Papers, 1909-1977, of Anna Mae Davis, Wisconsin economist, attorney, and a frequent Socialist Party political candidate, together with papers of her husband Robert H. Davis, a state parole officer. Anna Mae Davis' papers include personal and business correspondence; legal cases; speeches and writings; and subject files documenting her interests in civil liberties, labor, and the cooperative, women's rights, and peace movements. Robert H. Davis's papers document his probation and parole work during the 1930s and 1940s, together with information about a few individual parolees. The files of Anna Mae Davis represent the full range of her legal practice, as well as office operations. Cases involving divorce, conscientious objectors during World War II (particularly Jehovah's Witnesses), members of the International Association of Cleaning and Dye House Workers (IACDHW), and the libel suit of George W. Hartmann of the Peace Now movement are prominent. There are also files on her research association with John R. Commons. The subject files include correspondence and organizational records of groups in which Davis was active: the Women's Division of the Wisconsin Civil Workers Administration (CWA), the Socialist Party of Wisconsin and its local Dane County chapter, the Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation, the Wisconsin Committee on Women's Employment, and the Madison Consumers Cooperative, a dairy cooperative. Prominent correspondents include Andrew Biemiller, Norman Thomas, Walter Uphoff, and Frank Zeidler. The photographs include Davis family snapshots, images of CWA women at work in University of Wisconsin laboratories, and photographs of two clients: the Nieman-Tower family and Leonard Van Bossche.
