{"id":663,"date":"2008-07-10T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2008-07-10T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/?p=663"},"modified":"2008-07-10T08:43:06","modified_gmt":"2008-07-10T16:43:06","slug":"ghost-type-borated-talcum-toilet-powder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/art-and-illustration\/typography\/ghost-type-borated-talcum-toilet-powder\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost type: borated talcum toilet powder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog-images-08\/powder.jpg\" alt=\"ghost type near harper's ferry, west virginia\" width=\"435\" height=\"326\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure how the advertiser managed to put this copy on a nearly sheer cliff high above the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers near Harper&#8217;s Ferry, West Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Much as I wanted to think they were promoting baking powder, considering the location&#8217;s unfortunate history I figured this was probably an ad for gunpowder or blasting powder (some of the words almost come into focus for me and then fade away). But to my surprise, now that I have internet I read that it was in fact <a title=\"ghost sign: talcum powder\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/hafe\/faqs.htm\" target=\"_blank\">an ad for &#8220;&#8221;Mennen&#8217;s Borated Talcum Toilet Powder<\/a><a title=\"ghost type: Mennen's Borated Talcum Toilet Powder, maryland heights, harper's ferry, west virginia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/hafe\/faqs.htm\" target=\"_blank\">.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The typeface is a little compressed and has a stencil quality. According to the National Park Service, it dates from 1903-1906. I guess it&#8217;s probably a little older than the <a title=\"ghost type, fell point, baltimore\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/08\/ghost-type-coal-tar-products\/\" target=\"_self\">ghost type from Baltimore<\/a> that I posted a while ago.<\/p>\n<p>The cliff with the sign is just to the left of the area shown in this image:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog-images-08\/shenandoah.jpg\" alt=\"shenandoah river near harper's ferry, west virginia\" width=\"435\" height=\"326\" \/><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure how the advertiser managed to put this copy on a nearly sheer cliff high above the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers near Harper&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightreading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}