Programs

 

Upcoming program -

Letters Home from Stanford – The History Students Wrote Home

Sunday, February 1, 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm

Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road
Palo Alto

Join us on Sunday, February 1st for a presentation by local author and editor Alison Carpenter Davis when she will share stories from her book Letters Home from Stanford, a timeless collection of students’ letters, emails, and text messages spanning 125 years.

In this engaging, fun, and sometimes poignant presentation, Davis will highlight what Stanford students wrote about the first Big Game (where's the ball?); infrequent snowfalls and first emails; the Big One and Loma Prieta; celebrating the end of World War I; a student named Herbert meeting Lou Henry; the assassination of a young president; and shipping off to Vietnam. Davis also will discuss the changes in women's roles, language, and types of correspondence that emerge from the collection.

Throughout the presentation, Davis will provide rich historical context using footnotes, letter writers’ biographies, and photographs from the book. She collaborated with the Stanford University Archives on this project, which was released in paperback in 2024. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

            

Alison Carpenter DavisLetters Home From Stanford

Future Public Programs -

Upcoming Programs

Mark your calendars for the remaining programs of our 2025-2026 year:

March 1, 2026
May 3, 2026

Check back later for more details.

Recordings and General Program Information

PAHA programs are recorded. DVDs of the programs can be checked out from the Archives at Cubberley Center, Room-7. Recordings of our programs, titled "Heritage," are broadcast on local cable public access.

If you missed the December 14th program, A Toast to Palo Alto – It's Complicated Alcohol Story, you can find it at Vimeo.

Also on the Vimeo site you will find programs from past seasons, including the December 2021 program Life in the Frank Lloyd Wright Hanna House with Karen Holman and John Hanna, and PART: Palo Alto "Rapid" Transit with PAHA Historian Steve Staiger presented in January 2022.