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Frances Rollins Morse

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Frances Rollins Morse
Photograph of Frances Rollins Morse
BornJanuary 21, 1850
Died1928
Parent(s)Samuel Torrey Morse
Harriet Jackson Lee Morse
RelativesMary Lee Morse (aunt)

Frances Rollins Morse (1850–1928) or Fanny Rollins Morse was an American conservationist and social activist. She is noted for her initiatives in the field of social work. Morse was one of the founders of the Associated Charities of Boston and was a co-founder of the School of Social Work at Simmons College.[1][2]

Biography

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Morse was born in Boston on January 21, 1850, to Samuel Torrey Morse (1816–1890) and Harriet Jackson Lee Morse.[3][2] Samuel Morse was a tradesman and a founding member of the Union Club during the American Civil War.[4] Her mother was the sister of Mary Lee Morse, who was a noted member of the Boston elite.[5] The Morse family descended from Patrick Tracy Jackson, one of the owners of the Lowell Textile Mills and was also the treasurer of the Boston and Lowell Railroad.[6]

Morse studied at Miss Clapp's school in Boston. There she met Alice James, the American diarist who would become her life-long friend.[6] James was two years her senior.[7] The published correspondence of James and her brother William James included letters to Morse, which cited her conservation and charity activities.[8]

In her adult years, she was known for her charity and social work in Boston.[9] A collection of her works, correspondence, travel diaries and other documents had been given to Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library.[10] She also published a collection of letters and journals of her family.[11]

References

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  1. ^ "Collection: Papers of Frances Rollins Morse, 1831-1929 | HOLLIS for". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  2. ^ a b James, Henry (2014). The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878–1880: Volume 2. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-8032-5424-4.
  3. ^ Skrupskelis, Ignas; Berkeley, Elizabeth; McDermot, John (1997). William and Henry James: Selected Letters. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p. 538. ISBN 978-0-8139-1694-1.
  4. ^ Cutter, William Richard (1910). Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, Volume 4. Lewis historical Publishing Company. p. 2277.
  5. ^ "Peripatetic". The University Magazine. 9 (1): 513–514. July 1893.
  6. ^ a b Strouse, Jean (2011). Alice James: A Biography. New York Review of Books. ISBN 978-1-59017-472-2.
  7. ^ Lewis, Richard Warrington Baldwin (1993). The Jameses: A Family Narrative. Anchor Books. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-385-42495-0.
  8. ^ Herford, Oliver (2016). Henry James's Style of Retrospect: Late Personal Writings, 1890–1915. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-19-873480-2.
  9. ^ Ellery, Harrison; Bowditch, Charles Pickering (1897). The Pickering Genealogy: Being an Account of the First Three Generations of the Pickering Family of Salem, Mass., and of the Descendants of John and Sarah (Burrill) Pickering, of the Third Generation, Vol. III. Cambridge, MA: University Press, J. Wilson and Son. p. 787.
  10. ^ "Collection: Papers of Frances Rollins Morse, 1831-1929 | HOLLIS for". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  11. ^ Morse, Frances Rollins (1926). Henry and Mary Lee, Letters and Journals: With Other Family Letters, 1802-1860. Privately printed.