5 things you didn’t know about May Morris

30th June 2019

May Morris, daughter of William and Jane Morris, remains one of the most important figures of the Arts & Crafts movement. Unfortunately, her legacy and achievements continued to be overshadowed by those of her father. So, every so often, we like to dedicate a blog to her – our way of paying tribute to her legacy online. We’re not alone either, with exhibitions and articles focusing on – and celebrating – her work.

We thought in this blog, we’d give you five interesting facts you didn’t know about May.

May was the most influential for her art embroidery. Along with her sister Jenny, she was taught by her mother and her work and expertise was in demand across the world. Growing up with her father and his friends, she was of course influenced and taught by some of the Victorian era’s most influential and celebrated artists. By 23, she took over the embroidery section of Morris & Co. – overseeing every new design.
Her work was commissioned and exhibited in Arts & Crafts exhibitions in; the UK, Europe, Australia and America. Impressive in itself, but made especially so since this was the Victorian era and her work didn’t go global from a Tweet or Instagram it was reputation and the natural spreading of influence through word of mouth.
“I’m a remarkable woman, always was, though none of you seemed to think so.” She wrote this in 1936 to George Bernard Shaw. The words may resonate with women around the world even today, and remains rather sadly true for May. Though her father (quite rightly!) has museums and more in his honour and memory and May is often overlooked when it comes to her contribution to decorative arts and the Arts & Crafts Movement.
After William Morris died, May dedicated almost a decade editing the 24 volumes of his Collected Works. She worked hard to preserve his legacy to ensure his designs and writings stood the test of time. May also lectured on his life and in his will, safeguarded his and their families culturally significant possessions. Many of these were generously gifted to museums so that the Morris family legacies can live on.
You may have heard of designs Honeysuckle and Horn Poppy that the firm produced. They’re sometimes assumed to be William Morris’s designs but are in fact, May’s work. Her inspiration did come from her father but the work was her own – so she is known to have taken this misconception as a huge compliment, though through the years she did correct the assumption.

There’s so much more to learn about May; you should really grab a coffee, settle in and give her a long Google, just like lots of the pioneers of the Arts & Crafts movement, Morris’s inner circle, friends and colleagues, she’s really fascinating.

We have one Golden Lily small tote in stock! ✨ Perfect for taking out and about, if everyone loves them we’ll start to make them ✂️ We have them in stock in Trellis too in small and large size, DM me for a link ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #goldenlily #floraltote #totebag

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Florals florals florals ✨ These are our exclusive range of designs that we’ve restored from our French archive that dates from the late 1800s- early 1900s, would you like a sneak peak at our archive? There’s still lots of gorgeous designs in there ready to shine again! 🫶🏻
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#floral #floralprint #floralfabric #floralfabrics #smallbusiness

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Gorgeous wildflowers gracing this tablescape ✨ Lily is such an underrated design by William Morris, it’s one of our favourites! 🫶🏻 we’ve got 20% off everything on our website this weekend with code; WEEKEND if you have your eye on anything, but be quick, it ends midnight tomorrow! 🤎
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#williammorris #wmorris #lily #floraltable #wildflower

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Cut this gorgeous fat quarter bundle today ✂️ Can you name all the gorgeous William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fatquarter #fatquarterbundles #floralfabric

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Did you know all our William Morris designs are licensed William Morris designs that we digitally print and manufacture in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floralfabric #smallbusinesssupportingsmallbusiness #quiltingfabric

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Cut this gorgeous fabric stack today- can anyone name these iconic William Morris designs? ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #quiltfabric #curtainfabric #floralfabric

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Our fabric patchwork bundles, fabric bundles and remnants have been restocked on our website now! 🤎 With only a few available, hurry to get the designs you want, the bundles are great for smaller sewing and quilting bundles, what will you create? 🪡🧵
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#fabricscraps #fabricstash #williammorris #fabricseller #fabriclove

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Is there anything better than fresh flowers? 🌻 Bringing sunshine and nature indoors with Merton blue on the table today 🤍
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#williammorris #wmorris #floraltable #flowerstagram #blueandwhite

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In 1864, William Morris designed gorgeous Trellis- inspired by the rose trellis in the gardens of @redhousent 🌹 We’ve got a limited collection of small and large cotton tote bags that we’ve just put live on the website- the perfect accompaniment to your next day out, it’s a design that’s proved itself to be timeless, plus it’ll go with every outfit, what’s not to love! 🤍 If everyone loves our cotton totes, we could bring them out in more designs, which design would you like to see a tote in? 🌟
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#inspiredbynature_ #williammorris #trellis #garden #floraltotebag

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Perfect in every colour; it’s Brother Rabbit ✨ Our licensed William Morris Forest Green colour way of Brother Rabbit now comes in tea towel form to add some timeless floral magic to your kitchen, did you know the birds and rabbits within the design were drawn by Philip Webb? 🐦‍⬛
Our tea towels are all printed and manufactured in the UK, and are £10.99 each 🌟
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #floral #philipwebb #floralprint

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Gorgeous Mallow Forest Green in the sunshine this week ☀️ Our heavyweight fabric is so versatile with so many crafts, what will you make? 🧵
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #greenfloral #craftingfabrics

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Wrap an order with us for a custom bundle of some wedding table linens 🌿 These Mallow Forest Green napkins and a custom table runner are now on their way to a customer to adorn their wedding tables, we’re so pleased to be involved in the tables of a few weddings this year! 🤍 If you are looking for gorgeous timeless William Morris florals for your tables, get in touch we’d love to discuss it with you ✨
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtables #weddinglinens #weddingtablescape

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It’s coming home! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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#williammorris #england #itscominghome⚽️ #britishbusiness #floralprint

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The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack

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We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric

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Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness

Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor

Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign

Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign

We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough

Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis

We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a

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you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome

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Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite

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Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #morris #floralteatowel #floralhome

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A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics

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5 things you didn’t know about May Morris

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