Fitzwilliam Museum Show Spotlights Sydney Cockerell's William Morris Collection and Women Makers

Opening 23 October at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and running to 3 May 2027, A Call to Art: William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites draws its core from a collection assembled by Sydney Cockerell, Morris's friend and private secretary, who directed the museum from 1908 to 1937. Most of the objects—thousands of drawings, paintings, designs, letters and books—have never been displayed. Co-curators Jan Marsh and Karen Livingstone also foreground women collaborators, among them Morris's wife Jane and daughter May, who headed Morris & Co.'s embroidery section, and Kate Faulkner, one of only three outside designers for the firm, whose Carnation fabric remains in production; her large gesso altarpiece travels from the University of Roehampton chapel. Elizabeth Siddal appears as an artist in her own right, with her 1857 watercolour for Clerk Saunders and, shown for the first time, a lock of her red hair. Loans from UK public and private owners supplement the holdings. Director Luke Syson calls Morris a revolutionary in design.