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Mar-16-13
 | | Tabanus: <Phony Benoni> AYE! I'm impressed. Yes he no doubt left for New York around 1880 (he is listed in the Philadelphia 1880 census). I was mostly worried that you'd come up with another Harry Davidson (there were many), but I think we have him now. How, after hours of googling, I missed the following obituary in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 14, 1924, is beyond me. <Death of Harry Davidson.
The Manhattan Chess Club has lost another one of its staunch oldtime
members through the sudden death on Monday of Harry Davidson, whose funeral services were held yesteday at the Stephen Merritt Funeral Chapel, 161th ave., Manhattan. Although not active in chess circles in recent years, Mr. Davidson was in his day ranked among the strongest players and could always be depended upon to hold up his end in any match in which he represented that powerful organization. The deceased was born in Philadelphia in 1868 and was a participant in the International Centennial Chess Congress in 1876, which was won by James Mason, then of New York, with Max Judd of St. Louis, second, and H. E. Bird of London, third. Mr. Davidson tied with Jacob Elson, another Philadelphian, for fourth and fifth prizes, having made a score of 9—7. He won one of his games from Mason, defeated Judd by 1 1/2 to 1/2, and drew a game each with Bird and Elson. In a brief biographical sketch in the congress book, he was referred to as "probably the most brilliant player in the country, the youngest contestant, of indomitable pluck and daring
style."
Mr. Davison was a wood engraver and one of the leaders in that profession in this country. Until a year ago he was art critic for the Vogue Magazine and was connected for 25 years with the Century Company. He had been a resident here since the age of 21 and belonged to the Salmagundi Club and the Art Center. Three sons and a daughter survive
him. His late residence was at 320 W. 18th St., Manhattan.> |
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Mar-16-13
 | | Phony Benoni: <Tabanus> Up through the 1930s, New York newspapers had good coverage of local chess events, particularly the Brooklyn Daily Eagle with its regular Thursday column by Hermann Helms. This is one way of searching them: http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
It can be very clunky and difficult to work with, but there is a lot of gold to be found. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Tabanus: <PB> Thanks, added to favorites. Perhaps not all in there can be reached by googling from Europe. The link you sent took a long time to download. All we need now is to merge with the Henry Davidson games, and crown it with a picture of Harry :) If any picture exists. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Phony Benoni: <Tabanus> There are a couple of pictures of Davidson in the November, 1905 issue of the <American Chess Bulletin>, but I don't know if they are available online. Fulton can be very slow, especially the first couple of searches in a session. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Tabanus: <PB> http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?... with a picture of "H. L. Davidson", while the text has "Henry F. Davidson". Hmm.. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Tabanus: But online it's not complete. Will I go through the whole list of online journals? Nah.. :) http://www.chessarch.com/library/ma... |
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Mar-16-13
| | Phony Benoni: <Tabanus> That's the same picture used in the November 1905 issue of ACB reporting on the New York vs. Berlin match, and labelled "Harry Davidson". There's a second picture of the match in progress, and there's no doubt it's the same person. The "Rice Gambit Supplement" was prepared by Herman Keidanz, who may have just made a mistake. But Helms wasn't always 100% accurate on names either. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Tabanus: <Phony> Thanks. Not sure if the librarian would like this, I can copy the picture but only in this form: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/img... |
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Mar-16-13
| | Phony Benoni: <Tabanus> That's something that should probably go to chessgames.com chessforum, not to the Librarian. They have to be very careful about using pictures due to copyright restrictions, but you can try. They might be able to crop it as well. |
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Mar-16-13
| | Tabanus: <Phony Benoni> Ok request sent to the cg forum! Please check if I did it right. Then let's wait and see. |
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Mar-22-13
| | Tabanus: Hartford Weekly Times, Nov. 1, 1873:
<H. Davidson, is the name of a boy player in Philadelphia, who is astonishing the natives.> |
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Feb-15-14
| | Phony Benoni: Obituary by Walter Penn Shipley in the Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 1924: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers... Shipley gives birthdate as 1857. |
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| Mar-25-16 | | TheFocus: Harley's dad. |
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| Jun-18-17 | | zanzibar: Writing about one of his victories over Bird, Renette writes this about Davidson: <The victory of the young and talented Harry Davidson, aptly nicknamed the giant-slayer, over Bird was hailed by his club mates> p196 |
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| Jun-19-17 | | zanzibar: An example of his other handiwork:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/199156... |
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Jun-19-17
 | | tamar: Looks like Alec Guinness being Edgar Allan Poe. |
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| Jun-19-17 | | zanzibar: His middle name shows up as L. a few times in the chess magazines. I'm a little curious if we can find out his full middle name. So far I'm not having any luck. . |
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| Jun-19-17 | | zanzibar: FWIW - I believe this is his father's obit:
https://books.google.com/books?id=n... . |
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| Jun-19-17 | | zanzibar: Perhaps Henry is his official first name...
https://books.google.com/books?id=t... "Johnson, Avery, and a few others retired, but Henry ("Harry") Davidson "stole a march" over his fellow craftsmen by ..." which might confuse researching his detailed records. |
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| Jun-19-17 | | zanzibar: This article, using Henry, contains a detailed writeup and many more examples of his work as an engraver: https://books.google.com/books?id=r... (But no help on his middle name...)
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Jun-19-17
| | Tabanus: The 1860 census has "Harry", 1,5 years old. It woukld seem he was born 1858, but I don't know where the exact date is from. He is Harry also in 1870, and 1880 (as wood engraver). His father Julius was born in Poland, and his mother Rachel in England (censuses). |
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| Jun-20-17 | | zanzibar: <Tab> RE: Father's name... This is the source I used <The Jews of Philadelphia> https://books.google.com/books?id=j... Usually this kinds of works are pretty trust-worthy. It clearly identifies the father of the wood engraver as <Dr. David>, which matches with the obit I cited yesterday. This work is also the primary source (afaik) for Harry's dob. Now, the father may have come from Poland, and may have adopted a new first name upon immigrating to the US. I don't really know. . |
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Jun-20-17
| | Tabanus: Julius died in 1879. He is a Physician in 1860 and a Chiropodist in 1870. In 1870, of his many children (incl. Harry, 12) is the son David A., 23, student of medicine. 1880 census; Rachael Davidson, 60, "Mother", with 6 sons and 4 daughters, incl. Dr. D. Davidson, 33, Doctor, and Harry, 22, Wood Engraver. I can't read the obit or the book. There are pitfalls, but it seems clear that "Dr. David" is an 11 years older brother, not the father. |
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| Jun-21-17 | | zanzibar: Yes <Tab> I think you're right on this - and that the <Jews of Philadelphia> is mistaken. Which is strange - it's from 1894 and very local. But I just saw the dod in the obit being 1887, and that the name matched - which seemed consistent - so I stopped reading there. A mistake on my part, because reading further in the obit shows Dr. David was only 40 years old (dob 1847), and got his medical degree in 1871. Which definitely matches a bother and not the father. (The bother died from Bright's disease)
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| Jun-21-17 | | zanzibar: BTW- it's a damn shame you can't read the source PD material that I can. |
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