Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: Demorest Davenport Papers
Dates: 1939-1994
Collection number: UArch FacP 45
Creator:
Davenport, Demorest, 1911-2004
Collection Size:
6.4 linear feet
(15 document boxes and 2 half-sized document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Abstract: The collection contains the correspondence, research files, lecture notes, slides, and videos of Biology and Zoology professor
Demorest Davenport.
Physical location: Del Sur.
Languages:
English
Access
None.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Preferred Citation
Demorest Davenport Papers. UArch FacP 45. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Material donated by Jennifer Thorsch from the Museum of Systematics and Ecology.
Biography
Demorest Davenport was born September 26, 1911 in Utica, New York. He received his B.A. from Harvard, his master's degree
from Colorado College, and then returned to Stanford where he received his PhD in Biology in 1937. His obtained his first
academic position in 1938 at Reed College in Portland, Oregon where he studied first entomology and later comparative pharmacology
of heart control in mollusks and arthropods. It was here that he met his wife, Winnifred Bailey, a dancer in the Portland
City Ballet. In 1942, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force to research aviation physiology. Later he
was promoted to captain, heading the altitude and night vision training program until 1946.
After the war he came to UC Santa Barbara where he studied bioluminescence in marine invertebrates. He pushed for the development
of a marine facility after the move to the current campus in 1954, which eventually became the UCSB Marine Science Institute.
While at Santa Barbara his research focus settled first in the biology of behavior and later transitioned to the study of
animals in primitive and ancient art. While at UCSB he was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, making him the first UCSB professor
to be awarded the fellowship. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society
of Zoologists, Society of Sigma Xi, The Western Society of Naturalists, and the Marine Biological Association of the United
Kingdom. He retired from teaching in 1974. After his retirement he worked with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History,
where he served as a trustee.
Davenport passed away in 2004.
See Office of Public Information biographical files (UArch 11) for further information.
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Series I, Biographical, consists of one folder including a biographical/bibliographic sketch and personal educational records.
Series II, Correspondence, contains incoming and outgoing correspondence, arranged alphabetically or by subject (1939-1979, 1981-1994). Subject files
titled and organized by Davenport. Also includes correspondence relating to Animals in Art research, 1975-1989, arranged
by regional origin of art. See also Series III, Writings for additional correspondence relating to individual articles and
Series IV, Research for correspondence relating to specific research. Additional correspondence is also at the Cheadle Center
for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER).
Series III, Writings, includes articles (arranged chronologically) and his unpublished monograph An Ethnologist Looks at Animals in Art, as well
as editorial letters and writings by others in response.
Series IV, Research, includes research in the field of UV lights and orchids, and representations of animals in ancient and native cultures.
Includes some integral correspondence, articles by others, and grant paperwork. Additional publications are also at CCBER.
Series V, Teaching and Lectures, includes lecture notes from his courses taught at UCSB and lectures at the Museum of Natural History.
Series VI, Slides, contains slides relating to his UCSB course lectures and presentations at the Museum of Natural History, arranged by carousel
order, not by included guides. Additional slides, including images of the installation of the UCSB sea water system, are
arranged alphabetically by subject as organized by Davenport.
Series VII, Audio/Visual, contains video recordings of lectures.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Davenport, Demorest, 1911-2004
University of California, Santa Barbara
Animals in art
Ultraviolet radiation
Bioluminescence
University of California, Santa Barbara. Marine Science Institute
Related Material
One box of materials located at the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) relating to his work
in the marine sciences, 1970-1974, and a complete, bound set of his publications. Part of his book collection was also donated
to CCBER and has been cataloged in their own system:
http://ccber-library.lifesci.ucsb.edu/m4/opac/