(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
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Raymond Cazalis Davis was one of the pioneers of the library movement in America.
Background
Raymond Cazalis Davis was born on June 23, 1836 in Cushing, Knox County, Maine, United States. He was the son of George and Katharine (Young) Davis, of English and Welsh descent through his father, and Scotch and Irish on his mother’s side.
Education
Davis' father had had long experience on the sea, and eked out the meager returns from his sea-coast farm by commanding tramp sailing vessels. In September 1849, after the death of his wife, he started for California as captain of the ship Hampton, taking with him his two sons, the younger of whom, Raymond, although but little over thirteen years of age, was already nearly six feet in height.
This trip was continued for two years till the circuit of the globe had been completed, and Raymond had become a proficient sailor.
On his return to America he prepared for college, and in 1855 entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
In 1857 he was obliged to give up his studies on account of ill health, and for some years he engaged in the coasting trade.
In 1881 the Regents of the University of Michigan conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Career
Davis' heart clung to schools and schooling, and in 1868 he secured the position of assistant librarian in the University of Michigan. This work with the books was suited to his ideals and ambitions, and he retained the position for four years, during which time he published Reminiscences of a Voyage Around the World (1869). Without prospect of advancement, except by displacement of the incumbent librarian, he resigned in 1872, and returned to follow the sea for five years.
In 1877, the office of librarian of the University of Michigan having become vacant, Davis was appointed to that position, which he retained with marked success for twenty-eight years.
During his administration, from 1877 to 1905, the library grew from 23, 909 volumes to 194, 672, becoming one of the important libraries of the country. To help freshmen in the use of books and in the library, he started, in 1879, a short course of lectures, to which was added in 1881 a course in bibliography, for which university credit was allowed. This course he described in a paper read at the Milwaukee Conference of the American Library Association in 1886.
In 1887 he was called to give lectures on bibliography in the newly established Library School in Columbia University.
Several of his humorous stories appeared in Fore and Aft and other magazines.
After his retirement as librarian in 1905 he continued his lectures on bibliography until 1914, when he dropped the lectureship, and was made beneficiary of the Williams Emeritus Professorship Fund.