William Morris

Introduction
Education and early career
Iceland and socialism
The Kelmscott Press
Death and assessment

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

mid-19th-century Arts and Crafts movement English room

Decorative page from the Kelmscott Chaucer featuring an illustration by Edward Burne-Jones of two figures, ornate floral borders, and elaborate type and decorations by William Morris.

A page from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), produced by the Kelmscott Press.

Discover how William Morris and his friends started the Arts and Crafts movement in response to mechanization

At a Glance

William Morris summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Queen Victoria's coronation, 1837. The Archbishop of Canterbury placing the crown on Victoria's head in Westminster Abbey.

The Victorian England Quiz: Art, Literature, and Life

Related Questions

How did Edward Burne-Jones contribute to the Kelmscott Chaucer?
How did Icelandic sagas influence William Morris’s writing?
How did John Ruskin influence William Morris?
How did William Morris contribute to stained-glass window design?
How did William Morris help change Victorian taste in design?
How did William Morris respond to mass-produced goods during the Industrial Revolution?
How did the 1862 International Exhibition help William Morris’s design firm?
How did the Kelmscott Press make books by hand?
How does A Dream of John Ball compare medieval society with 19th-century industrial society?
How does News from Nowhere portray England in the year 2090?
What did Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company produce?
What happened at the Bloody Sunday demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 1887?
What historical event inspired A Dream of John Ball?
What is The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs about?
What is the only surviving easel painting by William Morris?
What sources inspired the narrative poems in The Earthly Paradise?
What was the purpose of the Socialist League founded by William Morris?
What were William Morris’s earliest wallpaper designs?
When and where was William Morris born?
When did William Morris die?
When did William Morris first visit Iceland?
When did William Morris marry Jane Burden?
When was Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company founded?
Where did Morris & Company make its finest fabrics and tapestries?
Where did William Morris go to school before attending the University of Oxford?
Which famous playwright marched beside William Morris at the Bloody Sunday demonstration?
Which kinds of objects did William Morris design?
Which medieval artworks and buildings influenced William Morris during his travels in Belgium and France?
Which political organization did William Morris join in 1884?
Which publication printed William Morris’s socialist romances?
Which restoration practices did the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings oppose?
Which typefaces did William Morris design for the Kelmscott Press?
Which wallpaper designs showed William Morris’s mature style?
Who designed the Red House for William Morris?
Who modeled for William Morris’s painting La Belle Iseult?
Who was Edward Burne-Jones to William Morris?
Who was John Ball in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381?
Why did William Morris found the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings?
Why did William Morris give up architecture for painting?
Why did William Morris leave Henry Mayers Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation?
Why is A Book of Verse connected to Georgina Burne-Jones?
Why is William Morris important to the Arts and Crafts movement?
Why is the Kelmscott Chaucer considered the Kelmscott Press’s masterwork?
Why was the Red House important in William Morris’s career?
Why was the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings nicknamed Anti-Scrape?
What is Rudyard Kipling known for?
How did Rudyard Kipling become famous?
Who was C.S. Lewis?
What is C.S. Lewis famous for?
What was C.S. Lewis’s religion?
What was Charlotte Brontë’s childhood like?
Where did Charlotte Brontë go to school?
Why is Alfred, Lord Tennyson, important?
What was the childhood of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, like?
Where was Alfred, Lord Tennyson, educated?

Literature Poetry Poets L-Z

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External Websites

Official Site of The William Morris Society
BCcampus Open Publishing - William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement
The Art Story - William Morris
University of Rochester - Robbins Library Digital Projects - William Morris
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - William Morris
The Victorian Web - William Morris: A Brief Biography
Humanist Heritage - William Morris (1834-1896)
Workforce LibreTexts - William Morris and the arts and crafts movement
Victoria and Albert Museum - Introducing William Morris
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Biography of William Morris

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

William Morris - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

William Morris

British artist and author

Written by

Philip Prichard Henderson

Freelance writer and editor. Author of William Morris: His Life, Work and Friends; editor of The Letters of William Morris and others.

Philip Prichard Henderson

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Sep. 29, 2026 •History

William Morris (born March 24, 1834, Walthamstow, near London, England—died October 3, 1896, Hammersmith, near London) was an English designer, craftsman, poet, and early socialist, whose designs for furniture, fabrics, stained glass, wallpaper, and other decorative arts generated the Arts and Crafts movement in England and revolutionized Victorian taste. Morris was born in an Essex village on the southern edge of Epping Forest, a member of a large and well-to-do family. From his preparatory school,...

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