Researching Arthur Davis

Davis studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris in the 1890s. He was the co-partner in the firm Mewes & Davis, with Charles Mewès. The firm designed the elevations and interior decoration of the London Ritz Hotel which introduced modern French comfort and luxury enabled by an innovative steel frame construction. In addition, the partnership took on numerous private commissions including Luton Hoo for Sir Julius Wernher, Coombe Court for Countess De Grey and Polesden Lacey for the Hon Mrs Ronald Greville. Prior to World War I, Davis worked on a number of ocean liners such as the Aquitania (1911–14); and after his military service he designed a number of banks in London. His last major commission was the Queen Mary (1935).

In 1949 he gave his recreations as golf and water-colour sketching.

Davis and Booth were the first U.S. athletes to win the mixed-pair all-around gold medal at the 2002 Sports Acrobatics World Championships in Riesa, Germany. (The sport now known as acrobatic gymnastics was called sports acrobatics until the mid-2000s (decade).)

The pair tied for the gold medal in the 2002 World Championships with the Russian mixed pair of Yuri Trubitsin and Elena Kirjanova. Also in 2002, the pair placed second all-around at the 2002 Machuga Cup in Krasnodar, Russia.

Davis and Booth placed second in the all-around, balance and tempo at the 2003 Volkov Cup in Veliki Novgorod, Russia.

The pair won the all-around at the U.S. National Sports Acrobatic Championships in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Davis and Booth also won national awards for performance, skill difficulty and choreography.

Davis and Booth repeated their world-championship gold-medal performance in the all-around at the 2004 Sports Acrobatics World Championships in Lievin, France.

After their retirement, Booth and Davis formed the acrobatic gymnastics duo Realis, which made it to the final round of competition in the 2006 season of the U.S. reality TV show, America’s Got Talent.

Prior to working with Booth, Davis was the base in a mixed pair with top Aimee Broncatello (now retired). The pair placed first all-around at the 2000 National Championships in Jacksonville, Florida.

Davis and Broncatello placed third in dynamic and fifth all-around at the 2000 World Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, and they placed ninth all-around at the 1999 World Championships in Ghent, Belgium.

In 1996, Davis also won the mixed pairs all-around title with Natalie Baeza at the 1996 National Championships in Palm Springs, California.

Boulder Dam (later called Hoover Dam) was fundamentally the conception of Arthur Powell Davis. A month before he died, Arthur Powell Davis was appointed Consulting Engineer on the dam project. Mr. Davis had his vision back in 1902. He died in Oakland, California, on August 7, 1933, and is buried in St. Paul’s Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., along with his wife, Elizabeth B. Davis. The Davis Dam is named after him. Like other progressive Republicans, Arthur Davis had deep faith in the role of experts (he himself held a degree in civil engineering), worshipped efficiency, and viewed the federal government as a major instrument for social and political reform.