What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“PROPOSALS FOR PRINTING BY SUBSCRIPTION, A TREATISE OF FORTIFICATION.”
Thomas Hanson announced a new project in the November 8, 1775, editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal. For several months he had been engaged in soliciting subscribers for his Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements, a military manual that garnered the support of both officers and politicians. With that book “published … and now delivering out by the Author,” Hanson distributed subscription proposals for printing “A TREATISE OF FORTIFICATION, in the Manner now practiced in Europe: Likewise that made use of in America the late War.” The Prussian Evolutions included thirty copperplate engravings; similarly, this new endeavor would be “illustrated with 32 Copper-plates.”
Hanson adopted a different method for publishing the proposed treatise than he had for the Prussian Evolutions. Rather than produce a single volume, he planned for the “Work to be published in a Series of Numbers, printed in Quarto, with the same Letter as the Prussian Evolutions,” “Each Number to contain eight Pages, and a Copper-plate or Plates, that they demonstrate,” and “One number to be delivered to the Subscribers every two Weeks.” Eighteenth-century readers would have been familiar with such “CONDITIONS” for publishing books. Hanson planned to use the type (“same Letter”) as his first book, giving the two works a similar appearance. Instead of taking the entire book to press at one time, Hanson planned to print and distribute two sheets (“eight Pages”) and the corresponding illustrations once every two weeks. Each sheet would have four pages on it, creating a quarto sized book when folded by the printer, bookbinder, or subscriber. Subscribers paid six pence “per Number” or set of eight pages with corresponding illustrations upon delivery.
Hanson declared that “the Work will be engraved and put to the Press” once “a sufficient Number of Subscribers approves of these Conditions.” Why did he opt to publish his treatise on fortifications in smaller parts rather than all at once? Perhaps Hanson had grown frustrated with the delays in publishing the Prussian Evolutions. In an earlier advertisement, he noted that he first published subscription proposals on May 3, shortly after learning about the battles at Lexington and Concord. In July, he thought that the book would be completed “in three or four weeks,” yet more than three months passed before the volume was published and ready for delivery. Printing and distributing a new “Number” every two weeks would keep the project moving forward and the revenues collected upon delivery would likely help as well. Hanson expected that “the first Number may be published in three Weeks Time,” but it seems that he was disappointed once again. It does not appear that this proposed project met with the same success as the Prussian Evolutions. Even if some “Numbers” went to press, no complete volume of the proposed treatise survives today. Most likely, Hanson did not entice a “sufficient Number of Subscribers.” According to the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, he faced a lot of competition. Presses in Philadelphia produced more than thirty works on military subjects in 1775 and 1776, including Hanson’s Prussian Evolutions.