Historic New England's online collection of vintage wallpaper is amazing, in part because of the craftsmanship that went into the over 6,000 designs they've digitized, but mostly because nineteenth-century Americans saw fit to display folktales about talking wolves and angry giants on the walls of their kids' rooms. What follows is a non-exhaustive account of just that kind of madness, made into a game of "I Spy" you can play right at your computer.
Unused fragment of nursery wallpaper from Middleton, Massachusetts," maker unknown, 1880-1890. (Larger images in the linked text.)
· A crying lady.
· A baby under a stool.
· Two crybabies.
· Two elves watching intently while a baby tells them about this leaf he found.
· A well-dressed man taking his oversized knife for a jog.
· A baby removing a mans boots, putting them on, and doing a little jig while he presents his much taller friends with two straw-colored bags.
· 32 hats.
"Nursery paper depicting nursery rhyme (4 and 20 black birds baked in a pie)," maker unknown, 1890-1910.
· The origin story of the popular Brooklyn bakery Four & Twenty Blackbirds.
"Unused fragment of nursery wallpaper from Middleton, Massachusetts," maker unknown, 1880-1890.
· "Ye queen."
· "Ye pie."
· Branches of mountain holly.
· A red-faced man taking sheers to a giant snail shell.
· A red-nosed man on a strawberry (?) dusting cobwebs from the moon.
· A horned devil figure vaulting a Humpty Dumpty.
· A well-dressed woman taking her oversized knife for a walk.
· Two frogs using a mushroom as an umbrella.
· Dancing cats with long eyelashes.
· A lion-unicorn staring contest.
· A pig getting a shave.
· A king discovering his bags of money are actually bags of eggs.
· 21 hats.
"Rolled fragment of Nursery wallpaper frieze," maker unknown, 1890-1900.
· Courtship that just, like, happens in a field.
"Partial roll of sanitary wallpaper depicting nursery rhymes including 'The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,'" maker unknown, 1890-1830.
· The sheepfigurinemonger making his morning rounds.
· 7 pairs of fashion-forward children's highwaters.
"Fragment of Walt Disney cartoon character paper," by Sunworthy, 1945-1950.
· Cartoon animals in various stages of anthropomorphization.
"Unused nursery wallpaper from Grafton, Massachusetts," with "scenes depicting proverbs, such as 'don't cry over spilled milk,'" maker unknown, 1880-1900.
· Other depictions of famous proverbs, including "You can't teach a dog about houses,"
· "You can only chase a rat from your malt stores so many times,"
· and "Doff your cap to kiss, doff your cap to wed, your marriage will be fine, don't even worry about it."
· Four hats.
"Copper engraved nursery paper depicting eight scenes," maker unknown, 1895-1900.
· Foliate scrolls with morning glories and daisies.
· The origin story of the popular Brooklyn bakery Four & Twenty Blackbirds.
· A man with a full-body beard holding an umbrella.