There's something wonderful about the hubris implied in signs and advertisement painted on to buildings. The presumption that whatever was in that building right then was going to continue to be in that building until it was torn down by the ravages of time. Often dating back more than 100 years, the remarkable signs from the very dawn of advertising are usually demolished without second thought.

The Basement Geographer, an ongoing blog of the globe's many geographic curiosities, has compiled an extensive list of these fading markers. From the Hominy Grill (tagline: "Grits are Good For You") to ads for Coca-Cola where the primary selling point is that it "relieves fatigue" and only costs 5c, they have the feel of time-travelling postcards from a different, simpler time... when ads were as eternal as the buildings that housed them.