Yeats, Lily (1866–1949)
Yeats, Lily (1866–1949)
Irish embroiderer, printer and publisher. Born Susan Mary Yeats, Aug 25, 1866, at Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, Ireland; died Jan 5, 1949, in Dublin, Ireland; dau. of John Butler Yeats, known as J. B. Yeats, and Susan Pollexfen Yeats; sister of William Butler Yeats (poet) and Elizabeth Yeats; educated at Notting Hill School, London, and Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin; never married; no children.
Worked as an embroiderer for William Morris' daughter, May Morris, at Kelmscott Manor, gaining a vital introduction to the Arts and Crafts movement, which decisively influenced her future career; left Morris workshop (1894); recruited by Evelyn Gleeson to run embroidery department of Dun Emer Industries, the arts and crafts cooperative based on the Morris model (1902); with sister, became an independent entity within Dun Emer (1904); embroidered sodality banners for Loughrea Cathedral for which she won much acclaim; with sister, severed connection with Dun Emer (1907) and set up the Cuala Press whose 1st publication was a book by brother William, Poetry and Ireland; also published works by J. M. Synge and Æ (George Russell), among others.
See also Gifford Lewis, The Yeats Sisters and the Cuala Press (1994); and Women in World History.