Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

The Institute Library

The Institute Library

The Institute is in the process of developing two library resources for local educators: a collection of books that augments our class work in "The Making of the Western Mind," and a slide library.

Our Online Library

The Institute's library in Cupertino was opened for reference and circulation on November 1, 2004.

It was developed to support and augment class work at the Institute and you are welcome to use it as a study or reading room before classes.

To check out books from the library, you must be a enrolled in Institute classes. The Registration forms are found in the library along with other information on how to check out books and general circulation procedures.

Using Our Online Library

Login to the Library. To access the library,

  1. Enter "ISWC Library" in first line - "Library Name."
  2. Then, check "Access Library as Guest."
  3. Use the "Search" tab to browse and enjoy the collection.

For questions, contact library at westernciv dot com.

The Philip Whalen Slide Library

The core of the Philip Whalen Slide Library is housed in the Institute building at 10060 Bubb Road is a collection of more than 10,000 slides created over many years by the late Philip Whalen. Philip and his partner Josephine Jackson traveled the world photographing art and architecture in Europe and the Mediterranean world. The resulting collection provides a stunning panorama of the art of the West.

The collection is especially rich in recent photographs (slides) from the major museums of Europe, such as the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Vatican. When Philip passed away in the spring of 2002, Josephine Jackson and the Director of the Institute, Prof. William Fredlund, began planning the creation of this slide library as a memorial to Philip's passion for education and photography. It is the intention of the Board of Directors that the slide library be opened to local educators in the years ahead and that an online catalog be created, with a representative collection of scanned images from the collection available online.