London: United Billposters’ Association, monthly, 1887-1910

[The years covered initially by Arts:Search will be 1892, 1896-1898 and 1903-09. Available soon]

The Bill Poster was the official journal of the United Billposters’ Association. The subtitle varies.

The journal provides an interesting insight into poster and outdoor advertising from the perspective of the printer and the distributor. In addition to trade news, these issues contain an eclectic range of articles including Pigs as Advertising Mediums; An Australian View of Highly Coloured Posters; Indecent Posters; Objectionable Hoardings; Billposting in India; the Nude in Art; Street Lamp Advertising; the ‘Cute’ Billposter; the Pictorial Poster; Jules Cheret’s Posters; The Horrors of Newspaper Advertisements; Celestial Advertising [projecting advertising messages on to clouds]; Railway Station Name Boards; Omnibus Advertisements; American Billposters’ Associations; the 1896 Poster Show in Philadelphia; The Poster Artist at Home [an interview with Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen]; ‘Poster Parties’; and Electric Signs.

Like many trade journals of this period, The Bill Poster is extremely scarce. We are hoping to digitize more issues at a later date.