Queering Morris

“I’m a remarkable woman – always was, though none of you seemed to think so,” May Morris wrote in 1936 in a letter to George Bernard Shaw. Unfortunately, this oversight of Morris as an artistic and historic figure has proved prophetic, with her life and legacy largely subsumed by the popularity and fame of her father, William Morris. However, with increased feminist revisions of the Arts and Crafts movement, May Morris’ status has been established as a pioneer of Arts and Crafts embroidery; a prolific contributor to the success of Morris and Co; and founder of the Women’s Guild of Arts. The rediscovery of Morris’ interwar diaries in the basement of a Welsh college has increased scholarly attention on the later years of her life, and of the importance of her relationship with Mary Lobb.  However, intense debate has occurred over the exact nature of their relationship.

Born in 1862, Morris had an unusual childhood, growing up in the relaxed and creative Arts and Crafts environment of Kelmscott fostered by her parents. She was taught painting, drawing and embroidery by her mother, Jane, and outdoor play was much encouraged. “I am a great tomboy,” she wrote, aged eight, “I am very untidy and always very dirty and sometimes I am ashamed to say very naughty.” This unconventionality continued into her adult life as she became involved with radical socialist movements gaining popularity in Britain at the time, such as the Socialist League and the New Drama movement. Her association with figures such as Eleanor Marx, Annie Besant, Ramsay McDonald, George Bernard Shaw and Henry Halliday Spalding in the 1880s and 1890s is indicative of the driving force that socialism played in her life at the time. Outside of the purely political, Morris also had relationships with both Shaw and Spalding, the latter of whom she married in 1890 and divorced 9 years later. The radical political nature of Morris’ involvement with socialism is often downplayed in a merely art historical approach to her life, but I suggest that it is revealing of a willingness to live outside of conventional contemporary norms. 

Although Morris remained convinced of socialist principles throughout her life, her devotion to the movement waned towards the turn of the century. The marginalisation of women within contemporary socialist movements was common, despite Friedrich Engels’ recognition of the reinforcing relationship between capitalism and patriarchy in 1884. This was a source of frustration for Morris, both in her personal and professional life. The exclusion of women from the Art Workers’ Guild led to Morris founding the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907 alongside Mary Elizabeth Turner, with Morris becoming Hon. Secretary, Chairman of the group from 1915 onwards. The rediscovery of the Guild’s archives in an Hammersmith attic in 2011 has led to a significant reappraisal of the group’s contemporary significance within the wider artistic landscape of Britain in the early twentieth century. Despite her focus on advancing the careers of her fellow women artists, Morris never became a suffragette. Historian Jan Marsh has argued that this is indicative of Morris’ socialist approach to politics, which viewed class as the most pressing societal issue of the day.

World War I was a turning point for many in British society, and Morris was no different. She took up a range of volunteering roles: working at a munitions canteen, making clothes for refugees, assisting at the Women’s Institute and sending barrels of fruit to Navy vessels. Splitting her time between Hammersmith and Kelmscott, it was at this point in her life that she met Mary Lobb (1879-1939), who would go on to become her steadfast companion until her death. Lobb began work as a land girl near Kelmscott, for the local gentleman farmer, Robert Hobbs. The arrangement proved unsatisfactory, however, and her employment was shortly terminated. This was in spite of Lobb’s upbringing on a successful Cornish farm, making it unlikely that her farming skills were the issue. A more compelling reason may have been Lobb’s preference for masculine dress, which transgressed contemporary gender norms. Morris then took Lobb on as a gardener in 1916, and they soon developed a close bond over their shared love for nature. Their relationship was the source of much speculation during their lives. It was clear that Lobb was read as queer to most, through her dress and mannerisms, with Evelyn Waugh describing her as a “hermaphrodite.” Morris herself described Lobb as her “housekeeper, cook and companion, and I may add, my almoner.”

We can see the centrality of Lobb to Morris’ life is the pair’s journey to Iceland in 1931. A charming account of the pair during this trip from a young Icelandic girl describes them as “unlike each other as any two people could be. One was rather small, slim and grey-haired….She talked quietly, did not laugh, but smiled softly, sat and painted flowers in watercolours… The other lady was tall and rather fat with short, black hair that curled around her chubby face…..She talked rather loudly and laughed often.” However, this was not just a holiday for Morris, but a way for her to connect with her father, who had made the same journey to the wild Norse landscape to seek inspiration for his literary work. Morris had devoted a considerable amount of her time to preserving and promoting her father’s political work, despite early biographers trying to play down his radical socialism in favour of his artistic work. The inclusion of Lobb on this trip, of course, had a practical component, but is also suggestive of a deep intimacy between the two women. Lobb herself would take on the role of defending Morris’ legacy after her death, writing “Miss Morris could and did both design as well as William Morris and embroider as well [as] any one… and her colour arrangements were unapproachable and original. To design, make and colour work which will hold its own and quite often far outstrip [others]… is what so few grasp and appreciate. They need to have their noses rubbed in it.”

Unfortunately, no historic material survives that confirms the nature of their relationship in a definite manner. As Marsh says, “Were they in a relationship? I don’t know. They were women in their fifties and sixties who went camping together and shared rooms and beds. It was clearly very affectionate.” However, this ambiguity has created issues in the way that their relationship is presented. Recent exhibitions and publications on Morris’ life have come under criticism for sidelining the possible queer relationship between the two women, despite their 20 year relationship. This criticism also relates to wider concerns over the marginalisation of women throughout history, as well as the prioritisation of women within academic study who have links to famous men, such as Morris herself. This lack of engagement with a possible queer reading of Morris’ life affects the scholarship on her artistic and political contributions as well. Did her sexuality have any impact on these other aspects of her life, and to what extent? For example, a fellow early member of the Women’s Guild of Arts was stained glass artist Mary Lowndes, who shared a long-term companionship with artist Barbara Forbes. If we understand both of these relationships as queer, how might that affect our reading of the relationship between Lowndes and Morris? Recharacterizing these relationships as queer allows us to open up new avenues of scholarship that might otherwise remain closed.

Even if the relationship between Morris and Lobb remained purely platonic, the surviving evidence of this relationship indicates that it was of great importance to both their lives. Morris left £12,000 to Lobb after her death in 1938 (over £680,000 in today’s money), which made up almost half of her estate. The rest was largely given to institutions such as the University of Oxford and the V&A, as her sister Jenny had already passed in 1935. The next largest personal bequest was only £1,000, indicating the uniqueness of her relationship with Lobb in the latter years of her life. This rich and interesting history of the pair deserves a greater level of consideration within current scholarship, from both a feminist and queer perspective.

Written by Robin Henderson.

Bibliography and images:

Birmingham Gazette. “Bequests of Poet’s Daughter.” Jan 31, 1939.

Curran, Sean. “May Morris: Art & Life (& Lesbian Erasure…. again).” Towards Queer (blog). Nov 6, 2017. Accessed Feb 28, 2025. towardsqueer.blogspot.com/2017/11/may-morris-art-life-lesbian-erasure.html

Dudkiewicz, Julia. “Memorialising her Father’s Legacy: May Morris as Curator and gatekeeper of William Morris’s Estate and the Role of Kelmscott.” In May Morris: Art & Life, edited by Lynn Hulse, 25-41. London: William Morris Gallery, 2017.

Evans, Simon. “The Eclectic Collection Of Miss M.F.V. Lobb.” National Library of Wales Journal 36, no. 4 (2017): 411–429.

Hughes, Kathryn. “Family Tree: The Exquisite Brilliance of William Morris’s Daughter.” The Guardian. Sep 29, 2017.

James, Sibyl. Review of Jane and May Morris: A Biographical Story 1839-1938. Jan Marsh. Woman’s Art Journal 9, no. 2 (1988-1989).

Livingstone, Karen. Women Pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2024.

Marsh, Jan. Jane and May Morris: A Biographical Story 1839-1938. London and New York: Pandora Press, 1986.

Mason, Anna. May Morris: Arts & Crafts Designer. London: Thames & Hudson, 2017.

⸻ “May Morris: Socialist Agitator.” In May Morris: Art & Life, edited by Lynn Hulse, 25-41. London: William Morris Gallery, 2017.

Miller, Elizabeth Carolyn. “A Column of Our Own: Women’s Columns in Socialist Newspapers,” In Women, Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1890s-1920s: The Modernist Period, edited by Faith Binckes and Carey Snyder, 405-420. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. 

Parry, Linda. William Morris: Art and Kelmscott. London: Society of Antiquaries of London, 1996.

Sanderson, David. “Journal Reveals Wilderness Years of Artist May Morris.” The Times. Oct 18, 2017.

Thomas, Zoë. Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020.

⸻ “At Home with the Women’s Guild of Arts: gender and professional identity in London studios, c.1880–1925.” Women’s History Review. 24, no. 6 (2015): 938–964.

Thumbnail fig. Morris (C. 1880s-1890s) Source: https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/object/may-morris-20/.

Fig. 1 Morris’ Embroidery. Bed curtains, May Morris, 1916, Cranbrook Art Museum. Source: https://quillandquiverfiber.com/blogs/news/the-arts-crafts-broderer.

Fig. 2 Mary Lobb in her youth. Source: https://fannycornforth.blogspot.com/2017/06/review-mary-lobb-from-cornwall-to.html.

Fig. 3 Mary Lobb, May Morris and Mary Peirce at Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland (1931). Source: https://wmgallery.org.uk/object/mary-lobb-may-morris-and-mary-peirce-at-faskrudsfjordur-iceland/.

Fig. 4 Morris (left) and Lobb (right) in Wales c. 1926. Source: https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/object/may-morris-and-mary-lobb-wales/.