He was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Edward M. Davis[?] and Martha Mott Davis[?] (a daughter of the women's advocated Lucretia Mott). He graduated from Harvard University in 1869 and received a Master of Engineering[?] in the following year. He then worked in Cordoba, 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 rivers create landforms. 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.
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