Shadows from the Walls of Death
The frontispiece of the book Shadows from the Walls of Death
AuthorDr. Robert C. Kedzie
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
Publication date
1874
Media typePrint
Pages100

Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers is an 1874 book by Dr. Robert C. Kedzie (1823–1902) of Michigan.[1]

The book warns of the dangers of then commonly used arsenic-pigmented wallpaper. The book contains 86 samples of said wallpaper. Due to the dangerous amount of arsenic in the work, only five of the original 100 copies have survived. Most copies were destroyed by the recipient libraries.[2] The extant copies are only handled using special safety precautions.[2] As of 2021, the remaining copies were held at Harvard University Medical School, the U.S. National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and the university libraries of Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.[3] The copy in the National Library of Medicine has been digitized and is freely available.[2]

Detail of ornate wallpaper in a gray, white, and green design.
A wallpaper sample from Shadows from the Walls of Death

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Shadows from the walls of death". search.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  2. 1 2 3 Zawacki, Alexander J. (2018-01-23). "How a Library Handles a Rare and Deadly Book of Wallpaper Samples". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2018-06-16.
  3. ↑ Kedzie, R. C; Baker, Henry B; Michigan; State Board of Health; W.S. George & Co (1874). "Shadows from the walls of death": facts and inferences prefacing a book of specimens of arsenical wall papers. OCLC 1194639611.
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