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The
Noel Morss Papers were donated to the Peabody Museum
Archives by Noel's son, Christopher Morss, in November
1998.
TERMS
OF USE
CREATOR
SKETCH
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE
NOEL
MORSS PAPERS INVENTORY
CORRESPONDENT
INDEX
TERMS
OF USE
Access:
Unrestricted.
Copying: Unrestricted.
CREATOR
SKETCH
Noel
Morss was born in Boston on December 25, 1904 to Ethel Read
Morss and Everett Morss. He prepared for college at the
Groton School, and graduated from Harvard in 1926 with a
B.A. in economics. Morss went on to receive a law degree
from Harvard Law School in 1929 and to practice
professionally as an attorney. His interest in anthropology
and archaeology was bolstered by his Chestnut Hill neighbors
Dr. Hugh O'Neill Hencken and his wife Thalassa Cruso, and by
summers later spent leading PM archaeological expeditions to
Arizona & Utah in 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1929. According
to J . O. Brew, Morss was "the scholar who defined the
Fremont Culture of eastern Utah." His publications on
Fremont figurines were highly regarded by his anthropology
colleagues. Although Morss did not pursue this interest
professionally, his work was of such caliber that he was
appointed Chairman on the Visiting Committee, Harvard
University Department of Anthropology & Peabody Museum
in 1954; and was PM Research Fellow in Prehistory of the
American Southwest 1955-60. Morss also served as Secretary
and Treasurer of the American School for Prehistoric
Research under Director and Founder Dr. George Grant
MacCurdy, and was a founding member of the Council on Old
World Archaeology (COWA). Morss' long tenure in ASPR spanned
his role as an early trustee from 1926 to 1953, to becoming
an "ASPR member in the museum" from 1954 onwards (when the
ASPR then became a part of the Department of Anthropology in
accordance with its founder's will), while serving as
secretary and treasurer from 1954 to 1980. Morss died on
April 24, 1981.
Sources:
- Brew,
John Otis. "Noel Morss, 1904-1981." American
Antiquity 47 (2) 1982, p. 344-45.
- Cirriculum
vita. Noel Morss Papers. Box 4.5
- Morss,
Christopher. Personal communication, December 29,
1998.
SCOPE
AND CONTENT NOTE
The
Noel Morss Papers are organized in two main records series,
I. Professional Organization Records, and II. Professional
Papers. Series I contains the records of two professional
organizations of which Morss was an active member: the
American School of Prehistoric Research (ASPR) and the
Council on Old World Archaeology (COWA). Series II contains
Morss' own professional papers which he organized into two
categories: I. Archaeology and II. Peabody Museum. Each
subseries of Series II includes correspondence, memoranda,
photographs, and reprints. Series, subseries and folder
titles reflect Morss' own.
NOEL
MORSS PAPERS INVENTORY
Professional
Organization Records
BOX
1 OF 7
American
School of Prehistoric Research
- 1.1
Certificates of Votes/Incorporation 1947
-1954
- 1.2
Corporation 1954
- Correspondence
1964-1980
- 1.3
February 11 1964-December 31 1970
- 1.4
1971-77
- 1.5
1979-1980
- Minutes
1925-1979
- 1.6
January 31 1925-June 1 1941
- 1.7
December 20 1945-March 13 1954 (with Executive
Committee Reports)
- 1.8
October 13 1954-October 13 1977 (with Annual
Reports)
- 1.9
1979
- 1.10
Notae Natufianae 1963
- 1.11
Recorder of Deeds 1946-1979
BOX
2 of 7
Council
on Old World Archaeology (COWA)
Correspondence
1953-1975
- 2.1
May 18 1953 -April 30 1955
- 2.2
February 1 1961-December 31 1962
- 2.3
1964-1975
Minutes
(Board of Trustees) 1953-1960
- 2.4
1953-59
- 2.5
July 14 1956-April 1 1960
BOX
3 of 7
- 3.1
"April 1 1960-July 14 1956" embossed
binder
National
Science Foundation (NSF) Grants 1958-1967
- 3.2
#1 (COWA Surveys and Bibliographies)
1958-1963
- 3.3.
#2 (COWA Surveys and Bibliographies)
1963-67
Publications
1959-1969
- 3.4
Group III Vol. 1 1959
- 3.5
1962-69
- 3.6
Reviews and Notices 1958-1963
- 3.7
Treasurer's Reports January 31 1962-January 31
1964
- 3.8Ward
Bequest April 30 1960
BOX
4 of 7
Professional
Papers
Archaeology
- 4.1
Bibliographic Notes 1954-1963
- Correspondence
- 4.2
Miscellaneous 1936-1974
- 4.3
1928-1945
- 4.4
1948-1952
- 4.5
January 1, 1953-May 19, 1954
- 4.6
June 23, 1954-December 31, 1955
BOX
5 of 7
- 5.1
January 1, 1956-1962
- 5.2
Anati, Emannuel 1963-64
- 5.3
Pillingsiana - Utah, Seattle trips 1963,
1980
- 5.4
Thesis correspondence 1959
- 5.5
Fieldwork photographs 1925-27
- 5.6
Fieldwork maps, n.d.*
- Navajo
County in vicinity of [?] House, n.d.
[holograph]
- unidentified,
n.d.
- 5.7
Fremont Symposium materials 1970
BOX
6 of 7
- 6.1
Photographs 1927 -1959
- 6.2
Reprints 1952-59
- Pubications
drafts and correspondence 1952-58
- 6.3
Cradled infant figurines 1952
- 6.4
Figurines from Old Woman site 1956-58
- 6.5
Kinnaith figurines 1954-55
Peabody
Museum
- 6.6
General Correspondence 1961-1979
- 6.7
Photographs - Utah artifacts, n.d.
- 6.8
Research Fellowship 1958-1969
BOX
7 of 7
Bibliographic
cards A-Z, n.d. [unidentified project]
Map
Case V, Drawer 6
Archaeology
- Fieldwork
maps (annotated)
- Utah
relief map. USGS. 1947.
- NM/AZ
Chaco Sheet/Canon de Chelly. USGS?, n.d. mounted on
linen
- Garfield/San
Juan. USGS?, n.d. mounted on linen
- Powell
National Forest. USGS?, n.d. mounted on
linen
- Fishlake/Powell
National Forests. USGS?, n.d. mounted on
linen
Separated
Materials
- Unannotated
USGS maps separated from papers and discarded: (these
materials can be found in the HU Map
Collection)
- Utah.
Woodside Quadrangle. 1950 edition.
- Utah.
Carbon County, Sunnyside Quadrangle. USGS. 1915 edition,
1948 reprint.
- Utah.
Carbon County ,Wellington Quadrangle. USGS. 1915 edition,
1948 reprint
Transferred
to PM Collections Dept. biographical files:
- News
about the Peabody Museum and Department of Anthropology.
Harvard University. Spring 1977, Fall 1972, Winter 1971,
Summer 1971, Fall 1970, Spring 1970, Winter 1969, Fall
1969, Summer 1969, Summer 1968, Spring 1968, Fall
1967.
- Newsletter
of the Peabody Museum and the Department of Anthropology.
Harvard University. June 1978, December 1977
- Symbols
PMAE, Harvard University. Summer 1980.
Transferred
to PM Collections Dept. reference library:
- Brew,
John Otis. 1966. Early days of the Peabody Museum at
Harvard University. Cambridge, MA: PMAE.
- Williams,
Stephen. 1970. Buried Treasures of the Peabody Museum.
Harvard University. No. 3 1970.
Discarded
(can be found in Tozzer Anthropology Library):
- Compton,
Carl Benton. 1953. "The Cult of the Female Among the
Trascans." Magazine of Art February 1953 pp.
75-79.
- Gunnerson,
James H. 1957. "Prehistoric Figurines from Castle
Valley." Archaeology 10 (2) Summer 1957 pp.
137-140.
- Lehmann,
Henri. 1951. "Le Personnage Couché Sur le Dos:
Sujet Commun dans l'Archaéologie de Mexique et de
l'Équateur." TAX: The Civilizations of Ancient
America. Vol. 1, Proceedings of the 29th International
Congress of Americanists. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
- Steward,
Julian H. 1936. Pueblo Material Culture in Western Utah.
Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico
Press.
Discarded
(can be found in the Museum of Comparative Zoology Ernst
Mayr Library):
- Behle,
William H. 1958. The Birds of the Raft River Mountains,
Northwestern Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah
Biological Series 11 (6).
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