Dr. Nathaniel Holmes Morison was born on December 14, 1815, in Peterborough, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.

He was an educator and author. In 1833, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. He then attended Harvard University, where he showed a fondness for poetic composition. After graduating in 1839, he moved to Baltimore, where he became a teacher in a girls' school. In 1841, he opened his own school and started to study divinity. In 1867, he became the first Provost of the Peabody Institute of Baltimore and stayed in this position until 1890. He took a great interest in designing all the interior plans of the new library building and also developing its catalogue. He was a member of the Maryland Historical Society and the Archeological Society. He received an honorary degree of LL.D. from St. John's College, Annapolis, in 1871. He published several books, e.g., "Three Thousand Questions in Geography" (1843), "A School Manual" (1867), and "The Captive and Other Early Rhymes" (1888).

In 1842, he married Sidney Buchanan Brown (1818–1893). He died on November 14, 1890, in Baltimore, Maryland.