# Charles Wendell David

Charles Wendell David (1885–1984) was a noted American bibliophile, medievalist and librarian. He worked tirelessly both to reconstruct Europe's war-torn repositories and to establish new libraries in the United States.

## Biography

David went to college on scholarships, earning a doctorate from Harvard in 1918 and achieved a Rhodes scholarship before returning to establish his academic career at Harvard and Bryn Mawr. David pioneered the "open access" concept of the college library, throwing open the doors to all students (as opposed to traditional "classed" libraries open only to faculty, "upper" or "lower" classmen) before arriving in Philadelphia to serve the University of Pennsylvania as its first director of libraries, where he transformed their dilapidated collection into America's first centralized, open-access library in its modern form.
Prof. David retired to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he continued to mentor and educate until his death in 1984.

## Historical studies

Empathizing with the financial and travel problems of his students in European history, and anticipating the return of Europe to censorship and war, Prof. David travelled Europe in the mid-1930s determined to create rotogravure copies of manuscripts so that these works would remain available to American scholars (at least in copy). Consequently, certain of his rotogravures are the only remaining images of manuscripts destroyed or damaged by the war, or that have since become deteriorated or misplaced. This collection became part of the Modern Language Association photo imagery collection at the Library of Congress, where it remains today.
David published his critical edition of a rare Third Crusade manuscript through the American Philosophical Association in 1939, using one of his rotogravures to complete his study. This manuscript was in fair condition before the war, but its pages are now blank – this manuscript contains very important information about medieval sailing and pilgrimage that would have been lost without Prof. David's work.
Medievalist Dana Cushing now studies and lectures on Prof David's rotogravure copy of the manuscript. She provides a free, public-access, digital copy of the manuscript and of Prof. David's critical edition of it (Narratio de Itinere Navali Peregrinorum Hierosolymam Tendentium et Silvam Capientium A.D. 1189) by kind permission of the Library of Congress which owns the rotogravure copies, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino which owns the original manuscript, and the American Philosophical Society which published David's 1939 article.
Over 80 years later, David's book about the Siege of Lisbon and the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi remains the authoritative study, entitled De expugnatione Lyxbonensi: The conquest of Lisbon. The book was recently revised by noted Crusades historian Jonathan Phillips for a paperback re-issue. Most of David's medieval and librarianship books remain available, if not in print. This includes Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (1920), a biography of Robert Curthose, the eldest son of William the Conqueror.

## Legacy

The public can visit two libraries he founded: a library for America's history of her seas and sailing located at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, and a library for America's industrial heritage located at Longwood, Delaware.

## Sources

* ↑ The Rhodes Trust, "Charles Wendell David, librarian of international impact, remembered" Archived 2013-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, The Rhodes Trust, March 12, 2011
* ↑ Bibliothèque nationale de France {BnF Data}. "Charles Wendell David (1885-1984)".
* ↑ "Charles Wendell David". The Campaign for the Penn Libraries. Archived from the original on May 10, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ "Charles Wendell David Library Fund". The Campaign for the Penn Libraries. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ University of Pennsylvania, "Charles Wendell David" Archived 2016-05-10 at the Wayback Machine, Penn Libraries, June 26, 2007
* ↑ https://www.loc.gov – James Sweeney, Photographic Collections Librarian
* ↑ "A German third Crusader's chronicle of his voyage and the siege of Almohad Silvers, 1189 AD". University of Leeds. 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ "Biblioteca" (in Italian). Archived from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ "About the APS".
* ↑ Osbernus, 1. cent.., David, C. Wendell., Corpus Christi College (University of Cambridge). Library. (1936). De expugnatione Lyxbonensi: The conquest of Lisbon. New York: Columbia University Press.
* ↑ Raol (2001). Conquest of Lisbon. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231121237.
* ↑ "Charles Wendell David Author Page". Amazon. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ David, C. Wendell. (1920). Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy,. Cambridge,: Harvard university press; [etc., etc.].
* ↑ "Collections and Research". Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
* ↑ "Eleutherian Mills". National Historic Landmarks Program. Archived from the original on December 6, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2022.