Samuel Eliot Morison
Samuel Eliot Morison was a prominent American historian known for his extensive contributions to naval history and American historiography during the twentieth century. Born in Boston in 1887, he pursued his education at Harvard University, earning both his B.A. and Ph.D. before embarking on a notable teaching career there. Morison served as the Harnsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University between 1922 and 1924, where he began to gather material for his significant work, *The Oxford History of the United States*.
His most acclaimed work is the fifteen-volume *History of United States Naval Operations in World War II*, which he began after joining the U.S. Naval Reserve as a lieutenant commander in 1942. This comprehensive chronicle was celebrated worldwide and earned him the rank of rear admiral and the honor of having a frigate named after him. Morison also wrote influential biographies, including *Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus*, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Throughout his career, he received several prestigious awards, culminating in the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Morison passed away in 1976, leaving behind a legacy of historical scholarship that continues to be respected.
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Samuel Eliot Morison
- Born: July 9, 1887
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: May 15, 1976
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Biography
Samuel Eliot Morison, one of the most distinguished American historians of the twentieth century, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1887, the son of John Holmes Morison and Emily Marshall Eliot. He attended Harvard University, where he earned his B.A. in 1908 and his Ph.D. in 1912.
Morison began his forty-year teaching career in 1915, when he joined the staff of Harvard University as a history instructor. Between 1922 and 1924, Morison was as the Harnsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University in England. While in this position, he gathered research for his publication The Oxford History of the United States, 1783-1917 (1927). In 1925, Morison returned to Harvard University as a full professor; in 1941, he was named the university’s Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History. He remained at Harvard University until his retirement in 1955.
Morison is well known for his books about the history of the U.S. Navy. In 1942, on the brink of World War II, Morison was appointed to the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of lieutenant commander. In this position, he recorded his experiences of wartime naval operations. In 1947, he published the first volume of his records, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. This work, published in its entirety in 1962, was a fifteen- volume historical chronicle detailing every aspect of the naval war, including military strategies and accounts of individual heroism. Morrison’s historical account of World War II was lauded by critics worldwide as one of the best military histories ever written. For his outstanding work, the U.S. Navy rewarded Morison with the rank of rear admiral and named a frigate in his honor, the USS Samuel Eliot Morison.
Morison published many other works, including books charting the maritime history of Massachusetts, the history of Harvard University, and biographies of explorers and sailors. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (1942), a two-volume biography, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947, while John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography (1959), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1959. For his lifetime achievements as an historian and educator, Morison was awarded the Emerson- Thoreau Medal in 1961, the Balzan Prize for History in 1964, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Morison died in 1976 at the age of eighty-eight.