William Morris Davis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1850-02-12)February 12, 1850 |
| Died | February 5, 1934(1934-02-05) (aged 83) |
| Known for | cycle of erosion;peneplains; often called the "father of Americangeography" |
| Relatives | Edward M. Davis (father) Maria Mott Davis (mother) |
| Awards | Hayden Memorial Geological Award(1917) Vega Medal(1920) Penrose Medal(1931) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geography, Geomorphology, Geology, Meteorology[1] |
William Morris Davis (February 12, 1850 – February 5, 1934) was an Americangeographer,geologist,geomorphologist, andmeteorologist, often called the "father of Americangeography".
He was born into a prominentQuaker family inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Edward M. Davis andMaria Mott Davis (a daughter of the women's advocateLucretia Mott). Davis studied geology and geography at Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School and then joined the Harvard sponsored geographic exploration party to the Colorado territory, led by the inaugural Sturgis-Hooper professor of geology,Josiah Dwight Whitney. Wild stories had circulated since soon after theLouisiana Purchase aboutRocky Mountains peaks 18,000 feet or higher. The Harvard expedition set out to investigate, and found none, but they did find "14ers" (14,000-plus feet). He graduated fromHarvard University in 1869 and received a Master of Mining Engineering in the following year.[2] Davis worked forNathaniel Shaler as a field assistant, and was later hired to teach at Harvard.[2] Though his legacy lives on in geomorphology, he also advanced theories of scientific racism in his writings about physical geography.[3]
After his first wife died, Davis married Mary M. Wyman fromCambridge, Massachusetts in 1914, and, after her death, he married Lucy L. Tennant fromMilton, Massachusetts in 1928, who survived him.
He died inPasadena, California, shortly before his 84th birthday.His Cambridge home is aNational Historic Landmark.
Davis initially worked inCórdoba, Argentina as a meteorologist for three years and after working as an assistant toNathaniel Shaler, he became an instructor in geology at Harvard, in 1879. The same year he married Ellen B. Warner fromSpringfield, Massachusetts. While Davis never completed hisPhD, he was appointed to his first full professorship in 1890 and remained in academia and teaching throughout his life.
Davis was a tenacious, as well as keen observer of nature, a master of logical deduction, and a brilliant synthesizer of disparate observations and ideas.[4] From his own field observations and studies made by the original nineteenth-century surveyors of the western United States, he devised his most influential scientific contribution - the "geographical cycle". His theory first defined in his 1889 article,The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania,[1] which was a model of howrivers erode uplifted land tobase level, was inspired by the work of Erasmus andCharles Darwin andJean-Baptiste Lamarck, and it had a strong evolutionary flavor[citation needed]. His cycle of erosion suggests that (larger) rivers have three main stages of development, generally divided into youthful, mature and old-age stages.[5] Each stage has distinctlandforms and other properties associated with them, which can occur along the length of a river's upper, middle, and lower course.
Though the cycle of erosion was a crucial early contribution to the development ofgeomorphology, many of Davis' theories regarding landscape evolution, sometimes termed 'Davisian geomorphology', were heavily criticized by later geomorphologists. When Davis retired from Harvard in 1911, the study of landscape evolution was nearly monopolized by his theories. It was characteristic of Davis to react violently and disdainfully to criticism, particularly to the German criticism in the 1920s headed byWalther Penck; it was also his characteristic to choose to attack the most vulnerable points of that criticism.[6] Since that time, with a less dogmatic approach and greater knowledge, some authors note that Penck's and Davis' ideas have become more compatible and even complementary since the advent ofmodern tectonic theory. They claim that Davis' ideas are more applicable nearactive margins where tectonics are "cataclysmic", and Penck's ideas fit better in models ofpassive margins andcontinental platforms.[7]
Davis was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1884 and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1899.[8][9] He was a founder of theAssociation of American Geographers in 1904, elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences that same year, and heavily involved with theNational Geographic Society in its early years, writing a number of articles for the magazine.[10] Davis retired from Harvard in 1911. He served as president of theGeological Society of America in 1911.[11][12] He was awarded thePatron's Medal of theRoyal Geographical Society in 1919.[13]
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 influences "the progress of man from the savage toward the civilized state." Davis concludes that "the leading nations of [the European] race are the most advanced peoples in the world" and "few nations among [black, brown, and red] races have made important advances towards civilization."[14] This textbook chapter exemplifies how Davis promulgated theories ofscientific racism, and was likely influenced by mentor and colleagueNathaniel Shaler, who published similar views on the subject. Davis borrowed from Darwinian biological concepts and applied these to physical landscapes and climates in a type of Social Darwinistic thought termed "environmental determinism". His work influenced geographer and writerElsworth Huntington, a student of Davis at Harvard, who attempted to explain differences in human culture by climate and geography, for example comparing communities of British descent in Canada and the Bahamas and suggesting that Anglo Bahamians are slower because of climate and proximity to black people.[3]
The valley ofDavisdalen inNathorst Land atSpitsbergen,Svalbard is named after him.[15]
Davis' contributions cover the separate fields of geography, geology, and meteorology.
