Guide to the Samuel Eliot Morison personal archive

Part 2 of the Samuel Eliot Morison personal archive, Papers of Samuel Eliot Morison [accessions], 1868-1962, consists of four accessions received by the Archives since 1999.

Summary descriptions of each accession follow:

Accession 13470 contains an undated manuscript of “Columbus in the Caribbean or The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It” with handwritten notes and sketches; a first edition hardcover of The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It; “Log of Mary Otis Cruise: Columbus in Cuba: 1940” (c. June 1940), which contains notes and sketches by Morison; and a black three-ring binder containing manuscript pages and illustrations for The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It (1962-1964). (0.35 cubic feet, 1 document box)

Accession 14330 contains a date book for 1906 kept by John H. Morison, father of Samuel Eliot Morison, recounting his travels to Puerto Rico, and his summer and fall trips with the Morison family to Northeast Harbor, Maine and Peterborough, New Hampshire. The date book includes ephemera, a poem, and an introductory note with a key by Samuel Eliot Morison identifying some individuals. (0.21 cubic feet, 1 flat box)

Accession 16090 contains Morison's academic cap and hood. The cap has Morison’s name written inside. The hood was found with the cap on a shelf in the Harvard University Archives, circa 1922. (0.21 cubic feet, 1 flat box)

Accession 17998 contains correspondence, galleys, manuscripts, research material, reviews, and transcripts relating to Morison's books: One Hour of American History (Box 1), Builders of the Bay Colony (Box 1), Old Colony of New Plymouth (Box 1), One Boy’s Boston (Box 1), Gov. William Bradford (Box 1), By Land and By Sea (Box 2), John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (Box 3), Francis Parkman and Samuel de Champlain (Box 4), Christopher Columbus, Mariner (Box 4), Vistas of History (Box 4), Growth of the American Republic (Box 5), Oxford History of the American People (Box 6-8), Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls (Box 8), Old Bruin (Box 9-12), Harrison Gray Otis: The Urbane Federalist (Box 13-15), Spring Tides (Box 16), The Story of Mount Desert Island (Box 16), and Strategy and Compromise (Box 16). The papers also contain notes for lectures and talks including Morison’s Balzan Prize speech (Box 16), miscellaneous newspaper clippings, correspondence concerning a speech by Lyndon B. Johnson (Box 14), correspondence concerning articles and talks by Morison (Box 16), research materials from Edward Channing concerning Boston commerce in the 18th century (Box 16), a brown notebook containing notes from Morison’s time in Paris (Box 16), correspondence concerning “Writs of Assistance,” and Morison’s transcription of “First Book of Washington Benevolents” (Box 16). (16 cubic feet, 16 record cartons)