GUEST CURATOR: Kolbe Bell
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Embellished with a (Quarto) View of the Town of Boston … neatly engraved on Copper.”
The Royal American Magazine was a popular magazine during a run cut short due to the fighting of the American Revolution. It was first published in 1774 by Isaiah Thomas, a renowned printer who ran the Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper, since 1770. The Royal American Magazine lasted from January 1774 to early spring of 1775. Not many successful magazines were started in America before the American Revolution. Frank Luther Mott states that there were only fifteen magazines published in America before the Royal American started, most of them lasting a year or less.[1] Isaiah Thomas’s advertisement campaign for the Royal American, however, helped to make it one of the most successful American magazines prior to independence.
The Royal American Magazine was known for having many more engravings than other American magazines at the time; engravings are visual images inserted into a written work, and were made by carefully carving a reverse image onto a copper plate, coating it with ink, and then transferring the image to paper in a printing press. The engravings representing a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm,” as mentioned in this advertisement, enticed more people to subscribe to the magazine. According to Mott, “its distinctive feature was a little series of engravings by Paul Revere.”[2] The fact that the advertisement does not include the name of Paul Revere as the engraver for the magazine shows that Paul Revere’s fame increased after the American Revolution. Despite the Royal American Magazine containing so many engravings and other content, it did not last much longer than a year. Nevertheless, it was one of the most popular magazines printed in America before the American Revolution.
Visit the “Royal American Magazine Plates,” part of the “Illustrated Inventory of Paul Revere’s Works at the American Antiquarian Society,” to view the engravings and learn more about them.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
Later than he intended (and later than he had advertised), Isaiah Thomas published the first issue of the Royal American Magazine in early February 1774. The Adverts 250 Project has tracked Thomas’s extensive advertising campaign over many months in 1773 and 1774, including his announcements that he would publish the first issue in January 1774 and an explanation that a ship running aground delayed delivery of the types for the magazine to Boston. On Thursday, February 3, he inserted a brief notice in his own newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, pledging that “MONDAY next will be published … NUMBER I. of The Royal AMERICAN MAGAZINE.” Just as he would do four days later in the advertisement Kolbe examines today, he promoted copperplate engravings of a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm.” Subscribers could leave the engravings intact or, as many likely did, remove them to display in their homes, shops, or offices.
Thomas had aggressively advertised in other newspapers, including several published in Boston. He once again did so when he finally took the magazine to press. In addition to the version that ran in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on February 7, featured above, he placed a shorter notice in the Boston-Gazette on the same day. Extending only three lines, it declared, “THIS DAY PUBLISHED, (by I. THOMAS,) Number I. of The Royal American MAGAZINE.” Perhaps he submitted copy that included the blurb about the copperplate engravings to the printing office only to have the compositors edit it for length to fit on the page with the rest of the news and advertising in that issue. Whatever the case, Thomas fulfilled the promise he made in the Massachusetts Spy on February 3. He did indeed publish the Royal American Magazine on the following Monday. He followed up with much more extensive advertisements in the Massachusetts Spy and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on February 10, announcing his success and encouraging more readers to subscribe.
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[1] Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939), 787-788.
[2] Mott, History of American Magazines, 26.
[…] The Royal American Magazine was a popular magazine during a run cut short due to the fighting of the American Revolution. It was first published in 1774 by Isaiah Thomas, a renowned printer who ran the Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper, since 1770. The Royal American Magazine lasted from January 1774 to early spring of 1775. Not many successful magazines were started in America before the American Revolution. Frank Luther Mott states that there were only fifteen magazines published in America before the Royal American started, most of them lasting a year or less. Isaiah Thomas’s advertisement campaign for the Royal American, however, helped to make it one of the most successful American magazines prior to independence. The Royal American Magazine was known for having many more engravings than other American magazines at the time; engravings are visual images inserted into a written work, and were made by carefully carving a reverse image onto a copper plate, coating it with ink, and then transferring the image to paper in a printing press. The engravings representing a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm,” as mentioned in this advertisement, enticed more people to subscribe to the magazine. According to Mott, “its distinctive feature was a little series of engravings by Paul Revere.” Read more and the added commentary… […]
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