Wall to wallpaper

A vast and invaluable collection in the Caroline Simpson Library

Historic wallpaper collection

The Caroline Simpson Library holds Australia’s largest repository of historic wallpapers. Dating back to the 1840s, these papers appear in a variety of formats including wallpaper rolls, wallpaper sample books, and remnants retrieved from buildings. Given the late production of wallpapers in Australia, many of these thousands of examples were produced in Great Britain and elsewhere overseas.

John and Phyllis Murphy collection

Acquisition of the John and Phyllis Murphy wallpaper collection
Wallpaper

Wall to wall: a marvellous wallpaper collection

A remarkable donation of over 3,000 wallpaper samples by John and Phyllis Murphy adds to our existing collection to form Australia’s largest repository of historic wallpapers

A wallpaper being prepared for digitisation, Museums Discovery Centre
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Wallpaper in the spotlight

Work has begun on documenting this valuable collection to ensure each design is preserved against the effects of time for future generations to enjoy

Wallpaper in the collection

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Kandos frieze
Wallpaper

Handmade wallpaper: Morrison's of Sydney

Morrison's built a successful wallpaper manfacturing business in early 20th century Sydney

Space-age wallpaper
Wallpaper

Sci-fi wallpaper (and other designs for children)

We dug deep into our collections and found wonderfully whimsical wallpaper, designed for children’s bedroom walls

Wallpaper

Trainspotting wallpaper from Blackdown, Bathurst NSW

Although the railway did not officially arrive at the New South Wales town of Bathurst until 1876, at a nearby property, Blackdown, a virtual railway station had been created more than 20 years earlier

Wallpaper

Wallpaper recreated for 'The Harp in the South'

The Harp in the South wallpaper was recreated to evoke the main setting for the novels and play: the Darcy family’s run-down terrace house at 12½ Plymouth Street, Surry Hills in 1940s Sydney

Nursery rhyme wallpapers

Nursery rhyme wallpapers with vivid and moralistic designs, drawn sometimes by famous illustrators like Kate Greenaway, were popular in Victorian nurseries.

Wallpaper discoveries

Wallpaper fragment from a Pyrmont workers cottage, c1850
Wallpaper

Wallpaper ‘sandwich’ from Pyrmont

A ‘sandwich’ of many layers of wallpaper uncovered behind timber panelling has opened a small, colourful window into the popularity of wallpaper in mid 19th century Sydney

West elevation (front) of Hyde Park Barracks, from across Queens Square

The beauties we find

At the rear of the Heritage Team office in the northern range of Hyde Park Barracks there is a room that was the quarters of the District Court Judge

Composite image of a selection of 4 walpapers
Wallpaper

Mr Fox's wallpapers

The digitisation of NSW school files at NSW State Archives has resulted in an unusual discovery: 19th-century wallpaper samples

Leaf pattern samples from a sample book of wallpapers, Essex & Co., 1893

The cultural history of wallpaper

Wallpaper, once dismissed as old and fusty, is having something of a resurgence of late