Frank Alfred Golder

Born in Odessa on August 11, 1877, he came to the United States as a child and studied at Bucknell University and Harvard. Early in his career he taught in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, an experience that fed his lasting interest in Russia’s Pacific world and in the history of Alaska.

He later taught history at several universities, including Washington State College and Stanford, and became known for his research on Russian history. His published works included Russian Expansion on the Pacific, The Russian Revolution, Bering's Voyages, and History of Russia. He also worked in Russian archives on projects connected to American history and helped guide scholars to source material that was otherwise hard to reach.

In the early 1920s, he served with the American Relief Administration in Russia and played a major role in building the Slavic and Russian holdings that became a cornerstone of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford. He died in Stanford, California, on July 7, 1929, leaving behind both influential books and a remarkable archival legacy.