William Morris

3. W I L L I A M
M O R R I S

5. Table of
contents
1 The Man
2 Politics
3 Architecture
4 Patterns
5 The Legend

7. 1 The Man

8. William Morris was as man of many talents, born on
March 24, 1834. He pursued many different areas of craft
including: architecture, furniture, ceramics, textiles, book
binding, glasswork, metalwork, embroidery, and the art of
fine printing (Hitchmough 11). He attended Exeter College
and then later Oxford where he met Edward Burne-Jones,
and Charles Faulkner and discovered his avid love of poetry.
Morris also became proficient in the language of Iceland,
Icelandic, because of his love for the Nordic poetry there.
In his lifetime he was known as a great poet a great lover of
craft. Now, as we look back at him, he is known most for one
thing: his outstanding skills as a designer (Wilhide 9-10).
Morris was first inspired by John Ruskin, who was
very against Industrialism. One major effect of Industrialism

9. is that the workplace and home became separated, whereas
before, they had always been one in the same for many trades.
Factories and machines became the location and tools of trade.
He believed that machines replacing hand skills led to an
individual’s creativity becoming non-existent, and then they
become “…mindless tools in a production line,” (Bowman 17).
In this way, Morris completely agreed. “He encouraged hand
craftsmanship, which in turn would enable workers to achieve
satisfaction and pleasure in their work,” (Morris 3). He strongly
believed in the craft itself, and its power to enrich people’s lives.
“For Morris the loss of crafts not only threatened the dignity of
the worker, it endangered the welfare of society,” (Bowman 19).
He was a very active person in the community. In his opinion,
everyone needed art and beauty. They also needed something to
believe in.
Morris was very active in the political circles as well. He
strongly believed in Socialism, and “was a key figure in
early socialist groups, a tireless and impassioned campaigner
and speaker,” (Wilhide 9). He entered politics in 1876 as a
Liberal and spoke publically numerous times throughout his
life. Anything he did, he did with zeal, and politics were no
exception. Breaking away from traditional political groups, he

11. formed his own in 1884: The Socialist League (Baker 13). He
believed in Socialism because he believed that society needed
a change, and that change could not come from any existing
government party.
Morris wanted to find a way to make life better for one and
all. Everything Morris did, his poetry, his political activeness,
and his designing, all had one common goal or theme: to better
people’s life. The time in which he was alive played a crucial
role in all of this, because with the government being the way
it was, more Parliamentary politics, it provided him motivation
to make the change. He was not satisfied with how things were.
He felt that the changes coming into place were taking away
the individuals, and that meant the loss of so much creativity.
Not just in the work field, but in the political world as well.
He felt society being shoved into this little box with rules and
structures to limit what could and could not be done.
The economics of the time play in as well. Because financial
hardships were increasingly common, and the social classes
became more and more divided, he looked for ways to unite
them. “Furthermore, Morris demanded that good quality
furnishings should be available to all and not just the wealthy,”
(Morris 3). By creating things, such as wallpaper, that everyone
could afford, it broke down barriers, saying that everyone is still
a person, and still worth having beauty in their life.
His love for architecture also played into his dissatisfaction with
society. No one seemed to care about all the old buildings, the
ones that held so much history and ancient beauty. They wanted
to “restore” them, but in ways that took away from the original
beauty they already had. “Morris’s public agitation at the time
also involved his distress at the increased restoration of some
of Britain’s most significant early buildings…The Society (The
Athenaeum) organized a system of registering and monitoring
buildings in need of structural repair and offered advice,” (Parry
20).

12. Morris spent much time writing political articles, and attend
protests on top of all his many other tasks. He was a full time
business man, a designer, a husband, a father, and a poet, yet he
somehow found time to fit them all in. “It is difficult to know
how Morris found time for writing his political articles and for
giving lectures and attending the various meetings….many of
which were organized outside of London,” (Parry 20). At one
point he was actually arrested “for obstruction in July 1886
and let off with a fine, much to the amusement of the press,”
(Parry 20). Such a consequence never deterred him for a minute
though. He was a strong public figure, and many looked to him
to set the standards in what they should settle for, and what
they should fight for.
On November 13, 1887, known as “Bloody Sunday,” there
was an act of violence by the police on the Socialists that were
gathered to protest there. This caused a major drop in the
participation of the Socialist group, but it did not scare them all
off. Morris still remained extremely active in the group though,
and in 1890 it became renamed the Hammersmith Socialist
Society, and met at the Kelmscott House, where his daughters,
Jenny and May also became a part of the Society. All the while,
Morris is still actively in his design business, making patterns,
textiles and of course, his poetry.
Morris is known for many things, but one area that is
exceptionally well known is his work in designing patterns. He
designed countless wallpapers, textiles and embroideries. He
liked things that were elegant and tasteful, but something that
would simply give life to the room. Another element commonly
associated with his name is the Red House.
The house itself was designed by Philip Webb, it was made out
red bricks and specifications were approved of by Morris himself
(Parry 16). They both had a love for medieval design and for old
buildings. Morris moved in shortly after his marriage to Jane
on April 26, 1859. They had two daughters; one in January of

15. 2 Politics

16. 1861, Jane Alice or Jenny, and another in March of 1862, Mary
or May (Parry 16). The Red House became a headquarters for
friends and fellow designers to come and create. They would
use their skills to decorate the house with painting, embroidery,
textiles, etc.
The meetings at the Red House inspired the beginning
of other commercial companies like it. In April 1861 Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner and Co. was born, which later became just
Morris & Co. The things they designed served his purpose.
He wanted all of his creations to be “designed to engage
(the) public, (and) promote critical appreciation of the arts in
everyday use,” (Hitchmough 20). Because of their success, the
company began to expand and move. Morris became more and
more the leader of this company, as well as more involved in the
work itself, resulting in a move from the Red House to London
in 1865. This was both a good and bad thing for Morris.
Business wise, London provided a chance to expand into a
workshop and have a target audience available. But it also had a
devastating effect on his marriage.
Once they moved to London, his wife Jane became
quite close with Rossetti, a friend and colleague to Morris. She
“frequently visited his studio and house in Cheyne Walk…
At which point their relationship transcended friendship is
debatable,” (Parry 17). Once Morris became aware of this, he
threw himself into work, and into poetry as a diversion. He
started visiting Iceland in 1871, and during those times Rossetti
spent most of the time at the Kelmoscott Manor, where they
had a joint tenancy, with Jane and the children. It was also
during this time when he started voicing his unhappiness to his
closest friend and confidante Georgie Burnes-Jones (Parry 19).
Adding to the pressure and stress of his home life, his daughter,
Jenny, developed epilepsy. In that day and age it was viewed as
an incurable illness and a cause for great distress. He was very
often away, but he frequently wrote letters home to his family,

19. 3 Architecture

23. 4 Patterns

26. and cared very deeply for his daughters, Jenny in particular.
During his time away and his time in Iceland he spent years preparing a collection of
poetry to be published, writing many pieces to include. The collection is titled The Earthly
Paradise. The publishing of the collection brought him a famous reputation until his death.
Many of the pieces reflected his inner turmoil in regards to his personal life. He used his
work as a way to examine himself inside and used it as a way to create, even in the depths
of pain and despair. Through it all he wrote 40,000 lines of poetry. Also during this time
in 1857, he joined a group in a project to decorate the new Oxford Union hall.
Meanwhile, “In 1864 and 1866 Morris produced his first three designs for
wallpaper,” (Wilhide 24). They were the Daisy, Trellis and Fruit designs. At the time
none of them sold well because “partly under the influence of Pugin and Owen-Jones,
public taste moved more towards design themes of a more abstract nature,” but later Daisy
became the best seller for fifty years (Baker 69). When Morris set out to design these
patterns he recalled the principles Pugin had written about in 1849, “I trust, therefore,
that this work may be the means of leading designers back to first principles…It is
impossible to improve on the works of God; and the natural outlines of leaves, flowers,
etc. must be more perfect and beautiful than any invention of Man…the great skill of the

29. ancient artists was in the adaptation and disposition of their forms,” (Baker 70).
Morris did not want to change the natural beauty of his subject matter, he
wanted to take that and channel it into a way to adorn everyday life. His view was that
everyone needed art and beauty in their life, and he wanted to find a way to make that
happen. Wallpaper was one of those ways. By taking something simple and beautiful
and designing it into a pattern, he was able to reach a whole new audience.
By the mid 1860’s wallpaper was his main concern. An interesting fact about
that is Morris himself could not draw birds. So his friend Philip Webb would draw any
birds needed for designs Morris was working on (Morris 3). By 1875 Morris, Marshall,
Faulkner and Co. dispersed and Morris transitioned into Morris and Co. which is still
a functioning company to this day. “This period proved to be Morris’s most prolific and
creative as a pattern designer and he devoted much time to developing and perfecting
ranges of textiles which were reproductions of early 19th Century prints,” (Morris 3).
Eventually needing to expand again, Morris found an old silk weaving mill at
Merton Abbey where he set up his new textile workshops in 1881 (Bowman 18). The
following year Rossetti died, leaving Morris with torn feelings at the loss of a friend,
but also the regain of his wife to an extent. The last fifteen years of his life were spent

35. working as hard as ever, and as always designing as he felt led.
His health started failing around the beginning of 1896, he
was diagnosed with Diabetes in April and then moved to the
Kelmscott House for the final time (Wilhide 33). The Burnes-
Jones’ were the frequent visitors until the end, proving to be
loyal friends yet again.
Morris died on October 3, 1896 at the age of 62.
According to his wife, among his last words were: “I want to
get mumbo-jumbo out of the world,” (Wilhide 33). Even to
his death, he knew what he wanted to do. “As his doctor said,
he died doing the work of ten men,” (Baker 13). His long-time
friend and colleague, Philip Webb, designed his tombstone,
which he affectionately referred to as “a roof for the old man,”
(Parry 22). His family and friends seemed to take his death
as well as can be expected, for they had known it was coming
for quite some time. The quote he will always be known for is
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful
or believe to be beautiful…” The man may be gone, but his
legacy lives on.
“Those who knew him best will bear me
out when I say never was there a nay man more
entirely free from conceit and self-consequence.
Though fully conscious of his own power and
inherent ability, he was looked up to by his fellows
as a man of genius. He was nevertheless one of the
most simple minded, yea, one of the most humble
minded among men. His consciousness of power
and knowledge in such things as he gave his mind
to, raised him above petty conceit; while his clear
conception of the limitations of his own, and of
all human knowledge, engendered in him that
humility which is a special note of truly great
minds,” Fredrick Mills, 1898, (Baker 86).