Nelson Fithian Davis (August 8, 1872 - November 11, 1939) was born in Seeley, New Jersey in 1872, the son of George and Anna Frances [Moore] Davis. He devoted much of his life to Bucknell University, where he received his B.S. in 1895, his M.S. in 1896, and an honorary doctorate in 1903. A member of the Sigma Chi fraternity while an undergraduate, Davis left Bucknell briefly, studying at the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, and Jefferson Medical College. He returned to Bucknell as an instructor in Biology, was named to a full professorship in 1902, and served as chair of the Biology department from 1910 until his death in 1939.
Davis had numerous wide-ranging interests. During summers, he worked at the Cold Springs Harbor, Long Island, Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution from 1895 through 1906; at the University of Vermont in 1914; and at the University of Chicago in 1921. He was a member of the Triton Club of New York, as was Bucknell president Emory Hunt, and the two often vacationed at the club’s land in Lac des Passes, north of Quebec. Davis also spent a great amount of time at Old Gap Camp, a nature reserve in the Bald Eagle Forest (about seventeen miles from Lewisburg, PA) to which he often took his students on study trips. Davis gathered bird and animal specimens and had them mounted for display in the natural history museum he maintained for the university.
Davis whittled wood from different tree samples into approximately 150 wooden spoons now in the collection of Bucknell’s Samek Art Museum. In 1957, his spoon collection was exhibited at the Rockefeller Foundation; it is said that Eleanor Roosevelt requested, and was given, one of the spoons. Appointed by the governor to the Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight Commission, Davis studied chestnut tree blights at Coleman K. Sober’s Paragon Chestnut Farm in Irish Valley, Paxinos, PA, a local experiment in commercial chestnut production.
Dr. Davis documented his far-flung interests with skillfully executed, extensively detailed photographic compositions. His work is remarkable in its clarity of image and diversity of subject. Later in his career, Davis implemented the use of photography and reader lantern slides for lectures in order to carry out his teaching duties as his eyesight began to fail. This innovation resulted in historically significant additions to his collection of photographic images.
Davis was married three times. His first wife, Nellie Taylor, received a B.A. from Bucknell University in 1897 and an M.A. in 1898. The mother of Nelson Fithian Davis, Jr. and Frances Moore Davis, she died a short time after Frances was born. His second wife was Ella Marion Briggs, and his third Jessie Palmer.