Samuel Eliot Morison

Scholar and historian (1913–1941)

Morison originally intended to major in mathematics until Albert Bushnell Hart talked him into researching some papers of an ancestor stored in his wine cellar. His Harvard dissertation was the basis for his first book The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765–1848 (1913), which sold 700 copies. After earning his Ph.D. at Harvard, Morison became an instructor in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1912. In 1915 he returned to Harvard and took a position as an instructor. During World War I he served as a private in the US Army. He also served as the American Delegate on the Baltic Commission of the Paris Peace Conference until June 17, 1919.

In 1922–1925 Morison taught at Oxford University as the first Harmsworth Professor of American History. In 1925 he returned to Harvard, where he was appointed a full professor. One of several subjects that fascinated Morison was the history of New England. As early as 1921 he published The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. In the 1930s Morison published a series of books on the history of Harvard University and New England, including Builders of the Bay Colony: A Gallery of Our Intellectual Ancestors (1930), The Founding of Harvard College (1935), Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936), Three Centuries of Harvard: 1636–1936 (1936), and The Puritan Pronaos (1936). In later years, he returned to the subject of New England history, writing The Ropemakers of Plymouth (1950) and The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth (1956) and editing the definitive work, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647 (1952).

Returning to Harvard in 1925, it is noteworthy that Morison was the last professor to arrive there on horseback. He was chosen to speak at the 300th Anniversary celebration of Harvard in 1936 and a recording of his speech is included as part of the "Harvard Voices" collection.

In 1938 Morison was elected as an honorary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

In 1940, Morison published Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century, a book that presaged his succeeding publications on the explorer, Christopher Columbus. In 1941, Morison was named Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard. For Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), Morison combined his personal interest in sailing with his scholarship by actually sailing to the various places that Columbus explored. The Harvard Columbus Expedition, led by Morison and including his wife and Captain John W. McElroy, Herbert F. Hossmer Jr., Richard S. Colley, Dr. Clifton W. Anderson, Kenneth R. Spear and Richard Spear, left on 28 August 1939 aboard the 147 foot ketch Capitana for the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal from which they sailed on the 45 foot ketch Mary Otis to retrace Columbus' route using manuscripts and records of his voyages reaching Trinidad by way of Cádiz, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. After following the coast of South and Central America the expedition returned to Trinidad on 15 December 1939. The expedition returned to New York on 2 February 1940 aboard the United Fruit liner Veragua. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1943.

Naval war service (1942–1952)

In 1942, Morison met with his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt and offered to write a history of United States Navy operations during the war from an insider's perspective by taking part in operations and documenting them. The President and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox agreed to the proposal. On May 5, 1942, Morison was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the US Naval Reserve, and was called at once to active duty. Gregory Pfitzer explained his procedures:

He gained berths on patrol boats, destroyers, and heavy cruisers; participated in planning sessions for invasions; witnessed sea battles; narrowly escaped death at the hands of a kamikaze pilot; and conducted post-operational interviews with commanders in the Pacific theater.

Morison worked with a team of researchers to prepare the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962, documenting everything from strategy and tactics to technology and the exploits of individuals. British military historian Sir John Keegan called it the best to come out of that conflict. Issued as The Rising Sun in the Pacific in 1948, Volume 3 won the Bancroft Prize in 1949.

Morison was promoted to the rank of captain on December 15, 1945. On August 1, 1951, he was transferred to the Honorary Retired List of the Naval Reserve and was promoted to rear admiral on the basis of combat awards.

In History as a Literary Art: An Appeal to Young Historians (1946), Morison argued that vivid writing springs from the synergy of experience and research:

American historians, in their eagerness to present facts and their laudable concern to tell the truth, have neglected the literary aspects of their craft. They have forgotten that there is an art of writing history.

Later years (1953–1976)

In 1955, Morison retired from Harvard University. He devoted the rest of his life to writing. In quick succession, Morison wrote Christopher Columbus, Mariner (1955), Freedom in Contemporary Society (1956), The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth, 1620–1692 (1956), Nathaniel Holmes Morison (1957), William Hickling Prescott (1958), Strategy and Compromise (1958), and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959), which earned Morison his second Pulitzer Prize.

In the early 1960s, Morison's focus returned to his New England youth, writing The Story of Mount Desert Island, Maine (1960), One Boy's Boston, 1887–1901 (1962), Introduction to Whaler Out of New Bedford (1962), and A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts (1963). In 1963, The Two-Ocean War was published, a one-volume abridged history of the United States Navy in World War II.

In 1964, Morison received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson. In presenting the distinguished historian with the highest civilian award in the United States, Johnson noted:

Scholar and sailor, this amphibious historian has combined a life of action and literary craftsmanship to lead two generations of Americans on countless voyages of discovery.

Morison's later years were devoted to books on exploration, such as The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It, written jointly with Mauricio Obregón (1964), Spring Tides (1965), The European Discovery of America (1971–1974), and Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (1972). His research for the latter book included sailing many of the routes taken by Champlain, and tracing others by airplane.

Morison's first marriage to Elizabeth S. Greene produced four children—one of whom, Emily Morison Beck, became editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Elizabeth died on August 20, 1945. In 1949, Morison married Baltimore widow Priscilla Barton. Priscilla died on February 22, 1973.

Death and legacy

Morison died of a stroke on May 15, 1976. His ashes are buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

During his life Morison had received two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961), and numerous honorary degrees, military awards, and honors from foreign nations.

On July 19, 1979, the frigate USS Samuel Eliot Morison was launched, honoring Morison and his contributions to the United States Navy. Morison's legacy is also sustained by the United States Naval History and Heritage Command's Samuel Eliot Morison Naval History Scholarship. Boston's Commonwealth Avenue Mall features a bronze statue depicting Morison in sailor's oilskin.

Morison's last known public appearance was on April 8, 1976, when he served as the ribbon cutter to open the USS Constitution Museum. "The Museum's research library and an annual award given by the Museum for scholarship in history are both named in his honor." The museum gives the annual Samuel Eliot Morison Award to a person whose public service has enhanced the image of the USS Constitution, and who reflects the best of Samuel Eliot Morison: artful scholarship, patriotic pride, and eclectic interest in the sea and things maritime.

In 1976, the American Heritage magazine initiated an award named in honor of Morison called the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, honoring an American author whose work shows "that good history is literature as well as high scholarship." It lasted two years.

Since 1982, the Naval Order of the United States gives an honor in Morison's name, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, for significant works about the US Navy.

In 1985, the Society for Military History established the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, recognizing an author's body of contributions in the field of military history.

Criticism

Slavery

Morison was criticized by some African-American scholars for his treatment of American slavery in early editions of his book The Growth of the American Republic, which he co-wrote with Henry Steele Commager and later with Commager's student William E. Leuchtenburg. The book originated as Morison's two-volume Oxford History of the United States (Oxford University Press, 1927). First published in 1930, the first two editions of the textbook, according to these critics, echoed the thesis of American Negro Slavery (1918) by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. This view, sometimes called the Phillips school of slavery historiography, was considered an authoritative interpretation of the history of American slavery during the first half of the twentieth century, despite the intense criticism by some African-American scholars for its alleged racist underpinnings. Phillips's theories remained authoritative, considered by many white scholars to be ground-breaking and progressive when first proposed. In 1944, the NAACP began its criticism of The Growth of the American Republic.

In 1950, despite denying any racist intent (he noted his daughter's marriage to the son of Joel Elias Spingarn, the second president of the NAACP), Morison reluctantly agreed to most of the demanded changes. Morison refused to eliminate references to slaves who were loyal and devoted to their masters because they were treated well and to some positive "civilizing" effects of the American system of slavery. Morison also refused to remove references to stereotypes of African Americans that he believed were vital in accurately depicting the racist nature of American culture in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, an era during which even the most enlightened progressive thinkers routinely explained many aspects of human behavior as a result of innate racial or ethnic characteristics. In the 1962 edition of the textbook, Morison removed additional content that his critics had found to be offensive.

Battle of Savo Island

In his semi-official account of the Battle of Savo Island, a disastrous defeat for the US Navy during World War II, Morison partly blamed the defeat on the failure of an Australian aircrew to inform the Americans of the approaching Japanese forces. Morison appears to have based that story on inaccurate information that has since been refuted. On October 21, 2014, the US Navy issued a letter of apology to the last surviving member of the RAAF Hudson crew, which had sighted and duly reported the approach of the Japanese Naval Task Force. The letter states that "RAdm. Morison's criticism was unwarranted."

Honors and awards

Award ribbons

Other honors

• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1915)
• Member of the American Philosophical Society (1937)
• Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (1938)
• Vuelo Panamericano Medal (Republic of Cuba) (1943)

Honorary degrees

• Trinity College, Hartford (1935)
• Amherst College (1936)
• Harvard University (1936)
• Union College (1939)
• Columbia University (1942)
• Yale University (1949)
• Williams College (1950)
• University of Oxford (1951)
• Bucknell University (1960)
• Boston College (1961)
• College of the Holy Cross (1962)

Literary prizes

• Loubat Prize (1938) for The Founding of Harvard College (1935) and Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936)
• Pulitzer Prize (1943) for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942)
• Bancroft Prize (1949) for The Rising Sun in the Pacific (1948)
• Pulitzer Prize (1960) for John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961)
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962)
• Balzan Prize (1962) for History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (1963)
• Bancroft Prize (1972) for The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages (1971)

Memorial
A statue of Morison sits on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston. On the base is engraved his advice to young writers: "Dream dreams and write them, aye, but live them first".