What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Whom he has had under his [illegible] these ten Years past.”
It had been a while since Mr. Pike, the dancing master, ran advertisements in any of the newspapers printed in Charleston in the 1770s. In September 1773, he announced that he opened his “Dancing and Fencing SCHOOLS … for the Season.” A little more than six months later, he once again took to the public prints with a final notice that he would leave “the Province some Time next Month” due to ill health. It appeared in the May 6 edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette and the May 10 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. He likely placed it in the South-Carolina Gazette simultaneously, but some issues have not survived. It ran in the Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette on May 16, probably moved to that portion of the newspaper after appearing in the standard issue in previous weeks. By placing his notice in all three newspapers published in the colony, Pike disseminated his farewell message widely, making his intended departure as visible as possible.
The reiteration of his advertisements across multiple newspapers eventually made it more accessible to historians and other modern readers, especially those who rely on digital surrogates. However, Pike’s advertisement is fully legible in only one of the digital images of the issues listed above. It is possible to make out most of the content of the advertisement from the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, but not all of it. While it might be tempting to blame poor printing, that does not seem to be solely responsible for the quality of the image. Robert Wells, the printer, would not have been able to keep his newspaper in business for years if the contents were not legible, especially when competing with two other newspapers. Digital images of some, but not all, pages of the May 6 edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette are more legible. Others are much less legible. The primary problem seems to lie with the photography rather than the printing. Technological errors that occurred during the digitization of the South-Carolina Gazette certainly made a portion of Pike’s advertisement in the May 16 supplement illegible. A glitch of some sort cut off the bottom third of the first page of the supplement, presenting solid grey rather than an image of the advertisements on that portion of the page. The first several lines of Pike’s advertisement are visible, but not the rest. In contrast, the entire advertisement is legible in the digital image of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal for May 10, though some combination of printing, wear over time, and modern photography has made some words more difficult to decipher than others.
These examples demonstrate that digitization is not a panacea for providing access to primary sources. Digital images do not always offer the same access as examining the original documents. The lower third of the page is not actually missing from the South-Carolina Gazette. The South-Carolina and American General Gazette may be much more legible when viewed in person. Unfortunately, the quality of the digital images undermines their accessibility.