Women's Guild of Arts

This Guild was established in 1907 as a reaction to its founding members being denied membership of the Art Workers' Guild. The initial gathering took place in the studio of the muralist painter, Mary Sargant Florence, on the 18 January 1907. The principle instigators were May Morris, Mary Elizabeth Turner with assistance from Mary A. Sloane, Ethel Everett, Mabel Esplin and Letty Graham. It was conceived as an alternative for female artists to the Guild of Handicraft which excluded women from its membership until 1964. May Morris was the first President of the Guild and Mary Annie Sloane was its Honorary Secretary. The Guild furnished a Lady's Bedroom for the 11th exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at the Royal Academy in London in 1916 and as a society, it was active until c.1940.

The Guild grew to about 60 members. In addition to Morris and Turner, members included Mary Batten (formerly Bott), Edith Bateson, Ameila Bauerle, Beatrice Beddington, Maud Beddington, Helen Bedford, Estella Canziani, Grace Christie (formerly Chadburn), Jane Cobden-Unwin, (1851-1947), Edith Brearey Dawson (formerly Robinson), Evelyn De Morgan, Mary Sargant Florence, Emily Ford, Lola Frampton, Phyllis Gardner, Agnes Garrett, Georgie Gaskin, Feodora Gleichen, Madeline Green, Eleanor Hallé, Camilla Edith Harwood, (Phyllis) Valentina Hawtrey, (1877-1953), Christiana Herringham, Julia Hilliam (later Bowley), Gladys Holman Hunt, Lucy Kemp-Welch, Florence Kate Kingsford (later Cockerell), Mary Lowndes, Esther Mary Moore, Charlotte Newman (formerly Gibbs), Mary J. Newill, Sarah Treverbian Prideaux, (1853-1923), Ethel Rhind, Ada P. Ridley, Ellen Mary Rope, Eleanor Rowe, Ethel Sandell (nee Offer), Pamela Colman Smith, Christina Smith, Wilhelmina Stirling, (1865-1965), Marianne Stokes, Winifred Christine Stopes, Annie Swynnerton, Una Mary Ashworth Taylor, Hilda Trevelyan, Mary Seton Watts (honorary chairman from 1914), Mary Vermuyden Wheelhouse, Alice Bolingbroke Woodward and Ellen Caroline Woodward,

Number of Artists referenced: 110