Cooperstown New York is certainly well known for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Ron pays a visit to this small city's other cultural landmark, The Farmer's Museum. Located on the site of a former dairy farm, the Farmer's Museum captures 19th century rural American life, including re-creations of stores, crafts shops and even games.
Ron visits the American Paper-Staining Manufactory for a fascinating lesson in creating and printing 1800's era wallpaper on the only block press of its kind in North America.
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In the 1800s, long rolls of paper were not available, so their first step was to glue individual sheets together to form a long roll and then they painted the paper to provide a base color for their paper.
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| Once the base color was applied, they moved to the sieve, which is basically a large stamp pad. They began by saturating the felt with white paint.
The block that they used was an 1830s wallpaper pattern. They applied the paint to the wood block by tapping it a few times on the felt.
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| The block was then pressed onto the paper with a giant pressing mechanism controlled by a large lever. This process was repeated all the way down the paper roll using the registration marks to perfectly align the block onto the paper each time it moves down the line. |
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| After the first color was stamped onto the entire roll of paper, a second block with a contrasting pattern was introduced using another color. For every color on the wallpaper pattern, another block of wood is needed.
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| After the entire paper is filled with the printed pattern, the paper is hung to dry an the process is repeated.
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