October 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Chronicle (October 4, 1773).

“The Printer of this Paper begs the Favour of ALL who are indebted to him for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Advertisements, &c. to make IMMEDIATE PAYMENT.”

William Goddard exercised his prerogative as printer to place his notice first among the advertisements that appeared in the October 4, 1773, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle.  He placed it immediately below the shipping news from the customs house in Philadelphia, a strategy frequently deployed by colonial printers.  Even if readers only skimmed the remainder of the contents of that issue, the advertisements, once they determined that the portion devoted to news came to an end then they might give more attention to the first of the notices they encountered than any of the others.

Goddard participated in a familiar refrain among printers: “The Printer of this Paper begs the Favour of ALL who are indebted to him … to make IMMEDIATE PAYMENT.”  He made a special appeal to “his Customers who live in the Country,” whether in Pennsylvania or other colonies served by the Pennsylvania Chronicle, to “order Payment to be made in this City,” Philadelphia, “or remit the same by the first good Opportunity.”  Goddard pleaded for cooperation because “the Accounts are small and lie so wide of each other, that they cannot be collected without great Trouble and Expence.”  He implied that most overdue accounts were so small that customers would not experience any hardship in settling them, while also encouraging their cooperation in not making the process more onerous than necessary.  Stating that the accounts “lie so wide of each other” also suggested an extensive circulation for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a factor for prospective advertisers to take into consideration when choosing which of the several newspapers published in Philadelphia should carry their notices.

Notably, Goddard addressed customers “indebted to him for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Advertisements,” and anything else, such as books or job printing.  Historians have traditionally asserted that colonial printers struck a balance between extending credit to subscribers and requiring advertisers to pay before printing their notices, making advertising the more consistent and more significant source of revenue for printers who published newspapers.  Apparently, not all printers, however, adopted that business model.  Goddard was one of several printers who ran notices that called on both subscribers and advertisers to pay their bills.  Those printers may have been more selective in allowing credit for advertising than for subscriptions, yet their own notices indicated that they did allow credit for advertising for at least some customers. Advertising certainly had the potential to be lucrative, but only if printers required payment in advance or successfully collected payments after extending credit to advertisers.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 4, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Boston Evening-Post (October 4, 1773).

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Boston-Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Boston-Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 4, 1773).

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Newport Mercury (October 4, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 4, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 4, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the Pennsylvania Packet (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 4, 1773).

October 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in as colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (September 30, 1773).

“A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF CUTLERY.”

Richard Sause joined other entrepreneurs who experimented with decorative borders enclosing their advertisements when he promoted a “GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF CUTLERY” in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  The cutler had previous experience incorporating visual images into his advertisements in both the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury and Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  By the fall of 1773, many advertisements in New York’s newest newspaper featured borders, a popular means of enhancing notices.  Similar borders sometimes adorned advertisements in other newspapers, but not in the numbers and frequency that they appeared in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

The September 30, 1773, edition of that newspaper, for instance, included eight advertisements with ornate borders.  Most of those notices were relatively short, a single square of text.  Among them, Dennis McReady, a tobacconist, hawked his wares and Aspinwall and Smith announced that they sold “CHOICE OLD JAMAICA SPIRIT.”  Another of these shorter announcements advised that “the Delaware Lottery for the Sale of Lands, belonging to the Earl of Stirling, will commence on Monday the first Day of November next.”  James Rivington, the printer, also enclosed his advertisement for Keyser’s Pills within a decorative border.  George Webster, “At the THREE SUGAR LOAVES,” listed a couple of items “just received from LONDON” and promised “many other Articles which will be inserted next week.”  That advertisement, however, never materialized.  Given that advertisers paid by the amount of space their notices occupied rather than the number of words, borders made advertisements more expensive.  Rivington may have also charged additional fees for the borders, making them especially attractive to entrepreneurs running shorter advertisements.

Still, some advertisers enclosed longer notices within borders.  Thomas Hazard, one of Sause’s competitors, did so with an advertisement for “Ironmongery and Cutlery,” as did Francis Lewis and Sons in their advertisement that listed dozens of items for sale at their store on Queen Street.  Among these three longer advertisements, Sause’s notice was the shortest.  He apparently appreciated the visual appeal of the border and considered it worth the investment.  Four weeks later he placed a much more extensive advertisement that extended approximately three-quarters of a column.  A decorative border enclosed the lengthy list of merchandise that Sause “JUST IMPORTED.”  Along with several other advertisers, the cutler sought to generate interest in his newspaper notices by making them more visually appealing than text alone.  The printing office seems to have encouraged this innovation.

October 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (October 2, 1773).

“A Number of other Articles, which will be sold as cheap as can be bought in New-York.”

James Mather, “From New-York,” took to the pages of the Providence Gazette in October 1773 to inform residents of the town and the surrounding area that he “HAS opened a cheap Shop” where he sold a variety of goods at low prices.  To entice prospective customers, the shopkeeper listed many of the items that he stocked, including “large and small Damask Tablecloths,” “Gauze Aprons and Handkerchiefs,” and “Breeches Patterns.”  To underscore the choices that he made available to consumers, Mather included several “assortments” as he cataloged his wares, including “a neat Assortment of japanned and hard Wares,” “a choice Assortment of the newest fashioned printed Cottons, Calicoes and Chintz,” “a neat Assortment of flowered, striped and plain Scotch Lawn for Aprons,” and “an Assortment of Jewellery.”  In addition, his inventory included “a Number of other Articles.”

Mather also emphasized price as he promoted his “cheap Shop.”  Like other retailers, he used the word “cheap” to mean inexpensive rather than as an indication of inferior quality.  Advertisers expected “cheap” would resonate positively with prospective customers instead of signaling to them that bargain prices came at the expense of quality.  Mather concluded his list of goods with a declaration that he would sell them “as cheap as can be bought in New-York,” provided that purchasers paid in cash.  When he described himself as “From New-York” he established his credibility for making such a claim about his prices.  Why did the shopkeeper expect that references to prices in New York would get the attention of consumers in Providence?  Even though the town was a busy port in its own right, many more vessels visited New York, transporting goods from England to the colonies.  More imported goods in the marketplace often meant lower prices, in part because of the number of merchants and shopkeepers who had negotiated for good deals from their suppliers.  In addition, merchants in New York received goods from England and then distributed them to retailers near and far.  Such was the case with other major ports, including Boston, Charleston, and Philadelphia.  Consumers sometimes expected to find lower prices in those urban centers, yet Mather and other retailers frequently sought to disabuse them of that notion with promises of setting the same low prices without the inconvenience of traveling or sending away for goods.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 2, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (October 2, 1773).

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Providence Gazette (October 2, 1773).

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Providence Gazette (October 2, 1773).

October 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy (October 1, 1773).

“WATCHES are restored to their pristine vigour, and warranted to perform well, free of expence for one year.”

Thomas Hilldrup, “WATCH MAKER from LONDON,” apparently considered his advertising campaign effective.  On October 1, 1773, his notice with the dateline, “Hartford, July 20, 1773,” once again appeared in the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy and the New-London Gazette.  Four days later, the same notice ran once again in the Connecticut Courant, the only newspaper printed in Hartford at the time.  When Hilldrup first arrived in Hartford in 1772 he commenced advertising in the Connecticut Courant, but it did not take long for him to surmise that he might benefit from advertising more widely.  He soon placed notices in the other two newspapers published in the colony.  Other watchmakers inserted their own advertisements in hopes of maintaining their share of local markets, but none of them advertised in multiple newspapers.  Hilldrup’s competitors also discontinued their advertisements after a few insertions, while the newcomer’s notices became a consistent feature in the three newspapers.

Hilldrup likely thought he made a wise investment by marketing his services in all three newspapers.  After all, those publications circulated widely throughout the colony.  Even if residents of New Haven or New London were unlikely to send their watches to Hilldrup at “the sign of the Dial” in Hartford, the watchmaker may have believed that prospective customers in other towns served by the Connecticut Journal and the New-London Gazette would find it as convenient to hire his services as those of his competitors … but only if Hilldrup made the effort to inform the public of his “constant diligence” in restoring watches “to their pristine vigour.”  In addition, his repeated advertisements in the three newspapers highlighted the guarantee he extended to clients, a promise that watches he fixed were “warranted to perform well, free of any expence for one year.”  In placing advertisements so widely and so often, Hilldrup reasoned that he could entice prospective clients beyond Hartford to give him a chance to serve them when they needed “Repeating, Horizontal and plain WATCHES” cleaned and repaired.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 1, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Journal (October 1, 1773).

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New-Hampshire Gazette (October 1, 1773).

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New-Hampshire Gazette (October 1, 1773).

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New-London Gazette (October 1, 1773).

September 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (September 30, 1773).

“At such Rates as may encourage all Retailers in Town and Country … to complete their Assortments.”

Smith and Atkinson encouraged shopkeepers in and near Boston to augment their inventories for the fall season.  In an advertisement that appeared in several newspapers in September 1773, the merchants announced that they carried a “large and general Assortment of Piece GOODS, suitable for the FALL TRADE” that they “Imported in sundry Vessels lately arrived from England.”  These were not leftovers from last year, Smith and Atkinson suggested, but instead new merchandise to enhance the offerings of “all Retailers in Town and Country.”  Those prospective customers needed such items “to complete their Assortments” and attract the attention of consumers.  They knew that shopkeepers emphasized providing choices for consumers in their own advertisements.

For their part, Smith and Atkinson did not deal with shoppers directly.  The merchants confined their business to wholesale purchases only, supplying shopkeepers with goods at advantageous prices.  Smith and Atkinson proclaimed that they acquired their shipments “on the very best Terms” and planned to pass along the bargains “at such Rates as may encourage” shopkeepers to do business with them rather than their competitors.  As further inducement, the merchants declared that they gave “Due Encouragement … to those who pay ready Money.”  In other words, cash purchases qualified for additional discounts.

Smith and Atkinson competed with other merchants who made similar appeals while also attempting to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.  In the September 30, 1773, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, James and Patrick McMasters and Company similarly advertised a “large and general Assortment of English, India, and Scotch GOODS, suitable for the Season” that they “imported in the last Ships from LONDON.”  While they did not specify that they sold “by Wholesale only” like Smith and Atkinson, McMasters and Company did assert that “Town and Country Merchants and others who are pleased to favour them with their Custom, may depend on the best Usage, and handsome Allowance to those who buy by the Quantity.”  They offered discounts for purchasing in volume rather than discounts for cash.  Some retailers may have found that marketing strategy more appealing.

In another advertisement, Amorys, Taylor, and Rogers declared that they sold a “general Assortment of GOODS Suited to the Season … at the lowest Rates, by Wholesale or Retail.”  Other merchants inserted advertisements with their own variations in their efforts to move their merchandise.  They did not expect that they could merely announce that they had goods for sale and then expect retailers to purchase them.  Instead, merchants devised marketing strategies to entice shopkeepers to acquire merchandise from them.  In turn, shopkeepers crafted strategies for inciting demand among consumers rather than relying on incipient demand.

Slavery Advertisements Published September 30, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Gazette (September 30, 1773).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (September 30, 1773).

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New-York Journal (September 30, 1773).

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Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (September 30, 1773).

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Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (September 30, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (September 30, 1773).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Rind] (September 30, 1773).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Rind] (September 30, 1773).

September 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Journal (September 29, 1773).

“At the Sign of the Golden Key.”

In the fall of 1773, William Ross, a shoemaker, informed readers of the Pennsylvania Journal that he imported a “Very neat assortment of BOOT LEGS and BEN LEATHER SOALS” and “double CALLIMANCOE for ladies shoes.”  He asserted that he stocked “an assortment of the best articles in the business” for the benefit of “his friends and customers.”  The copy for Ross’s advertisement occupied less space than the image that accompanied it.  A woodcut depicting the sign that marked his location on Walnut Street included a shoe and the words “W. ROSS FROM SCOTLAND.”  The shoemaker enhanced his advertisement by investing in a woodcut associated exclusively with his business, unlike the stock images of ships at sea included in some of the other advertisements on the same page.

Pennsylvania Journal (September 29, 1773).

Ross was not the only entrepreneur whose advertisement featured an image of a shop sign in the September 29 edition of the Pennsylvania Journal.  Harper and Jackson adorned their notice for their “WET and DRY GOODS STORE, At the sign of the Golden Key” on Water Street with a woodcut of an ornate key.  Their names flanked the key, further associating the device with their business.  Unlike Ross, Harper and Jackson devoted most of their advertisement to copy, listing dozens of items among their inventory.  In addition, they promised “a variety of other goods, too tedious to mention,” that they sold “at the most reasonable rates.”  The merchants pledged “their utmost endeavours … to give general satisfaction to those who will please to favour them with their custom.”  As much as prospective customers may have appreciated such appeals, it was likely the image of the key that initially attracted their attention to the advertisement and made it memorable.

These two advertisements testify to some of the advertising images that colonizers encountered as they navigated the streets of Philadelphia during the era of the American Revolution.  Many merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and tavernkeepers adopted, displayed, and promoted devices that became synonymous with their businesses, precursors to logos associated with corporations.  Relatively few included images of their shop signs in their newspaper advertisements, though greater numbers did mention the symbols that marked their locations.  Readers of the Pennsylvania Journal and other newspapers glimpsed truncated scenes of the commercial landscape of the bustling port as they perused the pages of the public prints.