embroiderer, wallpaper and fabric designer and jeweller, was the elder daughter of the renowned English designer William Morris and Jane, née Burden. Taught by her father, May took over Morris & Co.'s embroidery department in 1885. She also taught embroidery at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London. Jewellery designed and made by May included bead necklaces strung in interesting combinations of colour and texture. In 1910 May lectured in the USA on embroidery, jewellery, costume and pattern designing, but she never came to Australia. Morris & Co.'s long and fruitful connection with the Barr Smith family in Adelaide reputedly arose because May attended the same English school as one of the Barr Smith’s daughters.
Erlistoun Mitchell (née Barr Smith) embroidered table covers (c.1900), a screen (c.1890) and a splendid portière (c.1895) after designs by May Morris. Her sister Mary Isobel and many other South Australian women also worked May’s designs. Leonard and Isobella Bakewell used May’s best-known wallpaper design, Honeysuckle (1883), in their house at 17 Fitzroy Terrace, Fitzroy, Adelaide (c.1900). May’s screen, embroidered by Erlistoun, was named Adelaide by Morris & Co. in honour of its major Australian client, while one of May’s table covers embroidered by Mary Isobel, probably designed in 1888 to commemorate the centenary of white settlement, was called Australia . Neither, however, contained any Australian references in the design.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
