May Morris: Designer, Embroiderer and Keeper of Her Father's Legacy

Who May Morris Was

The Victoria and Albert Museum records that May (Mary) Morris was born in 1862 and died in 1938. The same source identifies her as the daughter of the designer William Morris (1834 to 1896). Those two facts are the documented spine of her life: a Victorian designer and maker, and the child of one of the most closely studied designers of the period.

Being William Morris's daughter shaped her working life, but it is also the limit of what this page can claim about her early circumstances. The evidence assembled here does not document the details of her upbringing beyond her embroidery training, which the next section covers. For the father's own life and career, see the full William Morris biography.

Learning Embroidery in the Morris Household

May Morris's training began at home. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a child she was taught by her mother Jane Morris and her aunt Bessie Burden to make large scale embroideries in crewel work, meaning work in wool. The models for this work were medieval examples associated with her father.

The household did not treat her as a copyist only. The V&A records that she was encouraged to design for herself, which helps explain the documented pattern of her later career: designing embroidery for the family firm rather than only stitching designs drawn by others.

Jane Morris's own work as an embroiderer is a separate subject, covered on its own page; here the point is the teaching line. May learned the technique from her mother and her aunt, and then moved from making to designing.

Taking Charge of the Embroidery Section in 1885

The Victoria and Albert Museum dates a clear shift in her working life to 1885: according to the museum, in that year May Morris took over the embroidery section of the firm. The source record names her role plainly as running the embroidery side of the business she had grown up around.

A note on wording: the evidence for this date says 'the firm' without naming it in that sentence. The firm in question is Morris & Co., the family business, but the identity is implied by context rather than stated for 1885, so this page keeps the sourcing exact.

Some of the embroideries produced under this arrangement were carried out by women at the Royal School of Needlework. This detail, again from the V&A, shows how the embroidery section combined design within the Morris circle with execution by a specialist outside workshop.

After William Morris: Carrying the Firm's Embroideries

May Morris's connection to the firm did not end with her father. The Victoria and Albert Museum records that she took on Morris & Co. after her father's death and continued to provide designs for them, for embroideries both large and small.

The phrase 'keeper of her father's legacy' in the title of this profile is earned in a practical sense by this record: the museum documents her continued design work for the firm after her father's death.

Documented Designs: Three V&A Records and One Gallery Embroidery

The most concrete evidence for May Morris as a designer is a group of object records. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds three attributed designs, and the William Morris Gallery holds an embroidery carried out to one of them. Each is described below from its museum record.

The V&A's record for a traced design, museum number O586570, attributes it to May Morris, described as British and dated to about the 1880s. Its title is 'Welcome Maids of Honour you do bring in the Spring and wait upon her'. The record describes it as a traced design for an embroidery for Morris & Co., executed in red ink and pounced for transfer. The pattern shows a floral design within a circular border enclosed in a square, with formalised birds with outspread wings in the angles. One caveat: the record's inscription details are truncated in the source available to us, so this page cannot report what inscription, if any, the sheet carries.

The design was not left on paper. An embroidery made to the O586570 design is in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, with the catalogue number F368. That link between a surviving design sheet and a finished textile is unusually direct.

Two further V&A records round out the group. Museum number O586569 is a working drawing for an embroidered border for Morris & Co., attributed to May Morris, British, about the 1880s, drawn in pencil, Indian ink and body-colour on calico. Museum number O586567 is a traced design for a floral embroidery for Morris & Co., also attributed to her and British and dated to about the 1880s, in pencil and Indian ink on calico, showing roses, peonies, tulips and other flowers on a trellis.

The word 'etc.' in the V&A's description of O586567 means the record lists more flowers than the three named here, so this page repeats only what is confirmed rather than guessing at the rest.

No other key works with object records appear in the evidence for this profile, so the catalogue here is deliberately short. A shorter, fully sourced list is more useful than a longer one padded with unattributed works.

Where to See May Morris's Work

Two named collections hold the documented works in this profile. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds the three attributed designs, O586570, O586569 and O586567, and the William Morris Gallery holds the embroidery F368 made to the O586570 design. Checking each institution's online catalogue or contacting it directly is the reliable way to confirm what is currently on display.

If you want Morris & Co. designs on your own wall rather than in a case, our collection of Morris prints and textiles gathers designs drawn from the firm's recorded pattern work, with each product's attribution stated on its page.