THE STORY OF MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, MAINE

by Samuel Eliot Morison

A breezy history of Mount Desert Island from the early Abnaki tries, to the great European explorers like Samuel d Champlain, to the people who call it hom and finally to the rusticators who came to its shores for its sheer beauty.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel

116 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Samuel Eliot Morison, son of John H. and Emily Marshall (Eliot) Morison, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 9 July 1887. He attended Noble’s School at Boston, and St. Paul’s at Concord, New Hampshire, before entering Harvard University, from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1908. He studied at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris, France, in 1908-1909, and returned to Harvard for postgraduate work, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1912. Thereafter he became Instructor, first at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1915 at Harvard. Except for three years (1922-1925) when he was Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford, England, and his periods of active duty during both World Wars, he remained continuously at Harvard University as lecturer and professor until his retirement in 1955.

He had World War I service as a private in the US Army, but not overseas. As he had done some preliminary studies on Finland for Colonel House’s Inquiry, he was detailed from the Army in January 1919 and attached to the Russian Division of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, at Paris, his specialty being Finland and the Baltic States. He served as the American Delegate on the Baltic Commission of the Peace Conference until 17 June 1919, and shortly after returned to the United States. He became a full Professor at Harvard in 1925, and was appointed to the Jonathan Trumbull Chair in 1940. He also taught American History at Johns Hopkins University in 1941-1942.

Living up to his sea-going background – he has sailed in small boats and coastal craft all his life. In 1939-1940, he organized and commanded the Harvard Columbus Expedition which retraced the voyages of Columbus in sailing ships, barkentine Capitana and ketch Mary Otis. After crossing the Atlantic under sail to Spain and back, and examining all the shores visited by Columbus in the Caribbean, he wrote Admiral of the Ocean Sea, an outstanding biography of Columbus, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943. He also wrote a shorter biography, Christopher Columbus, Mariner. With Maurico Obregon of Bogota, he surveyed and photographed the shores of the Caribbean by air and published an illustrated book The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It (1964).

Shortly after the United States entered World War II, Dr. Morison proposed to his friend President Roosevelt, to write the operational history of the US Navy from the inside, by taking part in operations and writing them up afterwards. The idea appealed to the President and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, and on 5 May 1942, Dr. Morison was commissioned Lieutenant Commander, US Naval Reserve, and was called at once to active duty. He subsequently advanced to the rank of Captain on 15 December 1945. His transfer to the Honorary Retired List of the Naval Reserve became effective on 1 August 1951, when he was promoted to Rear Admiral on the basis of combat awards.

In July-August 1942 he sailed with Commander Destroyer Squadron Thirteen (Captain John B. Heffernan, USN), on USS Buck, flagship, on convoy duty in the Atlantic. In October of that year, on USS Brooklyn with Captain Francis D. Denebrink, he participated in Operation TORCH (Allied landings in North and Northwestern Africa - 8 November 1942). In March 1943, while attached to Pacific Fleet Forces, he visited Noumea, Guadalcanal, Australia, and on Washington made a cruise with Vice Admiral W. A. Lee, Jr., USN. He also patrolled around Papua in motor torpedo boats, made three trips up “the Slot” on Honolulu, flagship of Commander Cruisers, Pacific Fleet (Rear Admiral W.W. Ainsworth, USN), and took part in the Battle of Kolombangara before returning to the mainland. Again in the Pacific War Area in September 1943, he participated in the Gilbert Islands operation on board USS Baltimore, under command of Captain Walter C. Calhoun, USN. For the remainder of the Winter he worked at Pearl Harbor, and in the Spring

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually a big surprise. The author's style of writing is quite casual and easy to read (if you have visited there) and contains quite a bit of humor. Not what I expected. There are passages that are quite dated and politically incorrect. (this was written in 1960) At one point Morison refers to a local as a "halfwit" and earlier decribes the natives as being more interested in their makeup than in their defense. He does convey an elitism and sense of class one saw more at the end of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries.
Apparently this small book was compiled based on a series of lectures Morison gave at a Maine coastal library. It does have that oral quality about it. I found it a relaxing and enjoyable work, a book to keep on our boat while sailing in Maine.

[Bronwyn Echols · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting and a bit, well, quaint, not to mention arch, because Morison quite often name drops and makes borderline-snide asides that betray his own sense of entitlement and privilege (as in "cousin Charlie," referring to the then-president of Harvard University) as a lifelong member of the "rusticators" "club" on Mount Desert Island. Also, his history telling stops short in the early 1900s, leaving out the island's development in the first half of the 20th century and also the foundation and progress of Acadia National Park, because some other writer's book has covered it . . . pooh!

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read for those that know the island. The early history was particularly interesting & I learned where many of the place names originated.

[Rick Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this on a trip to Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine, interested to see what Morison, one of the great figures in American historical writing would have to say about history on a local scale.

I found the opening chapter disappointing, as Native American history is glossed over rather quickly to get to the colonial period. The stereotypes and language tropes of the time when this was written (1960) didn't help matters.

Morison seems more comfortable as he works toward the summer holiday culture that he, himself, grew up in, and the book takes on a charming and occasionally snarky voice that brings a very personal style of history into the forefront, with the major events of the times as distant background noise.

It's all very white-centric, and mostly (but not always) male-centric, but it still manages to covey how this island in Maine is special to the people who have spent time there, whether as year-round residents or summer "rusticators".

Morison's voice here is the voice of the storyteller, but with thorough research and strong attention to the small details that make the story unique.