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.
Please note that there is currently a waitlist of over a thousand requests for free bookmarks. We are delighted that the Poison Book Project has found such an interested audience! That being said, our team is small, so there is likely to be a few months’ wait in receiving your bookmark. We appreciate your patience.
Bulk Orders
We will send up to 3 bookmarks free of charge to anyone who fills out the form above. To arrange to receive a greater number of bookmarks, please email poisonbookproject@udel.edu with “Bookmark” in the subject line.
Considering the importance of printing accurate shades of green, we are not able to share the digital file.
While we encourage you to explore your own libraries, please do not mail us unsolicited books — we do not have the capacity to test and return them to you, and we have all of the study copies that we need. If you have questions about a specific book, please email poisonbookproject@udel.edu.