The fading advertisements on the walls of Birmingham's buildings paint an illuminating picture of the men and women who built an industrial boomtown in the first half of the twentieth century. Advertising expert, artist and writer Charles Buchanan unravels the mysteries behind Birmingham's ghost signs to reveal glimpses of the past now hidden in plain sight. Featuring stunning color photography by Birmingham native Jonathan Purvis.

Before the billboard, radio or television commercial, there was the painted ad. Today, these aging ads capture the imagination, harkening back to a bygone era. Vanishing paint on brick walls speaks to a time when commerce was much simpler and much more direct. Few cities in America have produced as many intriguing fading ads as St. Louis. Fewer still are home to such an expert on the subject as author Wm. Stage. For decades, Stage has studied and researched the lost art form of the painted ad, carefully tracking the history of this hands-on approach to advertising from its lustrous heyday to its disappearing present. Join Stage on a tour through St. Louis's fading ads hidden in plain sight.

This is the first scholarly collection to examine the social and cultural aspects on the worldwide interest in the faded remains of advertising signage (popularly known as ‘ghost signs’). Contributors to this volume examine the complex relationships between the signs and those who commissioned them, painted them, viewed them and view them today. Topics covered include cultural memory, urban change, modernity and belonging, local history and place-making, the crowd-sourced use of online mobile and social media to document and share digital artefacts, ‘retro’ design and the resurgence in interest in the handmade. The book is international and interdisciplinary, combining academic analysis and critical input from practitioners and researchers in areas such as cultural studies, destination marketing, heritage advertising, design, social history and commercial archaeology.

Some of Birmingham Alabama's history has been lost. This book takes a look at this lost history and brings it back to life. Birmingham has many notable historic landmarks today, but so many more are all but forgotten. The Bangor Cave Casino was once a world-renowned speakeasy. The Thomas Jefferson Hotel featured a zeppelin mooring station, drawing lots of attention from tourists. Other significant sites from the past, such as Hillman Hospital and the buildings on the "Heaviest Corner on Earth," are unknown even to natives now. Local author Beverly Crider presents an intriguing and educational tour through these and more hidden treasures.

Like the Cheshire Cat, much of Chicago's history fades away while perched in plain sight. For more than a century, the brick walls of the city served as a ready canvas for advertisements that married artistic experimentation and commercial endeavor. Intrepid painters planted signs for horseshoers and Hamlin's Wizard Oil in places where they would outlast the way of life they represented. Since author Joseph Marlin began documenting the city's advertisements more than thirty years ago, many of them have completely vanished beneath the onslaught of blizzard and bulldozer. From national brands to mom-and-pop shops, his collection offers the last glimpse of a bygone era.

Philadelphia's faded ads are history in plain sight. They are tangible remnants of changing neighborhoods and industries, and Fading Ads of Philadelphia presents a new way to view these forgotten urban stories. Join author and photographer Lawrence O'Toole as he explores these physical touchstones of the city's history--a sign for a bygone family business seen only from the elevated train tracks, the Gretz smokestack advertising the now defunct Kensington brewery and an ad for the Midtown Theater that is slowly reappearing from behind layers of whitewash. O'Toole re-creates this lost urban landscape as he hunts signs from Center City to the River Wards and from South Philadelphia to West Philadelphia. Through this stunningly illustrated book, urbanites will again view these too often overlooked ads--and their stories--with fresh eyes.

Across Detroit, fleeting symbols of the past hide in plain sight, behind weeds and under veneers of paint. Demolishing a vacant building among empty storefronts on the west side uncovered the telltale gold and green of a Vernors Ginger Ale sign, preserved almost as vibrantly as the artist intended. In faded red, white and blue, Mac-O-Lac Paint makes an expired pitch to passersby on Gratiot near Eastern Market. On the east side, Mohawk Rock and Rye still declares itself the "World's Finest " Carhartt, Stroh's and Faygo appear in odd, deserted places. Detroit Free Press journalist Robert Allen sifts through these advertising fossils, exposing the gripping stories connected to the Motor City's historic rises, falls and eccentricities.