What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Thanks to those Ladies who employed her late husband in his life time.”
Hannah Russell, a staymaker in Philadelphia, wanted to maintain the clientele that her husband cultivated and, if possible, expand it. In an advertisement in the September 3, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, she announced that she “CARRIES on the trade of Stay-making in the same place where her late husband, Edward Russell, deceased, lived.” She may have hoped that his death would garner some sympathy among prospective customers for a widow left to fend for herself. She “beg[ged] that the Ladies of this city will be pleased to favour her with their custom,” pledging that she would “always make it her business to have her work well done, and to procure the best of stuff and materials for that purpose.” Like other artisans who placed newspaper advertisements, Russell emphasized quality while also expressing her intention “to give satisfaction and merit the esteem of her kind employers.”
Russell concluded by expressing “thanks to those Ladies who employed her late husband in his life time.” Building on that relationship, she hoped they would “continue their custom.” Many of those former customers may have already worn corsets that Russell helped in constructing. Many of them also likely knew Hannah. Even though Edward had been the public face of the business, Hannah probably assisted him, both through interacting with customers and helping to make the stays that they ordered. That she had the skills to run the business on her own following her husband’s death suggests that she had been making contributions when he was alive. As a married woman, a feme covert under English common law, she played a supporting role, but that did not mean that she was absent from Edward’s workshop. Rather than being his business, it was likely a family business, one that Hannah knew as well or almost as well as her husband. Following his death, she attempted to leverage her prior experience and the relationships she and Edward forged with customers to encourage their clientele to continue getting their stays from the family’s workshop.