Hobo Symbols From The Great Depression : The Secret Language Of America’s Itinerant Workers

60 hobo signs, used in the Great Depression by transient working class men and women who traveled by train, looking for jobs and sustenance

“The hobos who work and wander, the tramps who dream and wander, and the bums who drink and wander”
The Hobo: Sociology of a Homeless Man, Chicago, IL

 

HOBO SYMBOLS

In 1972 American industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss (March 2, 1904 – October 5, 1972) published The Symbol Sourcebook, A Comprehensive Guide to International Graphic Symbols. This visual database of over 20,000 symbols provided a standard for industrial designers around the world. He included a section of 60 hobo signs, used by ‘transient working class men and women who traveled by train to communicate with one another in the Great Depression, late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

 

Man in hobo jungle killing turtle to make soup, Minneapolis, Minnesota] Contributor Names Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer Created / Published [1939 Sept.]

Man in hobo jungle killing turtle to make soup, Minneapolis, Minnesota – by Vachon, John, 1914-1975 – 1939 Sept.

Lower Douglas Street, Omaha, is one of the hobo centers of the West Contributor Names Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer Created : Published 1938 Nov.

Lower Douglas Street, Omaha, is one of the hobo centers of the West Contributor Names Vachon, John, 1914-1975 – 1938, Nov.

A hobo "jungle" along riverfront. Saint Louis, Missouri Contributor Names Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer Created / Published 1936 Mar.

A hobo “jungle” along riverfront. Saint Louis, Missouri by Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, 1936 Mar.

Jules J. Wanderer noted in his 2001 paper ‘Embodiments of bilateral asymmetry and danger in hobo signs’ one way these signs worked was by tapping into the American brain’s natural bias for right over left:

For example, paths, roads, or trails were not marked with words indicating they were ‘preferred directions’ to travel or places to be ‘avoided.’ Instead objects were marked with hobo signs that discursively differentiate paths and roads by representing them in terms of bilateral asymmetry, with right-handed directions, as convention dictates, preferred over those to the left.

 

HOBO SYMBOLS

HOBO SYMBOLS

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