Linda Parry, curator, textile historian and William Morris scholar gifted her research archive to The William Morris Gallery in 2017. Compiled over nearly five decades, the collection includes photographs, handwritten notes, correspondence, extracts from publications and journals and copies of manuscript material, covering all aspects of Morris’s life and work, as well as many of his collaborators.
Highlights include: side by side images of nearly every known carpet manufactured by Morris & Co., photographs of interiors the firm were commissioned to decorate in the late nineteenth century, as well as documentation of the 1996 William Morris centenary exhibition at the V&A curated by Parry.
Download a list of Linda Parry’s published works here.
Access the catalogue on Archives Hub
Slide library
The Linda Parry archive includes an expansive collection of over 4000 slides that have been digitised and are available to view in the library. Divided into 105 categories, they provide a rich body of visual references for the work of Morris, his circle and Arts and Crafts design in Britain and abroad.
With particular emphasis on textiles, the collection includes; images from specialist periodicals, pattern books, photographs of interiors, as well as British textiles in European collections (e.g. Textile Museum, Krefeld, Germany and Mulhouse Museum of Printed Textiles, France). The images are available for research purposes only. If you wish to reproduce any slides you must seek permission from the copyright holder.
Accessing the archive
The archive is open to everyone to consult but visits must be pre-booked. Appointments are available Wednesday – Friday, 10am-5pm. Contact the Gallery at least two weeks before you’d like to visit.
"It is not the patterns, the colours and the textures of his furnishings that appeal to me most but the struggling artisan that designed and made them. This is one of Morris’s greatest legacies for today… Ambitions, however small, are seldom achieved easily but they are definitely worth the struggle."
Linda Parry
Linda Parry Biography
Linda Parry (1945-2023) studied at Liverpool College of Art (1964-67) and the Central School of Art and Design in London (1967-68). She began her career at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the late 1960s. In 1971 she joined the Textiles and Dress department of the V&A, where she worked until her retirement in 2005, then Deputy Keeper of Textiles, Furniture and Fashion.
The publication of William Morris Textiles in 1983 was a watershed moment in Morris studies and the revised edition of 2013 is the definitive work on the subject. Parry has curated many exhibitions including Textiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement (V&A: 1988) and the William Morris centenary exhibition (V&A, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya: 1996). She acted in an advisory capacity for International Arts and Crafts (V&A, Minneapolis, San Francisco: 2005-6) and Morris to Mingei (Tokyo, Kyoto, Aichi: 2007-8), and was a senior consultant on the V&A’s British Galleries (2003).
Parry served as Honorary Curator of Kelmscott Manor (1992-2005), President of the William Morris Society (2000-2005), Patron of the Friends of Red House (2003), Trustee of Red House and Trustee of 7 Hammersmith Terrace (Emery Walker Trust). She also served on the boards of the Museum of Domestic Decoration and Architecture, Middlesex University and the Textile Museum, Toronto. In 2006 she was awarded an MBE.