Image: Emergency isolation hospital for smallpox, 1908. (credit: Stanford Historical Photographs Collection. University Archives)
The Stanford community has weathered many hardships, including natural disasters, world wars, and pandemics. Relying on materials from the Stanford University Archives, Stanford Historical Society publications, Lane Medical Library, local news sources, and historical texts, the Stanford Historical Society, the Stanford University Archives, and Stanford Libraries offer this site to explore these moments in history and the spirit of hope and resilience displayed by Stanford students, faculty, and leaders. These stories capture not just the transformative events and the immediate response, but the longer term impacts on Stanford, including physical changes to the campus, its programs, and its policies.
We hope this look at how the Stanford Community responded to the challenges of natural disasters, world wars, pandemics, and other unforeseen trials, will spark conversation, dialogue, and further research. We recognize that focusing on isolated events may not provide a full view of an individual’s life. It must be acknowledged that some past Stanford faculty and leaders, including some of those mentioned in this series, held and encouraged racist and ableist views through their writings and actions, which have negatively impacted people’s lives to this day.
Visit Hope, Resilience, and Change: Stanford in Moments of Crisis web page
