Editing William Morris Davis (section)

==Scientific career==
===Meteorology===
Davis initially worked in [[Córdoba, Argentina]] as a meteorologist for three years and after working as an assistant to [[Nathaniel Shaler]], he became an instructor in geology at Harvard, in 1879. The same year he married Ellen B. Warner from [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]. While Davis never completed his [[PhD]], he was appointed to his first full professorship in 1890 and remained in academia and teaching throughout his life.

===Cycle of erosion theory===
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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Koch |first1=Philip |title=William Morris Davis: Brief live of a pioneering geomorphologist: 1850-1934 |url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2018/09/william-morris-davis-cycle-of-erosion |website=Harvard Magazine |date=7 September 2018 |publisher=Harvard |access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref> 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 "[[cycle of erosion|geographical cycle]]". His theory first defined in his 1889 article, ''The Rivers and Valleys of Pennsylvania'',<ref name="Pruyne"/> which was a model of how [[river]]s erode uplifted land to [[base level]], was inspired by the work of Erasmus and [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]], and it had a strong evolutionary flavor {{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}. His cycle of erosion suggests that (larger) rivers have three main stages of development, generally divided into youthful, mature and old-age stages.<ref>Robert L Bates, Julia A Jackson, ed. ''Dictionary of Geological Terms: Third Edition'', p. 125 (1984)  [[American Geological Institute]]</ref> Each stage has distinct [[landform]]s 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 of [[geomorphology]], 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 by [[Walther Penck]]; it was also his characteristic to choose to attack the most vulnerable points of that criticism.<ref>Chorley ''et al''. 2005, p. 519</ref> 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 of [[Plate tectonics#History of the theory|modern tectonic theory]]. They claim that Davis' ideas are more applicable near [[active margin]]s where tectonics are "cataclysmic", and Penck's ideas fit better in models of [[passive margin]]s and [[Platform (geology)|continental platforms]].<ref name=Saadi>{{Citation| last  = Saadi| first = Allaoua| title = Modelos morfogenéticos e tectônica global: Reflexőes conciliatórias| journal = Geonomos| volume  = 6| issue   = 2| year    = 2013| pages   = 55–63| language = pt| url     = http://igc.ufmg.br/portaldeperiodicos/index.php/geonomos/article/viewFile/170/149}}</ref>

=== Contributions to physical geography and scientific racism ===
Davis was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1884 and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1899.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-09 |title=William Morris Davis |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/william-morris-davis |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=William%20M.%20Davis;smode=advanced;f1-date=1899 |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He was a founder of the [[Association of American Geographers]] in 1904, elected to the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] that same year, and heavily involved with the [[National Geographic Society]] in its early years, writing a number of articles for the magazine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William M. Davis |url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20000612.html |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> Davis retired from Harvard in 1911. He served as president of the [[Geological Society of America]] in 1911.<ref>Fairchild, Herman LeRoy, 1932, The Geological Society of America 1888-1930, a Chapter in Earth Science History: New York, The Geological Society of America, 232 p.</ref><ref>Eckel, Edwin, 1982, GSA Memoir 155, The Geological Society of America — Life History of a Learned Society: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Memoir 155, 168 p., {{ISBN|0-8137-1155-X}}.</ref> He was awarded the [[Patron's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] in 1919.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf| title=List of Past Gold Medal Winners|publisher= Royal Geographical Society|access-date = 24 August 2015}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001272700|title=Elementary physical geography|last=Davis|first=William Morris|date=1902|publisher=Ginn|location=Boston}}</ref> This textbook chapter exemplifies how Davis promulgated theories of [[scientific racism]], and was likely influenced by mentor and colleague [[Nathaniel 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 writer [[Ellsworth Huntington|Elsworth 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.<ref name=":1" />