May Morris, Dorothy Walker, and the Legacies of the Arts and Crafts Interior

Abstract

The designers of the Arts and Crafts movement attempted to articulate the democratic power of the domestic interior. The legacies of these ideas are shaped by house museums such as Kelmscott Manor (home of William Morris) and 7 Hammersmith Terrace (Emery Walker’s House, publicized as “The Arts and Crafts Home”). Lived in and maintained by female descendants, May Morris and Dorothy Walker, and their female companions, these house museums invite a reassessment of the role of the Arts and Crafts movement in feminist and queer histories of interior design. In this article, I demonstrate some of the ways in which house museums and the Arts and Crafts movement can offer opportunities to expose some of the disciplinary structures that hinder an inclusive history of interior design. Situating its case studies in the context of the history of heritage preservation, and engaging with feminist scholarship, I argue that one strategy for exposing and challenging hidden biases in the field is to recognize homemaking, preservation, and curating as forms of creative labor that have made crucial contributions to the history of interior design. Focusing primarily on gender but also paying attention to questions of class, race, and sexuality, I consider the potential and the limits of the Arts and Crafts house museum’s capacity to contribute to intersectional histories of interior design.