Southerners, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), were virtually paperless as the wars end approached. Paper mills were Northern enterprises which the South didn't have access to. Union Navy blockades barred their passage to foreign markets as well. 
As a result every scrap of paper was used and then reused.
Absolutely any bit of paper with sufficient blank space was suddenly stationary. Books were stripped of their title pages to supply letter paper and material for homemade envelopes. Tax receipts, wrapping paper, election ballots, bank checks, accounting forms, music sheets .... etc... were exploited for postal purposes.
The envelopes fashioned out of wallpaper are stunning and slobbered over by .. cough.. geeky collectors! (Like my boyfriend).
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Pushing the Wallpaper Envelope in a pre Vintage Postcard Era
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6 cool cats commented:
Marie, I learn the most fascinating things on your blog. Thank you for this bit of American history. Please visit Paris Daily Photo. Eric also has something interesting to offer today.
Hi David! Sure thing! I checked it out and commented! I think that I want to start making my own wallpaper envelopes!
Making envelops is fun and you get very unique results AND it's Earth friendly! I like to make them out of magazine pages.
That's too cool! You are a green Blogbee!
I'm all for recycling paper, and this is a very creative way...again I learned something today from you!
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