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

“The Royal American MAGAZINE … for February 1775.”

In March 1775, three of Boston’s newspapers carried advertisements that the February issue of the Royal American Magazine was now available “at Greenleaf’s Printing Office in Union-Street near the Market” in Boston.  The advertisements first appeared in the Boston Evening-Post and the Boston-Gazette on March 13.  Based on publication dates for magazines today, the February issue seems quite overdue, but in the eighteenth century published distributed magazines at the end of the month or early in the following month.  Considering that Greenleaf had not advertised the January edition until February 20, it appears that he managed to take the next issue to press in just three weeks.

The advertisement in the Boston-Gazette ran for two consecutive weeks.  The more elaborate version in the Boston Evening-Post reported that the February issue was “Embellished with an elegant Engraving of a History Piece.”  That copperplate engraving, executed by Paul Revere, depicted a scene from the “History of Lauretta,” a moral tale included among the contents of the magazine.  The advertisement ran only once in the Boston Evening-Post, but appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on March 17 and 30.  Once again, those printing offices seem to have shared type set in one printing office and transferred to the other.  It is not clear what role Greenleaf played in that arrangement since some of the city’s printers engaged in that practice on other occasions.

What is clear is that Greenleaf’s marketing campaign was not nearly as extensive as the one devised by Isaiah Thomas when he first proposed publishing the Royal American Magazine and announced distribution of the first several issues.  Yet the number of advertisements and the array of newspapers that carried them diminished even during Thomas’s tenure as publisher of the magazine, likely due to the evolving political situation in Boston and throughout the colonies.  He had promoted the magazine widely in the months before colonizers dumped tea into Boston Harbor, but only began publishing it as they contended with the aftermath, including the closure of the port and other punitive measures passed by Parliament in the Coercive Acts.  Even as Thomas filled the magazine with patriot propaganda, he and other residents of Boston experienced “Distresses” that apparently made marketing the Royal American Magazineless of a priority.  For his part, Greenleaf advised the public about new issues, but he did not attempt to replicate the initial marketing strategy devised by Thomas.

This entry continues an ongoing series in which the Adverts 250 Project has tracked advertisements for the Royal American Magazine from Thomas’s first notice, in May 1773, that he planned to distribute subscription proposals to newspapers advertisements in June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 1773 and January, February, March, April, May, and June 1774.  No magazine advertisements for the magazine appeared in July 1774 because of the “Distresses,” yet they resumed in August, September, October, November, and December 1774 and January and February 1775.

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“This Day PUBLISHED, The Royal American MAGAZINE … for February 1775.”

• March 13 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
• March 20 – Boston-Gazette (second appearance)

“THIS DAY PUBLISHED … The Royal American Magazine … For FEBRUARY 1775.”

• March 13 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
• March 17 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (first appearance)
• March 30 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (second appearance)