Wallpaper in the death room

[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!