Edward Sylvester Morse (June 18, 1838 – December 20, 1925) was an American zoologist and orientalist.

Early life

Morse was born in Portland, Maine. He was expelled from a series of schools as a boy. As a young man, he worked as a mechanical draftsman at the Portland Locomotive Company and a wood engraver attached to a Boston company before beginning his study of zoology.

Career

Morse rapidly became successful in the field of zoology. He attracted the attention of Charles Darwin with his discovery that brachiopods are worms rather than mollusks.

Japan

In 1877 Morse visited Japan in search of coastal brachiopods. His visit turned into a three year stay when he was offered a post at the University of Tokyo. He went on to recommend several fellow Americans as o-yatoi gaikokujin (hired foreigners) to support the modernization of the Meiji Era. He opened the study in archaeology and anthropology in Japan, by the discovery of the Omori shell mound, and his research on material culture.

While in Japan, he authored a book on Japanese homes and their surroundings illustrated with his own line drawings. He also made a collection of over 5,000 pieces of Japanese pottery.

Massachusetts

Morse became Keeper of Pottery at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1890, which now contains his pottery collection, the Morse collection. He was also a director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Salem from 1880 to 1914.

He died in Salem, Massachusetts in 1925.

Published works

• 1886. Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings. New York: Harper. OCLC 3050569; reprint of 1885 edition; (Full View)
• 1888. Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings. Boston: Ticknor. OCLC 20970574
• 1901. Catalogue of the Morse collection of Japanese pottery. Cambridge, Printed at the Riverside Press.
• 1902. Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes. Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 1116550; (Full View)
• 1917. Japan Day by Day, 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. OCLC 412843
  • 1917. Japan Day by Day, Vol. I.; (Full View)
  • 1917. Japan Day by Day, Vol. II.; (Full View)

See also

• American Association of Museums
• Japanese homes and their surroundings
• Takamine Hideo

References

• Benfey, Christopher (2003). The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, New York: Random House. 10-ISBN 0-375-50327-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-375-50327-6; OCLC 50511058
• Gould, John M. "A Brief Biography of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925)." (Full View)
• Murphy, Declan. "Edward S. Morse 1838-1925," Japanese History Online. Yamasa Institute (Hittori Foundation). (Full View)
• Rosenstone, Robert A. (1988). Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-57641-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-57641-4; OCLC 17108604
• Wayman, Dorothy Godfrey. (1942) Edward Sylvester Morse: A Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. OCLC 757515

External links

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: "Japanese Ceramics from the Collection of Edward Sylvester Morse."