The RISD Museum highlights the fragile beauty and striking designs of centuries-old examples of wallpaper from the collection of a French-American couple, purchased in 1934.

Using its collection of French wallpaper made from the 1770s to the 1840s, likely the finest outside France, the RISD museum again shows us what a uniquely smart and inventive place it is.

In 1675, French dominotier Jean-Michel Papillon made the first repeating patterns for wallpaper intended for use in one continuous line: Papillon had invented wallpaper as it is known today.

Maison Pierre Frey, a French textiles company founded in 1935, plainly credits “faraway ethnic groups” for many of its design references, which are interpreted “in a very French style.” ...