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The Charles E. Davis Collection, 1943-1994

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Davis, Charles E.
Title
The Charles E. Davis Collection
Dates
1943-1994 (inclusive)
Quantity
1 box, (0.5 cubic feet)
Collection Number
OLPb161DAV
Summary
The Charles E. Davis collection makes a significant contribution to the history of the Untide Press and the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, Oregon. It includes copies of Untide Press books, Fine Arts at Waldport ephemera, and Glen Coffield books. This collection in particular shows the work from a printer’s perspective.
Repository
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives

Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection has no restrictions and is open for research.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Charles E. Davis, Jr. was born in La Verne, California, in 1923, the son of a minister and Christian Educator in the Church of the Brethren. During World War II, he registered as a conscientious objector and entered Civilian Public Service. He was at Camp #56 from June, 1943 to December, 1944 — a period that saw the genesis of and much activity in the Fine Arts Group. With his background in printing, “Chuck” Davis was a key figure in teaching the Fine Arts members how to set type and operate a press. He supplied their first printing press, a tabletop Kelsey model, which was used to print Glen Coffield’s "The Horned Moon".

Davis served in other CPS camps, including Camp #115 in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he was a “guinea pig” for experiments in atypical pneumonia; and the 1945 calendar year at Camp #27 in Tallahassee, Florida, working on public sanitation projects. From January 1946 until his discharge in June of that year, he was at Camp #34, Unit 4, at New Windsor, Maryland, where he set up and ran an in-house printing shop for the Church World Service Relief Center, the hub for relief shipments being sent to Europe. It was also the center for the new Heifer Project (founded by Dan West, a Brethren farmer from Indiana), which has grown into the iconic Heifer International.

After the war, Davis returned to La Verne, married Mildred Streit and raised a family. In 1946, while a student at La Verne College he printed Glen Coffield’s "The Horse of Summer", under the imprint of C D Print, done on the 9x15 Chandler and Price press on which he had spent so many hours printing for college activities before being drafted. He earned a B.A. and M.A., worked as a printer from 1948-1957, then taught Printing Management at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, retiring in 1984. While there he became known as “Charlie,” and continued to use that name when he owned and operated Windsor Graphics, a trade typesetting and graphic arts camera shop, for nine years.

His major avocation has been clock collecting and repair, where he was also known as “Charlie” during twenty-seven years of teaching. His website, JapaneseClockLogos.com, highlights his interest in how the Japanese adoption of the Yankee eight-day time and strike clock style and production methods provided their introduction to semi-precision manufacturing.

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Content Description

The Charles E. Davis collection includes booklets, ephemera, letters, and personalized materials related to the Untide Press and the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, Oregon. It also includes books and periodicals from Glen Coffield, with whom Davis corresponded after the war.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish, exhibit, broadcast, or quote from materials in the Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections requires written permission of the Head of Archives & Special Collections.

Preferred Citation

The Charles E. Davis Collection (OLPb161DAV), Lewis & Clark College Aubrey Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections, Portland, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in series, listed by item.

Location of Collection

Special Collections

Acquisition Information

Donated by Charles E> Davis in 2015.

Processing Note

Processed in 2015.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

  • Glen Coffield Items.

    • Description: Coffield, Glen. "Homage to King Lear". [Revised version was printed in 1971.]
      Dates: 1954
      Container: Box/Folder 1.1
      Location: Glen Coffield Items.
    • Description: Coffield, Glen. Catalogue announcement for fourth annual summer session of The Grundtvig Folk School, July 21 to September 1, 1951.
      Dates: 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1.2
      Location: Glen Coffield Items.
    • Description: Coffield, Glen. "Silence and Slow Time".
      Dates: 1953
      Container: Box/Folder 1.3
      Location: Glen Coffield Items.
    • Description: Coffield, Glen. "The Horse of Summer". Printed by Charles Davis at La Verne College, La Verne, CA.
      Dates: 1946
      Container: Box/Folder 1.4
      Location: Glen Coffield Items.
    • Description: Coffield, Glen. "The Horned Moon" [2 copies].
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.5
      Location: Glen Coffield Items.

  • Untide Press Items

    Container: Box Folder

    • Description: Everson, William. "Ten War Elegies", Untide Press. Yellow-ink version, with Christmas greeting slip laid in, signed by Charles Davis.
      Dates: 1943
      Container: Box/Folder 1.6
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Everson, William. "The Waldport Poems", Untide Press. This copy from first 200 printed, with misspelled “acheivement” and “beginings” in poem Eleven.
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.7
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: "Ten War Elegies" Christmas announcement: “It occurs to us that TEN WAR ELEGIES / by William Everson will make an unusual / Christmas Card....”
      Dates: 1943
      Container: Box/Folder 1.8
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: “Untide Press books available:” Red cut piece listing War Elegies [.35], Generation of Journey [.25], An Astonished Eye [.35], and Imagine the South [.50], with review blurbs. Order slip on back with Pasadena address.
      Dates: c. 1948
      Container: Box/Folder 1.9
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Letterhead: THE UNTIDE PRESS / Camp Angel / Waldport, Oregon.
      Dates: c. 1944-1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.10
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Envelope [24x16 cm]: THE UNTIDE PRESS / Camp Angel / Waldport, Oregon.
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1.11
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Envelope [stationery]: Untide Press, The Illiterati, Los Angeles, Calif. Addressed to Dr. C. Ernest Davis, 2310 Fourth Street, La Verne, California.
      Dates: c. 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.12
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Advertisement for "An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air". Printed from typeset of wraparound title sleeve.
      Dates: c. 1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.13
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Patchen, Kenneth. "An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air".
      Dates: 1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.14
      Location: Untide Press Items
    • Description: Correspondence from Kermit Sheets to Charles Davis. TLS, single sheet, with postmarked envelope.
      Dates: July 22, 1946
      Container: Box/Folder 1.15
      Location: Untide Press Items

  • Fine Arts and Related Items

    Container: Box Folder

    • Description: “The Iliad of Homer” program for tenth event in reading series, Oct. 14, 1944.
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.16
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: “The Fine Arts at Waldport announces the fifth in its series of formal presentations ... May 20, 1944....” letterpress red ink.
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.17
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: “A Morality Play for the Leisure Class” program, letterpress, red ink. June 17, 1944.
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.18
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: “An Importunate Proposition.” Reply to An Indelicate Commission statement. One sheet 48 x 22 cm.
      Dates: 1944
      Container: Box/Folder 1.19
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: Letterhead: THE ILLITERATI / a magazine of directed pattern in creative expression / WALDPORT, OREGON.
      Dates: c. 1944-1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.20
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: Letterhead: THE FINE ARTS AT WALDPORT / civilian public / service camp / fifty six / waldport, oregon.
      Dates: c. 1944-1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.21
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items
    • Description: Envelopes [stationery]: The Fine Arts at Waldport and The Illiterati.
      Dates: c. 1945
      Container: Box/Folder 1.22
      Location: Fine Arts and Related Items

  • Miscellaneous Items

    Container: Box Folder

    • Description: The Tide, vol. 2, no. 5: Insides only, unbound.
      Dates: July 1943
      Container: Box/Folder 1.23
      Location: Miscellaneous Items
    • Description: Letterhead: CAMP WALDPORT / COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION / CIVILIAN PUBLIC SERVICE CAMP NUMBER 56 / WALDPORT OREGON
      Dates: c. 1943
      Container: Box/Folder 1.24
      Location: Miscellaneous Items
    • Description: Holograph of “Ramblin’ Around” by Dave Hall [Lincoln County Times].
      Dates: February 3, 1943
      Container: Box/Folder 1.25
      Location: Miscellaneous Items
    • Description: “$280,000 grant lets printer write his own ticket.” San Jose Mercury News. Story on Adrian Wilson’s McArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.”
      Dates: February 7, 1983
      Container: Box/Folder 1.26
      Location: Miscellaneous Items
    • Description: “The Death of a Poet: Santa Cruz writers, poets, and friends remember William Everson.” Newspaper article, Metro Guide (parent publication unknown).
      Dates: June 16, 1994
      Container: Box/Folder 1.27
      Location: Miscellaneous Items

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Fine Arts
  • Literature
  • Oregon
  • Performance Art
  • Public Works

Personal Names

  • Coffield, Glen, 1917-1981
  • Davis, Charles E.
  • Everson, William, 1912-1994

Zachariah Selley
2015

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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