ONLINE - "A vision rather than a dream": The Kelmscott Manor Past, Present, and Future Project

In 1961, ownership of William Morris’s beloved country house, Kelmscott Manor, in rural west Oxfordshire, devolved upon the Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL). Used by the Victorian polymath and his family over a 67-year period it had, during that time, assumed an unforeseen significance in relation to the thinking and creativity of both Morris and his daughter, May, who died in 1938 and bequeathed it to Oxford University. It was a property of international importance, therefore, though in a perilous state of repair by the time the University sought to surrender ownership; SAL then embarked on a five-year programme of renovation and conservation. Sixty years further on, the £6 million Kelmscott and Morris: Past, Present and Future project, encompassing all aspects of the site, has enabled SAL to safeguard the estate’s future and re-shape visitors’ engagement with this most atmospheric of places.

Whilst considering both the external and internal KMPPF project works, this talk places a particular emphasis on the materiality, decoration, furnishing and interpretation of the Manor’s period spaces. Using case studies of individual objects and architectural features, it will look at how evidential sources have informed decision-making in relation to these modest yet complex interiors in order to create spaces reflecting not the actuality of the Manor as any member of the Morris family would necessarily have known it, but rather the intentionality of May Morris and her vision for the house as expressed through her curatorial interventions in the later years of her life, and the provision she made for it in her will.

Dr Kathy Haslam FSA, Curator at Kelmscott Manor, is a specialist in William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. She has worked in curatorial roles at institutions including Victoria & Albert Museum, The Museum of the Home (formerly Geffrye Museum) and Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, curating numerous Arts and Crafts-related exhibitions. Since 2012 she has been responsible for the collection, displays and exhibitions at Kelmscott Manor and was a member of the Project Board for the Manor’s recent £6million capital project Kelmscott and Morris: Past, Present and Future, with particular responsibility for research, presentation and interpretation.

This Wilbert R. Hasbrouck Preservation Lecture, presented during National Preservation Month, is generously sponsored by Paul and Margaret Lurie.

This program will be recorded and a link will be sent to all registrants. The link will remain live for seven days following the program.

$15 per person / $12 for members

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• This month, 29th May, 07:00 pm, ONLINE - Endangered: Frank Lloyd Wright's Walser House in Cicero

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