Collections

The Josephy Library is based on the books, journals, manuscripts, and artifacts from Alvin Josephy home libraries in Greenwich, Connecticut and Joseph, Oregon, and grows with donations and purchases. It honors Alvin Josephy’s work as a historian of and advocate for American Indians, and Alvin and Betty Josephy’s commitment to literature, history, the arts, the West, and to people of all colors and backgrounds who have lived in and loved the West.

The collection aims to be comprehensive with Josephy’s own writings and with material relating to Nez Perce and Columbia Plateau Indian and Northeast Oregon history, geography, and culture. It seeks to relate that work to a broad understanding of the West, and with books of a more general collection of Western and Indian history.

For the entire collection, go to SAGE below, which does not include books by Alvin Josephy Jr.

Featured below are our digital databases and lending literature collections that we store at our Library.

Annotated Alvin Josephy Bibliography

The Annotated Alvin Josephy Bibliography is an online resource provided by The Alvin M. and Betty Josephy Library of Western History and Culture. The site provides brief descriptions on all works that Alvin Josephy played some part in creating.

Featured Archives

Josephy Library Featured Archives brings the collections of the Josephy Library together in a search- and browse-able website. Archives include items from Nez Perce historical ephemera, Josephy Library YouTube Videos, Rich Wandschneider's Blog, and the Wallowa County History Collection.

Nez Perce Books

Our Nez Perce Books collection showcases books available at the Library as catalogued by SAGE Libraries of Eastern Oregon, along with our private collection of literature from the Nez Perce Ephemera Box.

Library Lending Shelf

Although the main library collection is not circulating, multiple copies of several books and periodicals—especially ones with Josephy’s work or of particular interest to the Nez Perce story and local history—make up a small but growing lending library. Checkout time is two weeks.

Mary M. Buford Collection

These books were purchased from local collector, Dody Yaccarino, with a donation from Laura Hauser in name of her friend, Mary B. Buford. It includes literature on Wallowa history, geology,  the novel, and a photo of Wallowa lake from 1875!

SAGE Collection

The Sage Library System is a consortium of 77 member libraries in fifteen counties of Eastern and Central Oregon. This collection includes the 1,300 books available for lending or in-library use at the Josephy Library of Western History & Culture.