Brief History

The Chinese pasted rice papers onto walls during the Qin dynasty. They adopted smoother linen fibers which allowed for painting and printing on the paper. By the 12th Century, the Chinese skill of paper making had spread to the West via the Silk Route.

The earliest known European wallpaper dates from 1509 and used block paper. The advance of block print technology allowed for the lower classes to decorate their wall as printers copied images taken from expensive tapestries, damasks, and tooled leather.

Ninety years later, the first guild of wallpaper makers - dominotiers –formed in France in 1599. The first wallpaper machine was invented in France in 1785. The French dominated the paper industry, and their products “featured flowers, swans, birds, and beasts, and were often hung as panels, framed with gilt edges” and “cornucopia overflowing with fruits were a popular motif.”4

Wallpaper (or “painted paper”) came to America in 1739, when Plunket Fleeson began printing wallpaper in Philadelphia. Stationers, book sellers, and specific merchants who specialized in “imported luxury goods” sold the expensive wallpaper. It was made from leather and silk, wool and velvet, “but it was an affordable decor element in comparison to other types of manipulating interior design (e.g., hand-painting and masonry).”5 Wallpaper making was labor-intensive and slow as they were produced by hand using the block-printing process. In, 1839 Potters & Ross, an English cotton printing firm, patented the first wallpaper printing machine. Music Hall Wallpaper Every room in the Music Hall had two layers of wallpaper. The two layers were applied relatively close to each other in time and most likely between 1923 and 1945. The Wall Paper Machine Printers Union made the wallpapers.

The Music Hall papers have a registration area repeated every 18.75”. The registration consists of two lines of text in small geometric shape at each end:

"A (part of geometric shape) U. W. P. C. of N. A. (geometric shape) F / O (geometric shape) UNION -- MADE (a geometric shape) L."

Wallpaper of the 1930s was known for both floral and abstract geometric styles. The floral patterns are symbolic of the Art Nouveau period. The geometric shapes are symmetrical motifs, patterns, and themes that connect to the Art Deco period. Art Deco symbolized technological progress in various industries, from transportation to architecture. The Music Hall wallpaper designs are primarily illustrative, hand painted-look botanicals and florals layered over geometric backdrops. The floral patterns are often mixed with details such as stripes, swag, and geometric patterns. For example, there is one wallpaper with a repeating vertical pattern of two flowers intertwined with rope. These patterns are separated by a continuous vertical four colored stripe pattern. 

One example features repeated patterns of manufactured objects such as sailing ships, firefighting apparatus, guns, and artillery cannons(figure). Another example features repeating landscape, maritime and architectural vignettes. While there are a few examples of bold colors, the Music Hall wallpaper represented typical 1930s wallpaper using paler colors, with a tendency toward light pastels.

The Wall Paper Machine Printers Union was founded in New York City in 1883 and received a charter from the Knights of Labor in 1885, after that expanding into other northeastern states. The union became the National Association of Wall Paper Machine Printers and Color Mixers of the United States in 1902 and received a charter from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The National Print Cutters' Association of American was organized in December 1895 and subsequently affiliated with the AFL. In 1923, the two merged as the United Wall Paper Crafts of North America, which held its first convention in August 1923. In 1938 the union took the name the United Wall Paper Craftsmen and Workers of North America.