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Harry Allen Davis, Jr., Indiana artist and Herron School of Art professor, was born in Hillsboro, Indiana in 1914 and moved to Brownsburg, Indiana in 1920. In 1938, he graduated from the John Herron Art Institute and won the Prix de Rome in Painting. After studying at the American Academy in Rome and briefly teaching at Beloit College, he joined the Army in 1942 and was a combat artist in Europe in World War II. When the war was over, Davis took a position teaching drawing and painting at the Herron School of Art. There, he met Lois Irene Peterson from LaPorte, Indiana and the two married in 1947. They had two children together. Harry Davis was a professor at the Herron School of Art until his retirement in 1983. As an artist, he was known for his series of paintings featuring older American and more specifically, Hoosier, buildings and structures. Harry Davis died in 2006. The Harry and Lois Davis Papers consist mainly of Harry Davis's correspondence and exhibition files, as well as scrapbooks and news clippings about Harry and Lois Davis and about Herron faculty and alumni. Also included are a journal and travel documents from his time at the American Academy and a memoir from the war.

The Herron School of Art and Design has provided instruction in both fine and commercial art since 1902. Founded by the Art Association of Indianapolis as part of the John Herron Art Institute, the school became part of the Indiana University system in 1967 and one of the schools of IUPUI in 1969. The school's faculty, students, and alumni have won several prestigious awards and gained national recognition for their work. The school was located in buildings at 16th and Pennsylvania Streets until 2005, when it moved into Eskenazi Hall on the IUPUI campus. Records include correspondence, minutes, reports, newsletters, exhibition programs and promotional material, publications, videotapes, and glass slides.