Manuscripts Collection
Edward Wilson Davis was born May 8, 1888 in Cambridge City, Indiana, the son of Walter and Delphina (Wilson) Davis. He and his brother Royden attended public schools in Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1911 and received an EE degree from the University of Minnesota in 1914. In 1912 he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Mines as a mathematics instructor. The next year he began his pioneering work to perfect a commercially useful process for extracting magnetic iron ore from taconite. From 1918 to 1939 he served as superintendent of the University of Minnesota Mines Experiment Station, and was its director from 1939 to 1955, when he retired and became a consultant for Reserve Mining Company. The company named its taconite plant at Silver Bay the E. W. Davis Works in his honor.
Dr. Davis was the holder of 15 patents relating to the iron ore industry, the author
of more than 30 technical articles in professional journals, and the author of a
book,
Among his other interests was the history of the voyageurs and their canoe routes. This led to his interest in Underwater Archaeology and his participation with the Minnesota Historical Society in discovering artifacts lost in canoe accidents during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Dr. Davis was a member of the American Mining Congress; American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; Board of Directors of the Minnesota Historical Society; Engineers Club of Minneapolis; Newcomen Society of North America; American Society for State and Local History; and other professional organizations.
He married Jessie Campbell of Yorktown, Indiana on June 4, 1914. They had three daughters: Jane, Martha, and Ruth. Dr. Davis died December 3, 1973.
The correspondence and speeches document Davis' work with taconite development and the taconite industry and his relationship with Reserve Mining Company. With the correspondence are other files with background information on Reserve Mining Company; technical details of taconite processing; history of the Mesabi range; newspaper clippings on taconite development; lake and water pollution studies.
Mesabi Iron Company and Reserve Mining Company files include materials concerning the formation of the Mesabi Iron Company, which operated from 1920 to 1924, and its successor, the Reserve Mining Company. The Mesabi Iron Company assigned its Peters lease and other lands "in fee" to the Reserve Mining Company, which agreed to provide the Mesabi Iron Company with sufficient money to meet its corporate expenses and also to share one-third of the net profits. These papers contain histories, ore test results, patents, water and lake studies, newsletters, and reports of Reserve Mining Company.
Taconite Amendment files document Davis' efforts in securing the passage of the taconite amendment to Minnesota's constitution in 1964. Four files include general publicity materials, newspaper clippings, information on the Citizens Committee for Taconite Amendment #1, and carbons sent to Davis as honorary chairman for the Citizens Committee.
A print version of this finding aid is available in the repository; filed as P1058.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics,
persons or places should
Accession number: 8440; 8669; 9004; 9169; 9260; 9513; 9757; 10,112; 11,631; 11,741
Processed by: Bonnie Beatson Palmquist, July 1975
Catalog ID number: 001718163
Background and reference materials for Davis' book, published in 1964 by the Minnesota Historical Society.
Compiled by Jessie Campbell Davis.
Excerpts from magazines and professional journals on all aspects of the iron ore industry and its history.
The scrapbooks contain newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, Davis' articles and publications, letters, mimeograph items and similar materials relating to Davis' professional career and to the development of the taconite industry.