Adams was born in
Bracknell, a town in
Berkshire, England, to Catherine Mary Horton (d. 1912) and Reverend William Fulford Adams (d. 1912). Her childhood friends included
Jane Alice Morris and
May Morris, daughters of the artist
William Morris. She soon received frequent commissions from the likes of
Emery Walker and
Sydney Cockerell. Two of her most important commissions were
The Buildings of the British Museum presented to
George V and a
psalter presented to
Queen Mary. Her patrons also included the
Doves Press, the
Ashendene Press, and the
Kelmscott Press. In 1913, she married Edmund James Webb, and they moved to Otmoor near Islip in
Oxfordshire before returning to Gloucestershire in the 1930s. copy of
Walter Pater's
An Imaginary Portrait (1894), re-bound for the Library in 1916 by Katharine Adams, with her cover-design Adams' bindings were intricate and usually featured fine, pictorial gold details on leather, made using tools she made herself (now held by the
British Library). She was largely self-taught. She exhibited frequently throughout Europe as well as North America and South Africa. She became the president of the
Women's Guild of Arts and, in 1938, a fellow of the
Royal Society of Arts. ==Legacy==