May Morris: A Remarkable Arts & Crafts Woman

Who Was May Morris?

May Morris was born on March 25, 1862, at Red House, the Morris family’s beloved Arts & Crafts home in southeast London. Her given name was Mary, as she was born on the Feast of the Annunciation. May’s father—the designer, writer, and activist William Morris—was a formidable and enduring figure in the British Arts & Crafts movement. Her mother, Jane Morris (née Burden), was an artist’s model who famously embodied Pre-Raphaelite art. Jane’s prolific embroidery work also bolstered the signature aesthetic and commercial success of her husband’s design firm, Morris & Co.

Alongside her elder sister Jenny, May enjoyed a happy and unconventional childhood in the Morris household. From birth, the girls were immersed in all things Arts & Crafts. They wandered in and out of their father’s design workshops and posed for avant-garde artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti. May and Jenny also attended a progressive secondary school, where they accessed curricula typically reserved for boys.

At home, William Morris regaled his daughters with romantic medieval tales and Icelandic sagas, as well as his own poetry and novels. Meanwhile, Jane and her sister Bessie taught the girls embroidery, for which May demonstrated an early aptitude. Unlike most Victorian girls, May Morris was not only instructed to replicate a given pattern, she was also encouraged to explore and execute designs of her own. In 1878, at age 16, Morris enrolled at the National Art Training School in London, where she furthered her professional potential as an embroidery artist.

Early Career and Embroidery Innovations

By the early 1880s, May Morris was a full-fledged employee of Morris & Co. She helped produce immaculate handcrafted textiles for the firm, often working within or nearby her family home. Naturally well-versed in her father’s recognizable brand, May Morris carried out William’s vision without neglecting her own creativity.

May Morris designed three Arts & Crafts wallpaper patterns as a young employee. Delicate and delightful, Honeysuckle was an especially profitable design for Morris & Co. It was sold in four different colorways. When Morris & Co. increased its output of embroidered textiles, May Morris became even more involved in the male-dominated design process. She also leveraged her expertise in the history and techniques of her craft to teach courses and give lectures.

Following her parents’ example, Morris practiced free-form embroidery. During the Victorian era, traditional domestic embroidery favored a regimented “paint by numbers” aesthetic. Free-form embroidery, on the other hand, comprised dynamic freehand stitching and emphasized self-expression. This approach had long fallen out of style—and the medieval-minded Morrises were determined to revitalize it.

Head of Embroidery at Morris & Co.

May Morris was just 23 years old when Morris & Co. appointed her Head of Embroidery. Her promotion was a testament to her technical expertise, creativity, and business acumen. Morris led the firm’s embroidery workshop for over a decade, assuming responsibility for every step of the textile-making process. She liaised with clients, oversaw textile design and production, priced and invoiced products, and recruited and trained employees.

Under May Morris’ leadership, Morris & Co. marketed an impressive variety of embroidery goods, including wall hangings, cushion covers, tablecloths, and screens, as well as commissioned pieces and do-it-yourself embroidery kits. In collaboration with her father and colleagues, May Morris made lasting contributions to the firm’s distinctive visual brand. Medieval art and objects inspired both May and William Morris to design nature-inspired, free-form embroidery patterns. Over time, these patterns grew increasingly dynamic and complex.

Maids of Honour is among May Morris’ most memorable embroidery designs from this phase of her career. The luminous embroidered roundel showcases Morris’ artistry and attention to detail. She used a combination of split, long, short, and satin stitches in silk on a delicate gauze background, giving the composition a lifelike sense of movement. Prose by 17th-century English poet Robert Herrick borders the central floral design in Gothic lettering. Four birds, wings outstretched, peer into the roundel from each of the four corners.

As Head of Embroidery at Morris & Co., May Morris helped innovate and immortalize the Arts & Crafts aesthetic that we now primarily associate with her father. She also worked to elevate embroidery from a marginalized domestic pastime to a fine art form worthy of serious consideration, whether it decorated a home or hung in a museum.

Art and Activism

Ever the idealist, William Morris envisioned the Arts & Crafts movement as a utopian alternative to the social and economic order of the Victorian era. However, when May Morris was emerging as a leading artist of the movement, every existing artist’s guild in the United Kingdom excluded women from its ranks. In fact, the Arts & Crafts movement’s foundational Art Workers’ Guild did not admit women until the 1960s.

In 1907, May Morris took matters into her own hands, acting on the belief that women’s work should hold equal regard and space as that of men, especially within the Arts & Crafts movement. Morris co-founded the Women’s Guild of Arts—an organization that offered creative camaraderie and professional networking opportunities for women artists, designers, and craftworkers. She served as the guild’s first president.

Throughout her life, May Morris advocated for progressive political causes across the United Kingdom. She attended socialist meetings with her father and contributed to political journals, rallying against the injustices of industrialization, capitalism, and class and gender inequality. After all, the Arts & Crafts movement was predicated on the notion that art and society were inseparable. May Morris maintained that radical social and economic reform were the necessary means to securing a fulfilling, art-filled future for all.

Personal Life and Partnerships

While in her 20s, May Morris began a relationship with Henry Halliday Sparling, secretary of the Socialist League. Despite her mother’s objections, Morris married Sparling in 1890 after a long engagement. Their marriage was doomed from the start, as Morris was also embroiled in a tumultuous affair with playwright George Bernard Shaw. By 1898, she had cut romantic ties with both men, secured a divorce, and resumed use of her maiden name. She never remarried or had children.

In the late 1910s, May Morris met Mary Lobb. More than 16 years Morris’ junior, Lobb worked as a gardener at Kelmscott Manor, the Morris family’s legendary Cotswold home. Mary wore men’s clothing, kept her hair short, and was often described as practical and straightforward. The two women worked side-by-side in the garden and developed a close and committed relationship.

Morris and Lobb lived together at Kelmscott Manor for over 20 years. They also traveled adventurously as a couple, from camping in the mountains of Wales to riding ponies across Iceland. In her will, May Morris left Mary Lobb a significant sum of money, as well as several personal effects and embroidery materials. After May Morris’ death in 1938, Lobb stayed at the manor until her own death one year later.

May Morris: More Than Her Father’s Daughter

While May Morris never stopped embroidering, she focused the final years of her career on her father’s legacy. In a five-year period, May published 24 comprehensive volumes of William Morris’ writings. She penned a thoughtful introduction to each volume, preserving invaluable insights into her father’s artistic, literary, political, and personal development. The Collected Works of William Morris cemented the titular titan’s name in history.

May Morris also donated several examples of her father’s designs to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She proposed the museum exhibit the objects in a dedicated Morris room but seemingly did not expect her own work to be included. After her death, May Morris bequeathed Kelmscott Manor to the University of Oxford, stipulating it remains an unaltered memorial to her father’s work. Indeed, it is in large part thanks to May Morris that so many emblems of the Arts & Crafts movement are still well-known and well-preserved after more than a century.

Today, William Morris looms as large as ever. However, recent exhibitions, scholarship, and public interest are bringing the remarkable May Morris out of the shadows—not only as her father’s daughter, but as an indelibly impactful artist, activist, and historian of the Arts & Crafts era.