Furnishing the Street

Parisian cityscape changed dramatically during the Second Empire and the Third Republic, not only through large-scale urban planning but also through a surge in commercial posters—including large illustrated lithographed posters from the 1870s—signs, murals, and street furnishings in the street. The French advertising industry was established through myriad practices and establishments that preceded the urban transformation under Baron Haussmann but whose effects were at their height from the 1880s, after the passing of the landmark 1881 press law. This chapter explores urban and economic modernization seen through the development of billposting agencies, as well as the city's policies regarding the display of advertising in public spaces, largely through archival material from the city of Paris. In shaping policies on advertising, city authorities confronted issues of urban aesthetics, circulation, morality, commercial demand, city finances, and the class dynamic corresponding to different neighborhoods. From the 1840s street advertising was heavily mediated by billposting agencies, which divided up much of the available spaces through public and private contracts. Spaces for billposting included many giant, temporary walls erected for construction from the 1850s. The intensive mediation by billposting agencies had much to do with concerns regarding aesthetics, morality, and circulation. "Reserved," organized billposting was preferred to the chaotic, free-for-all advertising. This way the city had more of a control over what was displayed in the public space.KeywordsPublic SpaceDepartment StoreTheater PosterCity AuthorityCommercial DemandThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves

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• The Agony of the Republic

  Edward T Gargan, John M Merriman•The American Historical Review•1979

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