“Gardening with Silk and Gold Thread”:
The Botanical Designs & Ecosocial Activism of William Morris
The Botanical Designs & Ecosocial Activism of William Morris
by Holly Cecil
Five documentary shorts explore the life, textiles, and ecosocial passions of the great Victorian polymath, William Morris.
This undergraduate research project, completed in the Art History and Visual Studies (AHVS) Department, University of Victoria (Canada), examines three Morris & Company textiles through the lens of William Morris's environmental and socialist activism. Supervisor: Prof. Erin Campbell, AHVS Department, University of Victoria.
The 14-minute Biography film reviews the life of William Morris, focusing on the years of his greatest artistic production (from 1860) and activism (from 1876), until his death in 1896. A second 13-minute film explores three Morris & Company Textiles in the University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries collection. Two twenty-minute segments investigate his Socialism and Environmental activism.
Research Links to William Morris research sites in England and on the internet are presented in a final short film.
Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank the following professors and curators who shared their research, knowledge and enthusiasm for these topics:
- At the University of Victoria:
- Professor Erin Campbell, AHVS Department
- Professor Allan Antliff, AHVS Department
- Professor Martin Segger, AHVS Department
- Professor Angus Taylor, Philosophy Department
- also Professors Marcus Milwright and Anthony Welch, Islamic Studies
- and Professor Dennine Dudley, for her wonderful hands-on HA 392 Textiles course
- Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections, Legacy Art Gallery, Victoria
- Anna Mason, William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, England
- Rachel Terry, Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire, England
- Daniel Blyth, "Voice of William Morris," Gloucestershire, England
© Holly Cecil 2014 (where applicable)