The William Morris Society U.S.

Founded in New York in 1971 as an affiliate of the UK William Morris Society, the William Morris Society in the United States strives to publicize the life and work of William Morris and his associates. We coordinate our activities with our fellow Morris Societies in the UK and Canada, and distribute UK and US Newsletters and a biannual Journal of William Morris Studies.

Table of Contents

Guaranteed session:
Morris and His Circle: Biography, Archives, Artifacts

We seek proposals on new approaches to the lives of Morris and his associates, including his Pre-Raphaelite, Arts and Crafts, socialist, and familial circles. Papers on twentieth-century and contemporary responses to Morris’s legacy as broadly conceived are also welcome.

Please send a one-page abstract to
[email protected] by March 15, 2020

The Proposed joint session with the Society for the History of Authors, Readers and Publishers (SHARP):

Pre-Raphaelites in Art and Literature: Reception and Celebrity

How did the Pre-Raphaelites become well-known to their contemporaries and later readers? What role did publishers play in their recepption? And what was the impact of the rise of a professional class of journalists and reviewers on their reputation?

Please send 300-word abstracts + CV to
[email protected] [email protected]
by March 1, 2020.

Re-evaluating the Pre-Raphaelites (MLA 2020)

The William Morris Society will sponsor sessions at the Modern Language Association Convention in Seattle, January 9th-12th, 2020. Details here

Call for papers: Symposium on Morris & Co. Interiors [pdf details]
Wednesday 6th November 2019 at the Art Workers’ Guild, London

From Slaveholders to Sanders: A Brief History of the US Democratic Party, for British Readers

American socialist Bill Crane provides a brief history of the Democratic Party from its inception to the present, and asks how revolutionaries might relate to the movement behind presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

A new French translation of Morris’s Well at the World’s End : William Morris La Source au bout du monde Le grand Roman picaresque de l’âge Victorien. A tribute to the Kelmscott Press edition of 1896 developed, illustrated, composed and printed by William Morris. See full color, 4-page brochure.

William Morris and the Bauhaus are coming to London.
The William Morris Gallery is aiming to put on the first ever exhibition to explore Victorian William Morris and the modernist Bauhaus movement. Although working half a century before the Bauhaus opened its doors in 1919, Morris’s ideas about art, craft and community had a profound influence on the seminal German design school. Walter Gropius, its founder, personally acknowledged the debt he owed to “Ruskin and Morris of England”.But there has never been an exhibition exploring this connection.To correct this oversight, London’s William Morris Gallery is now fund raising £15,000 to stage a historic exhibition uniting the pioneering work of Morris and the Bauhaus.