographic instruction,
1988 - 1996
exhibit programs)
Assistant Archivist (reference services and outreach)
1981 - 1988
Archival Specialist (technical processing)
1978 - 1981
M.L.S.
Ph.D.
A.M.
Education
School of Library Science, U. C. Berkeley
German Studies, Stanford University
German Studies, Stanford University
1979
1975
1970
A.B.
German major, Slavic and History minors, U. C. Berkeley
with Great Distinction
Honors
Diploma de Excelenta, Fundatia Europeana Titulescu, Romania
Silver Medal for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Moscow
joint award for editors of The History of Stalin’s Gulag
Ernst Posner Prize, Society of American Archivists
Order of Merit from President of Romania, Bucharest
IREX Travel Grant, Cheliabinsk, Russia
Laurel Award of Polish Prime Minister, Warsaw
NEH grant $287,440, with Charles Palm, Hoover Institution
Fulbright Fellowship, Goettingen & Munich, Germany
Whiting Fellowship, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
Teaching Fellowship, Stanford University
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, U. C. Berkeley
Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Chapter, U. C. Berkeley
Library School Fellowship, U. C. Berkeley (awarded, not used)
Kraft Prize, U. C. Berkeley
George H. Clarke Fellowship, Sacramento, California
Telluride Fellowship, Cornell University
1969
2006
2005
2005
2004
2003
2001
1999 - 2001
1976
1973
1969 - 1972
1969
1969
1969
1966
1965
1964
Recent Projects
Instructor, Stanford Continuing Studies, “Great Literary Letters at Stanford”
2012
Faculty member, Western Archives Institute, ethics and law
2003, 2004, 2010, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona
2007
Santa Clara University Library, Exhibition Program
2007
Reagan Papers of Thomas C. Reed
2006
Proquest, Microfilm Project Management, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Germany
2005
Selected Papers, Publications, Interviews
“The Ethics of Secrecy and Transparency,” scheduled for the annual meeting of the
Society of American Archivists, Washington, D. C., August 14, 2014.
“Ivy Low Litvinov and D.H. Lawrence: A Literary Legacy at Stanford,” Sandstone and
Tile, Fall 2013, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 18-25.
“Archives and the Ethics of Replevin,” Journal of Information Ethics, Fall 2013, Vol. 22,
No. 2, pp. 110-140.
“Archival Ethics: What Would You Do? How Would You Do It?” panel participant,
annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, New Orleans, August
2013.
“Archives, Oral History, and the Belfast Case,” panel participant, SAA Oral History
Section, live web chat, July 8, 2013.
“The Archivist as Scholar,” with Philip B. Eppard and Sara S. Hodson, Archival Outlook,
March/April 2013, pp. 3, 26-27.
“Managing Archives: Ethics and Access,” presentation at the “Seminar for ArtistEndowed Foundation Leaders: Issues in Practice and Policy,” sponsored by the
Aspen Institute, The New School, New York, November 16, 2012.
“Rethinking the Role of the Scholar Archivist,” paper delivered at the annual meeting of
the Society of American Archivists, San Diego, August 2012.
Review, Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic, by David Howard,
New York: Houghten Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, in The American Archivist,
Spring/Summer 2012, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 251-254.
“Family Memorabilia or Valuable Documents? Issues Affecting the Value of
Documents,” presentation for the California Probate Referees Association, Fall
2011 Educational Conference, Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, CA, October 21, 2011.
“Secret Sharers,” The American Scholar, Autumn 2011, pp. 39-46.
“Defining National History through National Archival Portals,” panel chair at the annual
meeting of the Society of American Archivists, Chicago, 2011.
“Voices from the Past,” TEDx Bay Area Women, SAP Palo Alto, December 8, 2010,
available on YouTube.
The Ethical Archivist, monograph, Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2010. The
Ethical Archivist is listed as recommended reading in the Handbook for Archival
Certification, Academy of Certified Archivists, p. 41. See
http://www.certifiedarchivists.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/handbook.pdf
(Accessed February 25, 2014).
“Russian Archives Abroad: Safe Havens, Safe Returns?” paper, ICCEES International
Council for Central and East European Studies, World Congress, Stockholm, July
27, 2010. Published in Solanus, Vol. 22, London, June 2011, pp. 201-219.
Review, Walter Benjamin’s Archive: Images, Texts, Signs, edited by Ursula Marx,
Gudrun Schwarz, Michael Schwarz, and Erdmut Wizisla, translated by Esther
Leslie: London: Verso, 2007, in Journal of Archival Organization (7:4) OctoberDecember 2009, pp. 229-231.
“Does Digital Reproduction Make Restitution Obsolete,” paper for panel “Russian Laws
and Cultural Property,” annual conference of the Association for the
Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, November 15, 2009.
“A Revolution in the Russian Archives: A Retrospective.”
Online with Cold War International History Project, posted November 2009.
“20 Questions to Ask before You Return a Collection,” paper delivered at the annual
meeting of the Society of American Archivists, San Francisco, 2008.
Review of Archives and the Public Interest: Selected Essays by Ernst Posner, New
Introduction by Angelika Menne-Haritz, Chicago: Society of American
Archivists, 1967/2006, Journal of Archival Organization (5:3) 2007, pp. 70-72.
“My Guide to the Ancient Texts,” Stanford Magazine, May/June 2007, p. 97.
“The Boy Who Would Be Tsar,” Michael Krasny Interview, KQED, January 30, 2007.
“Privacy Rights and the Rights of Political Victims” In Privacy and Confidentiality
Perspectives, edited by Menzi L. Behrnd-Klodt and Peter Wosh, Chicago: Society
of American Archivists, 2005. Also in The American Archivist, Vol. 67 Nr. 2, Fall
Winter 2004, winner of Ernst Posner Award for 2005.
“Displaced Archives of Central Europe,” Comma, ICA, 2004, 3-4, pp. 197-203.
“Displaced Archives,” ICA, August 2004, Vienna, www.wien2004.ica.org.
“Report on the Archives of Radio Free Europe in the Hoover Institution,” Warsaw, June
22, 2001.
“Bulgarian World War II Documentation,” 2001, Sofia, Bulgaria.
“The Stasi Archives,” American Library Association annual meeting, June 17, 2001.
“Documenting Romania’s Long Struggle,” Hoover Digest, 2001, Nr. 1, pp. 198-226.
“I Ring Only for Peace,” Hoover Digest, 2000, Nr. 2., pp. 196-203.
“Accesul la Documentele Istoriei Recente,” Bucharest, May 18, 2000.
“The Romanov Legacy,” photo essay for the Hoover Digest, 1999, Nr. 3, pp. 149-158.
“Die russischen Sammlungen in den Hoover Institution Archives,” presentation in
German for a colloquium sponsored by the Lehrstuhl für Geschichte Osteuropas,
Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, March 18, 1999.
“Ein Gespräch mit Dr. Elena Danielson,” Der Stacheldraht, 1999, Nr. 7, Berlin.
“A Fierce, Freedom-Loving Man,” Hoover Digest, 1999, Nr. 1, pp. 163-168.
“Ethics and Reference Services,” The Reference Librarian, Nr. 56, 1997, pp. 107-124.
“Vladimirov's Russia,” Hoover Digest, no. 1, 1996, pp. 107-111.
“Patriotic and Profitable: World War I Postcards in the Hoover Institution Archives,”
Popular Culture in Libraries, Vol. 3, Nr. 2, 1995, pp. 95-107.
“The Commission for Relief in Belgium,” The United States in the First World War: an
Encyclopedia, edited by Anne Cipriano Benzon, Garland Press, 1995, pp. 154159.
“Herbert Hoover,” The United States in the First World War: an Encyclopedia, edited by
Anne Cipriano Benzon, Garland Press, 1995, pp. 283-289.
“The United States Food Administration,” The United States in the First World War: an
Encyclopedia, edited by Anne Cipriano Benzon, Garland Press, 1995, pp. 737738.
“Without Consent: The Question of Third Party Privacy Rights in Collections of Personal
Papers,” paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Society of American
Archivists, Indianapolis, September 1994.
“A Poetic Vision,” Stanford Magazine, September 1993. Relates to Pasternak materials in
the Hoover Institution Archives.
Review of SAA manual Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts, The
American Archivist, Spring 1993.
“Revelations from the Archives: Confidentiality and Access to Public Records,”
paper delivered at the annual conference of the California Library
Association, Oakland, November 1993.
Making Things Work: Russian American Economic Relations 1900-1930. Stanford:
Hoover Institution, 1992. Primary author of text for pages 35-124 of exhibit
catalog, Parliament Building in Moscow, November 1992 and in the Hoover
Institution February 1993.
“The Elusive Litvinov Memoirs,” Slavic Review, December 1989.
“The Ethics of Access,” American Archivist, Vol. 52, Winter 1989, pp. 52-62.
Translated into Hebrew and published in Arkhiyyon, Jerusalem, 1991.
“Ethical Dilemmas of the Present and Future Archivist,” paper delivered at the annual
meeting of the Society of American Archivists, Chicago, August 1986.
“An Archivist's Perspective on the Sigmund Freud Archives,” paper delivered at the
annual meeting of the Society of California Archivists, Berkeley, October 1985.
Herbert Hoover: A Register of His Papers in the Hoover Institution Archives, compiled
by Elena S. Danielson and Charles G. Palm, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press,
1983.
Selected Service Activities
Chair, Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable, Society of American
Archivists
Member, Committee of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Society of
American Archivists
Chair, Advisory Committee of the Russian Museum Archives, San Francisco
Member, Archives Committee, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Member, ALA/SAA Joint Statement in Access Review Task Force
Chair, Privacy and Confidentiality Roundtable, Society of American
Archivists
Chair, Reference, Access and Outreach Section, Society of American
Archivists
2012 - 2013
2010 - 2012
2008
2008
2007 - 2009
1998 - 1999
1991 - 1992