Scientist. He was among a handful of American scientists and educators credited with helping Japan modernize in the Meiji era (late 19th century). On September 28th, 1856, while enrolled at Bethel Academy, he discovered a minute land snail. This discovery would launch him on his career as a natural scientist. In 1859 the Boston Society of Natural History proclaimed Morse's discovery a new species which it named in his honor: Tympanis morsei. He later helped establish the American Naturalist magazine and became one of its editors. In 1868 he was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1874 he was made a lecturer to Havard University. In 1876 he became a fellow of the National Academy of Science and in 1885 president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Morse undertook a study of brachiopods along the Atlantic seaboard which recieved international attention and led, in 1869, to his election as vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He became its president in 1886. From 1871 to 1874 he held the chair of comparative anatomy and zoology at Bowdoin College. In 1877 Morse visited Japan in seach of new specimens for his studies and was offered a position as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and stayed until 1879. While in Japan, he began his collection of Japanese pottery, considered to be the finest of that era in the United States. Much of his collection was purchased in 1890 by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The remainder is now called The Morse Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Morse's association with Japan would be commemorated when, in 1898, he became the first American to be decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, Third Class by the Emperor of Japan. Near the end of his life in 1922 Morse was again honored by the Japanese Empire with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class. There is also a memorial to him on Enoshima Island, Kanagawa Prefecture.