Meiji Japan: The Edward Sylvester Morse Collection from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem

Manuscripts for the study of Meiji society, culture, ethnology and education from the papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925). Morse was one of the first Americans to live in Japan – teaching science at the Imperial University of Tokyo – and he devoted much of his life to the task of documenting life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization. In addition to preserving the household records of a samurai family and many accounts of the tea ceremony, Morse made notes on subjects as diverse as shop signs, fireworks, hairpins, agricultural tools, artists’ studios, music, games, printing, carpentry, the Ainu, gardens, household construction, and art and architecture. The Edward S Morse papers document the numerous and valuable contributions made by Morse to the areas of malacology, zoology, ethnology, archaeology and art history.