2A018 nnual Report Details Trustees, staff and volunteers The William Morris Society PRESIDENT WMS VOLUNTEER ROLES Registered address: Jan Marsh (to 12 May 2018) Journal Editor: Owen Holland Kelmscott House Lord Sawyer of Darlington (from 12 May 2018) Magazine Editor: Susan Warlow 26 Upper Mall Librarian: Penny Lyndon Hammersmith TRUSTEES Journal Proofreader: Lauren McElroy London W6 9TA Martin Stott, Chair (to 12 May 2018) Stephen Bradley, Chair (from 12 May 2018) The William Morris Society is extremely Tel: 020 8741 3735 Rebecca Estrada-Pintel, Vice Chair fortunate to be able to draw on a wide range Email: [email protected] Andrew Gray, Treasurer of expertise and experience from our www.williammorrissociety.org Natalia Martynenko-Hunt, Secretary volunteers, who contribute many hundreds of Philip Boot (from 12 May 2018) hours of their time to help with welcoming TheWilliamMorrisSociety Jane Cohen visitors to the museum, delivering education @WmMorrisSocUK Serena Dyer (to 12 May 2018) sessions to schools and families, giving printing williammorrissocietyuk Michael Hall demonstrations, answering enquiries, Kathy Haslam (to 12 May 2018) cataloguing and caring for our collections, Registered Charity number 1159382 Jane Ibbunson (from 12 May 2018) office administration, serving refreshments and Fiona Rose maintaining our garden. John Stirling (from 12 May 2018) We are grateful to all who give up their time The Trustee Board operates through five to help with the work of the Society. committees. These are: Finance and General Purposes, Collections, Library and Display, Education and Publications, Marketing, Communications and Membership and Business Development. WMS STAFF Curator: Helen Elletson Society Administrator: Cathy De’Freitas Finance Manager: Penny McMahon Membership Manager: Cathy De’Freitas Front cover: William Morris, design for Pink and Poppy wallpaper ANNUAL REPORT | 2018 | 2 Welcome This, my first Annual Report since becoming chair in May 2018, is exhibitions all over the world resulting in greater awareness and delivered in a period of uncertainty but also opportunity. Around us the engagement with the Society. Introduced and driven by one of our weather is ‘stormy’ in many different ways and it is valuable to have the members, John Blewitt, a collection of past articles from our Journal of safe ‘anchorage’ provided by Heritage in general, and the fellowship of William Morris Studies about the philosophical and artistic connections the William Morris Society in particular providing respite while the between William Morris and John Ruskin is being published this summer storm passes – to reflect and plan future journeys of exploration and by Exeter University Press. Michael Robertson, an English literature discovery. This is part of the legacy of William Morris’ life, celebrated professor and active member of our sister society in the USA currently and conveyed by the work of the Society, for which 2018 has been a in the UK on a research fellowship, has promoted with our support a fascinating year of transition. recreation of Morris’ voyages along the river Thames from Kelmscott House to Kelmscott Manor that inspired a key element of Morris’ First, we have a new President, Lord (Tom) Sawyer of Darlington, who utopian masterwork, News from Nowhere . brings a valuable social and educational perspective to our work plus a personal passion for fine books as works of art and craft. He has opened As a membership organisation we are growing steadily and our member the door for Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, to deliver our annual survey shows that we are delivering excellent value, not least through Kelmscott lecture in Autumn this year. He is also a keen supporter of our outstanding regular publications: the Magazine and the Journal. But our emerging plan to promote and develop the value of the Society’s as a charitable organisation we need more resources to supplement our library and of our emerging 2021 programme to celebrate the legacy of very small and exceptionally dedicated staff in delivering our purpose and the Kelmscott Press, that hugely influential collaboration between Morris to support our free-to-all museum and our outreach and educational and Emery Walker. activities, where we continue to operate at a deficit, as do so many heritage organisations. I thank all our extensive fellowship for continued Second, although the Arts & Crafts Hammersmith (A&CH) project support and commitment – and unashamedly ask for more. We benefit which has crystallised collaboration between the Society and the Emery hugely from any donations of cash, wisdom or time that our members Walker Trust came to a close in the first quarter of 2019, we will be are able to provide. continuing to seek other opportunities to work in partnership. The project, underwritten by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), delivered not If you would like to talk about what you think you may be able to offer, only essential conservation work but has also produced online digital please in the first instance contact Cathy in the Society office: access to ‘virtual tours’ of both Kelmscott House and 7 Hammersmith [email protected] Terrace plus digital catalogues and highlights from the collections; equally importantly, it has delivered educational materials and programmes and In closing, I thank all my fellow trustees, who are also active volunteers engagement with new audiences. We have started to examine how we in different capacities and dedicate far more of their time to the Society can do more with the assets and resources at our disposal, with wider than most charity trustees, for their exceptional energy, creativity and geographical reach, and we are developing a plan for more ‘digital commitment. And I thank Martin Stott, the immediate past chair, for delivery’ of our charitable purpose, for which we will be seeking funding having created such a sound structure for the Society’s governance and as 2019 progresses. management. Third, we are starting to collaborate more with other organisations that celebrate Morris and his many endeavours and associations. We have Stephen Bradley loaned an unprecedented amount of items from our collections to major Chair, The William Morris Society ANNUAL REPORT | 2018 | 3 2018: highlights of the year May Morris, Design for Honeysuckle Wallpaper A new President for the Society Honeysuckle: a successful appeal Jan Marsh retired as President in May after a decade of dedicated service. A generous donation of £750 from a supporter prompted the Society to Dr Marsh had given invaluable support to the Society during the ten years launch an appeal to raise matching funding for essential conservation of of her presidency, and the Society expresses its gratitude to her for all May Morris’s design for Honeysuckle wallpaper. This original design her knowledge, enthusiasm and generosity in facilitating the exchange of required eight blocks to print and is the only design for wallpaper by May ideas and information with other Morris sites and organisations through Morris in the Society’s collection. The appeal was successful and paper the William Morris network. conservator Amelia Rampton was commissioned to carry out the necessary work, which included conducting a microfading test at the New President Lord Sawyer of Darlington spoke at the Society’s AGM Conservation department in the British Museum about his first encounter with Morris’s writings and ideas during his early to establish the work’s sensitivity to light. years in the trade union movement in the North East; his love of books The distortions and undulations which and book collecting; and his hopes for the future of the Society. He had developed over the years were looked forward to supporting the Society’s work and its Trustees and corrected, and the work staff in the coming years. remounted and reframed using acrylic glazing with a high UV filter which blocks ninety-nine per cent of UV radiation, providing protection for this significant work during periods of Drawing With Light display. These steps should ensure that May Morris’s beautiful design will PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE SOCIETY’S COLLECTION be preserved for many more years to come. In August a new exhibition was installed in the Coach House which revealed the importance of photography within the Arts & Crafts The William Morris Society is grateful to all those who generously movement through carefully selected narratives and images of key donated funds to enable this vital conservation work to be completed. individuals and places. Drawing With Light: Photographs from the William This design is one of three from our collection chosen by artist Yinka Morris Society Collection focused on four photographers, all passionate Shonibare for inclusion in the Arts Council exhibition Criminal about their craft: Emery Walker, friend and collaborator of Morris; Ornamentation ; it will be on display in 2018-19 in Leicester, Exeter, renowned photographers Frederick Hollyer and John Robert Parsons; Wakefield and Southampton. and Arthur Halcrow Verstage, who was a founding member of the Kelmscott Fellowship (the forerunner of The William Morris Society). The exhibition brought together original photographic prints and digital prints taken from original glass lantern slides to create a record of Morris’s later life together with the individuals who played pivotal roles in Virtual Tour it. We were delighted that MP for Hammersmith Andy Slaughter and WIDENING ACCESS TO OUR SPACE representatives of a number of local organisations were able to attend In February 360° filming was carried out throughout the Society’s the opening of this exhibition, as well as Councillor Daryl Brown, Mayor premises to create a virtual tour for the Society’s website. The tour of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, who gave a short includes the whole of the museum as well as the library, shop and garden address. and allows access via internet to those who are unable to visit in person, or who would have difficulty accessing the basement rooms.