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Scouting Through History


Scouting History – Bits & Pieces #6 - Early BSA Billboards by Dave Eby

 

The Boy Scouts of American in 1913 had a rather large billboard advertising program that took place. The entire program was donated by the Billboard Posters Association. The Association created at their expense a rather impressive billboard design that depicted the values of Scouting. The billboards were nine feet high and twenty-one feet wide. The 1912 Annual BSA Report said that 7,000 of the billboards were to be placed in towns and cities around the country in May of that year. The 1913 Annual BSA Report said that 10,000 of them actually were placed around the country. The cost of the signs to produce was $10,000 which did not include what the donated space would have rented for. All existing merit badges of that time were printed around the border of the large signs. One of these posters was found intact in recent years and preserved by the National Council.

 

 

 

Written by

David L. Eby

Council Historian

Miakonda Scouting Museum

Erie Shores Council, BSA

Toledo, Ohio

 

 

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