The life and work of William Morris Davis (1850–1934)

Abstract

The great geographical discoveries in many parts of the world have brought until the middle of the 19th century such an amount of scientific material that the time was ready for complex scientific synthesizes in particular sciences, and also in geomorphology. It didn’t happen in Europe where the scientific interest for geology and geomorphology already intensified during the 18th century but in United States after the publishing of voluminous and detailed descriptions of American lands west of the Mississippi River, published between 1830 and 1880 and written by the famous explorers, such as G. M. Wheeler, F. V. Hayden, J. S. Newberry and, especially, J. W. Powell and G. K. Gilbert. The life-work of William Morris Davis was based to the large extent on the reports of these explorers but, on the other side, he was also influenced considerably by the theory of evolution in biology, as explained by Charles Darwin’s book On the origin of species (1859). With the theory of geomorphological cycles William Morris Davis has made an immense contribution to the development of geomorphology, his theory and following discussions have even transformed the geomorphology into a genuine scientific discipline. Davis’s work has also left a significant mark on the Slovenian geomorphology up to the 1960s. The aim of the paper on the life and work of W. M. Davis is not primarily the critics of his work or those Slovenian geomorphologists whose work was largely influences by his theory on geomorphological cycles. The key events and stages of Davis’ life are presented mostly for the sake of better understanding of the historical background of his life and better appreciation of some key facts which contributed to the dominance of his theory in the geomorphology around the world and, also, in Slovenia.