Eliza Spalding Warren Collection, 1905-1935

Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) was an American missionary who joined an Oregon missionary party with her husband Henry H. Spalding and settled among the Nez Perce People called the nimiipuu in Lapwai, Idaho. She was a well-educated woman who was among the first missionaries to learn a Native American language.[1] She developed a written version of the language and printed Bible story lessons and hymns in the Nez Perce language. Her hymnal was the first book written in the Nez Perce language. She taught hundreds of native people by first teaching a few people a lesson or a song, and after they memorized it, they taught it to groups to people.