May Morris (1862–1938)

May Morris was born at Red House, in Bexleyheath, London, a house co-designed by her father William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelite designer and artist. She learned to embroider from her mother Jane Burden Morris and her aunt Bessie Burden. In 1881, she went to the National Art Training School (precursor of the Royal College of Art) to study embroidery. At age 23, she was named director of the Embroidery Department of her father's business, Morris & Co. Along with her father, she was active in the Socialist League, where she met George Bernard Shaw, with whom she had an affair. In 1890, she married journalist Henry Halliday Sparling, also a member of the Socialist League; the couple divorced in 1898. Throughout the 1890s and 1900s, she was heavily involved in the Arts and Crafts scene in London, and taught and lectured in the USA and UK. She also designed and made jewellery. With Mary Elizabeth Turner, she co-founded the Women's Guild of Arts. She was active in the Royal School of Art Needlework (now Royal School of Needlework), founded as a charity in 1872. She wrote a play, White Lies (1903), articles and books on embroidery, including Decorative Needlework (1893). She also spent years editing her father's collected works, published in 24 volumes from 1910 to 1915.