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Information About

William Morris Davis




He was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , son of Edward M. Davis and Maria Mott Davis (a daughter of the women's advocate Lucretia Mott ). He graduated from Harvard University in 1869 and received a Master Of Engineering in the following year. He then worked in Córdoba, Argentina for three years, then after working as an assistant to Nathaniel Shaler , he became an instructor in geology at Harvard, in 1879 . (Davis never completed his PhD.) He married Ellen B. Warner of Springfield, Massachusetts in the same year.

His most influential scientific contribution was the Cycle Of Erosion , first defined around 1884 , which was a model of how River s create Landform s. Though the cycle is considered overly simplistic today, it was a crucial early contribution to Geomorphology .

He was a founder of the Association Of American Geographers in 1904 , and 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 .

Later, after Ellen died, Davis married Mary M. Wyman of Cambridge, Massachusetts ( 1914 ), and she having died also, Lucy L. Tennant of Milton, Massachusetts ( 1928 ), who survived him.

He died in Pasadena, California .


BOOKS


  • ''Geographical Essays'' (Boston: Ginn , 1909 )



ARTICLES


  • "Geographic methods in geologic investigations", '')

  • "The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania", '')

  • "The geographical cycle", '' Geographical Journal '', vol. 14, pp. 481-504 ( 1899 )

  • "The Physical Geography of the Lands", '')



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