This collection is open for research use. Reproduction is permitted with written permission from the Edgar Cayce Foundation.
Custodial History
The Association for Research and Enlightenment Library acquired the collection in 1977 from Maude Kline, friend of Edgar Cayce.
The collection of books that accompanies this manuscript collection is housed in the A.R.E. Library.
Andrew Jackson Davis's lawyer Frederick Atherton originally owned the collection. After Atherton's death, it passed to a Mrs.
McCullem who willed the collection to Maude Kline. (see A.R.E. News, vol. 13 no. 3, March 1978).
Fred Kolb, member of the A.R.E. Board of Trustees, Dr. John Bullard and Dr. Craig McAndrews advised the Library on the purchase.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item,] [date (if known)]; Andrew Jackson Davis Collection, Coll. 2, box_, folder_, The Edgar Cayce Foundation,
Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Andrew Jackson Davis was born August 11, 1826 in Blooming Grove, New York. After a series of psychic experiences, he moved
to Poughkeepsie, New York and became an ardent Spiritualist known popularly as "The Poughkeepsie Seer." Davis was a prolific
writer and lecturer on Spiritualist and socially progressive topics. He served briefly as editor of the Banner of Light, a
Spiritualist newspaper based in New England. In 1843, Davis attended a lecture on mesmerism given by Dr. Dr. J. S. Grimes,
professor of jurisprudence in the Castleton Medical College. Soon after the lecture, a local tailor named William Livingston
guided Davis into a trance state, where he discovered he could see the inside of the human body and diagnose illness. According
to the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, "In 1844 Davis had a strange experience that was to have an enduring
effect on his life. In a state of semitrance he wandered away from home and awoke the next morning 40 miles away in the mountains.
There he claimed to have met two venerable men - whom he later identified as the ancient physician Galen and the Swedish seer
Emmanuel Swedenborg - and experienced a state of mental illumination" (https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-biographies/andrew-jackson-davis).
In 1845, he partnered with Dr. Silas Lyon and the Reverend William Fishbough to explore his abilities on a deeper level. Lyon
guided his trance state and Fishbough recorded the sessions. From November of 1845 to February of 1847 they gathered the material
that would become The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind (1847). Through the following years
Davis would publish several other works on Spiritualism and philosophy. In 1860 he started the Herald of Progress magazine.
He later ran a small bookshop in Boston and earned a medical degree. He was an important influence in the development of Spiritualism
as well as a supporter of progressive political movements such as divorce reform. Davis died on January 13, 1910.
This collection includes artifacts, correspondence, legal records, photographs, and writings primarily related to Davis's
publishing contracts. Letters between Davis and his lawyer Frederick Atherton form the bulk of the correspondence. In addition,
the collection includes personal papers of Davis' wife, Delphine Markham Davis (1839-1928). Delphine, a graduate of the United
States Medical College in New York, married Davis in 1885.
correspondence, [Frederick Atherton to James Robertson]
1911-1912
Folder 1:4
annuity, [Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company]
1899-1902
Folder 1:5
bill of sale, [Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company]
1890-1910
Folder 1:6
biographical sketches, [Andrew Jackson Davis] by Delphine Davis et. al.
1886-1909
Folder 1:7
Certificate of Incorporation of the Harmonial Association
1881
Folder 1:8
charter, [The Magazine Company]
1906
Folder 1:9
correspondence, [American Society for Psychical Research]
1908
Folder 1:10-1:14
correspondence, [Frederick Atherton]
1905-1910
Folder 1:15
correspondence, [Austin Publishing Company]
1908-1910
Folder 1:16
correspondence, [Banner of Light Publishing Company]
1905-1908
Folder 1:17
correspondence, [British Spiritualist lyceums]
1898
Folder 1:18
correspondence, [William Fishbough]
1847-1854
Folder 1:19
correspondence, [Alfred E. Giles]
1884-1902
Folder 1:20
correspondence, [Reverend T.L. Harris]
1847-1848
Folder 1:21
correspondence, [legal]
1909
Folder 1:22
correspondence, [Ella Mingus]
1886
Folder 1:23
correspondence, [National Association of Spiritualists]
1902-1909
Folder 1:24
correspondence, [J.M. Peebles]
1905
Folder 1:25
correspondence, [C.M. Plumb]
1888
Folder 1:26
correspondence, [The Progressive Thinker]
1905-1923
Folder 1:27
correspondence, [readers]
1905-1906
Folder 1:28
correspondence, [John T. Townsend]
1884-1885
Box 2
Folder 2:1-2:2
correspondence, [Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company
1894-1909
Folder 2:3
correspondence, [Veteran Spiritualist's Union]
1896-1908
Folder 2:4
divorce petition, [Catherine De Wolf v. Joshua Dodge]
1848
Folder 2:5
ephemera
1903-1909
Folder 1:1
accession materials
1903-1909
Folder 2:6
legal agreement, [George C. Webster and Lyman W. Griffin, pharmacists]
1893
Folder 2:7
legal documents, [Samuel S. Love v. Mary F. Davis alias Mary F. Love]
1856
Folder 2:8
legal documents, [probate]
1910-1912
Folder 2:9
legal documents, [probate; James De Wolf]
1859
Folder 2:10
legal documents, [Christopher C. Shaw et. al. v. Veteran Spiritualist's Union et. al.]
1906-1909
Folder 2:11
judgment, [Andrew Jackson Davis v. Mary F. Davis / Love / Robinson]
1885
Folder 2:12
manuscript, [An Explanatory Letter from Andrew Jackson Davis to His Correspondents Who Complain That They Do Not Receive His
Books From the Publishers]
1905
Folder 2:13
marriage contract, [Andrew Jackson Davis and Catherine De Wolf]
1848
Folder 2:14
marriage contract, [Andrew Jackson Davis and Delphine E. Markham]
1885
Folder 2:15
medical license
1883
Folder 2:16
notes, [books and lectures]
1879-1884
Folder 2:17
paintings, [subjects from Davis' writings]
undated
Folder 2:18
pamphlet, [The Diakka, and their Earthly Victims; being an Explanation of much that is False and Repulsive in Spiritualism]
1873
Folder 2:19
pamphlets, [Harmonial Association and Philosophy]
1872-1907
Folder 2:20
pamphlets, [lyceums]
undated
Folder 2:21
pamphlets, [medical remedies]
1893-1895
Folder 2:22
pamphlets, [Spiritualism]
1905
Folder 2:23-2:24
photographs
1840-1910
Folder 2:25
poem
undated
Folder 2:26
publications, [Andrew Jackson Davis memorials]
1910
Folder 2:27
receipts, [Ella Mingus]
1885-1887
Folder 2:28
receipts, [publishers]
1895-1904
Folder 2:29
receipts, [Eliza P. Williams]
1884-1887
Box 3
Folder 3:1
account books
1913-1927
Folder 3:2
Andrew Jackson Davis Publication Trust
1922-1923
Folder 3:3-3:4
correspondence, [Frederick Atherton]
1910-1923
Folder 3:5
correspondence, [mourning]
1910
Folder 3:6
correspondence, [personal]
1914-1928
Folder 3:7
correspondence, [Winthrop Scudder and family]
1927-1928
Folder 3:8
ephemera
1882-1928
Folder 3:9
legal documents, [divorce]
1869-1885
Folder 3:10
legal documents, [property]
1869-1892
marriage contract, [Delphine Markham and Dumont C. Dake]
1870
newsclippings, [Spiritualist newspapers] collected by Delphine Davis