ABSTRACT
William Morris Davis was born in Philadelphia on 12 February 1850, eleven years before the outbreak of the American Civil War. Though not taking any direct part in the war, its background of common tragedy and hysterical clamour must have affected him as it did other Americans. Not only did it colour his life in this general way but it touched him directly through his father, who served on General Fremont’s staff, and through his grandmother, Lucretia Mott. Much of these early years was spent within an atmosphere subject to the powerful influence of his grandmother. He could hardly have followed a more potent guide-star. She had a personality as tensile as steel, and ideas that were as strong and sharp-edged. From 1850 until 1868, when the family went on a trip to Europe, they lived in daily contact with Mrs Mott. Part of the time they shared the same home, and during the remainder they occupied the next-door property. The influence of this woman is an almost incontrovertible assumption because so many of his adult characteristics and attitudes, like his extreme seriousness and his opposition to servility, closely resembled hers. Davis at the age of twelve https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203472538/8f31c45d-fefa-4125-8bb1-ea2af857126d/content/fig1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> (Courtesy W. M. Davis II, Bass River, Mass.) James and Lucretia Mott, from a daguerreotype by Langenheim about 1842 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203472538/8f31c45d-fefa-4125-8bb1-ea2af857126d/content/fig2_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> (From Hallowell, 1884)
