COLLECTION: The Poisons: A Series

Scheele’s Green, or Paris Green – a color that was made from the highly toxic chemical arsenic, (also used as rat poison). Arsenic was easily and often confused with flour or sugar, tasteless, odorless and pervasive throughout the Victorian home in wallpaper, nearly every kind of paper, damask curtain and drapes, and clothing (dresses, socks for men, gloves, stockings, etc.) cosmetics and even as an aphrodisiac!

Unbeknownst to the Victorians, it was killing thousands. As the death tolls continued to rise and medical science was catching up to the connections between the cause and symptoms, the media started drawing attention to the problem. William Morris, the most famous wallpaper manufacturer in the world, whose family owned the mines that provided arsenic for his papers, was immediately dismissive of the dangers, saying that those who believed arsenic was the cause of illness or death had been “Bitten By Witch Fever.” Arsenic has been used as a quiet poison for centuries!  Radium, cocaine, morphine and heroin, alcohol….What Is Your Poison?