Collection inventory

Summary
Creator:	Davis, Harold Roland
Title:	Harold Roland Davis Papers
Dates:	1917-1965
Size:	3 oversize boxes (6 linear feet)
Abstract:	The Harold Roland Davis Papers includes over 150 of his black and white photographs as well as photograph albums and certificates of membership and merit .
Language:	English
Repository:	University Archives, Special Collections Research Center Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Ave., Suite 600 Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center/university-archives

Biography

Harold Roland Davis was born in Townsend, New York, May 9, 1893, the son of Daniel W. and Sarah Coates Davis. After graduating from Perry High School (Perry, New York) in 1912, he went to work at Curtiss Wright Air Craft in Hammondsport, New York.

In 1914 Davis entered Syracuse University to study engineering. While at Syracuse he was voted into the Alpha Chi Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He left the University in 1918 to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I. He attained the rank of First Lieutenant in the 56th Engineers.

Davis worked as a machine designer and checker at Eastman Kodak Company for ten years. In 1940 he started at Bendix-Eclipse as a designer and then retired in 1958 as manager of the Engineering Records Department. He moved to Ocala, Florida, in 1965 and died in February 1973.

Davis was a member of the Photographic Society of America, the Golden Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, the Elmira Camera Club, and the Photo Clubs Society of Southern New York, of which he was chairman in 1958. He also served as a judge for the Syracuse Camera Club, Finger Lakes International Salon, Owego Camera Club, IBM Photo Forum, and the Endicott Camera Club. Among the many awards he received were the Newspaper National Snapshot Award (1949 and 1955) and the Photographic Society Award of Merit.

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Scope and Content Note

The Harold Roland Davis Papers are arranged into four series: Mounted Photographs, Unmounted Photographs, Photograph Albums, and Certificates. Comprising over 150 black and white photographs taken by Davis, the first two series make up most of the papers. Among his award-winning photographs are two prints of "Sun Magic," four prints of "Sprays of Light," and one print each of "Piercing the Mist," "Luminosity," and "Skylights." The Mounted Photographs are prints on 16"x20" mounts. The Unmounted Photographs are 11”x14”, 8”x10” and smaller prints. The Photograph Albums series consists of two albums. One is filled with prints from Davis' time at Syracuse University, including shots of campus buildings, the Pi Kappa Alpha house, and Davis and his friends. The second album contains prints of Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia scenes (ca. 1910s). Certificates of membership in Pi Kappa Alpha and the Photographic Society of America as well as Newspaper National Snapshot Awards are found in the Certificates series.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Selected Search Terms

Names

Subjects

Types of material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Harold Roland Davis Papers,
University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

M. Margaret Davis Little gave the Davis Papers to the Syracuse University Archives in 1978.

Processing Information

The Davis Papers are processed.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: Edward L. Galvin
Date: 2011
Revision history:

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Inventory

	Mounted Photographs
Box 1		Arches and Spires (2 prints)
Box 1		The Artist Exhibits 1955 (2 prints)
Box 1		The Barn in the Clearing
Box 1		Bear Creek Road
Box 1		Buds Bloom and Blown
Box 1		Busy Harbor
Box 1		City Abstract
Box 1		Clawing Crabs
Box 1		Clearing Skies
Box 1		Columns of Light
Box 1		Crosslight
Box 1		Demands Right of Way
Box 1		Dim Past
Box 1		Door to Yesteryear (3 prints)
Box 1		Enshrined
Box 1		Evening Reverie
Box 1		Feeble Contradiction
Box 1		Forsythia (3 prints)
Box 1		Garden Tete A Tete
Box 1		Grace (2 prints)
Box 1		Half Hidden Harbor
Box 1		Into the Stretch
Box 1		Kashmir False Spirea
Box 1		Lakeside (2 prints)
Box 1		Luminosity
Box 1		Marks of Time
Box 1		Mill Phantom (4 prints)
Box 1		Moderne
Box 1		The Moored Three
Box 1		The Neglected Fish Shack
Box 2		Our Lady of Good Voyage 1954 (3 prints)
Box 2		Over the Hilltop
Box 2		Piercing the Mist (3 prints)
Box 2		Piled Spirals (2 prints)
Box 2		Plumage (3 prints)
Box 2		Portland Head
Box 2		Push
Box 2		Pyramid Building
Box 2		Rendezvous
Box 2		Ripples and Reflections
Box 2		Rock and Reaction 1953 (3 prints)
Box 2		Rockport, Massachusetts
Box 2		Roof Geometrics
Box 2		Sand Ripples
Box 2		Seemingly Calm and Peaceful (2 prints)
Box 2		Sermon in Stones
Box 2		Skyhooks
Box 2		Skylights (3 prints)
Box 2		Sidewalk Studio 1953 (5 prints)
Box 2		Sky's Ablaze
Box 2		Slush
Box 2		Sparkling Water
Box 2		Spider of Industry
Box 2		Sprays of Light (4 prints)
Box 3		Staghorn Sumac
Box 3		Stairway to Heaven
Box 3		Steps to Where? (2 prints)
Box 3		Sun Magic (2 prints)
Box 3		Sunlight and Shadows (3 prints)
Box 3		Tidal Basin Vista
Box 3		Tracks and Traces (4 prints)
Box 3		Trees (2 prints)
		Untitled
Box 3			[Lincoln Memorial]
Box 3			[Roof vents]
Box 3			[Snowscape]
Box 3		Vents (2 prints)
Box 3		Winter-Bound Brook
Box 3		Wooden Snow
Box 3		Work 'a-Day World (4 prints)

	Unmounted Photographs
Box 3		Baltimore, Maryland - Steps (3 prints)
Box 3		Baltimore, Maryland - Steps with figure
Box 3		Chemung River, Waverly, New York
Box 3		Chateau Frontenac, Quebec
Box 3		Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Box 3		Elmira, New York - Landscape with house (2 prints)
Box 3		Elmira, New York - Landscape with river
Box 3		Elmira, New York - Landscape with tree (2 prints)
Box 3		Elmira, New York - Winterscape
Box 3		Evening Reverie
Box 3		Flying Hooves, Into the Stretch
Box 3		Grand Canyon - View down the Yellowstone Canyon below the lower falls
Box 3		Hammondsport, New York - Vents (2 prints)
Box 3		Hammondsport, New York - Wine cellar roofline (2 prints)
Box 3		Hammondsport, New York - Wine cellar street
Box 3		Heaven-ward (Brimfield Massachusetts Congregational Church)
Box 3		Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Box 3		Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. (2 prints)
Box 3		Maine Shore Line
Box 3		Noon Day Lite going from San Francisco to Los Angeles
Box 3		Pemequid Light, Maine
Box 3		Rockport, Massachusetts
Box 3		Sidewalk Studio
		Untitled Prints
Box 3			[Apple blossoms]
Box 3			[Apple blossoms]
Box 3			[Still life]
Box 3			[Still life]
Box 3			[Still life with forsythia] (2 prints)
Box 3			[Tug boat on river]
Box 3			[Workers]
Box 3		Zion National Park, Utah - The Alter of Sacrifice
Box 3		Zion National Park, Utah - The "Three Marys" and "West Temple"

	Photograph Albums
Box 3		College years, including Syracuse University ca. 1914-1918
Box 3		Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ca. 1910s

	Certificates
Box 3		Certificate of Membership in the Photographic Society of America
Box 3		Certificate of Membership in the Alpha-Chi Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity January 19, 1917
Box 3		Certificate of Membership in the Golden Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity March 1, 1965
Box 3		Certificate of Merit, 1949 Newspaper National Snapshot Awards
Box 3		Certificate of Merit, 1955 Newspaper National Snapshot Awards

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