Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 - (Page 56)

early 1910s and feature Arts and Crafts friezes. Since both papers were mounted on a cheesecloth backing, they were very easy to remove from the underlying layers or bare wall without damage; however, the paper itself has a higher acid content than the earlier paper and is much more brittle. Environmental pollutants have dulled the paper somewhat, but the original colors are still visible in protected areas. Successive layers bore floral patterns ranging from pale gray and terra-cotta to brilliant apple green and red. The Emerald green pigments like the color in the wallpaper sample and a similar color called Scheele’s green were two of the most widely used green pigments on 19th-century wallpaper. Both were made from verdigris and arsenic, with vinegar as an ingredient in the production of emerald green. Although arsenic was known to be poisonous, the manufacture of arsenic-containing wallpapers continued until the beginning of the 20th century. Even William Morris used arsenic pigments in his early papers — his father Although the paper came off the wall in small pieces, this computer-generated image shows what a larger area would have looked like. The oldest layer of green and white on a brown ground is found in both rooms. The two oldest layers are made of extremely thin and brittle paper, and were very difficult to remove from the rough, bare boards. oldest layers featured more geometric patterns as well as brighter colors; the second-oldest layers in each room bore similar Renaissance designs of ultramarine blue and maroon on a pale terra-cotta ground. Ultramarine blue was ground from the stone lapis lazuli, one of the most expensive pigments known to artists — and certainly too expensive to use in printing wallpaper. In 1826, however, a French chemist developed an artificial ultramarine that was ten times cheaper to produce. That brilliant blue became a popular color on wallpaper produced during the middle of the 19th century. owned a large arsenic mine that supplied the deadly powder to manufacture the green pigment, and Morris himself inherited company shares in 1855. But the real hazards of arsenic-laden wallpaper become most apparent in damp climates. At the end of the 1800s, an Italian chemist proved that mold organisms growing on the wallpaper paste converted the arsenic in the green pigment into toxic trimethylarsine gas. This gas was probably responsible for a number of deaths in the 19th century, particularly among young children, but despite the Perhaps the most famous case of arsenic poisoning by wallpaper may be that of Napoleon Bonaparte. Both rooms in the Bostick house bore the same paper as the first layer, the one pasted directly to the bargeboards. Due to the roughness of the boards and fragility of the paper, this layer was extremely difficult to remove from the wall and the layers of stronger paper above it. Only small fragments were recovered; however, a larger sample that could not be separated from the upper layers of paper revealed more of the pattern clearly on the reverse. The design was printed in a bright emerald green and white on a plain brown ground, with leaflike swirls and sweeping geometric designs. known dangers, arsenic pigments were still in use into the 20th century. Perhaps the most famous case of arsenic poisoning by wallpaper may be that of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the 1980s, a British scientist proposed that traces of arsenic found in Bonaparte’s hair may have come from the green-printed wallpaper in his bedroom on St. Helena, where he lived in exile. As it turns out, someone had saved a fragment of Napoleon’s wallpaper, which was tested and indeed found to contain arsenic. Given that the climate of St. Helena was 56 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2007-08 http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/ http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish Paintings by Rolland Golden The Historic New Orleans Collection The Great Ouachita River Flood of 1932 Jazz Notes Louisiana Architecture Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water Louisiana State Museum Through A Lens Sharply: An Interview with Michael Lewis MR-GO: A “miracle” mired in controversy Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans: An Autopsy Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

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