Wallpaper in the death room

[Lincoln Wonk]

During the Surratt Society conference, Erik Jendresen mentioned that the wallpaper in the death room was not brown and beige, but green and a lighter color. This is really interesting.
Erik or anyone, do you know who discovered that and when or what info it's based on? Do you know of someone who could confirm?
(I'm researching the room, and a green wallpaper would make a huge difference in the ambience in such a tiny room.)
Thanks,
Kathy Canavan

[Jim Garrett]

The Ulke brothers took pictures of the death room within hours of the President being removed from the Petersen House, so we know what the pattern looked like. In 1979, the NPS did a big conservation project which included taking off the layers of wallpaper. The pattern that matched the photos was about 8 or 9 layers down. Erik was absolutely correct that the company that produced the wallpaper is still in business today, and did produce the original pattern and color. The company has the original pattern/color books from the 1850s and 1860s, and that is how they could produce the wallpaper today to exactly match the wallpaper from 1865.

Great respect to Erik and his team for being so diligent on getting it right!

[Lincoln Wonk]

Thanks, Jim. To clarify, the NPS found green and beige paper under all those layers? Or was it the movie people who discovered it through the wallpaper company? I'm trying to get the color correct. You know if there's any printed reference on that?

[Jim Garrett]

Both have it correct. Erik, did you all know the pattern from the Petersen House directly, or from Lincoln, etc. You all did such a great job. You also got the bed right.

[Gene C]

The Ulke brothers took pictures of the death room ...

Pictures? I have only seen one, and it was a badly worn one at that.
What about the others?

[Hess1865]

The Ulke brothers took pictures of the death room ...

Pictures? I have only seen one, and it was a badly worn one at that.
What about the others?

There were two pics taken of the room. And there is really not much difference between the two. They can be found online-I'd try to, but I'm not hip to the correct way of posting them here.

[Loomings]

Kathy, tomorrow I will post some pics here so that you know EXACTLY what it is.

E

[RJNorton]

The two photos Mr. Hess referred to are here and here.

[Gene C]

Thanks Roger. A sad room and tragic room.

[wsanto]

You can buy a little over a square inch of the original wall paper on ebay here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Abraham-Lincoln-...2ec702cb24

[Hess1865]

The two photos Mr. Hess referred to are here and here.

Thanks Mr Norton

[Laurie Verge]

Doing wallpaper and paint analysis is fascinating - and tedious. When restoration began on Surratt House in the early-1970s, we were fortunate to have the original plaster on the walls. However, since early forms of plaster used pig's hair and horsehair for consistency, ours had to be removed for fire safety purposes.

This gave us the opportunity to do a full analysis on each room. Like the Petersen House, some rooms of the Surratt House had eight or nine layers of paint or wallpaper (mainly paint) dating back to 1852. Each layer can be identified separately because each has a layer of dirt separating it from previous and next layers. We discovered that some of the owners of Surratt House over the years (six total, starting with the Surratts) had really bad tastes in colors!

Several weeks ago, I received a phone call from a lady who is working on the restoration of the Clara Barton office/home that was "discovered" a few years back in D.C. That building dates to approximately the same time period as Surratt House, and she was interested in determining appropriate paint colors for that period. I had Lindsey copy our report pages and send them to her.

[Loomings]

Kathy -

Here it is. You might also contact Richard Blankenship, our production designer, who knows every detail of the history of the wallpaper. His email is: rblankshp@aol.com

But this is fact positive -- the same paper, made on the same machines, by the same company. You should be able to click on this image to enlarge it. If not, send me your email address and I'll email it to you.

E