History
Stickers have long been used to convey messages, including political and informational messages, on various surfaces that they might be placed. The introduction of stickers made specifically for the purpose of placement on vehicle bumpers necessarily date roughly with the introduction of the automobile bumper; the Ford Model T lacked bumpers to which bumper stickers could be conveniently attached, but the Ford Model A, introduced in 1927, had them. One online source credits the current bumper sticker to Forest P. Gill, a silkscreen printer from Kansas City.
The first bumper stickers appeared shortly before World War II; they were flag-like, and attached to the bumper by wires. Gill replaced the wire attachments with pressure sensitive adhesive, and as a result bumper stickers became more widespread and practical.
The first widespread use of the advertising bumper sticker might have been the ubiquitous "See Rock City" signs, touting a tourist attraction atop Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. In the 1940s, visitors to the site had a sticker applied to their car, which duplicated the famous signs painted on the roofs of barns throughout the southeastern USA. Rock City staff would circulate through the parking lot, applying the promotional sticker to every car. Although called "stickers", these bumper signs were really lightweight, screen-printed cardboard. They were attached by means of thin aluminum strips, running through the end of the sign and wrapping around the bumper.
Read more about this topic: Bumper Sticker
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)