May Morris

File:Rossetti may morris.jpg.]]

May Morris was born on 25 March 1862 at Red House, Bexleyheath, and named Mary, as she was born on the Feast of the Annunciation.

{{Cite web

| title = The William Morris Internet Archive : Chronology

| url = http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/chrono.htm

| access-date = 24 August 2008

}}

May learned to embroider from her mother and her aunt Bessie Burden, who had been taught by William Morris. In 1878, she enrolled at the National Art Training School, precursor of the Royal College of Art.Anna Mason, Jan Marsh, Jenny Lister, Rowan Bain and Hanne Faurby, authors May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer. V&A/Thames and Hudson, 2017 {{ISBN|9780500480212}}., p.36 In 1885, aged 23, she became the Director of the Embroidery Department at her father's enterprise Morris & Co. During her time in the role she was responsible for producing a range of designs, which were frequently misattributed as her father's work.{{cite web|last1=Marsh|first1=Jan|title=Feminist, socialist, embroiderer: the untold story of May Morris|url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/may-morris-art-and-life-william-morris-gallery|access-date=13 April 2021|website=Royal Academy}} She ran this department until her father's death in 1896, where she moved into an advisory role. {{cite web |title=May Morris |url=https://www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/collection/arts-and-crafts-designers-may-morris/ |website=Cheltenam Museum |access-date=13 April 2021}}

In 1886, May fell in love with Henry Halliday Sparling (1860–1924), secretary of the Socialist League. Despite her mother's concerns about her future son-in-law, they married on 14 June 1890 at Fulham Register Office. The Sparlings were divorced in 1898, and May resumed her maiden name.

In 1907, she founded the Women’s Guild of Arts with Mary Elizabeth Turner, as the Art Workers Guild did not admit women.{{cite journal|last1=Thomas|first1=Zoe|title='At Home with the Women's Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios, c. 1880–1925'|journal=Women's History Review|date=June 2015|volume=24|issue=6|pages=938–964|doi=10.1080/09612025.2015.1039348|s2cid=142796942|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/tHneiAkTFHfwD6JSskRp/full}} They were assisted in its foundation by Mary A. Sloane, Ethel Everett, Mabel Esplin and Letty Graham.{{Cite journal |last=Tempest Grant |first=Marion |date=2024 |title=The Women's Guild of Arts: Professional Craftswomen, Identity and Education, 1907-1920 |journal=The Journal of William Morris Studies |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=40–57}} The Women's Guild of Arts became a leading association for women artists and craftswomen, providing networking and educational opportunities as an alternative to the Art Workers Guild.

She edited her father's Collected Works in 24 volumes for Longmans, Green and Company, published from 1910 to 1915, and, after his death, commissioned two houses to be built in the style that he loved in the village of Kelmscott in the Cotswolds. Her companion at Kelmscott from 1917 until her death was Mary Lobb, a Land Army volunteer in the village.{{cite book|last1=Londraville|first1=Janis|title=On poetry, painting, and politics : the letters of May Morris and John Quinn|date=1997|publisher=Susquehanna University Press|location=Selinsgrove [Pa.]|isbn=978-0945636960|page=27}}

May Morris died at Kelmscott Manor on 17 October 1938.

{{cite news

|title= Miss May Morris (New York Times obituary)

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/10/18/archives/miss-may-morris-editor-of-works-of-her-father-william-morris-the.html

|date =18 October 1938

| work=The New York Times

}}

File:May morris altar frontal.jpg, executed by May Morris from a design by Philip Webb."The work is carried out with floss silk in bright colours and gold thread, both background and pattern being embroidered. The five crosses, that are placed at regular intervals between the vine leaves, are couched in gold passing upon a silvery silk ground." Christie, Grace (Mrs. Archibald H.): Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, London, John Hogg, 1912; e-text at [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20386/20386-h/20386-h.htm Project Gutenberg]; notes to Plate XIII.]]

May Morris was an influential embroiderer and designer, although her contributions are often overshadowed by those of her father, a towering figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. She continued his resurrection of free-form embroidery in the style which would be termed art needlework. Art needlework emphasized freehand stitching and delicate shading in silk thread thought to encourage self-expression in the needleworker in sharp contrast with the brightly coloured Berlin wool work needlepoint and its "paint by numbers" aesthetic which had gripped much of home embroidery in the mid-19th century.

May Morris was also active in the Royal School of Art Needlework (now Royal School of Needlework), founded as a charity in 1872 under the patronage of Princess Helena to maintain and develop the art of needlework through structured apprenticeships. The school originally opened in the autumn of 1872 in rooms in Sloane Street, London, with a staff of twenty women overseen by Lady Welby and Mrs Dolby, an "authority in ecclesiastical work".Lady Marion M. Alford, Needlework as Art. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1886, 396. While the course available in the government schools of design for women was theoretical only, the RSAN had the distinct advantage of a practical, hands-on technical training. The school grew rapidly, and by 1875 had moved into their third locale, conveniently located in Exhibition Road next to the South Kensington Museum. The collections of ancient embroidery in the Museum were studied in an effort to understand and relearn old work.

Also among the staff at the RSAN were Jane Morris's sister, Elizabeth Burden, who was chief technical instructor from 1880,Marianne Tidcombe, Women Bookbinders 1880–1920 (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press & London: The British Library, 1996) 80. and designers Deborah Birnbaum (c1889) and Nellie Whichelo (c1890).Anthea Callen, Women Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, 1870–1914. New York: Pantheon Books, 1979. 100, 101; Art & Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogues 1888–1916.

May Morris taught embroidery at the LCC Central School of Art in London from 1897, and was head of the Embroidery department from 1899 until 1905, thereafter continuing her association with the Central School as Visitor until 1910.Jan Marsh, "May Morris: Ubiquitous, Invisible Arts and Crafts-woman", in Bridget Elliott & Janice Helland eds, Women Artists and the Decorative Arts 1880–1935 (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2002) 42. She also taught at Birmingham, Leicester and Hammersmith Art School.

By 1916, there were many art schools under the LCC umbrella that included embroidery in their curriculum. Among the embroidery instructors were sisters Ellen M Wright and Fanny I Wright, both previously employed in the Embroidery Department at Morris & Co., and trained by May Morris. Ellen M Wright also taught at the Clapham School of Art, aided by Miss F Pooley, and Eleanor R Harriss and Mrs L Frampton taught at the Hammersmith School of Arts & Crafts."Introduction", in Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, Catalogue of the Eleventh Exhibition, 1916 .

Morris also designed and made jewellery. She began to design jewellery around the turn of the 20th century, and was probably inspired by the Birmingham jewellers Arthur and Georgie Gaskin, who were old family friends.{{Cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O76641/girdle-morris-may/|title=Girdle | Morris, May | V&A Explore the Collections|date=1906 }} Examples of her jewellery were donated by Mary Lobb to the Victoria and Albert Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=46825663}}

• Decorative Needlework. London: Joseph Hughes & Co., 1893.
• ed and Introd. Collected Works of William Morris. 24 v. London: Longmans, Green, 1910–1915. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966.
• "Coptic Textiles". Architectural Review 5 (1899), 274–287.
• "Chain Stitch Embroidery". Century Guild Hobby Horse 3 (1888), 25–29.
• "Line Embroidery". Art Workers' Quarterly 1:4 (October 1902), 117–121.
• "Opus Anglicanum – The Syon Cope". Burlington Magazine 6 (October 1904 – March 1905), 278–285.
• "Opus Anglicanum II – The Ascoli Cope". Burlington Magazine 6 (October 1904 – March 1905), 440–448.
• "Opus Anglicanum III – The Pienza Cope". Burlington Magazine 7 (April–September 1905), 54–65.
• "Opus Anglicanum at the Burlington Fine Arts Club". Burlington Magazine 7 (April–September 1905), 302–309.
• "William Morris". Letter. Times Literary Supplement. 905 (22 May 1919), 280.
• "William Morris". Letter. Times Literary Supplement. 1685 (17 May 1934).

{{Reflist}}

• Daly, Gay, Pre-Raphaelites in Love, Ticknor & Fields, 1989, {{ISBN|0-89919-450-8}}.
• Hulse, Lynn, editor May Morris: Art & Life. New Perspectives, Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2017 {{ISBN|978-1910-885-529}}.
• Lochnan, Katharine, Douglas E. Schoenherr, and Carole Silver, editors: The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and His Circle from Canadian Collections Key Porter Books, 1996, {{ISBN|1-55013-450-7}}.
• Marsh, Jan, Jane and May Morris: A Biographical Story 1839–1938, London, Pandora Press, 1986 {{ISBN|0-86358-026-2}}
• Marsh, Jan, Jane and May Morris: A Biographical Story 1839–1938 (updated edition, privately published by author), London, 2000
• Anna Mason, Jan Marsh, Jenny Lister, Rowan Bain and Hanne Faurby, authors May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer. V&A/Thames and Hudson, 2017 {{ISBN|9780500480212}}.
• Naylor, Gillian: William Morris by Himself: Designs and Writings, London, Little Brown & Co. 2000 reprint of 1988 edition.
• Todd, Pamela, Pre-Raphaelites at Home, New York, Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8230-4285-5}}
• Thomas, Zoe 'At Home with the Women's Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios, c. 1990-1925', article, Women's History Review 2015

{{Wikisource|Author:May Morris|May Morris}}

{{Commons category|May Morris}}

• {{UK National Archives ID}}
• {{Gutenberg author | id=31414| name=May Morris}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=May Morris |sopt=t}}
• [https://archive.org/stream/decorativeneedle00morriala#page/n5/mode/2up Decorative Needlework] by May Morris, 1893
• [http://www.wmgallery.org.uk/collection/search-the-collection-65/search/may-morris Works by May Morris] at William Morris Gallery

• On Poetry, Painting and Politics: Letters of May Morris and John Quinn: The Letters of May Morris and John Quinn Hardcover – 28 Feb. 1997 by May Morris (Author), John Quinn (Author), Janice Londraville (Editor)
• May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer Hardcover – Illustrated, 28 Sept. 2017 by Anna Mason (Editor), Jan Marsh (Editor), Jenny Lister (Editor), Rowan Bain (Contributor), & Hanne Faurby (Contributor)
• May Morris, 1862-1938: Exhibition Catalogue Paperback – 10 Jan. 1989 by Helen Sloan (Author)

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{{William Morris}}

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Category:Arts and Crafts movement artists

Category:English designers

Category:Embroidery designers

Category:English artists' models

Category:1862 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:Morris & Co.

Category:English socialists

Category:People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School

Category:Members of the Fabian Society

Category:English LGBTQ artists

Category:Bisexual artists