Meroë Marston Morse

Meroë Marston Phelps Morse (June 20, 1923-July 29, 1969) was an American photographic researcher who worked for Polaroid and was a key contributor to the development of instant photography.

Early life and education Morse was born in Waterville, Maine on June 20, 1923, to Céleste Phelps and Harold Calvin Marston Morse, a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She was one of seven children fathered by Morse.

She attended Smith College, where she worked with art historian Clarence Kennedy, who was an early consultant to Polaroid. She wrote her senior thesis on Kennedy's Vectographs process. She graduated with a degree in art history. She was an advisor to Edwin Land.

In 1948, Morse became the laboratory supervisor responsible for photographic materials. During this time she oversaw "round-the-clock shifts of researchers conducting thousands of experiments" at Polaroid's lab. Polaroid originally had film which produced sepia-toned prints. She supervised the team that designed and created black-and-white film with crisper prints. Land noted Morse's "valuable assistance in research that led to the new film." Her lab produced faster films including Type 42 (ASA 200) and Type 44 (ASA 400) allowing sharper photography in lower-light conditions or with subjects in motion. She created Polaroid's Artist Support Program which provided Polaroid film and equipment to emerging and established artists whose work tested the technical and aesthetic boundaries of photography.

Other activities Morse was an accomplished harpist and played in a group called the Three Arts Trio where she would alternate harp playing and sketching chalk drawings that interpreted the music. She was a director at Cambridge Settlement House, teaching classes in photography and art to children.

Death and legacy Morse died from cancer on July 29, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2024, the Baker Library at Harvard Business School mounted an exhibition called "From Concept to Product: Meroë Morse and Polaroid’s Culture of Art and Innovation, 1945–1969" using material about Morse from their Polaroid collection.