Josephson, Aksel Gustav Salomon, 1860-1944

Aksel Gustav Salomon Josephson was born in Uppsala, Sweden on October 2, 1860 to Hilda Augusta Schram and the composer Jacob Axel Josephson. He acquired vast bibliographical knowledge as a bookseller, having established his store in Uppsala in 1885. On September 18, 1893, Josephson immigrated to the United States and enrolled at the New York State Library School at Albany but withdrew before completing the program. He did bibliographic work for Publisher's Weekly before, in 1894, becoming a cataloger in the Lenox Library, now a part of the New York Public Library. He was the Chief Cataloger at the John Crerar Library in Chicago from March 1, 1896–1923. Josephson became an American citizen on October 17, 1898 and married Lucia Engberg, daughter of Jonas Engberg of Chicago, on April 27, 1899.

Josephson began efforts to form the Bibliographical Society of Chicago (BSC) in 1899 and is, therefore, regarded as the founder of both the BSC and its successor organization, the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA), of which he was also a member. Josephson was also a founder of the Swedish Historical Society of America (SHSA), which was organized in Chicago on July 22, 1905. He served as its first treasurer, was chairman of its library committee, and served a term as its secretary. He also served as the first president of the Swedish Educational Society, which was establish in Chicago in the fall of 1915 as part of a late 19th-century Swedish trend in adult education clubs. He was also a member of the Svenska Litteratur-Sallskapet of Upsala, the American Library Association, the City Club of Chicago, and the Gutenberg Gesellschaft of Mainz.

Josephson authored bibliographies for the Crerar Library and other organizations including a Catalogue of Swedish and Finnish Dissertations at Universities and Schools, published at Upsala, 1892-97; the List of Bibliographies of Bibliographies (1901); and the Bibliography of Union Lists of Serials (1906). Josephson also edited the four volumes of the BSC yearbook. He contributed notes and reviews of bibliographical works and of notable books from Sweden for the Nation, the Verdandi Study League's magazine called Bokstugan (The Book Cabin), and the Swedish newspaper Arbetaren (published in New York).

Josephson was not a socialist but may have been a Single-Taxer, for, on his retirement, he went to live at the Henry George community of Fairhope, Alabama. He died in Mobile, Alabama on December 12, 1944.