What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
“New Advertisements.”
There were no “New Advertisements” on December 25, 1768. No newspapers were published in colonial America 250 years ago today, but not because it happened to be Christmas day. December 25 fell on a Sunday in 1768. No colonial printers published newspapers on Sundays. They did, however, print and circulate new issues on December 25 when it fell on any day except for Sunday. This calendar provides an overview of the distribution of newspaper publication throughout the colonies in 1768. It includes publications with significant numbers that have been digitized and included in databases produced by Accessible Archives, Colonial Williamsburg, and Readex. Others may have been published, but they either have not survived or have not been incorporated into databases that make them more accessible to scholars, students, and the general public.
As the calendar demonstrates, newspapers were published somewhere in colonial America every day of the week except Sunday. Publication tended to cluster on Mondays and Thursdays. Every newspaper carried advertisements. Some even issued additional advertising supplements. Many included colophons that called on readers to submit advertisements, an important revenue stream for colonial printers.
Mondays
- Boston Chronicle (Boston, Massachusetts: Mein and Fleeming)
- Boston Evening-Post (Boston, Massachusetts: T. and J. Fleet)
- Boston-Gazette (Boston, Massachusetts: Edes and Gill)
- Boston Post-Boy and Advertiser (Boston, Massachusetts: Green and Russell)
- Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Connecticut: Green and Watson)
- Massachusetts Gazette (Boston, Massachusetts: Green and Russell)
- Newport Mercury (Newport, Rhode Island: Solomon Southwick)
- New-York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury (New York, New York: Hugh Gaine)
- New-York Gazette: Or, the Weekly Post-Boy (New York, New York: James Parker)
- Pennsylvania Chronicle (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: William Goddard)
- Pennsylvanische Staatsbote (Germantown, Pennsylvania: Henrich Miller)
- South-Carolina Gazette (Charleston, South Carolina: Peter Timothy)
Tuesdays
- Essex Gazette (Salem, Massachusetts: Samuel Hall)
- South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (Charleston, South Carolina: Charles Crouch)
Wednesdays
- Georgia Gazette (Savannah, Georgia: James Johnston)
Thursdays
- Boston Weekly News-Letter (Boston, Massachusetts: Richard Draper)
- Massachusetts Gazette (Boston, Massachusetts: Richard Draper)
- New-York Journal: Or, the General Advertiser (New York, New York: John Holt)
- Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: David Hall and William Sellers)
- Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: William and Thomas Bradford)
- Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Virginia: Alex. Purdie and John Dixon)
- Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, Virginia: William Rind)
Fridays
- Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy (New-Haven, Connecticut: T. and S. Green)
- New-Hampshire Gazette and Historical Chronicle (Portsmouth, New-Hampshire: D. and R. Fowle)
- New-London Gazette (New-London, Connecticut: Timothy Green)
- South-Carolina and American General Gazette (Charleston, South Carolina: Robert Wells)
Saturdays
- Providence Gazette and Country Journal (Providence, Rhode Island: Sarah Goddard and John Carter)