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William Morris

A guide to The Huntington's William Morris collections.

Getting Started

Tips for researching William Morris:

  1. Focus your search. Relevant materials may be found in the Art Museum and the Library's rare book collections, archives and manuscript holdings, and general collections. Researchers must review the Library and Art collections in situ.  

  2. Keyword searches in Summon Discovery can locate materials across Library and Art collections.

  3. Carefully read the cataloger's notes in the finding aid for a useful index of terms, subjects and added entries. 

Discovery For Library Resources

Loddon design by William Morris.Secondary Sources:

Start your research by consulting secondary sources before using the William Morris collections at The Huntington. Given William Morris' wide range of interests, activities, and correspondents, the secondary sources listed in this guide are helpful places to start researching Morris as an individual and linchpin for varied movements and enterprises. Formulate your research queries carefully and identify specific works, themes, or types of materials that you expect to be relevant.

For books about William Morris, searching by subject will yield the best results. For all subjects related to William Morris and his various ventures and activities, use our Library Catalog to search by subject for "Morris, William, 1834-1896." 

To find all printed materials from the Berger collection, search our Library Catalog by title for "Sanford and Helen Berger collection." This search will draw results for both rare books and reference books.

Selected reference works: 

The Beauty of Life: William Morris and the Art of Design edited by Diane Waggoner
London: Thames & Hudson, 2003
Call number: N6797.M588 B42 2003

William Morris: a Reference Guide by Gary L. Aho
Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1985
Call number: Z8595 .A37
Digital version available online through the Internet Archive.

William Morris: a Life for our Time by Fiona MacCarthy
London: Faber and Faber, 1994
Call number: PR5083 .M23 1995

William Morris edited by Anna Mason
New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021
Call number: NK1535.M67 W55 2021

Manuscripts Card Catalog:

Our card catalog is a crucial tool for researching manuscript material as it often represents items that do not have a digital record in our library catalog. The Library officially stopped adding entries to the card catalog in 1994. However, the resource is still helpful for finding William Morris manuscripts that the Library acquired before the Berger collection in 1999—our card catalog lists over 60 letters from William Morris, approximately 50 manuscripts, and five documents.

For a listing of these items as of 1979, please see:

The Guide to Literary Manuscripts in the Huntington Library, by Sara S. Hodson
San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1979.
Call number:  Z733.S35 H347
Digital version available online through the Hathitrust.

Rare Book Collections

For rare books authored, created, or owned by William Morris, including a book attributed to Morris in the afterlife, enter the terms "Morris, William, 1834-1896" under Author search in our Library Catalog. This search will bring up the many identities associated with William Morris, notably "Morris, William, 1834-1896, printer." 

This title is useful for comprehensive listings of books created by Morris in particular groupings:

The books of William Morris: described with some account of his doings in literature and in the allied crafts, by H. Buxton Forman
Chicago: Way and Williams, 1897
Call number: PR5082.Z8 F6
Digital version available online through the HathiTrust.

William Morris and socialism:

The Huntington holds an almost complete run of William Morris' socialist pamphlets. For these pamphlets, which do not share a common publisher, aggregating them in our catalog is challenging. The most comprehensive search possible in our catalog for finding Morris’ work related to socialism, including longer works like "News From Nowhere," can be found by performing a "KEYWORD" search for "((a:(Morris, William, 1834-1896))) and d:(socialism)." 

Publishers who published Morris’ socialist writings held by the Huntington include: 

  • Labour Press 
  • Labour Press Limited 
  • Twentieth Century Press 
  • Longmans, Green, and Co. 
  • South Place Institute 
  • Roberts Brothers 
  • The Hammersmith Socialist Society 
  • The Liberty Press 
  • Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 
  • The Humboldt Publishing Co. 
  • The Socialist League/Socialist League Printery 
  • Reeves & Turner 
  • James Leatham 
  • Office of “The Commonweal” 
  • William Reeves 
  • Co-operative Printing Company Limited 
  • The office of “Justice” (Social Democratic Federation) 
  • Modern Press 
  • Ellis & White

For further help identifying materials relevant to your research, please contact the Library.

Image credit: William Morris, "Loddon" design, printed cotton sample, 2000.5.509, William Morris Collection, Huntington Art Museum, purchased from Sanford and Helen Berger.