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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE MORRIS!

  To celebrate the birthday of Jane Morris To celebrate the birthday of Jane Morris (née Burden) on 19 th October 1839, I am sharing an extract from my book, ‘How We Might Live: At Home with Jane and William Morris’ .  D G Rossetti, 'The Blue Silk Dress', 1868 We know very little about her early years, but I wanted to piece together the fragments we can glean about her life before 1857 – the unexpected memories she offers to friends; Victorian census entries; church records and maps; and my own experience of living in Holywell Street for several years.    * It is fitting that we first see Jane clearly at the theatre. In the summer of 1857 she emerged from the shadows of her background, and became visible as a potential artist’s model. At the playhouse, Jane could immerse herself in alternative worlds, experience transformations and sudden revelations. The actresses of the Drury Lane Theatre Company on stage that night could choose how to present themselves to the audience

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