Series 1 - Personal and biographical

0.26m of textual records, 1 photograph

Series consists of records relating to Professor Davis’ personal life and academic career. They document his employment at UofT and as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, academic and professional recognitions, biographical writing, and his connection to colleagues in both mathematics and activism.

Significant coverage is given to Davis’ House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing, his dismissal from the University of Michigan, and subsequent blacklisting. These files include material capturing the events of 1954, such as reports of HUAC and University of Michigan’s Special Advisory Committee to the President, copies of legal documentation, correspondence written by Davis and by others petitioning on his behalf, in addition to later material that documents these events’ impacts. This latter grouping includes correspondence, drafts, and clippings discussing restitution and an apology from the University of Michigan, the development of the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund in 1990, the first University of Michigan Senate’s Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom in 1991.

Included in this series is material of a biographical nature that touches on the continued interest in this period of anti-communist sentiment, participation of academic institutions in the second Red Scare, and Prof. Davis’ own persecution. Includes correspondence with authors, interviews, and a note by Natalie Zemon Davis on the writing of Operation Mind.

Files are arranged in two general groups, the first focusing generally on Prof. Davis’ career. The second, documenting the HUAC hearing and reprisals. Records within each group are arranged chronologically. This is an imposed arrangement created by the archivist.

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