Shadows from the Walls of Death

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.

Due to the dangerous amount of arsenic in the work, only five of the original 100 copies have survived.

[2] The extant copies are only handled using special safety precautions.

[3] The copy in the National Library of Medicine has been digitized and is freely available.

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