Edward S. Morse | |
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.jpg) Portrait of Morse byFrank Weston Benson, 1913 (Peabody Essex Museum) | |
| Born | Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-06-18)June 18, 1838 Portland, Maine, United States |
| Died | December 20, 1925(1925-12-20) (aged 87) Salem, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupations | Zoologist, archaeologist, orientalist |
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Edward Sylvester Morse (June 18, 1838 – December 20, 1925) was an Americanzoologist,archaeologist, andorientalist. He is considered the "Father of Japanese archaeology."
Morse was born inPortland,Maine to Jonathan Kimball Morse and Jane Seymour (Becket) Morse.[1][2] His father was aCongregationalist deacon who held strictCalvinist beliefs. His mother, who did not share her husband's religious beliefs, encouraged her son's interest in the sciences. An unruly student, Morse was expelled from all but one of the schools he attended in his youth — the Portland village school, the academy atConway, New Hampshire, in 1851, and Bridgton Academy in 1854 (for carving on desks). He also attendedGould Academy inBethel, Maine. At Gould Academy, Morse came under the influence of Dr. Nathaniel True who encouraged Morse to pursue his interest in the study of nature.[3]
He preferred to explore theAtlantic coast in search of shells and snails, or go to the field to study the fauna and flora. By the age of thirteen he had put together an impressive collection of shells.[4] Despite his lack of formal education, his collections soon earned him the visit of eminent scientists from Boston, Washington and even the United Kingdom.[3] He was noted for his work with land snails, and discovered two new species:Helix asteriscus, now known asPlanogyra asteriscus, andH. Milium, now known asStriatura milium.[5] These species were presented at meetings of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1857 and 1859.[6][7]
He was a gifteddraftsman, a skill that served him well throughout his career. As a young man, it enabled him to be employed as a mechanical draftsman at the Portland Locomotive Company and later preparing wood engravings for natural history publications. This relatively well-paid work enabled him to save enough money to support his further education. Morse was recommended byPhilip Pearsall Carpenter toLouis Agassiz (1807–1873) at the Museum of Comparative Zoology atHarvard University for his intellectual qualities and talent at drawing. After completing his studies he served as Agassiz's assistant in charge of conservation, documentation and drawing collections ofmollusks andbrachiopods until 1862.[1][3] He became especially interested in brachiopods during this time, and his first paper on the topic was published in 1862.[9][10]
During theAmerican Civil War, Morse attempted to enlist in the25th Maine Infantry, but was turned down due to a chronic tonsil infection. On June 18, 1863, Morse married Ellen ("Nellie") Elizabeth Owen in Portland. The couple had two children, Edith Owen Morse and John Gould Morse (named after Morse's lifelong friend Major John Mead Gould).[3]
Morse rapidly became successful in the field of zoology, specializing inmalacology or the study of molluscs. In 1864, he published his first work devoted to molluscs under the titleObservations On The Terrestrial Pulmonifera of Maine.[11] Morse had been elected to the position of curator of the Portland Natural History Society, a position he hoped would become permanent, but in 1866 theGreat Fire destroyed the buildings of the Society, along with much of Portland, and also the chance of a salaried position.[3] An alternative opportunity arose with the foundation of thePeabody Academy of Science in Salem. Morse returned to Massachusetts to work at the academy, along with Caleb Cooke,Alpheus Hyatt,Alpheus Spring Packard andFrederic Ward Putnam (director), all former students of Agassiz.[1][3]
In 1867, along with Putnam, Hyatt and Packard, Morse co-founded the scientific journalThe American Naturalist, and Morse became one of its editors. The establishment of the Journal was very important for American Natural History. It was written by experts in the field, but aimed to be accessible to a wide readership. This aim was greatly helped by the high quality of the illustrations, many of them provided by Morse himself.[2] Morse's desire to bring natural history to a wider audience also led him to give lectures to a variety of audiences. His combination of broad knowledge, speaking skill, and ability to draw quickly on the blackboard with both hands made him a popular presenter.[1][2]
Morse continued his work on brachiopods, often considered to be his most important scientific work.[1][12] In 1869, he was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[13] Between 1869 and 1873 he published a series of papers on the embryology and classification of the group.[14][15][16][17][18][19] Whereas in 1865 he had accepted the majority view that placed brachiopoda within the molluscs,[20] in 1870 largely on the basis of embryological observations, he proposed that the brachiopoda should be removed from the molluscs, and placed within theannelids, a group of segmented worms.[15] Modern taxonomy agrees with the first of these propositions, but not the second, classifying molluscs, brachiopods and annelids as three separate phyla within the superphylumLophotrochozoa.[21]Helen Muir-Wood has given an account of the history of the classification of the brachiopods that places Morse's work in its historical context.[22]
From 1871 to 1874, Morse was appointed to the chair of comparative anatomy and zoology atBowdoin College. In 1873 and 1874 he was a teacher at the summer school established by Agassiz onPenikese Island. Though the school only operated for a few years, several of its students went on to distinguished careers, includingDavid Starr Jordan.[24][3] In 1874, he became a lecturer at Harvard University. In 1876, Morse was named a fellow of theNational Academy of Sciences.[25] In 1877, he provided the illustrations for a book by his friend John Mead Gould, entitledHow to camp out.[23][26]
During this period the issue of evolution caused much discussion and controversy. Agassiz was an opponent of evolution. He argued that the persistence of animals such asLingula (a brachiopod) over immense periods of time, from theSilurian to the present day, with little change was "a fatal objection to the theory of gradual development".[27] However all of his students subsequently adopted evolutionary theory in various forms.[28] A clear statement of Morse's position on evolution is found in his address, as vice-president (Natural History) of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science at its Buffalo NY meeting in August 1876 (reprinted under the title ofWhat American Zoologists have done for Evolution)[29][30] He adopts a clearselectionist position, in contrast, for example, to Hyatt, who was aneo-Lamarckian.[28] He addresses the issue of human origins, and finds the evidence for "the lowly origin of man", and common ancestry with apes, convincing. He did not only express these views in a western context, but was subsequently the first to bring Darwin's theory of evolution to Japan.[31]
In June 1877 Morse first visitedJapan in search of coastal brachiopods. His visit turned into a three-year stay when he was offered a post as the first professor of zoology at theTokyo Imperial University. He went on to recommend several fellow Americans aso-yatoi gaikokujin (foreign advisors) to support the modernization of Japan in theMeiji Era. To collect specimens, he established a marine biological laboratory atEnoshima inKanagawa Prefecture.[2]
While looking out of a window on a train betweenYokohama andTokyo, Morse discovered theŌmori shell mound, the excavation of which opened the study inarchaeology andanthropology in Japan and shed much light on the material culture of prehistoric Japan.[32] He returned to Japan in 1882–3 to present a report of his findings to Tokyo Imperial University.[2]
Morse had much interest inJapanese ceramics, making a collection of over 5,000 pieces of Japanese pottery.[33] On his 1882-3 visit to Japan he collected clay samples as well as finished ceramics. He devised the term "cord-marked" for thesherds of Stone Age pottery, decorated by impressing cords into the wet clay. The Japanese translation, "Jōmon," now gives its name to the wholeJōmon period as well asJōmon pottery.[34] He brought back to Boston a collection amassed by government minister and amateur art collectorŌkuma Shigenobu, who donated it to Morse in recognition of his services to Japan. These now form part of the "Morse Collection" of theMuseum of Fine Arts in Boston. The catalogue[35] is a monumental work, and still the only major work of its kind in English.[3] His collection of daily artifacts of theJapanese people is kept at the Peabody Essex Museum inSalem, Massachusetts. The remainder of the collection was inherited by his granddaughter, Catharine Robb Whyte via her mother Edith Morse Robb and is housed at theWhyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta, Canada.
He travelled several times to the Far East which inspired several books, with his own illustrations.Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings was published in 1885;On the Older Forms of Terra-cotta Roofing Tiles in 1892;Latrines of the East in 1893;Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes in 1903; andJapan Day by Day in 1917.
After leaving Japan, Morse traveled to Southeast Asia and Europe. In subsequent years, he returned to Europe, and Japan in quest of pottery.[3]
In 1886 Morse became president of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.[4] He became Keeper of Pottery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1890. He was also a director of thePeabody Academy of Science (now part of and succeeded by thePeabody Essex Museum) in Salem[36][1][3] from 1880 to 1914. In 1898, he was awarded theOrder of the Rising Sun (3rd class) by the Japanese government.[1][26] He was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1898.[37] He became chairman of the Boston Museum in 1914, and chairman of the Peabody Museum in 1915. He was awarded theOrder of the Sacred Treasures (2nd class) by the Japanese government in 1922.[38]
Morse was a friend of astronomerPercival Lowell, who inspired interest in the planetMars. Morse would occasionally journey to theLowell Observatory inFlagstaff, Arizona, during optimal viewing times to observe the planet. In 1906, Morse publishedMars and Its Mystery in defense of Lowell's controversial speculations regarding the possibility of life on Mars.[3]
He donated over 10,000 books from his personal collection to the Tokyo Imperial University. On learning that the library of the Tokyo Imperial University was reduced to ashes by the1923 Great Kantō earthquake, in his will he ordered that his entire remaining collection of books be donated to Tokyo Imperial University.[citation needed]
Morse's last paper, on shell-mounds, was published in 1925.[39] He died at his home inSalem, Massachusetts in December of that year, ofcerebral hemorrhage. He was buried at the Harmony Grove Cemetery.[3]
In 1872, Morse noticed that mammals and reptiles with reducedfingers lose them from the sides in a particular order, beginning with thethumb and then thelittle finger.[40] Later researchers revealed that this is a general pattern in tetrapods (exceptTheropoda andUrodela): digits are reduced in the order I → V → II → III → IV, the reverse order of their appearance in embryogenesis. This trend is known as Morse's Law.[41]
Morse haspatented asolar air heater for domestic use, consisting of a glass box containing a black corrugated steel surface to capture solar heat. The device would be attached to external wall of the building and provide flow of warmed air. "The first solar air heater built by Morse was installed on the large south wall at thePeabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts."[42]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)...when the number of fingers or toes is reduced in Mammalia and Reptilia, they are always taken away from the sides of the member, the thumb first disappearing and then the little finger.
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