What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

“Several packages of their Spring goods, are yet unopened.”

As fall arrived in 1775, Francis Lewis and Son took to the pages of the New-York Journal to advertise an array of imported goods that they stocked and sold at their store.  As many merchants and shopkeepers did, they demonstrated the choices they made available to consumers with a list of their inventory.  Their catalog featured two columns with one or two items per line, enumerating “Red strouds, shalloons,” “Printed callicoes, cotton and chintzes,” “A variety of ribbons,” “Musqueto netting for beds,” “Looking glasses,” and “Long and short handle frying pans.”  That popular format for newspaper advertisements did not appear with the same frequency once the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774.  Recognizing that the nonimportation pact devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts remained in place, Lewis and Son signaled that they abided by it.

The savvy entrepreneurs specified that their wares had been “imported last Fall.”  Under other circumstances, retailers did not boast that their merchandise had been on the shelves for nearly a year.  Instead, they emphasized how recently they received shipments from London and other English ports, sometimes even naming which vessels had transported the goods so readers who followed the shipping news could confirm that sold new items.  In this instance, however, Lewis and Son needed to assure the public, especially prospective customers, that they did not deviate from the Continental Association.  Patriots could not fault shopkeepers and consumers for selling and buying goods “imported the last Fall.” To underscore that they made a deliberate choice, Lewis and Son added a nota bene: “Several Packages of their Spring goods, are yet unopened.”  That note had even greater in significance in September 1775, following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord, than it did when the advertisement first appeared in the March 23, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal.  Lewis and Son highlighted their own restraint in placing goods in the marketplace even as they suggested to prospective customers that they barely had to restrain themselves in their purchases because the shopkeepers offered so many choices.