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

“Those gentlemen who have taken subscriptions … are requested to return the lists speedily.”

A notice in the Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post for November 4, 1775, advised that “THOSE gentlemen who intend to subscribe for HANSON’s EVOLUTIONS, and have not sent in their names, are requested to be speedy in forwarding them.”  Thomas Hanson, “Adjutant to the 2d Battalion” and author of the work, expected that the readers he addressed knew that he referred to The Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements; Both in Platoons, Sub, and Grand-Divisions; Explaining, all the Different Evolutions, and Manoeuvres, in Firing, Standing, Advancing, and Retreating, Which Were Exhibitted before His Present Majesty, May 8, 1769; and before John Duke of Argyle , on the Links, near Edenburgh, in 1771; with Some Additions, Since that Time, Explained with Thirty Folio Copper-Plates; To Which Is Added, the Prussian Manual Exercise; Also the Theory and Practices of Gunnery.  To include the entire title of the book would have doubled the length of the advertisement!  An advertisement published in July had included most of the title as a means of inciting interest among prospective subscribers.

Hanson had been marketing the book since early May, apparently embarking on the project almost as soon as residents of Philadelphia learned of the battles at Lexington and Concord that took place on April 19.  When he ran the newspaper advertisement in July, he anticipated that the “said work will be completed in three or four weeks from this date,” but it took longer than expected since more than three months later he ran a new advertisement that indicated the “first edition” had not yet been printed.  Subscribers needed to submit their names quickly, Hanson asserted, or else their names would not appear in the subscription list incorporated into the book with the other content.  That subscription list eventually filled five pages and included prominent military officers, such as “His Excellency George Washington” and “His Excellency Philip Schuyler,” and members of the Second Continental Congress, such as “The Honourable Benjamin Franklin” and “The Hon. John Hancock.”  Peyton Randolph also appeared among the list of subscribers, though he died before Hanson published the book.  In his newest advertisement, he once again instructed prospective subscribers to submit their names because “otherwise a list of them cannot be printed.”

In the earlier advertisement, Hanson listed about a dozen local subscription agents who collected orders, including merchants and printers.  This time, he told prospective subscribers that they could submit their names directly to him or “to the bar of the London Coffee-house,” a popular place for gathering to socialize, conduct business, and discuss politics.  Hanson did acknowledge those “gentlemen who have taken subscriptions” and requested that they “return the lists speedily” so he could compile them for publication.  It seemed to be the last chance to submit orders before the book was published.  The title page did not include a date, but historians believe it was printed in late 1775.