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Photo of Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum display poster

Poster, chromolithograph, Birge Wall papers, ca. 1930
In 1878 George and Henry Birge expanded what had been a side line in their father's dry goods business into a full time wallpaper manufacturing business.

By 1892 it was one of the few profitable wallpaper businesses in the country, and by the beginning of the 20th century had opened offices in London, New York, and Germany it was innovative in design, hiring talented artists like Charles Burchfield, and in technology, developing products like washable vinyl wallcovering in 1959. Nevertheless, changes in taste after World War II drove the company out of business.

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