Eldredge, Elwin Martin, 1893-1965

New England merchant.

John Harrison Morrison (January 7, 1841-August 26, 1917) was born in New York City to parents John and Margaret Morrison. His father had been a successful merchant in New York City, working at a well-known firm that was later named A. T. Stewart & Company. The younger Morrison proved his intelligence by graduating high school at the early age of fourteen and then enrolling at the College of the City of New York a year later. Before completing his studies, Morrison became associated with a large shipbuilding firm and was quickly given the position of paymaster of the shipyard. Later he became the private secretary to Mr. Charles Copeland, who was at that time inspector of lighthouses and marine engines for the United States government. After twenty years at this occupation, Morrison began his own enterprise of manufacturing varnishes for carriage tops, rubber and rubber cloth in Norwood, New Jersey in the year 1869.

Morrison married Susan Hutchinson in Greenpoint, New York on September 26, 1865. The couple had four children: Thomas F., Edith, Florence Ethel, and Clifford Jerome. Morrison sold his factory and his business and retired in 1908 at the age of 67. He published three important works before his death in 1917 entitled, The History of American Steam Navigation, The History of New York Ship Yards, and Are There Equinoctial Storms? He was also a member of a few notable organizations such as the Navy League and the National Geographic Society.

Elwin M. Eldredge, the collector of this material, was born in 1893 in Brooklyn, NY. As a young man he worked for the Metropolitan Steamship Company, later joining the Army during World War I. After the war, he joined his father and brother in the printing business. He became acquainted with some of the older steamship historians of the 1920s, among them John Morrison, and eventually absorbed their collections into his. The Mariners' Museum bought his entire collection in 1939 and accessioned the ocean steamship material immediately. Mr. Eldredge retained and added to his American steamboat materials until his death in 1965, at which point the steamboat collections, of which the Morrison papers were a part, came to the Museum.