1. Gothic Architecture: A Lecture
For The Arts and Crafts
Exhibition Society
By William Morris
Illustrated by William Morris and Mark Samuels Lasner
Curated by Laura O’Reilly

2. William Morris
Gothic Architecture: A Lecture For The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
Illustrated by William Morris and Mark Samuels Lasner
The Kelmscott Press, 1893
As a poet, artist, manufacturer, and socialist, William Morris’ love of fifteenth century
art began young and lasted his entire life. Born in Essex on March 24, 1834, he went
to Oxford with the intention of taking holy orders, but was drawn instead to social
reform. Inspired by the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites and John Ruskin’s essay
“The Nature of Gothic”, he adopted Ruskin’s beliefs of “rejecting the tawdry industrial
manufacture of decorative art and architecture in favor of a return to hand-
craftsmanship, raising artisans to the status of artists, creating art that should be
affordable and hand-made, with no hierarchy of artistic mediums”. This idea spread
into all aspects of his life- artistic, political, and social.
Morris gave this lecture in 1889 to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, which was
formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine
arts as part of the larger Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris gave this lecture at the
New Gallery, an art gallery located on Regent Street in London. After annual
exhibitions began to undergo financial turmoil, Morris’s first exhibition as president
was a major success. The Arts and Crafts Movement proved to be an influence until
the first World War. Morris was elected to the presidency of the Society in 1891.

3. Morris created the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith, London in January 1890 in
order carry out the goals of the Society and to produce books by traditional
methods. The Kelmscott Press inspired the creation of many other private
presses in the “Private Press Movement.” In this edition, Morris’ Gothic
Architecture uses his Roman “Golden” type inspired by the type of Venetian
printer Nicolaus Jenson along with traditional woodcut illustrations in creating
large decorated initial capitals.
Student Curator: Laura O’Reilly

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