Wallpapers in Historic Preservation

The papered and bordered wall was an important feature of American interiors during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Paper hangings, both imported and of domestic manufacture, were more widely used than many of our restored buildings might lead us to believe. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, not only were American walls whitewashed, painted, and "wainscoted," but they were also hung with a variety of materials. An English visitor of 1750, James Birket, commented on the number of rooms in Newport, Rhode Island, that were hung with printed canvas and paper. There is also documentation in the 18th century for the use of leather and textile wall hangings in this country.As early as 1700, wallpapers were recorded among the stock of a Boston merchant, and by the late 18th century, paper hangings were available to the middle class as well as to the rich. American advertisers claimed that "the low prices at which they will be sold will make papering cheaper than whitewashing