Lucile Dana was born as Lucy Davis in Webster, Kansas in 1891. While a small child, she was moved to Oregon City, Oregon, where her father, a clergyman and teacher, had accepted a new assignment. While attending preparatory school at Pacific College in Newberg, Oregon, she adopted the name Lucile. When her family moved to Albion, Washington in about 1910, she followed to the nearby city of Pullman, where she entered the State College of Washington (now WSU). She graduated from the State College's Department of History and Economics in 1916 and became a teacher, first at Amber, Washington, and then in the high school at Davenport, Washington.
In the summer of 1920, she married Homer Dana of the WSU engineering department staff and returned to Pullman. The rest of Mrs. Dana's life was largely composed of the activities of a professor's wife in a small college town, a role through which she attempted to preserve formal social traditions. She was also concerned with volunteer activities with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Association of University Women. As a part of her DAR activities, Mrs. Dana served as the compiler of Volume 12 of Family Records of Washington Pioneers (Prior to 1891), Collected by the Daughters of the American Revolution (typescript, 1941-42). During much of Mrs. Dana's adult life, she was hampered by numerous minor physical and mental health problems. She died in Spokane in April 1974.
Lucile Dana's papers consist of correspondence from 1907-1972, notes and papers accumulated while a student, drafts of essays written for the DAR and AAUW, and numerous photographs, mostly of personal and family subjects. Correspondents include Mrs. Dana's husband, Homer J. Dana (1890-1970); her father, Rev. William H. Davis (1842-1935), a clergyman and head of Edwards College at Albion, Washington; her sister, Grace Davis (ca. 1885-1953), a teacher at a mission school at Lucknow, India; her step-mother, Martha Jenks Davis (1869-1955); and other acquaintances and family members. The correspondence also includes a series of letters written by Mrs. Dana to her step-mother, Martha Davis, which Mrs. Dana acquired after the death of Mrs. Davis. Subjects discussed in the correspondence include personal affairs and interrelationships among the various members of the Davis and Dana families, as well as comments on the career of Professor Homer Dana. Some correspondence relative to the Daughters of the American Revolution is included. Mrs. Dana's student papers illustrate the content of instruction in the social sciences at Washington State University in 1912-1916.
The papers are arranged in three series: correspondence, student papers and writings, and photographs. The correspondence is arranged in one chronological sequence, except for the letters from Lucile Dana to Martha Davis, which are in a separate chronological sequence. Mrs. Dana's student notes and her later writings are arranged according to courses of instruction or subject. The photographs are arranged according to their principal subjects.
This collection is open for research use.
[Item Description]. Cage 313, Lucile Olive Davis Dana Papers . Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The papers of Lucile Dana were donated to the Washington State University Library in 1973 and 1974.
The donation accompanied her gift of the papers of her husband, Professor Homer J. Dana (Cage 299).
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.