May Morris

Details

Date: 03.02.1889
Dimensions: 16.5 x 10.5
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P652
Sitter: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Dorothy Walker, 1955

This striking photograph of May Morris was taken on 3 February 1889 at Hammersmith Terrace, London. Standing with her guitar by a Morris & Co. Sussex chair, May was likely rehearsing for a Socialist League performance.

The photograph is one of a series taken that day, including one of her seated (see WMG:P660) as well as group photograph (held at The Wilson, Cheltenham) capturing May alongside Henry Halliday Sparling, Emery Walker, and George Bernard Shaw—all active members of the Socialist League. From 1885, May took part in Socialist plays and entertainments, often performing with Eleanor Marx and Shaw. She also ran a choir and remained a keen guitarist throughout her life.

May understood that music, theatre, and social gatherings were powerful tools for bringing people into the Socialist movement. She later wrote two plays: Lady Griselda’s Dream (1898) and White Lies (1903).

Details

Date: 03.02.1889
Dimensions: 16 x 11
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P660
Sitter: Morris | May | 1862 | 1938
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley from her husband's collection, 1962

This striking photograph of May Morris was taken on 3 February 1889 at Hammersmith Terrace, London. Seated with her guitar in front of a curtain made from Morris & Co. fabric, May was likely rehearsing for a Socialist League performance.

The photograph is one of a series taken that day, including one of her standing (see WMG:P652) as well as group photograph (held at The Wilson, Cheltenham) capturing May alongside Henry Halliday Sparling, Emery Walker, and George Bernard Shaw—all active members of the Socialist League. From 1885, May took part in Socialist plays and entertainments, often performing with Eleanor Marx and Shaw. She also ran a choir and remained a keen guitarist throughout her life.

Details

Date: c.1880
Dimensions: 11.2 x 14.1
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P887
Sitter: Brangwyn, Frank, Sir (1867 - 1956)
Sitter: Short, Frank, Sir (1857 - 1945)
Sitter: Dawson, Nelson (1859 - 1942)
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Dorothea Short

Photograph showing Frank Brangwyn (with pipe to right) in naval uniform with Frank Short and Nelson Dawson. The photograph was used as a study for Frank Short’s articles and drawings on the Naval Volunteers in the Manchester Guardian. The photograph was posed in the yard of the Manresa Road Studios whether the artists were working at the time.

Details

Date: c. 1934-35
Dimensions: 16 x 11.2
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P888
Sitter: Brangwyn, Frank, Sir (1867 - 1956)
Sitter: Mackmurdo | Arthur Heygate | 1851 | 1942

Photograph taken 1934/35, showing Brangwyn and Mackmurdo signing the Deed giving Walthamstow the Brangwyn Gift. The Gift consisted of British and Continental paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture of the 19th century, including works by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and other Pre-Raphaelite followers as well as a large collection of Brangwn’s own works. It was intended as “a memorial to the aims and achievements of William Morris and those who laboured with him” and forms the basis of the Gallery’s collection. Taken at Brangwyn’s house, The Jointure, Ditchling, Sussex.

Details

Date: 1890s
Dimensions: 8 x 7cm
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P710

May Morris sitting at an embroidery frame in her home, 8 Hammersmith Terrace. The walls are decorated with Morris & Co. ‘Apple’ wallpaper and the curtains made of ‘Bird and Anemone’ printed cotton. May moved to Hammersmith Terrace, which was not far from her parents home Kelmscott House, on her marriage to Henry Sparling in 1890. She ran the Morris & Co. embroidery department from here until her father’s death in 1896, when she left the firm to pursue her private commisions and work. Although May was divorced from Sparling in 1894 she continued to live in the house until 1923 when she moved full time to the Morris’s country home, Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordhsire.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 17 x 22
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: P753
Photographer: Walker | Emery | 1851 | 1933
Credit notes: Presented by Mrs Charles Bramley, 1962

Photograph of William Morris’s Library at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith. The interior of the room is filled with Morris’s substantial book collection. In the later years of his life, Morris spent a small fortune acquiring rare books. On the table is a large woodblock for a border of a page of a Kelmscott Press book, Morris’s private press. On the back shelves, other items collected by Morris are visible, including an Icelandic carved box and a 19th century round metal inlay box from Syria. Both these items, and the table, are now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor. The walls are papered with Jasmine wallpaper, designed by Morris in 1872. The fireplace is tiled with William De Morgan’s Sunflower tiles.

The photograph was taken by Emery Walker, Morris’s friend and collaborator, it is one of a series recording the interior of Kelmscott House.

Details

Date: 1896
Dimensions: 28 x 22.7
Object Type: photograph
Material: photograph
Catalogue number: 107/Z1072
Photographer: Walker | Emery | 1851 | 1933
Credit notes: Presented by Miss Dorothy Walker, 1955

Photograph of the interior of Morris’s home Kelmscott House, Hammersmith by his friend and neighbour Emery Walker. The photograph shows the drawing room with a fireplace and mantelshelves with two rows of Iznik ceramic plates (the plates on the top shelf, far right and far left are now at Kelsmcott Manor) and a metal charger. Either side of the firplace are hangings of Morris & Co. ‘Bird’ woven wool, on the left is a Morris & Co. adjustable back chair and on the right a large settle also made by the firm. To the right of the fireplace is a mother of pearl inlaid table, possible north-African or Ottoman and a Turkish style rug in front of the hearth. A handwritten note of the back of the photograph explains that the firegrate was a wedding gift of Philip Webb to Morris.

Material: photograph

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