David Brion Davis was a professor of History at Yale University from 1970-2001.  Davis’s scholarship focused on the history of slavery and abolition in the western world. While at Yale University, Davis taught courses in history, served as an academic advisor, and served as the founding director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, established in 1998.  Davis's professional papers were deposited at the Yale University Library in 2001 (with an addition donated in 2016) and contain records of his research activities, teaching files, lecture notes, and writings documenting his work as a cultural critic and contributor to scholarly and popular publications.