This year’s New York State History Day theme is Innovation in History: Impact and Change. Looking around your kitchen you can probably name many innovative objects. Cooking over an open flame became outdated with the invention of the stove, and food can be stored for much longer without spoiling after the invention of the refrigerator. But, there’s another innovation that is highly visible, but not often looked at. Take a look at the wallpaper. Invented around 1509 in England, wallpaper started becoming fashionable in America around the middle of the 18th century. What started as a trend among the upper elite became commonplace with the invention of wallpaper printing machines, which used cylinders to roll on the print. This was a significant upgrade from the tedious method of block printing. Records show 100 million rolls of wallpaper were printed in the U.S. in 1890 in factories like the Syracuse Paper & Pulp Co., which claimed to be “the largest wall paper factory in the world.” (Lynn, Wallpapers in America 479) What did this level of industry mean for the United States in the late 19th century? What other industries were big at this time? By placing the innovation of wallpaper manufacturing in context with American labor history, you’ve got an excellent History Day topic!
A great way to start researching is to figure out the basics: who, what when where and why. Looking at the wallpaper gives you an idea of the work that went into manufacturing it – quite different from the digitally printed wallpaper you might find in your home! Primary sources are key to a great History Day project, and the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown has many original samples of historic wallpapers available for you to research. Or, take a visit to The Farmers’ Museum where you can see accurate reproductions of paper hangings on the walls of the Jonas More House. To get a more broad understanding of wallpaper manufacturing, check out Wallpapers in Historic Preservation, a manual produced by the National Park Service available online at http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/tpsd/wallpaper/index.htm.
Works Cited
Dossie, Robert. The handmaid to the arts. London, 1758. Vol 2.
Lynn Frangiamore, Catherine. Wallpaper in America from the seventeenth century to World War I. New York: W.W. Norton, 1980.
Lynn Frangiamore, Catherine. Wallpapers in Historic Preservation. Washington, DC: Technical Preservation Services Division, Office of Archeological and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, 1977. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/tpsd/wallpaper/index.htm(accessed October 11, 2009).
Photo Credit
Wallpaper sample W05a(2), mid 19th century, American. From the collection of the New York State Historical Association. Info: Paper with a hair-based plaster backing. White, mint green and gold temper paint, machine printed on paper with a light blue gounding.
