Gray T-shirt featuring Mennen's ad on the front. Back is plain gray. Text reads: Mennen's Borated Talcum Toilet Powder Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. 50% cotton, 50% polyester.
The faded painting on the face of Maryland Heights was an early 1900s advertisement aimed at passengers on the B&O Railroad, which was a heavily traveled rail line. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, painting advertisements on brick buildings and stone cliffs was very popular. As transportation shifted to roads and automobiles, advertisements moved to billboards and highways. Many local residents believed it to be a “desecration of nature”, so in 1963 volunteers from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club scaled the cliff and attempted to eradicate the ad with paint remover and carbon black. Four years later, the sign was visible once again and has since been left alone.
