fig. 1

On Wednesday 14 November 1883, William Morris (1834-1896), designer, poet and political activist, visited University College to deliver a lecture in the Hall. The lecture, advertised as “Art and Democracy” (fig.1), was organised by the Russell Club, a contemporary Liberal student society. Eventually, the lecture was published in William Morris’s completed works titled “Art Under Plutocracy”, perhaps indicating its more radical political content.

fig. 2

By 1883, Morris had been delivering public lectures for a while. He was familiar with Oxford, having been an undergraduate at Exeter College and a resident of West Oxfordshire at Kelmscott. During the lecture, Morris spoke about the changes in Oxford since his undergrad days and the distinction between intellectual and decorative art. He declared that “art is man’s expression of his joy in labour”, citing the teachings of John Ruskin. Indeed, Ruskin was himself present at the lecture, back in Oxford that year for a Professorship. Most notably, during his speech, Morris delivered an explicit avowal of socialism, declaring “For I am ‘one of the people called Socialists'”. Towards the end of the lecture, he invited listeners to join the cause with an appeal to “help us actively, with your time and your talents if you can, but if not, at least with your money”.  The Master (James Franck Bright), perhaps feeling duped or not wishing to court controversy, ended the evening with a disclaimer that “when the Hall was lent to the Club, it was not known that Mr. Morris was the agent of any socialist propaganda”.

fig. 3

The lecture may have been held at Univ due to Morris’s longstanding friendship with Univ fellow Charles Faulkner. Indeed Faulkner (in addition to being a company co-founder) had been a bookkeeper and business manager for Morris & Co in the 1860s, living near the business premises in Queen Square in Bloomsbury. However, he was back at Univ in the 1870s and, in his role as College Bursar, ordered wallpaper from Morris & Co. to redecorate rooms in the former Master’s lodgings (now staircases 11 and 12) in 1879. Faulkner was a meticulous record keeper and the Univ archives contain his notes from the refurbishment, including details of the selected wallpapers and receipts from Morris & Co. (figs.2, 3 & 4). Like Morris, Faulkner was a socialist, later joining the Socialist League which Morris founded with others including Eleanor Marx.

fig. 4

1883 was a significant year in Morris’s political life. Earlier that year he had become a member of what was then the only socialist political party in the country, the Democratic Federation. Its founder, H.M. Hyndman, had also been invited by the Russell Club to speak that evening. But he was too controversial a figure, so despite Morris appealing to Faulkner to ask the College to reconsider, Univ would only accept Morris as a speaker. Many students were unhappy with Univ hosting such an event. Some collected signatures to petition the Master to cancel entirely and a rival event was organised by students in the form of a wine party.

fig. 5

The lecture went ahead and despite the “frequent applause” listed in contemporary reviews of the evening, it is clear there were other detractors. A letter to the editor of the Oxford Magazine appeared a week later, stating that “every mild dissenter has been ignored as a Tory or a Philistine, and the newspapers from all this seem to have concluded that the lecture marks an epoch in the history of Oxford. I am at a loss to discover any cause for this enthusiasm”. Evidently, the lecture caused quite a stir and was talked about across the University. The Master asked the Oxford Magazine to report that Univ students had presented him with the petition “stating strongly their wish that the name of University College should not be associated with any pronounced form of party politics” (fig.5).

fig. 6

Morris went on to present his utopian socialist ideals in his novel News from Nowhere in 1890. Univ Library has an early edition from the original “large paper” print run of 250 copies (figs.6 & 7), which is in the Alport collection. Morris’s book was later reprinted by his own Kelmscott Press, which was established in 1891 by Morris and Emery Walker, a printer and fellow socialist.

fig. 7

So University College was the scene of a significant lecture in the life of William Morris, now a name more commonly associated with aesthetic design. On that evening at Univ, he asserted his left-wing politics and sought to convert others to socialism. And, it seems that James Franck Bright was not the only Univ Master to have met William Morris. Around the time of the lecture, Michael Sadler (Master from 1923-34) was an undergraduate at Trinity College. It seems a young Sadler “had the privilege of smoking a pipe” with Morris and declared that he “is full of socialism and has become a political lecturer”, a trajectory Morris himself publicised at Univ’s Great Hall.

Sources and Further Reading:

Bloomfield, Paul. William Morris. London: A. Barker, 1934.

Darwall-Smith, Robin. A History of University College, Oxford. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Morris, William. The Collected Works of William Morris : With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris. Volume 23, Signs of Changes; Lectures on Socialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. First published in:1910

Morris, William. News from nowhere. London: Reeves & Turner, 1890.

The Oxford Magazine. Vol. 1, Oxford: James Thornton, 1883.

Pinkney, Tony. William Morris in Oxford : The Campaigning Years, 1879-1895. Grosmont: Illuminati Books, 2007.

Published: 14 November 2024

Explore Univ on social media