The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Endowment for Humanities was established in 1993. The late Mr. Davis was prominent in the industrial and business history of the United States, spending almost his entire career at Alcoa, the world’s leading producer of primary aluminum and fabricated aluminum. The original foundation was organized under a living trust he established before his death in 1962. It remains firmly committed to honorable service to society in memory of Davis, a man of vision, courage, and generosity.

Students of the humanities develop writing, analytical, and speaking skills that will serve them for life. The Davis Endowment has, for decades, provided critical funding for research and discovery in this discipline. Recent acquisitions for this area include a collection of fine press editions of the Psalms that are useful to graphic design students studying book arts as well as to students in theology. This endowment has also aided in the collection of materials relating to foreign literatures, to interdisciplinary fields falling outside the traditional collections, and to disciplines arising from a shift in traditional research attentions.

The foundation also established the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Endowment for Medieval and Renaissance Italian Studies.