In the 1850s, he started a European tour, playing in Amsterdam, Paris, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, and finally, a visit to the United States of America in 1866.

In 1866 Dawison was contracted to appear in New York by Elise Hoym, who was the director of Stadttheater.

He appeared in a wide range of his popular roles, and received enthusiastic tribute from the press in New York.

[1] Dawison was considered in Germany an actor of a new type; a leading critic wrote that he and Marie Seebach swept like fresh gales over dusty tradition, and brushing aside the monotony of declamation gave to their roles more character and vivacity than had hitherto been known on the German stage.

His chief parts were Mephistopheles, Franz Moor, Mark Antony, Hamlet, Charles V, Richard III and King Lear.