Wallpaper: Fashion Forward

Historic New England’s wallpaper collection consists of over 6,000 individual samples of wallpaper, historic photographs of wallpaper in situ, and ephemera dealing with the wallpaper industry. The wallpaper at Rundlet-May House is a byproduct of James Rundlet’s business dealings with ships bringing in trade items, his keen interest in textiles for selling, and furnishing the Rundlet family home with the finest furnishings. Imported wallpapers held particular importance in the American market for the first several decades of the nineteenth-century.