Joseph E. Davies, American ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1936 through 1938, received his AB from the University of Wisconsin in 1898 and his LLB in 1901. While in Russia, Ambassador Davies avidly collected paintings illustrating contemporary Russian life and the ideals of Soviet socialism. In 1937, he donated 89 works to his alma mater. Included are such subjects as Red Army in the Don Basin by Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalya; The Cable Factory by Nikolai Alexandrovich Ionin; and The Colliery Terminus by Finageev.

Returning to Russia later that year, Davies, through the personal intervention of Stalin and with the assistance of a curator from the Tretyakov Gallery, acquired 23 icons, which he also donated to the UW. The Byzantine triptych of the Deësis and Dodekaorton, bearing the coat-of-arms of Pope Paul III, is the largest and iconographically most complex of the group. The others, mostly single panel icons, are Russian in origin representing various types produced between the 15th and the 19th century.

Listen to an interview with Prof. Harvey Jacobs on the concept of "Man, Nature, and Machine". Image 1, image 2, image 3.

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