A Guide to the Papers and Photographs of Jackson Davis 1906-1947, and n.d. Davis, Jackson Papers and Photographs of 1906-1947, and n.d. 3072, 3072-a

A Guide to the Papers and Photographs of Jackson Davis 1906-1947, and n.d.

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession number 3072, 3072-a


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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Collection number
3072, 3072-a
Title
Papers and Photographs of Jackson Davis 1906-1947, and n.d.
Physical Characteristics
The collection is ca. 38 1/2 feet.
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Jackson Davis, Papers, 1906-1947, Accession #3072, #3072-a, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA 22903.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Langhorne and Mrs. Helen Lynch, Dec. 7, 1948 and Nov. 3, 1949.

Alternative Form

The photographs, photographic negatives and glass lantern slides are available as digital images, online at https://small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/jackson-davis-collection-of-african-american-educational-photographs/

Biographical/Historical Information

Jackson Davis was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on September 25, 1882, the son of William Anderson and Sally Wyatt (Guy) Davis. He attended the public schools of Richmond, Virginia, and received his B. A. from the College of William and Mary in 1902 and his M. A. from Columbia University in 1908. Honorary L.L.D. degrees were conferred upon him by the University of Richmond in 1930 and the College of William and Mary in 1931.

Following graduation from William and Mary he was the principal of the public schools of Williamsburg, Virginia. He was assistant secretary of the Roanoke, Virginia YMCA from 1903- 1904, was principal of the public schools of Marion, Virginia from 1904-1905, and was superintendent of schools in Henrico County, Virginia from 1905-1909. From 1909-1910 he was a member of the state board of examiners and inspectors of the Virginia State Board of Education, and from 1910-1915 he was state agent for African-American rural schools for the Virginia State Department of Education. In 1915 he became affiliated with the General Education Board in New York, New York, as a field agent. Two years later he was transferred to New York city as the board's general field agent, in which capacity he remained until 1929 when he was made assistant director. He became associate director in 1933 and vice-president and director in 1946. Throughout his career Davis specialized in Southern education, interracial problems, and education in Belgian Congo and Liberia. In 1935 he went to Africa as a Carnegie visitor, and in 1944 went again as head of a group sent by the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, the British Conference of Missions, and the Phelps- Stokes Fund. Davis was also a trustee of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, an organization devoted to African-American education and race relations both in America and in Africa. He became vice president of the fund in 1940, and succeeded Anson Phelps Stokes as president in 1946. During the years of his association with the General Education Board its work was concentrated on education in the Southern states and Davis' influence on behalf of better relations and understanding between whites and African-Americans and his pioneer work in promoting regional centers of education in the South were of immense significance. At the time of his death he was president of the board of trustees of Booker T. Washington Institute in Libera, president of the New York State Colonization Society, and a member of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation and of the Advisory Committee on Education in Liberia. He served as a member of the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary during 1913-1920 and as secretary of the International Education Board from 1923- 1938. Davis and Margaret Wong co-authored Africa Advancing in 1946, a book providing the results of the survey made in 1944; he was also a frequent contributor to educational journals.

Davis was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Virginia Academy of Science, Virginia Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Theta Delta Chi, Phi Delta Kappa, and the Town Hall and Century clubs. He was married in Bluffton, Georgia, on May 9, 1911, to Corinne Mansfield ( -1941), and they had two daughters, Helen Mansfield who married John Phillip Lynch, Jr., and Ruth Elizabeth, who married Charles Rolfe Langhorne. Davis died in Cartersville, Virginia, on April 15, 1947.

Scope and Content Information

The papers consist of topical files, personal, professional, and financial files, photographs, glass lantern slides, photographic slides, negatives, card indexes and printed materials.

Arrangement

Arrangement

Papers and slides are arranged alphabetically by subject for collection 3072. Items in 3072 (negatives and slides) are arranged numerically according to slide/negative number.

Organization

The contents list is arranged by box number with the addition of the letter, "a" to the boxes from collection 3072-a (slides, lantern slides, negatives).

Contents List

Papers 1906-1947, n.d.
13 Boxes

Alphabetical by subject

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Photographs 1917-1947, n.d.
Boxes 9-11

The 6000 number series are prints for which there are no negatives.

Photographs are arranged alphabetically by subject

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Box 12
Articles and Miscellaneous 1939-1945, n.d.
Printed matter
Box 12
Bulletins, etc 1936-1943
Box 12
Newspaper Clippings 1926-1947
3 folders
Box 13
Address Book n.d.
Box 13
Checkbook: American Bank and Trust Company November 1932-December 1936
3 folders
Box 13
Checkbook: Chase National Bank June 1933-June 1937
2 folders
Box 13
Monthly Expense Books: Trip to Africa March 1935-August 1935
Box 13
Savings Passbook: American National Bank December 1926-February 1933
Archival Prints
Boxes 14-28

These are archival prints of the negatives listed in Boxes 1a-10a

Arranged in numerical order.

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Collection 3072-a: Numbered &Unnumbered Negatives
Boxes 1a-10a
These negatives are bagged in groups of twenty
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Glass Lantern Slides
Boxes 12a-15a
224 individual slides.

Note: the numerical order of the 3072-a boxes are not continuous since the materials are stored in different locations. There is no Box 11a

Slides are arranged chronologically by slide identification number.

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Card File
Card File Trays Othertype: 92-95

These are individual index cards kept by Davis to organize by subject the negatives he created.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

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