Rehousing and Cataloging the RISD Museum's 18th- and 19th-century wallpaper collection

FAIN: PG-280939-21

Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI 02903-2717)
Ingrid A. Neuman (Project Director: January 2021 to April 2025)

The rehousing of approximately 700 historical European and American wallpapers from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, 500 of which were collected by French artist Charles Huard and his wife, American writer Frances Wilson Huard. The collection includes examples from manufacturers Zuber, Joseph Dufour, and Jean-Baptiste Réveillon that are representations of highly skilled and time-intensive production techniques, including the use of hand-drawn and hand-carved woodblocks for printing. The wallpapers have been displayed in exhibitions exploring changing design influences and crafting techniques over time, and have also been made available for student research. Because of the discovery of arsenic in some of the wallpapers, these activities have been halted. The proposed rehousing project would help to stabilize examples and make them accessible again for research and display.

This proposed project at the RISD Museum focuses on our 18th- and 19th-century wallpaper collection, which comprises the period during which arsenic was widely used in the production of wallpaper paints. This request would support the rehousing and, where needed, cataloging of this collection, in order to improve both safety and access.

Associated Products

Deceptive Decor: Uncovering Arsenic in Eighteenth- & Nineteenth-Century Wallpapers (Article)
Title: Deceptive Decor: Uncovering Arsenic in Eighteenth- & Nineteenth-Century Wallpapers
Author: Emily Banas
Abstract: Vibrant green wallpapers, textiles, children’s toys, and other objects were widely purchased by consumers who were unaware they were surrounding themselves with a deadly poison: arsenic. A naturally occurring heavy metal, it was discovered to enhance the vibrancy of historically muted green pigments. The desire for intensely colored greens set in motion a chain of devastating consequences on human health, from the workers who produced the material to those who purchased green-colored products whose alluring hue came from the use of arsenic. Wallpapers printed with arsenic-laced pigments may no longer line the walls of our homes, but they have not disappeared completely. Where there are historical collections of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century wallpapers, there is likely arsenic, and the recent scientific testing of a sampling of wallpapers from the RISD Museum’s collection has confirmed this fact.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://publications.risdmuseum.org/issue-15-green/object-lesson-deceptive-decor-uncovering-arsenic-18th-19th-century-wallpapers-emily
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Manual: a journal about art and its making
Publisher: RISD Museum

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