NEW YORK, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Long before there were billboards, hand painted ads would cover large brick buildings in any number of U.S. cities, but more and more are being lost.
As old buildings make way for new construction, amateur archaeologists are keeping a record on the Internet of many of the signs that came into use in the 1800s and were still being made into the 1960s, reported the New York Times Saturday.
"They evoke the exuberant period of American capitalism," said Kathleen Hulser, public historian of the New York Historical Society. "Consumer cultures were really getting going and there weren't many rules yet, no landmarks preservation commission or organized community saying: 'Isn't this awful? There's a picture of a man chewing tobacco on the corner of my street.'"
A century ago, some preservation groups called the 10-foot signs for corsets vulgar, but today many groups are working to retain them, Hulser said.
The signs -- such as one that read: "Certified Cold Storage/Furs Coats Suits/Safe as a Bank" -- seem like remnants of "a more civilized time," Hulser said.
