Landscape friezes were popularized by Walter Crane’s May Tree frieze in 1896 and remained popular into the 1920s. Beginning around 1900 many wide friezes were developed for children, and this hunting frieze would have been appropriate for a boy’s room as well as a library or dining room. This panel shows the hunters, horses and dogs at rest in front of a lodge or cabin in a very stylized landscape setting, presumably at the start or end of a hunt. There is another similar landscape frieze with identical trees where the hunters, horses and dogs are shown in active pursuit. I don’t know if these were designed to be used together, splicing them at the tree to lengthen the size of the repeat, or if this was the manufacturer’s way to re-use the background printing rollers to create a second frieze design. This frieze would have been used with a sidewall paper most likely containing a subtle tone on tone design matching one of the colors in the frieze.
When it came to decorating their rooms boys had a great many more options than girls. Boys could choose from papers containing ships, Cowboys and Indians, space flight, or hobbies, while girls had very few options until the early 1970s. Girls usually had to settle for a pretty floral design that would have been similar to the Mother’s bedroom paper. Wallpapers designed for children first appeared in the 1870s and remained popular until the Depression, when parents and decorators began designing rooms that could grow with the child. Children’s wallpapers were reduced to simple stripes and plaids, while the details that identified the room as belonging to a child were relegated to things that could be easily and cheaply replaced as the child grew, such as pictures or toys.