William Morris Davis was an American geographer, geomorphologist and meteorologist. He was famous as the Meteorologist who founded the science of geomorphology, the study of landforms. He is often called the “father of American geography.” Davis studied geology and geography at Harvard's Lawrence School of Science. Later joined the Harvard-sponsored geographic exploration party in the Colorado Territory, led by the inaugural Sturgis-Hooper Geology Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney.
He was a founder of the Association of American Geographers in 1904. Additionally, he was heavily involved with the National Geographic Society in its early years, writing a number of articles for the magazine. Davis retired from Harvard in 1911. He served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1911. He was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1919.
Wild stories had circulated soon after the Louisiana Purchase about Rocky Mountain peaks 18,000 feet or higher. The Harvard expedition set out to investigate and found none, but they did find “14ers” (14000+ feet). He graduated from Harvard University in 1869 and received a master's degree in Mining Engineering the following year. Davis worked for Nathaniel Shaler as a field assistant and was later hired to teach at Harvard. Although his legacy lives on in geomorphology, he also advanced theories of scientific racism in his writings on physical geography.
Davis first worked in Cordoba, Argentina as a meteorologist for 3 years, and after working as an assistant to Nathaniel Shaler, became an instructor in geology at Harvard in 1879. That same year he married Ellen B. Warner of Springfield, Massachusetts. While Davis never completed his doctorate, he was appointed full professor in 1890 and remained in academia and teaching throughout his life.
He was a persistent as well as a keen observer of nature, a master of logical deduction, and a brilliant synthesizer of disparate observations and ideas. He devised his most important scientific contribution. the “geographic circle”. His theory was first set out in his 1889 article, The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania, which was a model of how rivers erode land at the base level and was inspired by the work of Erasmus and Charles Darwin.
Although the cycle of erosion was a crucial early contribution to the development of geomorphology, many of Davis' theories about landscape evolution are sometimes called “Davis geomorphology”. were strongly criticized by later geomorphologists. When Davis retired from Harvard in 1911, the study of landscape evolution was almost monopolized by his theories.
His textbook, Elementary Physical Geography (1902), includes a chapter entitled “The Distribution of Plants, Animals, and Man.” In which Davis details how the physical geography of landscapes affects man's progress from the savage to the civilized state. This textbook chapter illustrates how Davis borrowed from Darwinian biological concepts and applied them to natural landscapes and climates. to a type of social Darwinist thinking called “environmental determinism.” His work influenced the geographer and author Ellsworth Huntington, a student of Davis at Harvard who sought to explain differences in human culture based on climate and geography. for example, comparing communities of British descent in Canada and the Bahamas and suggesting that the Anglo Bahamas are slower due to climate and proximity to blacks.
William Davis Age
Davis was born on February 12, 1850 but died in Pasadena, California, just before his 84th birthday. His home in Cambridge is a National Historic Landmark.
Parents William Davis
William was born into a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Edward M. and Maria Mott Davis (daughter of women's attorney Lucretia Mott).
Spouse William Davis
Davis after the death of his first wife, married Mary M. Wyman of Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1914 and after her death he married Lucy L. Tennant of Milton, Massachusetts in 1928, who survived him. David had two daughters. Jane Alice Morris and May Morris.
William Davis Net Worth
William Net worth estimated was unknown which goes to his annual salary. But we do know that he had a successful career as “The Father of American Geography.”
