Collection is open for research.
Virginia Gilbert Davis, nee Virginia Beaumont Gilbert, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1911. She attended Smith College, then returned to Portland during the Depression and worked with Margery Hoffman Smith on interior design for the newly constructed Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. In 1940, she and Nelson Bennett Davis were married; they later had four children. She died in 1996.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Davis in her interview.
An incomplete transcript (16 pages) is available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Oral history interview with Virginia G. Davis, by Charles Digregorio, SR 9554, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Virginia G. Davis was conducted by Charles Digregorio at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon on May 26, 1977, as part of the oral history program at the society's research library.
In this interview, Davis discusses her family background, particularly the life and career of her mother, Page Morris Gilbert, and talks about her early life in the Dunthorpe neighborhood of Portland. She also discusses the family background of her husband, Nelson Bennett Davis. She speaks about how their families were acquainted with prominent Portland families and about their involvement in the timber industry. She talks about the music career of her brother, Giles Gilbert, aka Gilles Guilbert, and closes the interview by discussing her work with Margery Hoffman Smith on interior design for Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood.
Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Virginia G. Davis. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted,