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

“He employs Workmen who manufacture the Leather in the best Manner.”

Stephen Austin sold “Buck-Skin Breeches” as well as “dress’d Deer Skins, and Shammy Leather” at his shop “South of the Court House” in Hartford.  In an advertisement that he placed in the January 18, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Courant, he not only highlighted the quality of his products but also the skill of those who labored in his shop.  Austin informed prospective customers that he “employs Workmen who manufacture the Leather in the best Manner.”  Among his competitors, Cotton Murray, a tailor, also ran an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant.  The tailor focused primarily on the services that he performed, but also added a nota bene about an employee who dressed leather.  Murray declared that he “carries on Leather Breeches making in all its branches, has a quantity of Leather of the best kind, and has employed a Workman in that business who serv’d his time in Europe.”

Both Austin and Murray promoted contributions that employees made to their businesses.  Artisans often relied on various assistants, whether employees, apprentices, or family members, but such workers did not regularly appear in newspaper advertisements.  Instead, the proprietors personified their shops, especially in an era that most businesses did not have names.  Austin’s shop, for instance, did not have a name.  Instead, his own name and one of the products he sold appeared as headlines.  For Murray, it was his name and occupation in the headlines.  Even artisans who ran shops identified by signs, like Daniel King, a brass founder “At the Sign of the Bell and Brand” in Philadelphia, deployed their own names rather than the sign that doubled as a shop’s name in the headlines of their advertisements.  Such methods emphasized work undertaken by the proprietor while obscuring the labor of others in a shop.  Artisans often considered such name recognition the best strategy for building their own reputations and the reputations of their businesses, but occasionally some of them saw benefits in marketing the skills of their employees.  Austin and Murray both hoped that doing so would help convince customers to select them over their competitors.