The Edgar Cayce Foundation
215 S. 67th StreetVirginia Beach, VA 23451
jessica.newell@edgarcayce.org
Jessica Newell
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use
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.
Biographical / Historical
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.
Scope and Contents
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.
Arrangement
Andrew Jackson Davis's materials are followed by Delphine Markham Davis's materials in the collection arrangement.
Related Material
Andrew Jackson Davis collection of publications located in the A.R.E. Library reserve room and available for research upon request and appointment.
Significant Persons Associated With the Collection
- Atherton, Frederick
- Davis, Andrew Jackson
- Davis, Delphine Markham
Container List
- Folder 1:1
accession materials1977-2011
- Folder 1:2
correspondence, [personal]1909-1937
- Folder 1:3
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 Association1881
- 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
- Folder 2:1-2:2
correspondence, [Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company1894-1909
- 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
ephemera1903-1909
- Folder 1:1
accession materials1903-1909
- 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 license1883
- 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
photographs1840-1910
- Folder 2:25
poemundated
- 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
- Folder 3:1
account books1913-1927
- Folder 3:2
Andrew Jackson Davis Publication Trust1922-1923
- 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
ephemera1882-1928
- 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 Davisundated
- Folder 3:14
photographs, [Delphine Davis]undated
- Folder 3:15
receipts1927-1928
- Folder 3:16
wills1910-1922
- Item 4:1
staffundated
- Item 5:1
medal, [British Spiritualists' Lyceum Union]1863
- Item 5:2
medal, [British Spiritualists' Lyceum Union]1863
- Item 5:3
ambrotype, [Andrew Jackson Davis]undated
- Item 5:4
sashundated
- Item 5:5
medal, [depiction of the Rochester Rappings]undated
- Item 6:1
ledger1874-1887