What Bill Posting meant in 1898


If you're wondering what's going on here in this photo from the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions), you're looking at a company that did bill posting. And while it isn't a term that's used nowadays, it's still part of the language of billboards.

The term "billboard" simply means a dedicated place where advertisers could post bills. That is, where they could put up advertising. Yes, ads were plastered all over the place, on the sides of barns, on houses, businesses, street lights, wherever, and they were commonly called "bills". If you're old enough, you may have seen signs that said "post no bills!" in public places. That started when cities had had enough enough of these ads covering up just about everything, which looked very ugly and messy. In cities like Elizabeth, New Jersey, there were dedicated boards where these bills could be posted. Advertising is big business, and needs to be controlled, you know that!


I really have no idea if we're looking at S. Pratt himself there, or just men who worked for him. It's obvious that they're doing the right thing, posting bills only on boards meant for them, and they're a reputable company because of that. Speaking of which, let's look at the ads!


It looks like there's a new play at the Lyceum, called Up York State. Hang on, I'll see if I can Google it. Remember this is before movies, if it's on the Internet Movie Database, it would be a movie based on the play, not the play itself. I'll go see what I can find.


I found mention of it, but not much more than is right here. David Higgins and Georgia Waldron were in it. Looks like a wedding scene to me. I'm guessing that's David there with his hand on his lapel next to the woman in the wedding dress. What do you think?


There's something behind the guy on the left, it says Elizabeth Bil___? Always... Could be describing the billboard, and giving instructions, which would be similar to bulletin boards that I used to see on campus. The idea was to give people a place to post their stuff. Boards for bills!

Images from the Duke University Library Digital Collections and Alamy Stock Photography.
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