December 31

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

South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

“Mr. SAUNDERS has been honoured with the greatest Applause,, by all the Nobility that have seen his Great Performances.”

Newspaper advertisements allow for tracing the travels of itinerant performers who entertained colonizers as they moved from town to town in the eighteenth century.  Those same advertisements also provide a glimpse of some of the popular culture options available audiences in early America.  Just in time for the new year, the “New Advertisements” in the December 31, 1772, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette included a notice that “THE CELEBRATED Mr. SAUNDERS Will exhibit his DEXTERITY and GRAND DECEPTION.”

Hyman Saunders, an illusionist, already established a reputation for his “Variety of new, astonishing, and entertaining Performances, by Dexterity of Hand, surpassing every Thing of the Kind that has hitherto been seen, or attempted, on this Side [of] the Atlantic” in New York and Pennsylvania.  Since arriving in the colonies from Europe just over two years earlier, he had moved back and forth between New York and Philadelphia, placing advertisements in the New-York Journal, the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and the Pennsylvania Journal.

To incite interest in his performances, Saunders suggested that colonizers would gain access and enjoy the same entertainments as the better sorts on both sides of the Atlantic.  He trumpeted that he “has been honoured with the greatest Applause, by all the Nobility that have seen his Great Performances in Europe, America, and the West-Indies.”  The illusionist made sure to list prominent colonial officials who had seen his performances, including the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  Audiences who came to his show in “STOTHERD’s Long Room” in Charleston or hired him for “private Performances at their own Houses” would join the ranks of “the Nobility and Gentry in Great-Britain, Ireland, and America, and in particular in the capital Cities.”  Residents of Charleston, one of the largest urban ports in the colonies, wanted their town to rank among those “capital Cities.”  Saunders offered them an opportunity to partake in the same entertainments previously enjoyed by their counterparts in other “capital Cities” in the colonies and throughout the British Empire.

Like other itinerant performers, Saunders resorted to newspaper advertisements to announce his arrival in hopes of inciting interest in his performances.  He gave a preview of the wonders that audiences would witness, noting that he earned “the greatest Applause” from audiences that included “the Nobility and Gentry … in capital Cities.”  Upon purchasing tickets “at ONE DOLLAR each,” colonizers from various backgrounds could experience the same entertainments, but the better sort concerned about the prospects of rubbing elbows with the masses could also schedule private performances that enhanced their own status and Saunders’s acclaim as well.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 31, 1772

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 (December 31, 1772).

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Maryland Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Maryland Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (December 31, 1772).

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New-York Journal (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (December 31, 1772).

December 30

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (December 30, 1772).

“The threatening destruction of orchards by catterpillars.”

Rudolph Hains and Jacob Hains operated a tree nursery “near the Red Lion, in Uwchland township, Chester county,” about twenty-five northwest of Philadelphia, in the early 1770s.  In an advertisement in the December 30, 1772, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, they related their story of having “for many years past, followed the business of raising young apple-trees, of grafted fruit, of divers sorts, for sale.”  Throughout that time, they “planted many orchards, both for themselves and others.”

Yet the Hains did not place this notice merely to make a sale pitch.  Instead, they framed it as a public service announcement, stating that through their long experience they “found that Catterpillars are some of the worst enemies to Orchards.”  Indeed, the headline for the advertisement proclaimed, “To DESTROY CATTERPILLARS,” inviting readers to peruse it for advice and guidance.  Along the way, prospective customers learned a little more about the Hainses and their business, including Rudolph’s nearly thirty years of experience.  In telling their story, the Hainses warned that “they find a far greater number of [caterpillar] eggs this fall, than either of them ever seen before.”  The problem was so severe that just days earlier Rudolph “gathered upwards of 300 of such Lumps of Eggs” in his orchard in the course of just a few hours.  As a result of a widespread infestation, the Hainses anticipated that “much more damage will be done by them next summer, if not by some means prevented.”  As a remedy, they recommended that readers “pull or cut off their eggs with some instrument for that use … and burn them.”  This required inspecting trees, but the eggs “are easy to be seen sticking on the small limbs of the tree.”

The Hainses offered this advice “for the good of the public” in general as well as for “their customers in particular, who have bought trees of them, or may yet buy.”  There the sales pitch became more blatant.  The Hainses announced that they “purpose to continue said business.”  This public service announcement enhanced their visibility to prospective customers.  It also suggested that customers could depend on an additional service, consultation and advice from the Hainses beyond the initial transaction.  The Hainses concluded their advertisement by asserting that “they thought it their duty to publish this” in order to avoid “the threatening destruction of orchards by catterpillars.”  They invited readers to contact them directly for more information, while also noting that a “sample of the EGGS maybe seen at the New Printing-Office, in Market-street,” where the newspaper that carried the advertisement was published.  This notice served the interests of the entire community.  The Hainses, savvy marketers, hoped that their public service announcement would generate customers for their tree nursery.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 30, 1772

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.

Pennsylvania Gazette (December 30, 1772).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (December 30, 1772).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (December 30, 1772).

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Pennsylvania Journal (December 30, 1772).

December 29

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

Essex Gazette (December 29, 1772).

The Publick would only laugh … at so many flashy Advertisements as weekly present themselves to their View.”

The introduction to Nathaniel Sparhawk’s advertisement listing an array of goods available at his shop in Salem was typical of those that appeared in the Essex Gazette and other newspapers in the early 1770s: “Just imported in the last Ships, Captains Scott and Lyde from London, and Smith from Bristol, A great Variety of English and India GOODS, suitable for the Season, All or any of which will be sold extremely cheap for Cash or short Credit.”  Sparhawk had good reason for including each detail, all of them standard elements of marketing consumer goods in the eighteenth century.  In a nota bene, he made additional appeals concerning price: “As said Sparhawk proposes to quit his present Business (as soon as he can without Loss) to pursue some other Brach; all his good Customers, and others, may depend on being served with good Pennyworths, determining to sell at a very low Advance, or for very small Profits.”

Samuel Flagg did not think much of any of those methods, or so he claimed.  In contrast to the kinds of introductions offered by Sparhawk and others, Flagg simply stated that he “has the following Articles, which he would be glad to sell.”  After an extensive catalog of his merchandise, the shopkeeper inserted a lengthy diatribe about advertising practices then in fashion.  “The said FLAGG,” he proclaimed, “don’t mean to make such a Parade, nor furnish the Publick with so many pompous Promises (as have lately been exhibited) of Goods being so amazingly cheap, but would rather convince them of the Cheapness of his Goods and of his Integrity in dealing, whenever they may please to call and favour him with their Custom.”  Flagg managed to make his own appeal to low prices while also mocking the pronouncements so often published by his competitors.  He confided to readers that they all knew proclamations about offering the lowest prices or not being undersold were hyperbole.  Rather than perpetuate that kind of marketing, he promised prospective customers that he would be an honest broker.

To that end, Flagg acknowledged that “he could very easily tell them a Story, about where his Goods were made, who shipped them, what Ship brought them, who trucked them, how much they cost, how much cheaper they were than ever imported before, and how much he held himself obliged to the good People for looking at them, without buying.”  While composing his advertisement, Flagg could have gone through Sparhawk’s notice to identify and address each detail to denigrate.  He considered all those details and insinuations about why one shopkeeper’s prices and inventory were supposedly the best rather foolish … and he believed that readers shared his view.  Flagg concluded his tirade with an assertion that “the Publick would only laugh at” such stories,” as they must do, at so many flashy Advertisements as weekly present themselves to their View, with no more true Meaning than the above recited Story would contain.”

His disdain for such stories did not prevent Flagg from resorting to one very popular marketing strategy.  He listed scores of goods, demonstrating to consumers how many choices he made available to them at his shop.  Several of his competitors also listed dozens of items, but none named as many as Flagg did in his notice.  In addition, that notice occupied more space on the page than any other advertisement in the December 29, 1772, edition of the Essex Gazette, even without the jeremiad about marketing that concluded it.  Flagg certainly had some views about what he considered negative developments in advertising, but he was not immune to adopting one of the most prevalent strategies for attempting to entice readers to become consumers.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 29, 1772

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.

Essex Gazette (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 29, 1772).

December 28

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

Boston-Gazette (December 28, 1772).

“The only true and correct ALMANACKS from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & [J.] Fleet.”

As 1772 came to an end and the new year approached, Richard Draper, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, and Thomas Fleet and John Fleet continued their efforts to direct prospective customers to the edition of Nathaniel Ames’s almanac for 1773 that they collaboratively printed and sold.  The final issues of the Boston Evening-Post, the Boston-Gazette, and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy for 1772 once again carried advertisements with a note from the almanac’s author that warned against counterfeit editions and proclaimed that the “only true and correct ALMANACKS from my Copy, are those printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & [J.] Fleet.”

None of those newspapers featured the extended version that ran in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on December 24.  The Fleets even ran a streamlined version in the Boston Evening-Post, eliminated the introductory lines that declared “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, And TO BE SOLD by R. DRAPER, T. & J. FLEET, and EDES & GILL” as well as the final lines that advised “Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, are requested to be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by the above Printers, of whom ALMANACKS may be had at the cheapest Rate.”

The version of the advertisement in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy remained unchanged, as did the version in the Boston-Gazette.  Edes and Gill did not include any fanfare about “JUST PUBLISHED” the first time they inserted the note from Ames in the Boston-Gazette.  They positioned that note just below local news, implying that it was just as much a piece of newsworthy information as an advertisement for an item they sold.  Those printers pursued a similar strategy the next time they ran the notice.  This time it did not serve as a transition from news to advertising.  Instead, it was the only advertisement that appeared on second page of the December 28 edition of the Boston-Gazette, running immediately below news from Warsaw.  That made it even more likely that anyone carefully perusing the news would encounter the notice from the printers.  Taking advantage of their access to the press to shape how information was disseminated to reader-consumers, Edes and Gill continued their practice of treating counterfeit almanacs that competed with their “true and correct” almanacs as news the community needed to know.  As part of their marketing efforts, they used the placement of the notice on the page to enhance their insinuation that consumers had a duty to choose the “true and correct” copies over any counterfeits.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 28, 1772

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 (December 28, 1772).

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Supplement to the Boston Evening-Post (December 28, 1772).

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Newport Mercury (December 28, 1772).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 28, 1772).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 28, 1772).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 28, 1772).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 28, 1772).

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Pennsylvania Packet (December 28, 1772).

December 27

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

New-York Journal (December 24, 1772).

“Sprigs, which more beauteous makes the fair; / And lockets, various, for the hair.”

Isaac Heron, a watchmaker, operated a shop at the Sign of the Arched Dial in New York in the 1760s and 1770s.  When he decided to promote his services in the public prints in the early 1770s, he published a lively advertisement, one that interspersed commentary and poetry, in the December 24, 1772, edition of the New-York Journal.  Heron may have taken note of the notices placed by his competitors, especially John Simnet and James Yeoman, over the past six months or so.  Often creative beyond the standard appeals that appeared in many other advertisements and sometimes descending into rancorous feuds with each other, Simnet and Yeoman made their newspaper notices memorable for readers.  After observing how those rival watchmakers described their services and characterized their competitors, Heron likely determined that he needed to write copy that did not pale in comparison.  He composed more innovative copy than appeared in one of his earlier advertisements.

For instance, he offered low prices and a guarantee when it came to repairing watches.  Heron declared that he “charges as low … as his neighbors,” other watchmakers, by setting his rates “as near the London prices as possible.”  In what might have been a rebuke to Simnet and Yeoman, Heron stated, “To say more, would neither be prudent nor honest.”  In terms of a guarantee, he pledged that “As usual, he warrants their performance” for a year.  Like other watchmakers who offered similar guarantees, he clarified “accidents and mismanagement of [watches he repaired] excepted.”  Unlike other watchmakers, he elaborated in verse: “Should the all-sustaining hand, him drop, / His movements all, springs, wheels, hands must stop! / Then, like the tale of ‘a bear and fiddle,’ / This bargain—‘breaks off in the middle.’”

In addition to selling and repairing watches, Heron also sold jewelry.  He inserted a rhyming couplet to conclude the list of merchandise he lighted to prospective customers.  A paragraph that included “Ladies elegant steel watch-chains, mens [chains,] seals, trinkets, glasses, strings, and keys by the dozen, … Elegant broach-jewels for their honest breasts; sword-knots, sundries, &c.” concluded with “Sprigs, which more beauteous makes the fair; / And lockets, various, for the hair.”  Neither Simnet nor Yeoman advertised these additional items.  They focused exclusively on their skill and experience as watchmakers.  In terms of both goods and presentation, Heron devised an advertisement that distinguished his services from his competitors.

December 26

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

Pennsylvania Chronicle (December 26, 1772).

Doctor GEORGE WEED … was a regular bred Physician, in New-England.”

George Weed, an apothecary, served patients in Philadelphia for decades in the middle of the eighteenth century.  In his advertisements, he styled himself as “Doctor GEORGE WEED.”  On occasion, he provided credentials to justify using that title.

For instance, in an advertisement hawking a variety of medicines in the December 26, 1772, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Weed provided an overview of his training before describing his “SYRUP of BALSAM” for coughs and colds, his “ROYAL BALSAM” for wounds, bruises, and sores, his “BITTER TINCTURE” for dizziness and upset stomach, and other medicines that he compounded at his apothecary shop.  Weed asserted that he “was a regular bred Physician, in New-England, and served his time with Ephraim Warner, a licenced Doctor.”  In other words, he received training from “one of the greatest and most successful Practitioners of Physic, in New England, in his day.”  Rather than ask the public to take his word for it, Weed concluded his advertisement with an affirmation from a minister.  Thomas Lewis declared, “That Doctor GEORGE WEED, living in Newtown Township, was under the Instructions and Directions of a judicious Practitioner of Physic, in New-England, for some Years, is certified by me.”  Careful readers may have noted that the affirmation was nearly two decades old, dated October 6, 1753.  Weed apparently believed that it served his purpose in helping to convince prospective patients to purchase his medicines.

To strengthen his pitch, Weed noted that he had “above 34 years successful practice,” including serving as “Apothecary to the Pennsylvania Hospital.”  He no longer held that position, instead operating his own shop on Market Street.  Through his long experience, he proclaimed, Weed “brought to perfection, some medicines, which have proved extraordinary in curing many diseases.”  Although the apothecary mentioned that he carried a “general assortment of Medicines,” he emphasized those that he made himself.  Other apothecaries, retailers, and even printers imported, advertised, and sold a variety of patent medicines produced in England.  Weed suggested to consumers in Philadelphia that the combination of his training and long experience serving patients in the colonies resulted in creating better products to cure common maladies.  They did not need remedies produced elsewhere when they could consult directly with a skilled apothecary who compounded medicines to order.