Kelmscott Manor: In the Tapestry Room
Medium
Lantern slide
Dimensions
8.2 × 8.2 cm (3 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
215564
Art Historical Context
Step into the enchanting Tapestry Room of Kelmscott Manor through Frederick H. Evans's 1896 lantern slide, a delicate 8.2 × 8.2 cm glass positive now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department. Captured just months after the death of William Morris—whose Arts and Crafts ideals shaped the house—this intimate photograph preserves the manor's historic interior. Kelmscott Manor, Morris's beloved Oxfordshire retreat from 1871, brimmed with medieval tapestries, furnishings, and handcrafted treasures that embodied his philosophy of beauty in everyday life. Evans, a pio...
About the Artist
Frederick H. Evans · 1853–1943
Frederick H. Evans was born in London on 26 June 1853 and lived there his entire life, dying just two days before his ninetieth birthday in 1943. His first career was as a bookseller, operating a shop in Cheapside where he became a well-connected figure in London's intellectual life, counting the playwright George Bernard Shaw and the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley among his friends and customers. H...