More Edward A.  Morris:  •  Federal Duck Stamp Print  •

EDWARD A. MORRIS
(1917 - 2009)

Mr. Morris says he's the world's worst when it comes to writing about himself. I shouldn't start out here by contradicting him, but after having spent nearly a year fishing for information from 26 other artists, I have to say that he's not the worst. He gets about a 95 out of a possible 100, that's all. Luckily, I have my spies; and I also found Morris, Edward A., in The Library of Congress. Here's what I've learned about him:

He was born in Philadelphia on July 28, 1917. I know that he spent eight years in the Marine Corps, without being sure of just which years they were. I suspect that he went to Parris Island for boot camp about two years after he got out of high school, which would bring the date of his discharge to 1945. (Very few Marines were let out before that year.)

After the war, with the aid of the G. I. Bill, he studied at the Philadelphia College of Art where two of his instructors were Henry C. Pitz and W. Emerton Heitland.

Mr. Morris is a painter as well as an illustrator, and has work in many private collections. He has always had a keen appreciation for the outdoors, a trait that is prerequisite to all good wildlife artists. There is wide coverage of his work in Gopher Historian, Naturalist, Linn's Weekly Stamp News, and other magazines. He is also a contributor to The Northwestern Banks Hunting Guide, 1962.

He has a wife, Helen; a son, Edward, and a daughter, Mary Ellen

Mr. Morris is the only duck stamp artist so far to have won the competition two years in a row. Some of us would be shouting from the rooftops over that, but Mr. Morris keeps his equanimity and is as composed, poised, and silent as before.

Mr. Morris' work has been in annual exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society, and can be seen in numerous eastern galleries and museums. He is a member of Ducks Unlimited, Inc.; the Association of Professional Artists; and a Minneapolis sportsmen's club, Fur, Fin and Feathers. He is at present free-lancing in advertising art in Minneapolis, with a studio at the American Wildlife Art Galleries.

The only other bit of information I can offer is that his stationery (I mention it only because it's so rarely seen) is most attractive, with one "pouf" from an airbrush in a pleasant pale brown centered at the top, overlaid with the Morris initial signature in black.