What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
When November arrived in 1776, John Dixon and William Hunter, the printers of the Virginia Gazette, began advertising “The VIRGINIA ALMANACK For the Year 1777.” They ran their first advertisement on November 1, allowing prospective customers two months to purchase their almanacs before the new year began. That also gave retailers in Williamsburg and other towns time to acquire almanacs to stock in their own shops and stores. Dixon and Hunter printers advised that they sold the almanac “at the usual Prices,” though they did not specify the price in their advertisement. The printers may have wished to assure readers that shortages of paper and other disruptions caused by the war had not resulted in significant increases in what they would pay for almanacs compared to previous years.
When Dixon and Hunter ran their advertisement a second time on November 8, they added a couple of lines that gave more information. That included expanding the title to “The VIRGINIA ALMANACK For the Year 1777, Fitting VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, NORTH CAROLINA, &c.” Readers in those states could depend on the astronomical calculations corresponding to their locations. Dixon and Hunter did not mention in their advertisement that David Rittenhouse, a prominent mathematician and astronomer in Philadelphia, was credited as the author since he provided those calculations (and the printers, as editors, likely selected other contents). Rittenhouse also supplied the calculations for Father Abraham’s Almanack, For the Year of Our Lord 1777, published by John Dunlap in Philadelphia. In an advertisement in the November 12 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the printer boasted, “Our kind customers are requested to observe, that the ingenious David Rittenhouse, A.M. of this city, has favoured us with the Astronomical calculations of our Almanack for this year, therefore they may be most firmly relied on.” Dixon and Hunter did not go into such detail, though Rittenhouse apparently undertook a separate set of calculations for states to the south of Pennsylvania.
Dixon and Hunter also added instructions for customers outside Williamsburg who sent orders rather than visiting the printing office to purchase their almanacs: “Demands from the Country it is expected will be accompanied with the Cash.” That suggested that prospective customers were indeed familiar with “the usual Prices.” It also revealed that the printers would not extend credit to either customers purchasing their own almanacs or retailers purchasing them to sell again. Despite the upheavals of the war, they set a reasonable price, but in exchange they needed payment at the time of sale. The printers declined to take on the risk of credit in such uncertain times.