Charles Wendell David

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/opportunities/david.html |title=Charles Wendell David |website=The Campaign for the Penn Libraries |access-date=March 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510075208/http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/opportunities/david.html |archive-date=May 10, 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/David/fund.html |title=Charles Wendell David Library Fund |website=The Campaign for the Penn Libraries |access-date=March 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218231852/http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/David/fund.html |archive-date=February 18, 2012}}

Prof. David retired to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he continued to mentor and educate until his death in 1984.University of Pennsylvania, [http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/opportunities/david.html "Charles Wendell David"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510075208/http://www.library.upenn.edu/portal/opportunities/david.html |date=2016-05-10 }}, Penn Libraries, June 26, 2007

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.https://www.loc.gov – James Sweeney, Photographic Collections Librarian

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{{cite web |url=https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991001414339705181&vid=44LEE_INST:VU1 |title=A German third Crusader's chronicle of his voyage and the siege of Almohad Silvers, 1189 AD |website=University of Leeds |date=2013 |access-date=March 13, 2022}} 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{{cite web |url=http://www.accademiadellescienze.it/biblioteca |title=Biblioteca |language=Italian |access-date=March 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225182258/http://www.accademiadellescienze.it/biblioteca |archive-date=December 25, 2008}} which owns the original manuscript, and the American Philosophical Society{{Cite web|url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/about/|title = About the APS}} 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.Osbernus, 1. cent.., David, C. Wendell., Corpus Christi College (University of Cambridge). Library. (1936). [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000632415/Home De expugnatione Lyxbonensi: The conquest of Lisbon]. New York: Columbia University Press. The book was recently revised by noted Crusades historian Jonathan Phillips for a paperback re-issue.{{Cite book|isbn=0231121237|title=Conquest of Lisbon|author1=Raol|year=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press }} Most of David's medieval and librarianship books remain available, if not in print.{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Wendell-David/e/B001H6P7LI?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1647183578&sr=1-3 |title=Charles Wendell David Author Page |website=Amazon |access-date=March 13, 2022}} This includes Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (1920),David, C. Wendell. (1920). [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000368501/Home Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy],. Cambridge,: Harvard university press; [etc., etc.]. a biography of Robert Curthose, the eldest son of William the Conqueror.

The public can visit two libraries he founded: a library for America's history of her seas and sailing located at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut,{{cite web |url=http://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction%3Dhome.viewPage%26page_id%3DA7B8C4EF-EB21-3177-41F3190696B4438F |title=Collections and Research |website=Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea |access-date=March 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219023941/http://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=A7B8C4EF-EB21-3177-41F3190696B4438F |archive-date=December 19, 2008}} and a library for America's industrial heritage located at Longwood, Delaware.{{Cite web |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=159&ResourceType=District |title=Eleutherian Mills |website=National Historic Landmarks Program |access-date=March 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206113214/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=159&ResourceType=District |archive-date=December 6, 2007}}

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Category:1885 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:Librarians from Delaware

Category:Harvard University librarians

Category:Bryn Mawr College faculty

Category:American Rhodes Scholars

Category:University of Pennsylvania staff

Category:Harvard University alumni