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Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, documents, subject files, photographs, art works, and printed materials. This collection covers the entire span of his life, although by far the greatest part relates to his activities as a professor from the 1930s to the 1960s. Among the correspondents are many important figures in American Russian studies or Columbia University; there are also many letters from his wife, Clemens T. Robinson, and Lewis Mumford. Manuscripts by Robinson include his "Rural Russia under the Old Regime" lectures, notes, speeches and essays, and also miscellaneous pieces (essays, reviews, poems, stories, plays, etc.) that he wrote while he was an aspiring young journalist and writer in the 1910s and 1920s. Manuscripts by others consist of student theses, papers, books and reports that were given him for review or comment. Subject files deal with such topics as his service in World War I; Columbia University (especially the Libraries and the History Department); and various aspects of academic life and Russian studies. Almost nothing in the collection has any bearing on his government service during World War II; items from the war years concern personal affairs or scholarship. There are photographs of Robinson and his wife; family photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and Russian scenes. Art works include items by Clemens T. Robinson. Among the printed materials are two books inscribed by Mumford to Robinson.

The collection consists entirely of personal papers including correspondence, manuscripts, and miscellaneous materials, most of which pertain to Davis' family. The most interesting parts of the collection are Davis' letters from Russia, 1916-1919, which contain his observations on the Russian Revolution, and Davis' short story and play manuscripts, none of which were ever published.