A Sign in a Hotel Room Warns the Occupant That Snoring is Forbidden, ca. 1926

A handwritten sign tacked onto the wall of a grubby hotel room warns the occupant that snoring is forbidden, ca. 1926. The sign reads, “Visitors must not snore. Those addicted to night noises can be transferred to floors 12 to 14 on application to check clerk.”

Snoring bans in shared accommodations, like boarding houses or flophouses, were sometimes enforced in the early 20th century, especially in places where travelers bunked together in communal sleeping spaces. The idea of a handwritten sign warning against it suggests an almost comical level of enforcement—perhaps a frustrated innkeeper or a fellow guest driven to their wit’s end!

Dorothea Lange – AIR, Kern County, California, 1938

Photographs of an air pump in Kern County, California, with a hand-lettered sign: “This is your country, don’t let the big men take it from you.”

This isn’t just a superb example of Dorothea Lange’s documentary photography of hand-painted signs (a frequent subject of hers), but an example of how she so poignantly captured snapshots of America’s sociopolitical landscape. The photos were taken in November 1938. It is a part of Lange’s renowned documentation of the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration (FSA).

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across the world; in most countries, it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century.

The Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the global economy can decline. The Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, (known as Black Tuesday).

Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II.

The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor countries. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade fell by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternative sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most.

Hoover’s first measures to combat the depression were based on voluntarism by businesses not to reduce their workforce or cut wages. But businesses had little choice and wages were reduced, workers were laid off, and investments postponed.

30 Amazing Vintage Photos of American Signs From Between the 1940s and ’70s

Vintage American signs often evoke a sense of nostalgia and reflect the design styles and cultural values of the past. They can range from roadside advertisements to old-fashioned shop signs.

Some common types of vintage American signs and what they often showcased: Roadside advertising, neon signs, tin and porcelain signs, public service and safety signs, shopfront and business signs, themed diner and restaurant signs, gas station signs, and movie theater marquees.

These vintage signs are appreciated for their historical and aesthetic value, often evoking a sense of nostalgia for the mid-20th century American experience. They are collected and displayed by enthusiasts and can often be found in antique shops, museums, or as decorative pieces in modern businesses.

These amazing vintage photos were found by Thomas Hawk that show signs in the U.S. from between the 1940s and 1970s.

Coleman, Milwaukee , Wisconsin, circa 1940s

"Welcome to New York State and the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway", New York, circa 1940s

"This Is The Place", Nevada, circa 1950s

Cliff House, California, circa 1950s

Wal-A-Pai "Tourist Court" motel sign, Rt 66, Kingman, Arizona, circa 1950

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“If Going Much Further Please Take One” – Australians “Stop Here” Sign on Desert Battlefront During North African Campaign

“If going much further please take one.” Typical ‘Aussie’ humor is reflected in this sign erected on the El Alamein road by Australian troops, 1942.

The Australians are famous for all their well-developed sense of humor. At the wire along the El Alamein road, they have erected a number of signs which are calculated to take all the desire from anyone with ideas of proceeding further west at the present time.

“CUT IT OUT YOU FOOL” – Anti-Smoking Sign Outside of Zion, Illinois, ca. 1920s

Road sign in field, stating that: “No Gentleman Will Use Tobacco in This City,” and “Cut It Out You Fool.” These photos were taken outside of Zion, Illinois from the early 1920s, at a time when smoking was generally considered healthy.

It wasn’t marketed as healthy until the late 1930s and 1940s. Alternatively tobacco wasn’t considered necessarily unhealthy either, just more “gross” and smelly and largely considered a novelty item. Before the marketing campaigns of the 1940s, the ads and marketing was mostly just artsy logos with brands behind them, mostly aimed at poorer folks until the turn of the century when ads began depicting wealthy men and Gibson girls smoking.

No claims of health benefits specifically, just mostly about good flavors and racist depictions for humor purposes. Cigarettes became more popular around the American Civil War, which led to an increase in “tar lung” occurrences as the years went on. Studies had been done on lung cancer and its causes since the 1700s which is when the first case was properly documented. Lung cancer was studied intensely on any reported cases because it was so rare. But German scientists in the 1910s began linking tobacco field workers and lung tumors with one another, assuming that tobacco dust was the culprit- and eventually looking into smoked tobacco. But it was considered inconclusive until the 1920s when more cases began showing up in cigarette smokers around the globe and there was a growing interest in this when scientists took a larger interest in tobacco users and did so by using animal testing vs tobacco juice and fumes (poor animals).

It was a confirmed link in men by the 1940s and 1950s but cigarette and tobacco companies fought hard against these claims and misguidedly used doctor endorsements to claim health benefits and the filter was introduced. So it was known to some degree that it was harmful by WWI, but the exact side effects not widely known.

Floyd’s Place, 1938

Floyd’s Place, Roadside inn, Central Ohio, summer 1938. From a series of photos taken along Route 40, by Ben Shahn, a Lithuanian-born American artist and member of the Social Realist movement. The figure of the body, originally distributed to advertise the Newark Indian Mounds, has been redecorated.

Japanese American Shop Owner in Oakland, California Hopes to Avoid Internment After the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1942

A large sign reading “I AM AN AMERICAN” placed in the window of a store, at 13th and Franklin streets in Oakland, California on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas. The owner, a University of California graduate, will be housed with hundreds of evacuees in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 that authorized military commanders to exclude civilians from military areas. Although the language of the order did not specify any ethnic group, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt of the Western Defense Command proceeded to announce curfews that included only Japanese Americans.

General DeWitt first encouraged voluntary evacuation by Japanese Americans from a limited number of areas. About seven percent of the total Japanese American population in these areas complied. Then on March 29, 1942, under the authority of Roosevelt's executive order, DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No. 4, which began the forced evacuation and detention of Japanese-American West Coast residents on a 48-hour notice. Only a few days prior to the proclamation, on March 21, Congress had passed Public Law 503, which made violation of Executive Order 9066 a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine.

In the next six months, approximately 122,000 men, women, and children were forcibly moved to “assembly centers.” They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded “relocation centers,” also known as “internment camps.” The 10 sites were in remote areas in six western states and Arkansas: Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Tule Lake and Manzanar in California, Topaz in Utah, Poston and Gila River in Arizona, Granada in Colorado, Minidoka in Idaho, and Jerome and Rowher in Arkansas.

Nearly 70,000 of the evacuees were American citizens. The government made no charges against them, nor could they appeal their incarceration. All lost personal liberties; most lost homes and property as well. Although several Japanese Americans challenged the government’s actions in court cases, the Supreme Court upheld their legality. Nisei were nevertheless encouraged to serve in the armed forces, and some were also drafted. Altogether, more than 30,000 Japanese Americans served with distinction during World War II in segregated units.

For many years after the war, various individuals and groups sought compensation for those incarcerated. The speed of the “evacuation” forced many homeowners and businessmen to sell out quickly; total property loss is estimated at $1.3 billion, and net income loss at $2.7 billion (calculated in 1983 dollars based on a congressional commission investigation). The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act of 1948, with amendments in 1951 and 1965, provided token payments for some property losses. More serious efforts to make amends took place in the early 1980s, when the congressionally established Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians held investigations and made recommendations. As a result, several bills were introduced in Congress from 1984 until 1988. In 1988, Public Law 100-383 acknowledged the injustice of the incarceration, apologized for it, and provided partial restitution – a $20,000 cash payment to each person who was incarcerated.

22 Interesting Vintage Photos of Welcome Signs

A welcome sign (or gateway sign) is a road sign at the border of a jurisdiction or region that introduces or welcomes visitors to the city/county/state/province/prefecture/canton/region.

In European countries under the Schengen Agreement, a welcome sign may be found at borders between countries. Its purpose is partly informational, to inform drivers where they are, and partly for tourism, as it affords an opportunity to advertise features within the region to people who are entering it. A welcome sign is a type of town sign—a sign placed at the entrance to and exit from a city, town, or village. In many jurisdictions, the format of town signs is standardized; in some, welcome signs may be distinct from the legally mandated town sign.

A municipality’s welcome sign may give its population or date of foundation, list twinned towns or services within the town, or depict the town’s crest, typical local products, or the logo of sponsor organizations which maintain the sign. Here below is a set of interesting vintage photos of welcome signs was found by Mark Susina.

Welcome to Arizona

Welcome to Arizona

Welcome to Berlin

Welcome to Curacao

Welcome to Fabulous Fort Dells

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Woman Giving a Warning on Her Ford Pinto Which Were Known to Potentially Explode From a Rear End Collision, 1970s

Patty Ramge of Detroit, posing Sept.1, 1978 with her 1975 Ford Pinto, has little trouble with motorists tailgating since she decked her car with a sign warning of its’ explosive nature if hit from the rear. Mrs. Ramge posted the warning after weeks of trying to convince Ford Motor Co., and its dealers to modify the fuel tank so it would not pose a fire hazard in a rear-end crash.

Vintage Photographs of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill Flashing His Trademark “V for Victory” Sign

Winston Churchill’s V for Victory sign is perhaps one the most iconic of the Second World War. Though it started with a simple radio broadcast, the symbol took Europe by storm and became a rallying emblem for those under occupation. 78 years on from VE Day, V stands for far more than Victory, it stands for solidarity, resistance and never giving up.

It was the symbol that united the British people during the darkest days of World War II. Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the V for Victory hand gesture one of the defining images of defiance during the bloody conflict.

Today, the gesture is more commonly acknowledged as meaning “peace” but back in 1941 it was much more powerful. But even though the famous wartime symbol is now synonymous with Churchill, he wasn’t even the one who came up with it. The powerful sign was first dreamt up in Belgium a year before it swept across Europe and into Britain.

BBC European Intelligence Director, Jonathan Griffin, had come across an item in an agenda while working in Belgium. The item to be discussed was the V for Victory sign. V was the first letter in Victory not only in English, but also French and Flemish. It was thought it could easily be scribbled on walls, even in the dark, to show resistance. Griffin reported back to his boss, John Lawrence the European Services Organiser, who launched a BBC campaign for it to be adopted during the war.

Winston Churchill first used the V for Victory sign on July 19, 1941. However, while the sign should be made with the palm facing outwards, Churchill was often holding a cigar and could be seen making the gesture with his palm facing towards him. Being a member of the upper classes, initially Churchill was said to be unaware of its rude meaning. But even after one of his staff told him that making the sign with his palm facing inwards meant “up yours” - he still refused to stop using it that way.

Churchill’s private secretary, John Colville, wrote at the time in his private diaries: “The PM will give the V-sign with two fingers in spite of representations repeatedly made to him that this gesture has quite another significance.”

It meant that Britain’s PM could insult his German enemy every time he made the “up yours” sign at them – without them even realizing. The double meaning – V for Victory or “stick it up the Germans” became part of the national consciousness and stuck for the rest of the war.

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Early Speed Limit Signs in the United States From the 1920s

As cars have become faster, speed limit signs have naturally kept up. The first speed limit signs were posted at city and town limits. Early signs were not reflective. By the middle to late 1920s however, many cities required that speed limit signs be illuminated. The early requirement was for a famous GE style of light, called a “MAZDA” lamp. The New York State legislature, in 1925, passed a law that “each city shall have placed conspicuously [signs on] each main highway, where the rate of speed changes [and signs shall be] adequately illuminated between sunset and sunrise.”

For many townships and cities, however, internal illumination proved difficult. Too many roads needed speed limit signs and power was not readily available. As a result, speed limit signs started to use “cats eye” reflectors. Signs with reflectors captured the light from early auto headlights and reflected the message back to the driver.

By the late 1920s however, the interstate system adopted signs which initiated many of the design elements that we see today on our current Speed Limit sign designs. The signs were rectangular, taller than wide, printed in black and white and highlighted the actual numerical speed limit in taller letters. Rectangular signs “are used to carry direction of use or benefit to the driver” (1927 AASHO). AASHO also cited that the dimensions of Speed Limit signs (a tall rectangle) distinguish them from other directional signs.

But, most early roads were not part of the nascent interstate system, nor were they part of a city’s street network. These early roads, which still transverse rural communities, seldom posted signs. For many, the “honor system” was predominant.

The debate between those demanding the freedom to travel at high speeds in an unregulated environment and others citing the need for greater security and increased regulation (e.g. signs) was common in the 1920s and 1930s. For certain communities, “too slow speeds” were also an issue. As reported in the June, 1925 Lyle Sign Post, the chairman of the Maryland State Roads Commission, John Mackall, “advises substitution of the maximum speed limit with a minimum speed limit, to speed up traffic. Mackall also suggested slow-moving vehicles be barred from main streets during peak hours.”

Many states did not require drivers licenses. As part of the author’s own family lore, there is a wonderful story of two strong-willed daughters, Lydia and Mary, traveling from their home in North Dakota to visit their father, Senator Langer, in Washington, DC. With little experience, other than on farm machinery and certainly no license, they ended up in Washington in record time. Speed limits (and the few Speed Limit Signs) were proudly ignored.

For more discussion, see the excerpt below on fixed speed limits: “Should there be Fixed Speed Limits?”. Even in the 1930s and 1940s, speed limits were not uniform. Should speed limits change, depending upon the weather conditions, road conditions and time of day (for example, during school hours)?

It was not uncommon to find that speed limit regulations changed from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Towns often found themselves at odds with neighboring communities. Moreover enforcement was also inconsistent. See the 1927 excerpt below from one Mayor’s reported leniency towards speeders. In spite of this speed limit variability, school zones and pedestrian areas have always been more tightly regulated.

(via Road Traffic Signs)

Unique Road Sign, 1949

Unique Road Sign is probably a forerunner of many other similar ones to come. Here, it keeps the road clear as a Navy transport helicopter comes in for a landing at the Piasecki Heliport at. Morton, Pa., 1949.

Then-Mayor Hans Tanzler and Actress Lee Meredith Installing a New Jacksonville City Limit Sign in October 1968

If you’ve lived in Jacksonville for long, you’ve probably seen this photo. It’s by far the most famous image related to the Consolidation of the city of Jacksonville with Duval County, and it’s likely the best known in Jacksonville history. Not bad considering it originated with a fairly routine publicity stunt intended to draw people to see a road sign being installed, and was never even published at the time.

(Photo: Lou Egner, Jacksonville Journal, October 1968)

When it went into effect on October 1, 1968, the Jacksonville Consolidation transformed the city overnight. It merged the city and county governments into one and added all formerly unincorporated land in Duval County - everything except for Baldwin and the three Beaches cities - into Jacksonville’s municipal boundaries. Consolidation was the biggest change to Jacksonville’s government since its incorporation in the 19th century, and made the city the largest in the contiguous United States.

With Consolidation taking effect, Mayor Hans Tanzler and his team looked for ways to celebrate the accomplishment. As Tanzler told The Florida Times-Union in 2005, the idea behind the famous picture came from his public relations head, Jack Newsome. Newsome felt that the installation of new city limit signs at the county line would make a perfect photo op, and Tanzler agreed. Knowing the event would need a bit more than a road sign to draw in the media and public, Newsome arranged for some celebrity endorsement. Actor Lee Meredith, perhaps best known for playing Ulla the sexy Swedish receptionist in the 1967 Mel Brooks film The Producers, was in Jacksonville performing in the play Champagne Complex at the Alhambra Theatre. She agreed to participate.

The new city limit sign was to be installed on San Jose Boulevard by Julington Creek. Initially, Newsome wanted Meredith to put up the sign, with Tanzler holding the ladder, but Tanzler refused. “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck,” he told the Times-Union. “If I do that, it’s going to be immediately assumed I had advantages a lot of people would like to have. So I said, ‘I’ll get up there and she can hand it to me.’” The now-famous photo was only one of several shot by Jacksonville Journal photographer Lou Egner that day. Egner’s photo captures a particularly memorable mise-en-scène: Meredith kicking one leg out, Tanzler grinning, and down below, the ladder holder doing exactly what Tanzler had wanted to avoid: looking up. That last cheeky detail has only contributed to the picture’s enduring popularity.

The photo that Jacksonville Journal readers saw in 1968. (Photo: Lou Egner, Jacksonville Journal, October 1968.

As well known as the photo is today, it’s not the one readers saw back in 1968. As Mark Woods of the Times-Union wrote, the Jacksonville Journal published three of Egner’s photos that day, including one of Tanzler and Meredith holding the sign. But in that shot Tanzler isn’t looking at the camera, Meredith isn’t kicking her leg out, and “Ladder Guy” is nowhere to be seen. It was only in 2000 that Times-Union photo editor Jack Luedke dug up the version that’s now famous while sorting through the joint Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal archives for a book commemorating the millennium. Since that time, the photo has been everywhere, to the point that most don’t realize it was never seen back in the ’60s.

Viewed in the 21st century, the photo is, to put it charitably, dated. A 2005 Cummer Museum exhibit on historic Jacksonville photography that prominently featured the shot drew some critical, even angry responses. But for others, it provides an unforgettable image that reflects not only an important historical moment, but the state of politics and American society in the 1960s. At any rate, the publicity stunt succeeded beyond all possible expectations, to the point that 30 years later it produced an image that has firmly lodged itself in the local imagination.

One interesting thing about Ladder Guy: no one knows who he is. Or rather, most who knew his identity had died by the time folks thought to look into it, including Tanzler and Newsome. In 2019, The Florida Times-Union asked Tanzler’s son Hans Tanzler III and Tyrie W. Boyer, son of the elder Tanlzer’s law partner Tyrie A. Boyer, if they knew his identity, but neither could solve the mystery. Boyer recalled that his father and Tanzler had once told him the man’s name, but he couldn’t recall it. Like so many others in Jacksonville history, Ladder Guy’s real name belongs to the ages.

This original article was published on The Jaxson Mag)

The Ambassador Cinema in Dublin, Ireland From the Late 1970s and Early 1980s

These photos of the cinema from the 1970s and ’80s display the artistic skills of Dublin signwriter Kevin Freeney (1919-1986). His first job for the venue was producing the sign for the 1978 Sean Connery’s film The First Great Train Robbery, later he was assisted by his nephew who helped with the artwork in the backroom of the cinema.

In the book “Dublin Street Life & Lore” by Kevin C. Kearns, the author mentions the work of Mr Freeney. He wrote “Signwriting goes back at least three generations in his family. Back in the 1930’s he rambled through Dublin’s streets on a bike or with a pushcart carrying his paints and brushes. In that period the city’s streetscapes were elegantly embroidered with handwritten shop and pub fascias. Having done “at least 700 pubs and shopfronts” in Dublin, the most famed streets — O’Connell, Henry, Grafton, and Capel— all carried his personalised three-dimensional relief lettering and ornamentation. His fellow craftsmen hailed him as a Master.”

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Marilyn Monroe Wishing You All a Happy Fourth of July

Marilyn Monroe posed for Fourth of July, wearing a bikini with some oversized fireworks and a sign that reads “Beware of Danger, July 4th”. These photographs were taken by Bert Reisfeld in 1953.‬

“Beautify America - Get a Haircut” – Anti-Hippie Billboard From 1968

Billboards about social and political causes are nothing new. The billboard “Beautify America - Get a Haircut” produced by John Donnelly & Sons, expressing opposition to hippie fashion styles appeared in early 1968. The Associated Press sent out this file photo on February 9th of that year with the caption “Or in some cases, grow some.”

One of the key themes of the 1960s was generational tension. Youth culture styles and fashion were a consistent target from various authorities, from parents, to media commentators, to law enforcement and school officials. Long hair on men became a particular point of contention. To some adults, long hair symbolized opposition to the War in Vietnam, or an acceptance of countercultural values, like drug use, premarital sex, and resistance to traditional authority.

During the late-1960s, several school attempted to compel young white men to cut their hair. In 1968, for instance, the principle of a New Hampshire Catholic school marched 18 students from class to a local barbershop for a haircut. That same year, school officials at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Connecticut, suspended 53 male students because their hair covered their ears or hung over their collars. They also restricted young women from wearing thigh-high mini-skirts. 18 male students complied, but others resisted, protesting outside the school with signs that read, “It’s 1968, not 1984,” “Is Hair Unfair?” “Does Society Hang by a Hair?” and “Unconstitutional Harassment.” The ACLU represented four of the students in a court challenge, but lost. The school principle argued that long hair was a major classroom distraction, while the ACLU cited the Magna Carta and U.S. Constitution, claiming the restrictions violated fundamental individual rights and had nothing to do with education. The judge skirted the constitutional issues, justifying his decision by saying it would be unfair to the 18 students who complied with the order if he ruled for the four who refused to comply.

In a separate 1970 case in Massachusetts, though, a judge sided with the students, writing, “We see no reason why decency, decorum and conduct require a boy to wear his hair short. Certainly eccentric hair styling is no longer a reliable sign of perverse behavior. We do not believe that mere unattractiveness in the eyes of some parents, teachers, or students, short of uncleanliness, can justify the proscription. Nor, finally, does such compelled conformity to conventional standards of appearance seem a justifiable part of the educational process.”