Original Morris Paperwork

[pklonowski]

I'd suggest putting all that info on a CD or DVD, to avoid accidental erasures/overwriting/formatting. Hardcopy is a good thing, too, just in case we need a belt AND suspenders.

 

[Paul Miller]

Mail from 1893 Chicago Fair to Morris

Hi All,

I have been doing some research on my latest Morris # 1950 and noticed in this thread the post by Benson showing the list of canoes and boat presented by B.M Morris at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

I have attached a letter sent to Bert from the Fair in one of his return envelopes asking for a catalog.

This piece comes from a collection of papers I got off eBay a number of years ago and Kathryn did a nice article about them in the Canoe Journal some time ago.

I just wanted to link it up with this tread.

Enjoy,

Paul

 

[Kathryn Klos]

In thinking-about why this correspondence exists--- letters sent to Bert Morris asking for catalogs, offering to sell his canoes, and ordering canoes--- my thought is that the letters were in the house he lived in before the factory was built. This would have been the home of his parents, which Charlie Morris lived in throughout his life-- it was later inherited by Charlie's daughter and then his grandson. Bert moved to an apartment over the main office at the factory (now Stucco Lodge motel). I believe the factory was built over a period of time, beginning in the later 1890s, but have to do more reseach on that. The Morris factory in 1893 was a shop behind the family home... and this is where Charlie built boats after the fire.

So, these letters probably were never at the factory location that burned in December 1919. Glad they weren't!

Kathy