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Image shows one scene from a border illustrating Christopher Robin's discovery of the North Pole. Please scroll down for additional information on this object.
Winnie the Pooh
This post was originally published January 18, 2013 and is being reposted in a belated commemoration of A.A. Milne’s birthday and the creation of this wonderful story and its beloved characters. This children’s frieze captures the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin. This is a woodblock print and was produced within a year...
Image features a wallpaper frieze with a bucolic scene of rolling hills, while picket fences, and groves of trees. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Dining with the Poppies
This is a fun frieze, also known as a wide border, produced in America during the early years of the twentieth century. It captures a bucolic scene of rolling hills, white picket fences, and fields of red poppies. I almost expect to see horses trotting by, or cows grazing. The design has a deep perspective...
Image shows a wallpaper border filled with symbols of the French Revolution. Please scroll down for further information on this object.
Vive la France!
There are a number of wallpapers in the museum collection produced during the French Revolution period, but this is the only border paper. The design contains numerous symbols of the Revolution. There are two medallions, each framed in scalloped tricolor ribbons. The top medallion contains Hercules, sitting on a stool with his club and lion...
Image features a wallpaper ceiling border containing a water mill and cat tails. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Looking Up to Landscapes
If you’ve ever thought it might be nice to be a fly on the wall, think about the fun you could have with a bird’s eye view from the ceiling. You could be part of the beautiful ceiling decoration that was so fashionable during the Gilded Age. Today’s wallpaper would have been part of that...
Image shows striped wallpaper design with attached lithograph of room interior. Please scroll down to read the blog post this object.
Sample Books Offer Clues to Decor Trends
Wallpaper sample books are one of the lesser known areas of the Wallcoverings department. While sample books can vary greatly in quality and size, each has a story to tell, offering insights into period color trends and wall treatments. The earliest surviving American sample book was produced by the Janes & Bolles Company, in business...
Image shows a narrow wallpaper border with green ivy and red berries. Please scroll down for further information on this object.
Fast and Easy Decorating
“Fast and easy” is how this collection of borders was marketed to the public. Designed especially for the do-it-yourself market, these narrow borders were packed in individual boxes, sold in twelve foot lengths, and all were pre-pasted. They just had to be dipped in water and stuck on the wall, though consumers were advised to...
Image features a wallpaper border with a rural scene of a small pond surrounded by flowers. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Tranquil Waters
Most wallpapers designed with a water theme were intended for use in bathrooms, though given the early date of this Art nouveau border with its pond and water lilies it was possibly intended to partner with a similarly-styled wallpaper in a bedroom. Most wallpapers for the bathroom designed before 1910 appeared more hygienic due to...
Image features a wallpaper border containing two landscape scenes. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Plane, No Trains, and an Automobile
This wallpaper border shows two landscape scenes with the bottom one illustrating different forms of transportation including an automobile, a steam-powered boat, and a bi-plane faintly visible in the sky. While the design contains three modes of transport in use at the time this wallpaper was produced, it seems surprising that a train was not...
Image features a wallpaper border with a rose bush motif. Please scroll down for to read the blog post about this wallpaper.
One Thorny Wall Treatment
This is a wallpaper frieze containing stylized rose bushes printed on a striped and swirled ground, while an upside down heart motif placed behind the bush defines the shape of the climbing roses. The motif of the rose vines is nearly symmetrical and the delicacy of the scrolling and curving vines shows the influence of...