William Morris was deeply concerned by the inequality and injustice he observed in Victorian Society. This led to Morris joining the newly formed Democratic (later Social Democratic) Federation, the first official socialist party in Britain, in 1883. Morris dedicated a huge amount of time and energy to the cause, becoming a founding member of the Hammersmith Branch of the Democratic Federation and later the Hammersmith Socialist League. Kelmscott House was at the centre of the socialist movement in London, with activists from both home and abroad gathering in the historic coach house for the weekly Sunday evening lectures from 1884-1896. Morris was therefore in a prime position to meet some of the most celebrated socialists of the day, including Peter Kropotkin, Annie Besant, Eleanor Marx and George Bernard Shaw.

The Society is fortunate to have a wonderful collection of Morris’s original socialist ephemera. The collection ranges from celebrated pamphlets such as “Chants for Socialists”, “Useful Work versus Useful Toil and Monopoly” or “How Labour is Robbed”, to rare membership cards signed by Morris, beautifully designed by Walter Crane and Morris himself.