WALLPAPER, A QUINTESSENTIAL DECORATION OF THE ERA
The Rock Ledge House, built in 1874 by the Chambers family, may be quaint, but there is one thing in the house in abundance and that is wallpaper. When you walk into the house, you will notice wallpaper on every possible surface, including the ceilings. During the Victorian era, families could signify their wealth by having wallpaper in their homes. The more of it they could get, the better. At the time, the Chambers family must have had home décor that was to die for. However, they might not have known it could have actually harmed them.
During the Chambers era, synthetic dyes and inks were still waiting far in the future. Mrs. Chambers would have dyed her wool with plants or perhaps colored fabric with boiled beets. There was possibly another “natural” dye in the Rock Ledge House, but this one would have been deadly. A bright green color on wallpaper was newly fashionable at this time, and it was created with arsenic.
This color, sometimes called “emerald” green, “Scheele’s green”, or “Paris green” was exciting and quickly became used in wallpaper ink and on fabrics. However, people were not aware they were inhaling and or touching something dangerous every day. People began to catch onto patterns of illness and death surrounding these fabrics and papers in the late 1880s. However, that date might suggest that wallpapers before this year, such as those originally in the Rock Ledge House, might have been arseniclaced.
There is no need to worry about visiting the house now. The wallpapers in the house are replicas of the originals. A little-known fact about this house is that people chipped through decades of paint and wallpaper to recover the Chambers original wallpaper. It was then reprinted to restore the home to what you see today. We can be assured that the new wallpaper is safe, but the old wallpaper does bring up questions! The three photos with this article are of original samples. There are several samples with shades of green – beautiful but possibly deadly!
