Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Rare Books
609219
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Rare Books
248885
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Manuscripts
The majority of the collection consists of personal letters sent by David William Davies to his wife, Thelma Davies, while working as a librarian and serving in the United States Army Corps during World War II from 1941 through 1947. Most of the letters were sent while Davies was serving in the military, which included his cryptographic preparation at Chanute Field Air Force Base, work at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and his deployment in Europe. The correspondence begins in December 1938 when Davies was an assistant librarian in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Much of the correspondence during this time concerns his wife's health; she was in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Altadena, California. Other common topics include work in the library, social life, and a project renovating a house. In August 1941 the correspondence begins in Logan, Utah where Davies was appointed as librarian at Utah State University, College of Agriculture. As an ambitious librarian, Davies "...made several proposals to the President and the Dean of Education for improving the curriculum in library science, but they do not want to do anything. Well if they do not want to do anything I guess it is all right on account it is their college" (August 21, 1941).
mssDavies correspondence
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Manuscripts
Subjects of the entire collection include: Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, American dance and dancers, dance instruction and notes, exercises and warm-up routines, various dance types (international as well as American), famous dancers from around the globe, Denishawn dancers, the Ruth St. Denis Center, the Ruth St. Denis Foundation, the Ruth St. Denis Theatre Intime, Jacob's Pillow dance festival, American Dance Film Association, Society of Spiritual Arts Church, the various teachers and pupils at St. Denis' dance studio and school, the Orient trip the Denishawn dancers took in 1926, as well as dance productions and events St. Denis put on throughout her career. There is also much material about St. Denis' effort to have her studio and school become a non-profit entity and her desire to create an artist colony in Hemet, California. More specifically, several dancers show up in the notebooks and photographs, including: Harold Kreutzberg, Peter di Falco, La Meri, Karoun Tootikian, Miriam Schiller, Jean Léon, Gladys Bowen, Antonio Gades, Devi Dja, Doris Humphrey, Mary Wigman, and Martha Graham.
mssStDenis