Curated by Dr. James A. Butler, the Owen Wister Collection houses a wide variety of materials dedicated to the life, works, and correspondence of well–known author and prominent Philadelphian, Owen Wister. Being the 3rd largest collection of Wisteriana in the world–behind only the Library of Congress and the University of Wyoming–our collection is aptly located, as the Belfield estate, a one-time residence of the Wister family, makes up a prominent portion of the La Salle Campus.

In addition to first and rare editions of The Virginian–regarded as the first cowboy novel and one of Owen Wister’s most celebrated works–the collection also includes papers and objects from several other prominent members of the Wister family, such as garden drawings of notable sites around Philadelphia by John Caspar Wister and the correspondences of Sarah Logan Wister Starr, the first woman to serve on the Board of the University of Pennsylvania libraries.

We are currently working on digitizing Owen Wister's correspondence; feel free to check out the early digitization examples by clicking the thumbnails below.