Robert S. Morris papers
Scope and Contents
The Robert S. Morris papers is primarily a collection of alphabetical files created by Robert S. Morris during his long tenure with Trinity College first as student and later as alumnus, coach, and trustee, among other endeavors. The collection also includes a small amount of sports memorablia and photographs, an audio recording, reel to reel films of sporting and other Trinity College important events, three posters, and several high school and college notebooks. Items date from the 1800s to 1970.
Dates
- Creation: 1800s-1970
Creator
- Morris, Robert S. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the John M.K. Davis Reading Room of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College Library, Hartford, Connecticut. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws when using this collection.
Conditions Governing Use
Digital surrogates may be provided to researchers, in accordance with the duplication policy of the Watkinson Library.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information (e.g. social security numbers) in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
Biographical / Historical
A Hartford native born July 2, 1893, Robert Seymour Morris attended Hartford Public High School before matriculating at Trinity with the Class of 1916. Active as both an athlete and as a student leader, Morris played on the varsity football and track teams, sang with the Glee Club, was class president, and was a member of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. In addition to working at Aetna Casualty and Surety between 1916 and 1918, he returned to Trinity for the 1916-1917 academic year both to earn a master’s degree and to coach the College’s football team. An enlisted seaman during World War I, Morris served aboard transport ships. Mustered out of active service in 1919, Morris returned to Hartford as a securities salesman with the investment banking firm Tripp and Andrews. He married Helen Loveland in 1920; they had one daughter, born in 1924. A partner at E.T. Andrews and Company between 1929 and 1932, Morris then formed his own firm, Robert S. Morris and Company.
He remained active on behalf of his alma mater meanwhile, serving in positions ranging from class agent to Glee Club coach to chairman of the 125th Development Program. Appointed a trustee of the College in 1941, Morris served in this capacity for 22 years, as well as on the Board of Fellows for 13 years. He served as class secretary for the alumni magazine, The Reporter, for 53 years. He also wrote a history of the College’s football team, Pigskin Parade at Trinity, 1876-1941, in addition to other studies of Trinity. In recognition of his service to the College, Morris earned the Eigenbrodt Cup, Trinity’s highest alumni honor, in 1949, as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1965.
Morris served in various professional and civic organizations such as the Connecticut Investment Bankers’ Association, the Greater Hartford Community Chest, the Hartford Chamber of Commerce, and the Hartford Y.M.C.A. A longtime member of the First Church of Christ in West Hartford, he died March 28, 1971.
Extent
7 Cubic Feet (6 records storage cartons; 1 legal size clamshell box; 1 oversize flat box) ; 1 box (16.25 in. x 13 in. x 10.5 in.) equals 1 cubic foot ("cubic foot" defined in SAA Dictionary); 1 legal clamshell box (15.25 x 3 x 10.25) equals .27 cubic feet; 1 oversize flat box (23 x 17 x 3) equals .68 cubic feet (UNLV Archives Calculator)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series, alphabetically by folder title (some folders may be out of order), with the exception of twenty-eight folders at the end of Series 1 which begin again alphabetically with "Alumni Fund." It is likely that these folders were added to the collection at a later date.
Series 1. Files
Series 2. Ephemera
Series 3. Audiovisual
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source unknown.
Statement on Inclusive Description
Folder titles were copied (largely verbatim) from those originally written by Robert Morris. These creator-supplied folder titles may contain outdated or harmful language.
Processing Information
Initial processsing occurred in 2008 by an Archives intern who produced a word-processed finding aid with a biographical note and a list of folder titles (some with item-level lists). Additional processing occurred in summer 2024 to enter the original finding aid information into ArchivesSpace as well as to update the finding aid with additional Notes. Folder numbers were added as well. The folder title "Professor Jim" as well as folders at the end of Series 1 with original titles "Card," "Card and File," and "File" were given additional descriptive sub-titles by the processing archivist in order to facilitate access.
The collection has been fairly thoroughly processed, to the folder level (some with item-level lists). Items were rehoused in acid-free folders and some metal fasteners were removed. It does not appear as though newspaper clippings were isolated with acid-free paper.
- Title
- Guide to the Robert S. Morris papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Amy FitzGerald and Sydney Yu, from a word processed inventory created by Archives intern, Alex Poole in August 2008.
- Date
- 2024-07-02
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Trinity College Archives Repository
Watkinson Library
300 Summit St.
Hartford CT 06106 USA