The History of Stickers, From Egyptian Labels to Personalised School Stickers
Although it is not known for certain exactly when or where stickers originated, a common theory is that it was the Ancient Egyptians who first came up with the idea of sticking paper advertisements onto their market stalls to advertise special offers. These would not have been anything like the stickers that you or I know today but rather images drawn onto a paper like material that was then held in place through the use of a sticky paste.
Europeans however took quite some time to come up with the idea for themselves and it was not until the 1800s that markets over here began to use stickers. At the time there was a huge amount of competition between different brands and so a group of advertisers came up with the idea of creating small, colourful labels to stick on their crates of fruit to show which orchard or area it came from. This helped their produce to stand out amongst the competition and increased sales. The idea of adding small labels to the fruit itself came later and is still continued to this day, in particular on apples.
These fruit stickers proved to be so successful and popular that they were almost instantly copied for a range of other products, such as cigars and canned vegetables, to provide brand identity and differentiate products on the same shelf. However these were still stickers that were applied with a separate paste. Self adhesive stickers had yet to be invented.
In 1840 Sir Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp. He had the idea to create a gum that was ready to use on the back of the stamp that simply needed to be made moist to regain its stickiness. Hence the invention of stamps that were licked before they could be stuck onto the envelope. This type of pre gummed sticker was copied for things other than stamps and many stickers were produced that needed to be made wet, with either water or saliva, before they could work.
Stamp style stickers were very popular with travellers who loved to use them on their luggage. Much like buying a colourful suitcase or tying a bright ribbon around the handle, this allowed passengers to easily identify which luggage was theirs when they stepped off a train or boat. Stickers were invented specifically for this purpose and these old fashioned luggage stickers are now very valuable collectors items today.
It was only in 1935 that the modern day sticker was first created. The inventor R. Stanon Avery created a machine that made stickers with a moist adhesive on the back, lain against a thin sheet of silicone that meant that the sticker could easily be removed and applied elsewhere. His invention was a huge success and this method of creating stickers has been used ever since, from food labels to stickers for children used just for fun. Modern stamps are now commonly available in this moist gummed format that does not need to be licked.
Thanks to Avery, this style of stickers has become a very widely used marketing tool for the past seven or eight decades. They are used on toiletries bottles for example, thanks to the invention of waterproof stickers. This also led to a huge rise in the popularity of bumper stickers, which need to be water resistant so that they do not get damaged if the car is driving in the rain. Holographic, reflective, glow in the dark and glitter are just a few examples of the types of sticker currently available on the market.
It is in relatively recent years that school teachers have discovered the benefits of personalised school stickers for classroom motivation. They are now commonly used as a reward for good work or extra effort, whether it be stuck onto the piece of good work or added to a progress or rewards chart. Children love to receive stickers and they can provide amusement for hours on end, without costing the parent or the teacher a lot of money. Colourful school badges and certificates of achievement are other great ways of motivating pupils. Teachers can buy packs of 100 attendance certificates for example to hand out at the end of term, encouraging higher levels of attendance in the following term.
Europeans however took quite some time to come up with the idea for themselves and it was not until the 1800s that markets over here began to use stickers. At the time there was a huge amount of competition between different brands and so a group of advertisers came up with the idea of creating small, colourful labels to stick on their crates of fruit to show which orchard or area it came from. This helped their produce to stand out amongst the competition and increased sales. The idea of adding small labels to the fruit itself came later and is still continued to this day, in particular on apples.
These fruit stickers proved to be so successful and popular that they were almost instantly copied for a range of other products, such as cigars and canned vegetables, to provide brand identity and differentiate products on the same shelf. However these were still stickers that were applied with a separate paste. Self adhesive stickers had yet to be invented.
In 1840 Sir Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp. He had the idea to create a gum that was ready to use on the back of the stamp that simply needed to be made moist to regain its stickiness. Hence the invention of stamps that were licked before they could be stuck onto the envelope. This type of pre gummed sticker was copied for things other than stamps and many stickers were produced that needed to be made wet, with either water or saliva, before they could work.
Stamp style stickers were very popular with travellers who loved to use them on their luggage. Much like buying a colourful suitcase or tying a bright ribbon around the handle, this allowed passengers to easily identify which luggage was theirs when they stepped off a train or boat. Stickers were invented specifically for this purpose and these old fashioned luggage stickers are now very valuable collectors items today.
It was only in 1935 that the modern day sticker was first created. The inventor R. Stanon Avery created a machine that made stickers with a moist adhesive on the back, lain against a thin sheet of silicone that meant that the sticker could easily be removed and applied elsewhere. His invention was a huge success and this method of creating stickers has been used ever since, from food labels to stickers for children used just for fun. Modern stamps are now commonly available in this moist gummed format that does not need to be licked.
Thanks to Avery, this style of stickers has become a very widely used marketing tool for the past seven or eight decades. They are used on toiletries bottles for example, thanks to the invention of waterproof stickers. This also led to a huge rise in the popularity of bumper stickers, which need to be water resistant so that they do not get damaged if the car is driving in the rain. Holographic, reflective, glow in the dark and glitter are just a few examples of the types of sticker currently available on the market.
It is in relatively recent years that school teachers have discovered the benefits of personalised school stickers for classroom motivation. They are now commonly used as a reward for good work or extra effort, whether it be stuck onto the piece of good work or added to a progress or rewards chart. Children love to receive stickers and they can provide amusement for hours on end, without costing the parent or the teacher a lot of money. Colourful school badges and certificates of achievement are other great ways of motivating pupils. Teachers can buy packs of 100 attendance certificates for example to hand out at the end of term, encouraging higher levels of attendance in the following term.
