To request a color swatch bookmark, fill out this form. PLEASE NOTE: Bookmark mailings are on hiatus for the summer. Your address will be added to the waiting list, and we will resume mailings again in September 2024. Thank you for your patience.
The Poison Book Project research team has developed an emerald green color swatch bookmark. This bookmark is not a conclusive means of identifying emerald green, but visual identification combined with other context clues such as publication date may help narrow down whether a book is likely to be bound in arsenical green cloth.
The color swatch bookmark offers the means to sort a book collection using visual identification, allowing institutions or private individuals to target the books of greatest concern in their collections and make the most efficient and cost-effective use of a consultant to perform instrumental analysis. For institutions or individuals who cannot afford to contract for follow-up instrumental analysis, the bookmark at least provides some means, albeit imperfect, of estimating risk.
Emerald green color swatch bookmark held next to a book covered with arsenical emerald green bookcloth.
Photo credit: Evan Krape, University of Delaware.