Shadows from the Walls of Death

January 23, 2018 4:04 PM

Shadows from the Walls of Death is a macabre book of arsenic laden wallpaper samples that was produced in 1874 by a civil war surgeon and sent to 100 libraries around Michigan to raise awareness of the dangers of arsenic. Only 4 copies remain today (96 copies were destroyed by libraries out of concern for the wellbeing of customers) and the National Library of Medicine has digitized their copy in full.
posted by donut_princess (22 comments total)

There’s a British series that’s on YouTube about the dangers of the Victorian home that shows one of the remaining copies of the book. They have to go through it with gloves. Super cool stuff!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 4:16 PM on January 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Previously.
posted by valkane at 4:16 PM on January 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

On first reading this I somehow thought that the doctor had taken regular wallpaper and soaked it in arsenic to publicize other papers that were made with arsenic. I dunno why I thought that cause it doesn't make sense lol.

When I read the article in the "Previously" it mentioned that arsenic laden green dye lead to a fad for green tartan gowns. It reminded me that there's a scene in Wuthering Heights where Cathy wears a tartan gown and I was like "Oh snap I wonder???" But Wuthering Heights takes place and was written long before that.
posted by bleep at 4:44 PM on January 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

the National Library of Medicine has digitized their copy in full.

did they digitize the poison-ness?
posted by GuyZero at 4:44 PM on January 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

YES. Fascinating, thank you!
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:52 PM on January 23, 2018

They are pretty though, aren't they.
posted by ardgedee at 5:42 PM on January 23, 2018

You can see why it was so favored, though, it makes some quite attractive greens.
posted by tavella at 5:49 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

World's worst scratch 'n' sniff book?
posted by lagomorphius at 5:51 PM on January 23, 2018 [7 favorites]

This is the easily most Goth wallpaper sample book ever.


I believe I shall peruse these designs over a nice glass of chartreuse.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

It's a large file, but the pdf copy might be of interest to some folks here - it's a bit nicer to scroll through than the web version.

Some of the foil wallpapers make imprints on the facing wallpapers, which look pretty neat.
posted by sagc at 7:14 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

....reminded me of this. A Canadian pro-asbestos industry lobby group thought it would be a cool thing to print a press release on asbestos paper.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:52 PM on January 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

Grim as it may sound, “Shadows from the Walls of Death” was actually an improvement on Kedzie’s original title, “U Can’t Touch This”.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 9:12 PM on January 23, 2018 [8 favorites]

Cool! This kinda thing always makes me wonder what horrors we're currently surrounding ourselves with in the name of aesthetics.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:47 AM on January 24, 2018

I rather like the idea of using a picture of poisonous wallpaper as the wallpaper on my computer at work.
posted by JanetLand at 6:25 AM on January 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Grim as it may sound, “Shadows from the Walls of Death” was actually an improvement on Kedzie’s original title, “U Can’t Touch This”.

"I, too, seek an unreadable book." - Robert Nozick.
posted by thelonius at 6:33 AM on January 24, 2018

Fascinating. Thanks for posting.
posted by theora55 at 9:58 AM on January 24, 2018

When I read the article in the "Previously" it mentioned that arsenic laden green dye lead to a fad for green tartan gowns.

This is a misreading for "tarlatan" - a loose-woven cotton fabric that gave a lovely ethereal frothy look to dresses, and caused the deaths of numerous women who wore it, not only from arsenic poisoning, but also by fire, when worn in crinoline dresses in rooms with open fires, and by dancers on stages where stage lights had open flames. There's a previously on that too.
posted by Fuchsoid at 12:03 PM on January 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

The head of NLM's Digital Reformatting division is a friend of mine. My cousin worked for him for over a decade. The two of them are the ones that scanned that book for NLM, in full hazmat suits. There's a photo of them doing that somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.
posted by numaner at 12:27 PM on January 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

Reminds me of the forward to Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars

“The author assures the reader that he will not have to die if he reads this book, as did the user of the 1691 edition”
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:23 PM on January 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Years ago in Manitou Springs, Colorado, I visited Miramont Castle, a historic house museum built in 1895 and overstuffed with elaborate armchairs and clashing bizarrchitecture. My favorite spot was a small room corner that was blocked off behind glass, because the wall was still covered in the original arsenic wallpaper of vivid green. The museum staff said they never saw mice in that part of the room.
posted by nicebookrack at 3:33 PM on January 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

This reminds me of that bit in The Name of the Rose. I have to suppose that Umberto Eco hadn't heard of these books, or he'd have found a way to incorporate the idea. I'm trying to avoid spoilers here, but the book has been out for decades, so. It's well worth reading, anyway.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:24 PM on January 25, 2018

update: my cousin found the pictures, he thinks, but it's part of some huge photo set from a camera at work and he'll need to sort through them. Also, he's not one of the scanners, but it's his boss, the Digital Reformatting division director, and an NIH chemical specialist. I'll see about putting those up on my Flickr when I get them.
posted by numaner at 10:41 PM on January 26, 2018 [1 favorite]