Behind the Yellow Wallpaper is a relaxed summer series that uses The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman as a starting point to explore ideas around mental health, gender, creativity, and history. Through casual discussions, guest speakers, and presentations, this series will connect the story to real materials from the museum’s archives and ephemera collection.
This series will meet bi-weekly Thursdays, 12:30-2:00 PM at the Henry Sheldon Museum.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys are available in the Musuem Store for purchase.
July 9, 2026
The Madwoman in the Wallpaper: A Discussion of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Join us for our series introduction where we will discuss mental health, gender, creativity, and history through the lens of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
First published in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is a semi-autobiographic short story centering a young mother’s struggle with postpartum depression, and her slow descent into madness as she is confined to her yellow-wallpapered bedroom.
This story serves as the starting point to the series and paves the way as we connect key themes from the text to the museum’s archival and ephemera collections.
Special reading by Michole Biancosino
July 23, 2026
Wallpaper Revealed: The Artistry of Wallpaper
In the final installation of this series, we will be looking at the artisanship that goes into making wallpaper, reframing how we think of it as purely decorative to a more specialized artform in its own right.
From pigments that caused sickness and even fatalities, to printing production and conservation, how can we understand wallpaper, as a product intended for at-home enjoyment, to be in conversation with art on a broader scale.
Guest speaker to be announced.
August 6
The Madwoman in the Attic: Colonial and Racial Implications on Mental Health
Centered around a discussion of The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, this week’s installment will explore the intersection of race, mental health, and art.
Written as somewhat of a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, The Wide Sargasso Sea reframes the narrative of the madwoman in the attic by asking what drove her mad in the first place? This book provides a jumping off point for a discussion of how gender, race, and colonialism all factor into mental health, as well as our understanding of how colonialism and race factor into western art and literature.
Guest speaker to be announced.
August 20th
Out from behind The Yellow Wallpaper: Voices of Vermont Women in Mental Institutions from the Museum’s archives.
What did it look like to receive mental health treatment as a woman in the 19th century? This week we will be discussing letters sent from Addison County women receiving treatment in New England sanitariums. These first hand accounts will provide important context for discussions around gender and mental health treatment in Vermont, both historic and contemporary.
The letters we will be discussing come from three separate facilities: Brattleboro Retreat, Jackson Sanitarium, and lastly Dr. Cunningham’s in Braintree, MA.
Presentation by Dr. Melissa Dubroff