“Wallpaper Specimens from Shadows from the Walls of Death” is a book from 1874 that contains swaths of poisonous wallpaper from stores around Michigan. The book was created as an educational tool to warn people about which wallpapers to take caution with. The poisonous color in many of these swaths is such a fabulous shade of mint green.
The wallpaper in the book all contains arsenic, which can cause an array of serious health issues and in some cases, death. The book was created and then printed by Michigan Board of Health member Dr. R. M. Kedzie.
From The Public Domain Review on Instagram:
“Wallpaper specimens from Shadows from the Walls of Death (1874), a book that gathers real swaths of wallpaper containing poisonous arsenic paint, all sourced from stores across Michigan. The book’s creator Dr. R. M. Kedzie, who served on the Michigan Board of Health in the 1870s, explains his unique strategy for raising awareness in the preface. Originally printed in a run of one hundred copies, only a half-dozen of which remain due to recipients fearfully destroying their copies, the book is contaminated by the very substance under indictment. That is, to eradicate the poison, Kedzie chose to archive its vehicle. “[T]o call attention to this source of danger, and to assist persons in detecting these dangerous colors in wall paper, the State Board of Health Directed me to prepare specimen books of such dangerous wall papers. . . . The wall papers in this book all contain arsenic.”
(Image from the Public Domain Review)
