Seminar in the History of Collecting: Reconstructing the art collection of May Morris (1862–1938)

First-hand study of historical artworks was a cornerstone of the designing, making and scholarly practices of a leading light of the Arts and Crafts movement, May Morris (1862-1938). In her artistic and scholarly practices, Morris also drew from artworks from her own personal collection. Join Thomas Cooper, PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, in his attempt to reconstruct May Morris’s art collection. Thomas will draw attention to the tensions in Morris’s interests and practices as a collector with respect to issues of looting, participation in exploitative markets, and fraught values of classification. The speaker will bring together a variety of primary sources such as letters, lecture slides, photographic reproductions, museum holdings, museum accession registers, the inventory report and estate sale catalogue of Kelmscott Manor, and articles on historical textiles.