This series contains documents which were found in the Dining Room, within furniture. The furniture consists of a Philip Webb Plan Chest - the documents were contained within its drawers - a Secretaire and some bookcases. For further details on the pieces of furniture themselves, see the relevant sub-series. The documents are very varied in nature and consist of correspondence, private and official, legal and official documents, photographs, postcards, ephemera and some scrapbooks of wildflowers to name but a few. Objects were also found which were transferred to the Museum collection.
This room is situated on the ground floor and has deep blue-green Morris wallpaper and woodwork. It also featured a green-stained oak plan chest and a wallmounted bookcase designed and owned by Philip Webb (1831-1915), the architect who designed William Morris's first home Red House, in Kent, which is now a National Trust property. There are also two a bureau-book cases; in one there was material found, in particular in two of the drawers and the cubbyholes; material was also found in the pages of the books in the bookcases also designed by Philip Webb. The dining room also features a number of mementoes of William Morris himself, including a 17th-century chair from his library which was given to Emery Walker after William Morris's death by his widow, Jane. Many items in the dining room belonged to Philip Webb as he had left all his possessions to Emery Walker upon his death, including important pieces of his own furniture and those which he had designed for Morris & Co., as well as books and other personal items, which still remain in the collection. Some documents in the dining room were contained in a metal document box, bearing Dorothy Walker's initials on the front.