- Header
- H B Morse
- Also known as
-
H B Morse
-
primary name: Morse, Hosea Ballou
-
other name: Morse, Ballou
- Details
- individual; academic/intellectual; American (USA); Male
- Life dates
- 1855-1934
- Biography
- Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs (1874-1909); historian of Chinese foreign relations. Educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard. Entered Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in 1874, and served at Shanghai, Peking (=Beijing), Tsientin (=Tianjin), Pakhoi (=Beihai), Tamsui (in Taiwan), Lungchow (=Longzhou), Hankow (=Hankou) and Canton (=Guangzhou). Retired to UK where he devoted the rest of his life to scholarship. At the time of his death, he was considered the major historian of modern China in the English-speaking world. The British Museum acquired his collection over two years: over a thousand coins in 1882, and over a thousand coins in 1883, some via his wife Mrs H B Morse (q.v.).
Some of Morse's medals are in the British Museum collection. There is also some documentation relating to his Chinese medals in the British Library e.g. Or.12569 馬士三等嘉禾章執照 (1916), 1 scroll, ink on paper, 625 x 505mm
邊欄為牡丹花紋,文字自右至左為:大中華民囯大總統玆授予 前稅務司馬士馬士三等 嘉禾章以示優異 大中華民囯五年五月五日令行 袁世凱 大中華民囯五年五月二十四日頒發 銓敘局長郭則澐 肴字第十二號。袁世凱簽名居中,上鈐硃文正方 榮典之璽。郭則澐名下鈐硃文正方銓敘局長。外有長桶形盒,紅色題簽:馬士三等嘉禾章執照。
(Pencilled note: "Year 1916 of Chinese republic. Decoration decree of the order of the Chih Ho III class by presidential mandate To Hosen B Morse LLD)
- Bibliography
- The Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635-1834, 4 vols, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926; vol.5, Oxford, 1929 (reprint Taipei 1975).
The Gilds of China, with an account of the gold merchant or co-hong of Canton, London, 1909.
The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (1910-18), 3 vols, London, 1910-18 (reprint Taipei, 1971).
The Trade and Administration of China,Shanghai, 1907, revised editions 1913, 1921.
John King Fairbank, Martha Henderson Coolidge, Richard J Smith, H B Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; also National Register of Archives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosea_Ballou_Morse