The Boston Globe's Newspaper Row storefront

May 24, 2011 7:10 PM

Long before the Web, The Boston Globe had a “homepage” of sorts – its old storefront downtown. Taking advantage of its location in a heavily trafficked block of Newspaper Row, the young daily brought the news to Bostonians in a whole new way: handwritten signs.
posted by Trurl (8 comments total)

I heard back then The Big Picture was painted by amateur artists on HUGE canvasses of news pictures
posted by wheelieman at 7:56 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

That's really neat, sort of a more personal version of the ticker on Times Square. It would have been a good subject for The Big Picture.
posted by TedW at 7:57 PM on May 24, 2011

Huh - interesting!

The "handwritten signs" on storefront angle made me think of Badger Liquor on State Street in Madison.
posted by symbioid at 8:50 PM on May 24, 2011

That's really cool. I wish there were sign spinners for news stories nowadays -- in my neck of the woods, the main road always has a bunch of kids holding signs for "SELL UR GOLD 4 CASH" businesses. It would be neat to see somebody wearing a sandwich board with whatever the top headlines for the day are, selling newspapers by the roadside. (Of course, I live in Florida, land of the Old, where not everybody gets their news online.)
posted by Gator at 8:54 PM on May 24, 2011

Before the web, Metafilter was a bunch of guys standing on a street corner, arguing. And, sometimes, singing.
posted by SPrintF at 9:10 PM on May 24, 2011

Before the web, Metafilter was a bunch of guys standing on a street corner, arguing. And, sometimes, singing.


Metatalk
posted by nasreddin at 11:38 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

one of the most interesting aspects of the article, i thought, was the juxtaposing hat styles from 1912 to 1925.
posted by jadayne at 5:15 AM on May 25, 2011

One thing I have always liked about historical ephemera is my impression that decades ago, everyone had far better handwriting than today: looking at letters written by people in my great-grandparents' generation, I see the results of many years practice with the nib and the inkwell, with stern nuns standing over the students.

Then there is this guy, whose ungainly modern-looking scrawl is a better argument for time travel than the photo of the dude in modern sunglasses at the dam opening or the old lady on the cell phone at the Chaplin premiere.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:31 AM on May 25, 2011