A spatial interface to twenty essays on the objects and themes of the exhibit as well as the objects and landmarks
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The important landmarks that stood at this important Broadway intersection over time and by site
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A look at the technical processes along with the men and women who made all these cultural commodities in New York
More informationSample of Wallpaper Decorated with New York City Landmarks
ca. 1840–50
Block-printed paper in colors
20 7/8 × 19 3/4 in. (52.9 × 50.1 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Edward W.C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954, 54.90.734
Mid-century viewers would have instantly recognized these scenes, which were reproduced from other printed forms: Wall Street, the Battery and Castle Garden, Trinity and Grace Churches, and City Hall. Ten percent of the average budget for decorating a parlor, according to Victorian tastemakers, was spent on wallpaper. A newly commercial product accessible to multiple levels of society, wallpaper served to spread good taste by putting art into even the humblest of homes.
— Hannah Wirta Kinney
