By Emily Bavaria, Winterthur museum guide

Each year thousands of guests stream through the doors of Winterthur, often taking specialized tours, eager to see some of our nearly 90,000 objects on display. While it’s easy to focus on the furniture or the objects placed in the rooms and hanging on the walls, experiencing the rooms fully also includes examining the walls themselves. They contain various architectural elements and, in many, historical wallpapers and wallcoverings. Fifteen period wallcoverings are on display in the museum, including early English flock wallcoverings, French scenic wallcoverings, hand-painted Chinese wallpapers, and some of the earliest American wallpapers.

A Brief History of Wallpaper

Wallpaper originated in China, where artists originally hand painted designs on rice paper. Block printing also originated in China, with designs carved into wooden blocks and paint applied to the non-recessed wood, using one block for each paint color. In European homes of the 1500s, wallpaper was considered the poor relation of the decorative arts, and tapestries were still in vogue to cover walls. The earliest decorative papers in Europe were block printed on small sheets and relegated to cupboards and small rooms. By the 1600s, however, wallpaper became common in European homes, some requiring thousands of blocks to create. By the late 1600s, France and England were competing to produce the best wallpapers of the western market, though hand-painted Chinese wallpaper was still considered the finest.

Around this time, flock papers were also introduced, created by block printing a gluten-based adhesive on paper or canvas, then dragging it through wool waste powder for a damask design. In the mid-to-late-1600s, sheets of paper were joined together to form rolls, which encouraged large repeats, so papering a room became more affordable and common. Wallpaper was imported into the American colonies prior to 1700 but not domestically produced until 1760.

The following are a few examples of the fifteen wallpapers on display in the museum.

Vauxhall Room

This room contains some of the oldest wallpaper in the museum. Dated from 1675 to 1730, these flock wall coverings were invented by Le Francois of Rouen in 1620 and manufactured in England. At Winterthur, the wallpaper was restored and installed by James B. Wilson, a decorative contractor from New York, who placed the period paper on modern backing and glued it to a canvas-prepared plaster wall. H. F. du Pont also hired Wilson to paint the collection’s wallpapers each winter.

Centreville Stair Hall

The concert champêtre wallpaper in this room was made near Lyon, France, between 1783 and 1810. A genre of 16th-century painting, this style emphasized entertainment and refreshment in a picturesque setting, and by the 18th century, women were prominently featured along with allegorical or mythological figures. As part of Winterthur’s House Lighting Project in the late 1990s, all fifteen wallcoverings in the museum were cleaned and conserved. The lighting project included moving a water main. It failed, and water flowed down the interior walls of Winterthur, severely damaging this lovely example of French wallpaper.

Federal Parlor

This room features an arabesque-style Parisian wallpaper created around 1791 by Jacquemart et Bernard, produced with Etruscan-patterned wood blocks. Its designs align along a central axis and feature neoclassical themes, influenced by archeological discoveries of ancient art in places like Pompeii in the mid-1700s. It was purchased in 1794 by Oliver Phelps for the dining room in his Suffield, Connecticut, home, and H. F. du Pont acquired the wallpaper when highway construction threatened the house.

Philadelphia Bedroom

The Philadelphia Bedroom is papered with hand-painted Chinese wallpaper from the late 18th century, with exotic birds among tree peonies, chrysanthemums, and cherry blossoms. More exclusive and expensive than French or English block-printed wallpaper, it was hand-painted in China and exported to France. This room was installed in the museum by Rudolph Guertler of New York. He mounted the period wallpaper on muslin and rice paper with new paper designed around the old, a common practice used by H. F. du Pont, who often combined contemporary wallpaper with period wallpaper. The room contains 29 panels, 14 of which are original, dating from 1770 to 1790.

Imlay Room 

The wallpaper in this room was purchased in 1794 by John Imlay, a Philadelphia shipping merchant, from William Poyntell’s shop on South Second Street in Philadelphia. Winterthur purchased the wallpaper in an upstairs parlor of the Imlay mansion, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased the wallpaper from a downstairs parlor as well as the 1794 receipt. Because the price of the upstairs paper purchased by Winterthur was less expensive than the downstairs paper purchased by the Met, it is generally accepted as domestic wallpaper and among the oldest American wallpapers on display.

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of the beautiful wallpapers at Winterthur. As you enter the museum doors, whether on a self-paced tour or one of our specialized tours, be sure to take in the exquisite walls surrounding each carefully designed room, knowing there’s a story behind each one.

By Ann Wagner, Curator of Decorative Arts at Winterthur

Today, cultural institutions seek to understand the nuanced and varied impacts of the War for Independence on colonists and Indigenous Americans, especially those directly involved. In 1976, our nation’s Bicentennial, they focused on artists, including gunsmiths and hornsmiths, who were dedicated to preserving craft knowledge and recreating early arts.

In step with our collection of American black powder rifles, in 2022 Winterthur acquired a special-order Bicentennial longrifle that was designed and produced for the state of Pennsylvania in 1976 (see fig. 1). This is our first firearm by a contemporary artist, and it inspired another artist to create a powder horn to accompany it.

John F. Bivins Jr. (1941–2001), a gunsmith and scholar working primarily in North Carolina, was recognized for his publications and work with the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and for his legacy as a teacher. In 1975 he accepted a commission from the State of Pennsylvania to create their Bicentennial Commemorative Longrifle Project. Two hundred rifles were contracted from Bivins and his collaborating artists for the project; Winterthur’s rifle is number 105. In Bivins’s description, its modestly ornamented architecture was not a reproduction of a Kentucky-style flintlock but “a contemporary statement of an ancient craft” and technically superb.

The Pennsylvania commission offered a full commemorative set including a powder horn bearing the state seal (see fig. 2). Although he is not mentioned in the promotional material, master hornsmith Roland Cadle also assisted with the project.  When I lectured at the Hornsmith Guild’s annual meeting in 2024, Roland Cadle learned of Winterthur’s newly acquired longrifle. He was moved to reprise his role from nearly fifty years ago and donate a powder horn to the museum (see fig. 3). He carved a historically accurate Lancaster-style screw-tip horn with polychrome decoration. He included the seal and colonial landmarks from Fort Pitt to the city of Philadelphia and personalized it with the rifle’s “105” and the Winterthur “W” (see fig. 4). To complete this set, he also made a fringed hunting pouch.

Like many of North America’s cultural institutions, Winterthur is exploring ways to share the nation’s 250th anniversary with visitors. Contemporary artists whose creativity is inspired by historical collections and those dedicated to preserving craft practices speak a visual language all can appreciate. Winterthur is fortunate that Roland Cadle’s deep knowledge and lifelong passion for hornsmithing embodies his conceptual connections to earlier artisans, whether they worked in 1776 or 1976. Likewise, Bivins’s Bicentennial longrifle captures a moment in time that inspired many to try their hand at gunsmithing and to appreciate the historical craft knowledge he helped preserve.

By Matthew Monk, Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles at Winterthur

Each January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day invites us to pause and reflect on the unfinished civil rights work in the United States. At Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, that reflection is often shaped by objects that people made to care for one another, to create feelings of home, and to claim dignity in the face of hardship. Three objects recently added to Winterthur’s collection—a contemporary quilt and two potholders made in Gee’s Bend, Alabama—embody that legacy of resilience, creativity, continuity, and community.

Sharon Williams and her granddaughter Jamica made these quilted objects in 2023, but these objects and their makers belong to a living tradition that stretches back generations in Gee’s Bend, a small, predominantly Black community on a bend of the Alabama River. Williams describes her design style as “My Way,” marked by free-pieced quilting that relies on intuition, bold geometry, and the creative reuse of available materials. Williams learned this tradition from her mother and grandmother and passes it down to her descendants today. Her quilt at Winterthur is composed of cotton fabrics, vintage and contemporary prints pieced together into a dynamic kaleidoscope of patchwork. The quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted. The quilt is also a living lesson between grandmother and granddaughter. It is at once deeply personal and unmistakably part of a collective Gee’s Bend aesthetic.

Gee’s Bend quilts are widely celebrated today, but they were born from necessity. For much of the 20th century, families in Gee’s Bend lived in relative isolation, many as descendants of people once enslaved on nearby cotton plantations. Women used worn clothing, flour sacks, and other textiles at hand to create quilts that provided warmth and protection in drafty homes. In doing so, they developed a distinctive visual language, one that later came to be recognized as one of the most important artistic traditions in American quilting.

The two potholders Winterthur acquired alongside the quilt may be small, but they carry the same powerful story. Also made by Sharon and Jamica Williams in 2023, they use the same free-pieced “My Way” approach, translated into everyday kitchen textiles. Their bold blocks of color and asymmetrical patterns echo the quilt’s design, reminding us that art and daily life are not separate in Gee’s Bend; they are stitched together.

Honoring these objects on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is especially meaningful. Dr. King fought for civil rights, not only in speeches and marches, but in the affirmation of Black dignity, creativity, and self-determination. Gee’s Bend quilts are part of that same story. They are material expressions of endurance in the face of segregation, poverty, and exclusion. They are also material reminders of the power of community to sustain itself through making.

At Winterthur, these works also expand the museum’s narrative of American design, linking the contemporary and modern to the historical. For the first time, our collection includes a contemporary Gee’s Bend quilt and potholders by a named maker, recognizing Sharon Williams not only as part of a tradition, but as an artist in her own right. Her work connects the past to the present, showing that the history of Gee’s Bend, while rooted in a difficult past, is not frozen in time and continues to grow, adapt, and inspire.

As we commemorate Dr. King’s legacy, these three textiles invite us to consider how everyday acts of making can be acts of freedom and expressions of choice. They remind us that the struggle for justice is woven not only through laws and movements, but through the hands of people who, against all odds, kept creating beauty for themselves and their communities in their own ways.

We hope you enjoy all the special touches in this year’s Yuletide Tour. In addition to all the stunning trees and beautifully decorated rooms, numerous delightful or unexpected details are artfully tucked into our literature-themed displays. See how many you find!

1. “Tri-Sarah-Tops” dinosaur figurine named by one of our staff members. Yes, she’s hard to spot!

2. A tiny yeti  (Hint: it’s hidden inside a wooden log)

3. Two vases with illustrations from the book Les Fleurs Animées, on loan from a private collector

4. A Cheshire Cat tree inspired by the mysterious grinning feline in Alice in Wonderland

5. A baby doll in a handbag representing Jack, a major character from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Jack was found in a handbag at a train station, an incident that may affect his marital prospects. 

6. A sailboat on a tree, inspired by the ships in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick

7. The 11th edition of A Christmas Carol. Released in 1843, Dickens’s classic tale was such a bestseller that by 1846 publishers had to release an 11th edition.

8. The Tardis from the popular television series Doctor Who. Hint: it’s on a tree

9. The Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

10. Winterthur Farms milk bottles and a canister, a tribute to our historic dairy farm

11. The Winterthur guest book signed by H. F. du Pont’s guests, highlighting the social life at Winterthur

Answers

By room name and theme.

1. Montmorenci Stair Hall — The one with the grand staircase where you start your tour

2. Marlboro Room — The one about MacBeth

3. Empire Parlor — The one with Flowery mannequin

4. The fifth floor to sixth floor staircase — The one about Alice in Wonderland 

5. Baltimore Drawing Room — The one . . . with the babydoll in a handbag!

6. Chestertown Room — The one about Moby Dick

7. Du Pont Dining Room — The one about Fezziwig’s Christmas party in A Christmas Carol

8. Georgia Dining Room — The one about “A Visit from St. Nicholas”

9. Latimeria Room — The one about Humpty Dumpty and Through the Looking Glass

10. Port Royal Entrance — The one with the purple cow

11. Port Royal Parlor — The one about The Great Gatsby

Experience the Yuletide Tour

Our self-paced Yuletide house tour is offered Tuesdays–Sundays, 10:00 am–5:00 pm (last tour at 4:15 pm). Plus, on select Friday and Saturday nights we’re open until 8:00 pm (last tour at 7:15 pm) through January 4.