Manuscripts Collection
Educator and community leader John Davis was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1921, the son of John Bradford and Edna (Maxfield) Davis; was educated in the Massachusetts public schools; received a B.A. degree from the University of New Hampshire; and received a doctoral degree from Harvard University. His educational career, beginning in 1944, included high school teaching in the Massachusetts public school system; various positions at Harvard and the University of New Hampshire; superintendent of schools in Lincoln, Massachusetts (1959-1963), Worcester, Massachusetts (1963-1966), and Minneapolis (1967-1975); president of Macalester College, St. Paul (1975-1985); and interim president of Mankato State University (1990). Davis returned to the Minneapolis Public Schools in March-July 1993 as interim superintendent following the suspension and subsequent resignation of Robert Ferrara.
Davis was active in many educational professional organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators, the New England Economic Education Council, and the New England School Development Council (executive director, 1950-1958). He also served on a number of committees within the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was a delegate to the White House Conference on Education (1955) and a member of the President's Task Force on Education (1969).
In Minneapolis Davis served on the subcommittee for education and programs of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1972); was interim director of the Children's Theatre Company (1984-1985); was president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1990); and was interim director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (1993-1994).
Davis married Barbara Burns of Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1943. Additional biographical information is available in the collection (personal files).
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Accession numbers: 14,886; 15,441; 15,593; 15,821; 16,025; 16,416;
Processed by: Kathryn A. Johnson, May 1993; Monica Manny Ralston, June and August 2001; Christopher G. Welter, October 2009
Catalog ID number: 1737105
Additional information concerning Minneapolis Public Schools desegregation, the 1970 teachers' strike, and the Southeast Alternatives experimental school project can be found in the records of the Minneapolis Public Schools in the Minnesota State Archives.
Personal papers include extensive correspondence files (1966-1975); newspaper articles by and about Davis (1945-2000); photographs (1970); and school papers and miscellaneous items (1947-1994).
Correspondence between Davis and his friends and colleagues in the East sheds light on the many educational groups and institutions with which he was associated, particularly Harvard University. Many letters of congratulation (1966) relate to his appointment as Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent. Letters after 1966 are concerned with invitations to many social, educational, and cultural events in Minneapolis, while continuing his contacts with colleagues in the East. Of particular interest is a folder containing correspondence, reports, and other papers generated while Davis was a consultant to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (1969), and three folders of minutes and correspondence created while Davis was a member of the subcommittee on education and programs of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1972).
Letter from Harry Shave to J. Bradford Davis (John B. Davis' father) enclosing Davis' letter and speech (December 1954) to the Haverhill Whittier Club discussing Whittier's "The Red River Voyageur", a poem inspired by a convoy of 25 dragoons and others escorting Alexander Ramsey from Fort Snelling to Pembina in 1851 and continuing on to St. Boniface.
Term papers on the relation of school to municipal government.
Includes poems by Davis, a copy of an autographed photograph of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (undated), his reports on a Ford Foundation Travel-Study Grant (1972) and as interim director of the Children's Theatre Company (1984), various citations and awards, and Henry A. Wallace/Glen H. Tayler (1948) campaign material.
Includes Davis with Stephen Keating (Honeywell) and with Charles Johnson and other athletes.
There are two sets of speech files. The first set is a numbered sequence, 1-278 (1948-1975), a complete list of which, prepared by Davis himself, is included in a folder ("explanatory note") filed at the beginning of the sequence. The second set, arranged chronologically (1959-1997), does not duplicate any found in the numbered group.
Speeches delivered from 1948 through 1966 contain information on school matters in Lincoln and Worcester, Massachusetts, and were presented before many educational, civic, and religious organizations. Speeches made during the 1967-1975 period, while Davis was superintendent of the Minneapolis public schools, cover similar education related topics. They include speeches to individual school groups, the board of education, teachers' groups, commencement audiences, and local civic, business, and cultural organizations.
The first group of files are copies of Davis's "Friday Letters" to the Minneapolis Board of Education (1968-1975), containing information on school issues and problems and routine board business. The set seems to be complete.
The major portion of the public school files are concerned with attempts to
desegregate the system. Included are reports, task force papers, newspaper
clippings and magazine articles, and proposals on many aspects of the
problem. Of special interest are four folders (1971-1978) of legal
documents, correspondence, and other papers relating to the case of
1. Three substantive reports on alternative education.
2. Miscellaneous papers and videocassette relating to the 1970 teachers' strike, including transcripts of some of Davis's telephone calls during the strike. The videocassette, an interview with Davis about the strike, was made in 1990.
3. Two theses by Terry Schultz, University of Minnesota, 1979 and 1992, that examine Davis's executive leadership of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
4. Files documenting Davis's interim superintendency of the Minneapolis Public Schools following the 1993 suspension of Robert Ferrara.
A few miscellaneous items that reflect Davis's involvement with institutions other than the Minneapolis Public Schools. The largest is a volume containing the compiled publications (1950-1958) of the New England School Development Council, which Davis directed during that period.
Materials are not in exact chronological order.
Included within this file is a salary study and program for the Concord Public Schools in Massachusetts published by the Center for Field Studies of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University in July 1959. Davis was a member of the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report. Also included is a 1966 progress report of the Student Achievement Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. Davis was a member of the board for this program that focused on strengthening the academic skills of underachieving teenage boys. Other items within this file include a reprint of "Taxation in France," by Martin Norr published in Tax Law Review, March 1966 and a 1977 newspaper editorial on the resurgence of core requirements in college curricula.
Includes two sound cassette-taped interviews.