Born in 1902 in Philadelphia, Blackburn began studying art in 1922 at the Graphic Sketch Club and the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, eventually continuing his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Blackburn was renowned for his creative use of materials, exploring traditional and new painting and printmaking techniques. In the early 1940s, he was one of the first to use the silkscreen technique for fine art prints.
Blackburn was a faculty member at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was honored in 1928 and 1929 with two Cresson Traveling Scholarships to Europe and with the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1952. His work was included in almost every annual exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1930 to 1968. Morris Blackburn died in Philadelphia in 1979 leaving a legacy to benefit the Scholarship Fund of the School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
