Billiard Room Bookshelf

A reporter visiting Twain's house in 1885 explained that Twain abandoned the second floor study [now known as the girl's School Room] as a place to work, and that he "has moved still higher up-stairs into the billiard room, and there writes at a table placed in such a wise that he can see nothing but the wall in front of him and a couple of shelves of books." George Parsons Lathrop, of the Hartford Daily Courant for Oct. Harper's, Sept.1885.

Restoration work begun in 2003 revealed new physical evidence which, coupled with the only known Twain-era depiction of the room, allowed the Museum to more accurately portray the corner of the Billiard Room where Twain sat down to write.

In the process of removing 1970s restoration wallpaper from the wall in the southwest corner of the Billiard Room, decorative painters revealed the partial outline of an apparent lost feature. The scarring revealed on the dado section of the wall appeared as subtle, low relief bands and suggested narrow horizontal and vertical members of bookshelves.

Using a field microscope and photomicrography in the laboratory, architectural conservator and paint analysis expert Brian Powell examined the layering of the wall scarring and saw, "over plaster, a dark red paint over which was a red wallpaper. Over the wallpaper was a light yellow off white paint, seemingly the most recent paint applied to the walls," followed by the 1970s restoration wallpaper. The new information helped researchers better understand the chronology of wall treatments in the Billiard Room, and was consistent with the conclusion that the scarring on the wall resulted from the installation of a bookshelf during Twain's occupancy.

The Museum was able to combine this information with the only known depiction of the Billiard Room during Twain's time to confirm the presence of a built-in bookcase during his time. In 1896, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, published a sketch by Childe Hassam of the room. The sketch, which accompanied Joseph H. Twichell's article, "Mark Twain," shows a bookshelf at the southwest wall that conforms to the physical wall scare evidence.

The Museum hoped that evidence in the form of scarring or carpet tack holes on the floor near the southwest wall would provide information related to the depth of the lost bookcase. While no such evidence was discovered, researchers did establish that Twain had wall-to-wall carpeting in the Billiard Room. The Museum plausibly concluded that the bookshelf was installed with the carpet in place. Therefore, during the reconstruction of the bookcase, conjecture was required in creating the depth of the shelving. The wood used for the recreated bookcase is Southern Yellow Pine, as is the majority of the original woodwork in the Billiard Room.