Introduction
 "What Shall We Do With Our Walls?" Clarence Cook asked in an 1880 pamphlet. His answer was to wallpaper them! Indeed the question was asked at the height of the popularity of wallpaper in the United States. From the last half of the nineteenth century through the first quarter of the twentieth, wallpaper was preferred over plain painted walls.
On view in The Iowa Resource Center at the State of Iowa Historical Building are over thirty seven examples of wallpapers retrieved from abandoned farm houses in Iowa and southern Minnesota. These examples were saved by Channon Doerr, a filmmaker from St. Paul, Minnesota. In the mid-1990s he was searching for abandoned farm houses as sets for scenes in a movie he was making.
"As I walked through an abandoned farmhouse one windy day I saw wallpaper peeling from the wall. The wind whipped it with a haunting sound. How eerie the sound! How the house seemed to be coming alive with all the people who once lived there. I ripped down a piece of the wallpaper because I could see there was another print or painting on the wall beneath. One big piece coming down exposed an original Victorian frieze probably applied when the house was built. I was amazed at the artwork. It had flourishes, filigree, and brilliant colors. Suddenly I was hooked on wallpaper. The search was on."
Our impressions of late nineteenth and early twentieth century interiors are derived from the black and white photographic images from that era. These wallpaper survivors from that era help provide more colorful insights into what is thought to be a black and white world.
Wallpaper in the Late Victorian Age: 1870 to 1910
 The late 19th century was the heyday in the manufacture and use of wallpaper. Most residential rooms were papered, including kitchens, closets, attic stairs, and even privies! Ceilings covered with one or more patterns were also popular.
Wallpaper became an essential part of the overall design of a room. Dividing a wall surface into three horizontal units - frieze, fill, and dado - was a popular wall treatment of the 1870s and 1880s. In the 1880s there was increasing interest in Japanese design and wallpaper reflected this fascination. By the 1890s interior designers had stopped emphasizing the use of wallpaper in "tasteful" interiors. However wallpaper continued to be quite popular and manufacturers produced pattern with floral and scroll motifs. Wallpapers in the Art Nouveau style, while popular, never evolved into a major wallpaper style.
Making wallpaper by Machine
 Most of the commercial wallpapers available after 1870 were produced on large roller printing machines similar to those used to print textiles. Developed in England in the 1840s these machines used wood cylinders with raised rather than the engraved surfaces used in textile printing.
These cylinders were used on machines much like those still used today for large volume wallpaper printing. At the center of one of these machines is a large revolving drum upon which the blank paper rides while it engages a sequence of smaller cylinders, each of which has a raised surface for printing one color of the pattern. Each cylinder is coated with its individual color by a roller-fed belt from a trough that holds the appropriate color.
Object label
Wallpaper printing rollers or cylinders from the early 20th century. Each has a wood core with the pattern formed by tapping into the core strips of brass forming raised outlines of shapes into which felt was tightly stuffed to carry the colors. Lines and dots were printed by appropriately shaped brass pieces.
Movie
TABER and the ANGEL
 Written, Directed, Produced by C. Channon Doerr
15 minutes running time
This short film was the inspiration for the wallpaper collection of Channon Doerr. It was during the filming that he became fascinated with wallpapers found in abandoned farm houses. Some of those houses are seen in this film.
The State Historical Society of Iowa is a trustee of
Iowa’s historical legacy and an advocate for understanding
Iowa’s past. It identifies, records, collects,
preserves, manages and provides access to Iowa’s
historical resources. Its dual mission of preservation
and education serves Iowans of all ages, conducts and
stimulates research, disseminates information, and encourages
and supports historical preservation and education efforts
of others throughout the state. Please visit www.iowahistory.org
or call
515-281-5111 for more information.
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