DWIGHT F. DAVIS - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 131678

DWIGHT F. DAVIS. Photograph inscribed and signed: "To Clarence A. Aspinwall/With cordial best wishes/From Dwight F Davis". B/w with brown hue, 7½x10¾ overall, image 4½x7½ (one surface). Photograph by Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (imprint embossed at lower left corner of image). Dwight Filley Davis (1879-1945), who is best remembered as the founder of the Davis Cup international tennis competition, was a member of the U.S. team that won the first two competitions in 1900 and 1902, serving as Captain of the 1900 team. Davis had been the runner-up at the U.S. Championships in 1898, and he then won the men's doubles title (with Holcombe Ward) in 1899, 1900 and 1901 and was a men's doubles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1901. Although trained as an attorney, Davis never practiced law after becoming involved in politics. He was the Public Parks Commissioner of St. Louis, Missouri from 1911-1915 (during which time he created the first municipal tennis courts in the U.S.) before serving as Assistant Secretary of War (1923-1925) and Secretary of War (1925-1929) under President Calvin Coolidge. Davis, who then served as Governor General of the Philippines (1929-1932), was hosting Republican Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth when Longworth died unexpectedly of pneumonia on April 9, 1931. Slightly creased and soiled at blank margins, lightly shaded at blank edges and on verso, which has pencil notes in unknown hand (no show through). Lightly "silvered" at imprint. Overall, fine condition.