Table of Contents
- Collection Summary
- Biographical Note
- Scope and Content Note
- Subject Headings
- Administrative Information
- Access and Use
- Encoding Information
- Series List
- Container List
Collection Summary
| Repository: | Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries |
|---|---|
| Creator: | Davis, Marguerite, 1889-1978 |
| Title: | Marguerite Davis Papers, |
| Dates: | 1881-1972 |
| Quantity: | 10 boxes |
| Abstract: | Correspondence, artworks, sketchbooks, writings, journals, diaries, drawings, print proofs, photogrpahs, and printed materials documenting the life and career of illustrator Marguerite Davis. |
Biographical Note
Marguerite Davis (1889-1978) graduated from Vassar College in 1911. She went on to study art for an additional four years at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts under the guidance of William Paxton and Philip Hale. After further study under Henry Hunt Clark and Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott, she built a successful career as an illustrator of children's books. She illustrated some fifty books for Macmillan, Ginn and Company, Houghton Mifflin and other publishers, including classics such as A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson; Under the Lilacs, by Louisa May Alcott; and Heidi, by Johanna Spyri. Davis maintained a long, fruitful collaboration with her contemporary and fellow Vassar alumna, Elizabeth Coatsworth (VC 1915), illustrating The Littlest House (1940), Plum Daffy Adventure (1947), and several other of Coatsworth's books. Davis died January 11, 1978, in Portland, Oregon.
TopScope and Content Note
This collection includes original pen and ink drawings (published and unpublished); sketchbooks; correspondence; the artist's own annotated copies of books she illustrated; journals and diaries of Marguerite Davis, her Aunt Flora S. Davis, and her parents Edwin E. Davis and Florence S. Abbott Davis; detailed albums of class notes of art study in Mexico and Arizona in the 1950s; clippings and reviews pertaining to her work; correspondence; publishing trade catalogues featuring her work; creative writing by Davis; dust jackets designed by Davis; Christmas cards designed by Davis; proof printings of her artwork; and family photographs. Selected items include Davis’ notes, some dated in the 1960s, recollecting incidents of her life and some of the inspiration for her art.
TopAccess and Use
Access
This collection is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library without any additional restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.
Subject Headings
Organizations:
- Little, Brown and Company
- Macmillan & Co.
- Vassar College--Alumni and alumnae
Subjects:
- Illustrated children's books--20th century
- Women illustrators--United States--20th century
VCL Categories
- Art and Artists
- Children and Children's Literature
- Vassar College
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Marguerite Davis Papers, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.
Processing Information
Processed by Janine St. Germain, December 2020-January 2021.
Acquisition Information
Purchased from Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, 2013 (M2013-005).
Series List
Series I. CORRESPONDENCE, 1881-1972 (Box 1, 2) | |
|---|---|
| This series consists of letters between Marguerite Davis's future parents, Edwin E. Davis and Florence S. Abbott. The series also includes notes and letters received by Davis while she was abroad in 1926 and in the years that followed. Selected correspondence include autograph notes and recollections Davis added in later years. Also included are letters from publishers to Davis. |
Series II.ARTWORK, 1916-1937 (Box 2, 5, 6, 7) | |
|---|---|
| This series consists mainly of pen-and-ink drawings produced by Davis, both for and independent of children's books. The former include drawings for Magical Melons, by Carol Ryrie Brink, Skipping Along Alone, by Winifred Welles, Sing Song, A Nursery Rhyme Book for Children, by Christina Rosetti, Trudy and the Tree House, by Elizabeth Coatsworth, A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and the story collection Told Under the Blue Umbrella. Also included are proofs of Davis' published illustrations, as well as Christmas cards and a bookplate illustrated by her. |
Series III.PRINTED MATERIAL, 1925-1957 (Box 2,8) | |
|---|---|
| Series includes dust jackets of Eliot Porter books with notations by Davis, Twelve Months Make A Year and House-boat Summer, both by Elizabeth Coatsworth. Series also includes printer’s proofs as well as tearsheets collected by Davis, some of which include handwritten notations, as well as publishing trade catalogues featuring her work, one of which is inscribed by her editor at Macmillan. |
Series IV.NOTES AND NOTEBOOKS, 1951-1957 (Box 2,3) | |
|---|---|
| Loose notes and notebooks in this series contain detailed observations regarding composition, perspective, how to portray principal characters, how to read a story to construct pictures, color theory and methodologies in working with live models, as well as art class study notes with teachers Bill Schimmel, Gerry Pierce and Phil Paradise. |
Series V.DIARIES, 1889-1926 (Box 3) | |
|---|---|
| This series includes journals and travel diaries belonging to Davis' parents, Florence and Edwin Davis as well as Davis' aunt, Flora S. Davis. |
Series VI.WRITINGS, 1932 (Box 3) | |
|---|---|
| Series includes typescript of poems with edits and notations. |
Series VII.SKETCHBOOKS, 1925-1954 (Box 3, 4, 7) | |
|---|---|
| This series contains sketchbooks Davis kept during her travels through Europe, the United States, and Mexico. One sketchbook contains versions of illustrations Davis produced for Mary Coatsworth's The Littlest House, as well as sketches for Heidi, by Johanna Spyri. |
Series VIII.PHOTOGRAPHS, undated (Box 4, 7) | |
|---|---|
| Photographic prints in this series include images of Davis’ friends and family. Two oversized prints feature a young Marguerite Davis included in the cast of a school play. |
Series IX.CLIPPINGS, 1933-1968 (Box 8) | |
|---|---|
| Press clippings include reviews of published works, including a full page advertisement for Swiss Air, featuring Davis’ Heidi illustration. |
Container List
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Details
Correspondence, artworks, sketchbooks, writings, journals, diaries, drawings, print proofs, photogrpahs, and printed materials documenting the life and career of illustrator Marguerite Davis.
