May Morris

PHOTOS OF MORRIS AND FAMILY

May Morris.

Photograph by Frederick Hollyer (1837-1933), 1887.

May Morris (1862-1938) was the younger of William and Jane Morris’s two daughters. Both she and her sister Jenny were accomplished embroiderers - taught by their mother and by their aunt, Bessie Burden - and in 1885 May took over the direction of Morris & Co.’s embroidery department. She also actively assisted her father in promoting the cause of Socialism in the 1880s and 90s. At the turn of the century she taught embroidery at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London and at Birmingham’s Municipal School of Art, becoming a leading figure in the (mainly male-dominated) Arts & Crafts Movement. Her Introductions to The Collected Works of William Morris, 24 volumes edited by her and published between 1910 and 1915, contain many illuminating details of Morris’s career and his family life.