This timeline-style bar chart reveals the uneven distribution of recorded advertisements in Shanghai foreign settlements between 1905-1943, in terms of temporal coverage (variations across time). This graph has been established after the Shanghai municipal archives. The last years (1938-1943) are the most well-documented (65% of the recorded population during the entire period), due a huge inventory of the advertising hoardings existing in the International settlement in may 1943 commanded by the Shanghai Municipal. The 1930s are quite well-documented, thanks to the semi-annual lists of neon lights provided to the French Municipal Council by the compagnie Claude Neon Light, Fed. Inc. The 1920s are the least documented years, based on scattered applications for permits. Considering that the advertising business and measuring instruments were are their early stage, the first période (before 1919) is relatively quite well documented. Data for this early period mainly came from the first major census commanded by the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1914, with a view to tax advertising hoardings existing in the International Settlement, based on their surface.