William Morris and May Morris with the Staff of the Kelmscott Press

At the height of production, the Kelmscott Press employed approximately twelve pressmen, many of whom were already well-experienced in the printing trade. Although Morris apparently never set a line of type, he was often found at the press (a short walk from his own door in Hammersmith, London) asking questions and familiarizing himself with the printing process. In this photograph, Morris is seated in the front row next to his daughter, May. Directly behind him is his friend and close advisor, the engraver Emery Walker (1851-1933). Behind May stands the first secretary of the Press, Henry Halliday Sparling. Sparling and May married in 1891 but separated three years later and divorced in 1899. May never married again and spent her later years at Kelmscott Manor with her companion Miss Vivian Lobb (1878-1939).