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The word “billboard” comes from “billing board”. If you haven’t seen one already, this is a large advertising structure found along highways, expressways and other busy traffic places. Billboards usually display witty slogans and some form of visual design to attract attention. To appreciate the billboards, it is important to understand their history.

Billboards were born out of necessity – the need was to get messages across to illiterate people. According to archaeological discoveries, the oldest known billboard was used in Thebes in Egypt about three thousand years ago. It was used to offer a reward for capturing a fleeing slave. More recently, it can be said that the predecessor of today’s modern billboard is display. This has been used in Europe as a source of informal information as opposed to advertising.

Most people may not realize that billboards were originally used as an expression of art in the late 18th century, when lithography was invented. The very first artistic themed poster was created by Frederick Walker, an Englishman, in 1871 for a play in London. At the beginning of the 20th century, many schools taught poster art and certain artists like Talouse Lautrec made a name for themselves.

Circus posters were the first large-scale use of billboards for advertising. The billboards were attached or printed on horse-drawn trucks. This was done to increase interest in the shows. At the time, billboards were not controlled by law and they were not standardized. The first standard for billboards has been set at 19.5×8.7 feet, which is equivalent to the twenty-four billboards used today.

Ultimately, the standard size of billboards were evolved out of these humble beginnings. These billboard standards were then approved by organizations in the United States between 1872 and 1912, which became the standard adopted by various countries around the world.

The billboards had a great influence on the nightlife of the cities. Before the use of electric billboards in the early 20th century, cities were ominous at night. Electric billboards have brought cities to life. In fact, one could argue that the billboards gave birth to the nightlife because people could stay outside later at night.

In the late 1920s, ordinary people bought cars and traveled more often and over longer distances. This has led to the use of billboards along highways, freeways and other roads. The first billboards borrowed a lot from what was going on in society, as they do today. They were an illustration that depicted a problem-free world in the 1930s, when the world was going through the Great Depression.

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