photo by Richard Croft www.creativecommons.org

From as early as the fourteenth century, laws were passed forbidding shopkeepers in many European cities (notably Paris and London) to call out their wares. So to attract customers (many of whom could not read), shopkeepers put up huge shop signs. A tooth puller was represented by a tooth the size of an armchair; a glove maker a glove the size of a full-grown man.

These shop signs persisted for many more centuries. Even today, barber shops are still represented by the red and white striped poles, which hearkens back to barber-surgeons, who could provide services from shaving to pulling teeth to removing kidney stones to amputating arms and legs. The red and white stripes represent the blood and bandages from surgery.

Series: National Child Labor Committee Photographs taken by Lewis Hine, ca. 1912 National Archives