American Sign Museum
2515 Essex Place
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
(800) 925-1110, ext. 336
(513) 258-4020
Fax: (513) 744-6936
E-mail: tod@signmuseum.org
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Signs Of Early Times
Signs of the Times magazine; April 1940, pp 26-27
Old Hand-Made Signs of Early American Days, Unearthed by WPA Artists in Research Work, Are Highly Prized As Collectors' Items Today-And Some Are Still in Service
Upon learning of the project of the Work Projects Administration in the compilation of the Index of American Design, Signs of the Times inquired what, if any, information has bee unearthed regarding the designing of early advertising signs in America.
Through the cooperation of Allan Sherman, chief, periodicals section, division of information, WPA, the findings recorded here were prepared especially for Signs of the Times.
This was the sign of the Bell-in-Hand tavern established in Boston in 1795 by James Wilson, town crier, and in operation until 1919. After repeal, a new tavern was opened, on which was displayed a reproduction of the original sign.
Display advertising in America is as old as the nation itself. Even before printing became common in the colonies, carved figures and hand-lettered signs were used by business to call attention to its wares.
A significant chapter in the history of American sign advertising is being recorded by artists employed by the Work Projects Administration in the compilation of the Index of American Design. This compilation is a collection of color drawings and photographs of early examples of American commercial and decorative art.
Those old signs, discovered by the hundreds through the explorations of the WPA artists, once were a serious form of commercial art. Later then vanished into cellars and attics, only to reappear in recent years as highly prized collectors' pieces — and some still in service.
Even after printing reached America, these old hand-hewn figures and signs continued to be the chief advertising medium. This was largely due to the fact that illiteracy was prevalent in the young United States, and in most American communities few if any streets were numbered. It was not until late in the nineteenth century that the cigar store Indians, the locksmith's keys and other distinctive figures began to vanish from the American scene.
Other old tavern signs sketched for the inclusion in the Index of American Design. The one at left, built in 1797 for David Reed's tavern at Concord, MA, had for its pictorial the flowing bowl. The one at right advertised the tavern of Stephen Patch on the Lexington road in Massachusetts back in 1816.
The cigar store Indian is probably best remembered of the early display signs. By 1860 no tobacconist considered his shop complete without one. There was Pierre Caspari, for instance, who paid $30 for his stock and $40 for his Indian when he opened a shop in Baltimore in 1861. Also, there were many other figures in use in the nineteenth century to advertise tobacco — Lord Dundreary, Sir Walter Raleigh, Punch, Uncle Sam and Turks. The Turks were used to advertise both coffee and tobacco. The figures produced by the better carvers sold for anywhere from $150 to $700.
The quality of the signs varied widely, of course, even as it does today. Some of the figures, in their hey-day between 1850 and 1880, were turned out by carvers who in some cases were sculptors and in others hardly better than carpenters. Many of these works of sign art were genuinely artistic and can be found in museums or private collections in widely separated states. A large gilt figure of Joe Brant, chief of the Mohawks, was sent to the Paris exhibition 1889, where it attracted considerable attention, and another, of Sitting Bull, was found by WPA research workers to have so pleased the real Indians that they signed a treaty in its presence.
It has been impossible, because of the lack of records, to present the American advertising figures in any chronological order. The oldest found by the WPA workers is a small counter standing with extended snuff-box in Lancaster, PA. This figure was carved in 1770 by a member of the Demuth family, which has been in the tobacco trade since that date. Earlier forms have been reported to the WPA searchers, but their present whereabouts are unknown. A figure of Pocahontas is said to have stood in Boston in 1730.
Cigar store Indians are still to be seen. This one, carved by Julius Melchers about 1875, was found in Michigan. The sign at right, of sheet iron and copper, from 1890 until recently advertised the decorative iron-working, locksmith shop of John A. Mangin I in New Orleans.
Some of the Signs are still doing service, while others have been reproduced to recall historic places or events. The Bell-in-Hand tavern in Boston, a gathering place today for legislators, lawyers, and newspapermen, has above its door a copy of the famous bell-in-hand that adorned the original tavern. In checking on the original sign now the property of the Bostonian Society, the WPA researchers found that it was built in 1795, not only to advertise the tavern but to bring attention to the calling of the proprietor, one James Wilson, who held the then highly respected office of town crier.
Unlike the present Bell-in-Hand tavern, which appeared after repeal, the original tavern was a temperance pub, where only malt liquors were sold. The sign hung until 1920, a year after the tavern was closed by prohibition, when it was dislodged and rescued by an employee of an adjoining building.
Two other interesting old tavern signs are now in the possession of the Concord, MA, Antiquarian Society. One, a hand-painted sign featuring a flowing bowl, was fashioned in 1795 to advertise David Reed's tavern in Concord. The other, made in 1816, promised "entertainment" at the pub of Stephen Patch on the Lexington road.
In New Orleans, a sign made in 1890 to advertise the decorative iron working shop of John A. Mangin still hangs in its original position although illness recently interrupted the sixty-four-year career of its original owner and designer. Above the Martha Washington candy shop in Washington, D.C., a few blocks from the great triangle of new government buildings, are two 10-foot figures holding grapes. They were purchased in Lancaster, PA, where they originally advertised a tavern here on the crowded turnpike.
The red and white striped barber pole remains in general use although few realize its original significance. It is centuries old and an importation form Europe. Its significance is that the barber of medieval days was also the surgeon, or "blood letter." Blood-letting was a common treatment for almost any ill. The red stripes denoted the blood; the white, the barber's bandage.
Now, rescued from the dust and cobwebs in which they languished for half a century, it is pleasant to think about the flow of trade these silent figures directed to the merchants who, like the signs, flourished a century or more ago. Even though these old-time point-of-sale signs should disappear, their existence is now recorded in the drawings made by the WPA workers on the American Index of Design project.
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