It would be very hard to get staples to penetrate into plaster, and there would likely be a lot of flaking and damage to the surface.

They will go into drywall rather easily.

If there are any electric boxes in the ceiling you can look at the edges of the hole for them to see how the ceiling was finished.

An ice pick or scratch awl would also tell, though with slight damage to drywall (a tiny hole).

It does not take much effort to drive either into drywall (and even all the way through) while you will hardly leave a mark on plaster without hammering on the ice pick.

Wall covering on the ceilings in this time period were very common. Staples? I do not understand that.

I was also thinking that it was some kind of wallpaper or something. I am afraid to yank the staples as we are not ready to tackle that room yet and don't know what they are holding up. Yeah, I don't get the staples either. I am hoping to find the batteries to my camera today so you can see what I am seeing. Thanks for the replies!

I remember working in a house from the late 1920s removing painted over wallpaper from a large living and dining room.

The paint was even alkyd (oil) and a very dark green.

By the time we razor scraped the walls then went about steaming off the last layer of the paper the ceiling paper was falling in entire strips across the length of the rooms (over 20 feet).

Good luck figuring out what is up there.

It often takes some detective work to discover what has been done to old ceilings and walls over the life of an older house.

My upstairs ceiling has a layer of sanded spackle or plaster over a layer of 19th c. ceiling paper on an 1840 plaster ceiling.

By the time we razor scraped the walls then went about steaming off the last layer of the paper the ceiling paper was falling in entire strips across the length of the rooms (over 20 feet).

That happens more often than not.

I'm guessing the glue let go, perhaps due to a leak, and someone stapled the wallpaper back up.

KarinL

I'm guessing the glue let go, perhaps due to a leak, and someone stapled the wallpaper back up.
KarinL

Tht's probably exactly it. I still don't get how the staples stuck in the plaster though.

If the staples follow a grid pattern 1 foot square or 1x2 feet, it would be ceiling tiles. Long staples could have been enough to just hit the lath; if it was lime plaster it may have been soft enough to get a staple through.
Casey