This envelope was sent from Victoria Welby (1837– 1912), Head of the Royal School of Needlework to Bessie Burden, the letter it contained does not survive. Burden started working at the RSN in early 1873, but in February, a few days after receiving the letter in this envelope, she wrote to inform Welby that she would not continue working there on the same terms, she was also worried that the School were planning to exhibit embroidered figures stitched by her pupils with her name attached in an upcoming exhibition at the South Kensington Museum. The details of this exchange are detailed in ‘Elizabeth Burden and the Royal School of Needlework’ by Lynn Hulse in The Journal of the William Morris Society, Winter 2014.
