Frank A. Golder

Frank Alfred Golder (1877–1929) was an American historian and archivist specializing in the history of Russia. Golder is best remembered for his work in the early 1920s building the seminal collection of Slavic language materials residing today at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University in California.

Frank A. Golder was born August 11, 1877 near Odessa, Ukraine, then part of the Russian empire. His family, who were ethnic Jews, emigrated to the United States during Golder's early boyhood years, probably in the immediate aftermath of the Odessa Pogrom of 1881. Golder was not a native speaker of either Russian or Ukrainian, but rather is believed to have first spoken Yiddish before learning English in America as a youth.

The Golder family established a home in Bridgeton, New Jersey, where they lived in poverty. Frank was sent to the streets as a young boy to supplement the family income as a peddler of small knickknacks. It was in this way that he was befriended by a Baptist clergyman, who helped the boy escape life on the streets and to gain a first-rate education, including a stint at Georgetown College, a preparatory school in Kentucky.

Golder subsequently converted to Unitarianism, a theological departure which caused a strain between him and his parents, who remained adherents of Judaism.

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