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

“Every other Article usually imported, too many to be enumerated in this Week’s Paper.”

The proprietor of “HILL’s Variety Store” at “the Sign of the ELEPHANT” advertised a “compleat Assortment of English, Scotch and India GOODS” in the January 22, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  To incite interest in his wares, Hill proclaimed that he set prices “as low as can be purchased at any Shop or Store in Boston,” provided that customers paid cash rather than buying on credit.  Boston was a larger port that welcomed a greater number of vessels carrying imported goods, but that did not mean that shoppers there benefitted from better bargains than Hill made available in Providence.  The shopkeeper also listed several items, including several textiles, “new-fashioned Galloshes,” and “low-priced scarlet Broadcloths for Ladies Cloaks,” and promised “every other Article usually imported, too many to be enumerated in this Week’s Paper.”

That suggested that perhaps the printer, John Carter, abbreviated an advertisement received in the printing office due to lack of space.  Though that happened rarely, printers sometimes exercised such editorial discretion, especially when merchants and shopkeeper submitted their notices just before the newspaper went to press.  Alternately, Hill may not have prepared a longer advertisement intended for the January 22 edition but instead wanted to alert local consumers that his “Variety Store” was open for business, planning to compose an advertisement with a more complete inventory in time for the next issue.  On January 29, however, a slightly revised notice ran in the Providence Gazette.  The list of merchandise now concluded: “with every other Article usually imported, Wholesale and Retail.”  The same copy appeared on February 5.

It was not until February 12 that a longer advertisement ran in the Providence Gazette.  That one featured a far greater number of items, divided into two columns, that extended nearly an entire column.  In addition to listing dozens of items, it revised the name of the business to “HILL’s ready Money Variety Store,” underscoring that the proprietor did not allow credit.  The sequence of these advertisements suggests that it was not lack of space that resulted in the note about “too many [items] to be enumerated in this Week’s Paper” the first time the notice ran.  Hill may have had grand designs for updating his advertisement soon after it first appeared, but did not do so.  Once he submitted the copy, however, the longer advertisement ran for six consecutive weeks before he updated it once again on March 26, that time adding a woodcut depicting an elephant to match the sign that marked the location of the “ready Money Variety Store.”  The Adverts 250 Project will feature that advertisement in a future entry.