BUFFER BOYS BE WARNED! (Poster)
1957-8
RD00042.0038
This poster reads: ‘Buffer Boys- Be Warned! Only duffers ride on buffers! Don’t do this for sport and be crippled for sport- for life!’ There is an illustration of a tram, with a young boy climbing on the back, and another young boy falling off the tram and on to the track.Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport...
Rights information: Copyright: Museum of Liverpool
Description
This poster reads: ‘Buffer Boys- Be Warned! Only duffers ride on buffers! Don’t do this for sport and be crippled for sport- for life!’ There is an illustration of a tram, with a young boy climbing on the back, and another young boy falling off the tram and on to the track.
Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport produced a series of around 50 of these information posters for travellers 1957-58. They primarily promoted safety messages and events. This poster warns children of the dangers of jumping and hitching a ride on the buffers of trams.
The language, deliberately aimed at boys, warns of the dire consequences of ‘becoming crippled.’ At this time, an acquired disability was viewed and treated by wider society as life-ending, rather than life-changing.
- Iris Sirendi, Curating for Change Fellow, Museum of Liverpool