Robert Tyler Davis (1904–1978) was an American art historian, writer and educator.
[2] During his lifetime, Davis occupied high ranking positions in several museums and galleries in the United States and Canada.
He was Director of Education at the Albright-Knox Gallery, Director at the Portland Art Museum,[3] the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts[2] and the Vizcaya-Dade County Art Museum, now Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.
Davis produced several publications including the book Native arts of the Pacific Northwest.
During his tenure at the Albright-Knox Gallery, Davis produced a report funded titled The Art Museum and the Secondary School, it is in this report that the first documented occurrence of the term "visual literacy" is recorded in literature.