William Morris Davis

William Morris Davis ( born February 12, 1850 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † February 5, 1934 in Pasadena, California ) was an American scientist. During his academic career, he made Major in the fields of geography, geology and meteorology.

Life

He was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia, the son of Edward M. Davis and Maria Mott Davis ( the daughter of the woman lawyer Lucretia Mott ). He graduated in 1869 from Harvard University and then worked for three years in Cordoba, Argentina, and then as an assistant to Nathaniel Shaler. In 1879 he was a lecturer in geology at Harvard, although he never his Ph.D. made. In this year he married Ellen B. Warner of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Davis ' most influential scientific work was the erosion cycle, which was first published around 1884 and showing how rivers shape the landscape. Though his work is now considered too simplistic, it was an early contribution to geomorphology. The statement that flows mainly consist of the upper reaches, middle reaches and lower reaches, however, is still valid today.

Davis founded in 1904 by the Association of American Geographers ( Association of American Geographers ) and the National Geographic Society was joined in its early years, during which he wrote a series of articles for the magazine. Davis retired in 1910 from Harvard back. In 1931 he received the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America.

After Ellen's death, Davis re-married, first Mary M. Wyman of Cambridge (Massachusetts ) (1914 ), and after her death, Lucy L. Tennant from Milton (Massachusetts ) ( 1928), who survived him when he died in Pasadena, California.

Publications

• Geographical Essays ( Boston: Ginn, 1909)

Article

• " Geographic methods in geologic investigations", National Geographic Magazine 1: pp. 11-26 (1888 )
• "The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania ," National Geographic Magazine 1: pp. 183-253 (1889 )
• "The geographical cycle", Geographical Journal, Vol 14, pp. 481-504 (1899 )