Public Folk Art: Billboards, Murals and Building Decorations from Yesteryear

Folk Art Theme Week started May 16, 2005

Public Folk Art Posted May-26-2005
Theme Week: Folk Art
The final chapter of American Folk Art for Kids, chapter 7, reveals one more type of folk art that has embedded itself into our consciousness — mostly through subtle and not-so-subtle advertising use.

The signs, advertisements, and patriotic art that were common over 100 years ago are now valued by collectors, and also by historians, for what they can tell us about our society. (p. 100)

This mostly commercial category of folk art includes product designs, trade cards, signs and color advertising, cigar-store indians, building signs, tavern and inn signs, billboards, murals, frescoes, building decorations, and patriotic items from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I remember visiting the Transportation Building at the House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin, a few years ago and reading through the collection of Burma Shave signs that used to spring up on roadsides to entertain travelers. Each series of signs told a tongue-in-cheek tale a few words (and s-miles) at a time.

An example of five signs in a Burma Shave series went like this:

DON'T PASS CARS

ON CURVE OR HILL

IF THE COPS

DON'T GET YOU

MORTICIANS WILL...

In some touristy places today, billboards still entertain families on long drives. I noticed this on I-90 on our way to Wisconsin Dells some years ago. Billboards for the Wisconsin Dells WWII land-water Ducks, Tommy Bartlett Show, and other attractions grew out of an otherwise ordinary midwest farm landscape to arouse anticipation of what was to come. Having never been to the Dells before in my life, the colorful sign-vertisements worked like a charm.

Building decorations of yesteryear are another cool sight. You can see a lot of this kind of stuff in old downtown districts of many large and small cities. One building decoration I remember seeing last year was in downtown Crystal Lake, Illinois. On the front of an old renovated tire store / garage (the name escapes me, but it's across from the train station) was an original stone carving of a tire with wings that immediately reminded me of the rock band Aerosmith.

This winged-tire sculpture was such an extraordinary element that I reminisced how it weathered through decades of war, free love, new wave, and other pre- September 11 times. Just looking at the sculpture comforted me somehow.

And by design, many buildings built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were trimmed with ornate sculptures and other decorative flair that we just don't see anymore on modern architecture. It certainly has its place in time.

Finally, a most recent discovery of public folk art was in the town of Belvidere, Illinois. Known as the City of Murals, Belvidere has over a dozen murals painted on the sides of its downtown buildings. Many of the murals are nostalgic, such as the "Cigar Store Indian" to the right. This mural is a recreation of an advertisement that was originally on this wall. Many other murals capture the same essence of another space in time, and I invite you to take a few minutes to view an online sideshow of this beautifully historic artform in downtown Belvidere (see link below) (© 2005 Chris Dunmire) .

Online:
Murals in the City of Belvidere, Illinois
Find the locations of and view the collection of public folk art gracing the downtown area of Belvidere, Illinois. This "City of Murals" online slideshow has over 18 murals and recreations of original sign advertisements used to decorate the sides of downtown buildings. •