Daily Advert Update

January 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (January 10, 1776).

“Disabled further to prosecute the publishing that News-paper by an unfortunate accident of FIRE.”

As the imperial crisis intensified, Enoch Story and Daniel Humphreys launched the Pennsylvania Mercury (quickly renamed Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury) on April 7, 1775.  That newspaper joined two others founded earlier in the year, the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 24 and the Pennsylvania Ledger on January 28, as well as Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Pennsylvania Journal, and the Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote.  During the first four months of 1775, Philadelphia surpassed Boston in terms of the number of newspapers printed there.  With the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord on April 19 and the ensuing siege of Boston, several of Boston’s newspapers ceased publication or relocated to other towns.

Yet Boston was not the only major port city that saw one of its newspapers cease publication during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury lasted less than a year, though disruptions caused by the war did not lead to its demise.  Unfortunately, “an unfortunate accident of FIRE … consumed the Printing-office, together with their whole Stock of Paper, Types, Press,” and other equipment on December 31.  The situation did not leave any possibility for the partners to recover and eventually resume publication.  “[B]eing disabled further to prosecute the publishing [of] that News-paper,” they announced in an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, they instead expressed “their unfeigned thanks” to the subscribers who had supported the venture and requested that they “will be so kind as to pay up their subscriptions (in proportion to the time of subscribing) for the nine months the publication continued.”  In other words, they expected customers to make prorated payments based on the number of issues they received.  Humphreys eventually tried again, but not until after the Revolutionary War.  On August 20, 1784, he commenced publishing a new Pennsylvania Mercury.

Even with the loss of Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury, Philadelphia still had more newspapers than any other city or town in the colonies.  As the war continued, not all of them survived.  Some closed permanently while others moved to other towns or suspended publication during the British occupation of Philadelphia.  Yet, as the “unfortunate accident of FIRE” at Story and Humphreys’s printing office demonstrated, disruptions caused by the war were not the only dangers that forced newspapers to fold.

January 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 9, 1776).

“THIS day was published … COMMON SENSE addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA.”

On January 9, 1776, the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in an American newspaper.  The notice did not include Paine’s name.  Instead, it stated that Robert Bell, the prominent printer and bookseller, “published, and is now selling … COMMON SENSE addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA, on the following subjects.”  The advertisement then listed the headings for the several sections in the first edition: “I. Of the origin and design of government in general, with concise Remarks on the English constitution.  II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession.  III. Thoughts on the present state of American affairs.  IV. Of the present ability of America, with some miscellaneous reflections.”

Over the next several months, printers in many towns would publish and advertise local editions of Common Sense, making it the most widely disseminated political pamphlet during the era of the American Revolution (though, as Trish Loughran convincingly demonstrates, the number of copies has been wildly exaggerated).[1]  Historians also consider Common Sense the most persuasive pamphlet that advocated for the American cause.  Even though hostilities commenced at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, many Americans still hoped that the king would intervene to address their grievances.  The plain language of Common Sense (along with unflattering depictions of monarchy) played a significant role in convincing many colonizers to support independence over a redress of grievances.  Paine made a strong case for “the present ability of America” to establish a new government and trading relationships beyond the British Empire.

There seems to be some confusion about the publication date for Common Sense.  Some sources claim that it was published on January 10, 1776.  I suspect that is because advertisements for the pamphlet first appeared in the January 10 editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette, the newspaper Benjamin Franklin formerly operated, and the Pennsylvania Journal, published by Patriot printers William Bradford and Thomas Bradford.  Those advertisements featured almost identical copy (but different choices for the format made by the compositors), including the phrase “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED” in the Pennsylvania Gazette and “This Day was Published” in the Pennsylvania Journal.  I have previously examined other instances of similar phrases, demonstrating that they did not literally refer to the publication date but instead meant that a book or pamphlet was now available for purchase.  When the advertisement ran in the Pennsylvania Ledger on January 13 and in the Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote on January 16, both versions stated, “This Day was Published.”  Eighteenth-century readers knew how to interpret the phrase.  I wonder if some scholars consulted the more famous and the more venerable Pennsylvania Gazette (founded 1728) and Pennsylvania Journal (founded 1742), saw a phrase that suggested the date of the newspaper was indeed the publication date for Common Sense, and overlooked a newspaper that had been in production for a little less than a year when it carried its first advertisement for Common Sense.  (Benjamin Towne distributed the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 24, 1775.)  Bell may have been selling copies of Common Sense before January 9.  The advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post does not definitively demonstrate that the pamphlet was published on January 9, but it does show when marketing for the pamphlet began and that Bell published it no later than January 9, 1776.

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[1] Trish Loughran, “Disseminating Common Sense: Thomas Paine and the Problem of the Early National Bestseller,” American Literature 78., no. 1 (March 2006), 1-28.

January 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (January 8, 1776).

“WRITING TAUGHT in six Weeks … Specimens of Improvement may be seen.”

Among the various advertisements that appeared in the January 8, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, W. Elphinston offered his services as a writing tutor.  Although writing and reading are skills often taught simultaneously today, that was not always the case in eighteenth-century America.  For instance, at “Mrs. TAYLOR’s BOARDING SCHOOL” for “young LADIES” in Philadelphia, all students learned “Reading and the Grammar” along with sewing and embroidery, but they had to pay extra for instruction from a “Writing Master,” a “Drawing Master,” a “Dancing Master,” a “Musick Master,” and other tutors.  Some colonizers learned to read without simultaneously learning writing (or arithmetic).  Those who made their mark on documents rather than signing their names did not necessarily lack the skill to read those documents, but they did not benefit from instruction in forming the letters that they knew how to read.

Elphinston offered his assistance.  He did not teach reading; he assumed that his prospective students already possessed that skill at some level.  He expected them to apply what they already knew about reading to learning to write.  Elphinston claimed that his pupils would learn to write in just six weeks, provided that they devoted an hour per day to their lessons.  In addition to novices, he also helped those with rudimentary ability to improve their writing, yet he did not merely ask prospective students to take his word for it.  Instead, he made “Specimens of Improvement” available at the house where he gave lessons.  Anyone who considered engaging his services could examine those specimens themselves to see what kind of progress Elphinston’s former students made because of their lessons with the writing tutor.  He was not the only writing master to make specimens available to the public.  When a “Person from Boston” relocated to Connecticut and advertised that he “will teach in the most elegant and easy Manner, the several Hands now in Practice, both Useful and Ornamental,” he noted that a “Specimen of [his] Performance, in the several hands abovementioned, is left with the Printer … for the Inspection of any Person” who might hire him.  Newspaper advertisements attracted attention, but writing tutors believed that samples could seal the deal.

January 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 6, 1776).

“He has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”

During the first week of 1776, Lewis Nicola took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Evening Post “to inform his friends, and the public in general, that he has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE at his dwelling in Water-street” in Philadelphia.  He promised that “those who favor him with their custom may depend upon his best endeavors to please.

Nicola assumed that readers knew who brewed the porter that he served at his establishment.  After all, “Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER” had been the subject of several advertisements that recently ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  William Dibley served “this new and glorious manufacture” at the Fountain and White Horse Inn on Chestnut Street.  Joseph Price encouraged “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” to drink “Messrs. HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” at his tavern “at the sign of the Bull and Dog” on Market Street.  Similarly, Patrick Meade offered “Messrs. HARE and Co. AMERICAN PORTER” to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” at the Harp and Crown in nearby Southwark.

Robert Hare, the son of an English brewer who specialized in porter, arrived in Philadelphia in 1773.  He established his own brewery where he brewed porter, “the first person to brew the drink in America.”  The timing worked well for Hare; he commenced brewing American porter as the imperial crisis intensified and the Revolutionary War began.  Colonizers looked to support local enterprises by purchasing “domestic manufactures” while they boycotted goods imported from England.  That positioned Hare’s brewery for success.

Just as significantly, consumers liked his porter (unlike some of the substitutes for imported tea that some colonizers concocted).  When John Adams attended the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774, he lauded Hare’s porter in a letter to Abigail: “I drink no Cyder, but feast upon Phyladelphia Beer, and Porter.  A Gentleman, one Mr. Hare, has lately set up in this City a Manufactory of Porter, as good as any that comes from London.  I pray We may introduce it into the Massachusetts.  It agrees with me, infinitely better than Punch, Wine, or Cyder, or any other Spirituous Liquor.”  With Hare’s porter having such a reputation, Nicola did not need to mention the brewer when he opened his “AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”  The public knew the porter came from Hare’s brewery.

January 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (January 6, 1776).

“Monsieur LAFONG, HAIR-DRESSER, &c. AND BARBER GENERAL!”

George Lafong, a “French HAIR-DRESSER” in Williamsburg, occasionally placed newspaper advertisements in the early 1770s.  When he took to the pages of the first issue of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette for 1776, he presented himself as “Monsieur LAFONG, HAIR-DRESSER, &c. AND BARBER GENERAL!”  That elaborate and spectacular title served as the headline for his advertisement.  He had not previously dropped his first name in favor of referring to himself as “Monsieur LAFONG,” but apparently decided that circumstances merited this affectation.

That may have been because he jointly placed the advertisement with his new partner, Alexander Wiley, explaining that they went into business together “IN Order to carry on the business more extensively.”  Wiley possessed “great Abilities in Hair-Dressing,” according to the advertisement, yet neither his name nor reputation seemed to suggest any connection to French styles.  Hairdressers frequently benefited from the cachet that their clientele associated with French fashion, something that Lafong understood when he introduced himself as a “French HAIR-DRESSER” and there in a French phrase, “TOUT A LA MODE,” in 1770.  He doubled down on that in his new advertisement, naming himself “Monsieur Lafong” in the body as well as “Monsieur LAFONG” in the headline.

The new partners hoped that the combination of Wiley’s “great Abilities in Hair-Dressing, and the general Satisfaction which Monsieur Lafong flatters himself to have hitherto given” would yield “Encouragement” (or appointments) “from the Ladies and Gentlemen of this City.”  Lafong deserved to lean on his reputation.  According to the entry on wigmakers from the Williamsburg Craft Series, Lafong operated one of the premiere wig shops in the town in the early 1770s.[1]  In his own marketing, he declared that he “makes Head Dresses for Ladies, so natural as not to be distinguished by the most curious Eye.”  If former clients (or their acquaintances who knew who dressed their hair) agreed with that assessment, it did indeed suggest a “general Satisfaction” with Lafong’s work.  Furthermore, Lafong and Wiley promised that “the greatest Pains will be taken” to earn the approval of their clients.

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[1] Thomas K. Bullock and Maurice B. Tinkin, Jr., The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: An Account of his Barbering, Hair-Dressing, and Peruke-Making Services, and Some Remarks on Wigs of Various Styles (Colonial Williamsburg: 1959, 1987).

January 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (January 5, 1776).

“The PRINTER is reduced to the necessity of demanding half the year’s subscription money.”

In the final issue of his Virginia Gazette for 1775, Alexander Purdie called on subscribers “to pay in their subscriptions, to enable me to lay in a stock of paper for the winter,” and “all persons indebted to me for BOOKS, STATIONARY, [and] ADVERTISEMENTS” to settle their accounts.  He asserted that it was “impossible to carry on such an expensive business, to the publick’s or his own satisfaction, without punctual payment.”

A week later, Purdie expressed even more alarm in a notice in the first edition of his Virginia Gazette for 1776.  “CONSIDERING the great rise in the price of PAPER, the high expense attending the transportation of it to this place from Philadelphia, and the difficulty there is to procure it almost on any terms,” he explained, “the PRINTER is reduced to the necessity of demanding half the year’s subscription money from every new subscriber to his GAZETTE.”  Newspaper subscribers often enjoyed generous credit, but Purdie made clear that was not a viable option.  He simultaneously renewed his call “that those who owe him for the last 11 months” since he commenced publication of hisVirginia Gazette “send in their subscriptions” and “those that subscribed later … pay in to Dec. 31st … that he may begin a new account, this NEW YEAR, with all his customers.”  Like many other printers, Purdie believed that he performed a valuable service for the public, “hop[ing] to be able to furnish them always with pleasing intelligence, even in these boisterous times.”  Many readers may have considered “boisterous” an understatement as they read news and editorials about the war that commenced at Lexington and Concord the previous April.

Where Purdie placed his advertisement within the issue testifies to its urgency.  Like other newspapers of the era, his Virginia Gazette consisted of four pages printed on a broadsheet and folded in half.  Printers usually printed the first and fourth pages on one side, let it dry, and then printed the second and third pages on the other side.  That meant that the news and advertisements that arrived in the printing office most recently appeared on the second and third pages, inside the folded newspaper.  Purdie’s Virginia Gazette had a heading for “ADVERTISEMENTS” in the final column of the third page.  He could have followed the example of other printers and given his notice a privileged place as the first item under that heading.  Instead, he made it the first item in the first column on the fourth page.  He placed his notice in the upper left corner of the final page, making it the first advertisement readers encountered then they turned to that page.  That also guaranteed a spot for the printer’s notice.  Purdie made it a priority rather than risking that news he had not yet received would be of such significance to justify crowding out his notice.  Purdie made a savvy decision in choosing where to place his notice calling on subscribers and other customers to settle accounts.

January 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (January 4-11, 1776).

“SEBRING, Sadler and cap-maker from London, at the White Horse in Providence.”

After migrating to the colonies from England in the early 1770s, John Sebring occasionally placed advertisements in the Providence Gazette, offering his services as a “Saddler, Chaise and Harness Maker.”  Though he remained in Providence at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he saw an opportunity to advertise in the New-England Chronicle, printed in Cambridge, in January 1776.  As the siege of Boston continued, he introduced himself to readers as a “Sadler and cap-maker from London.”  Even though it had been more than three years since he left the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the British Empire, he continued to stress his connection to it.  Prospective customers, after all, associated both skill and taste with artisans who had trained in London or gained experience working there.  Sebring also deployed one of the signature elements of his advertisements, using solely his surname rather than his full name as the headline.  That initial proclamation, the mononym “SEBRING,” suggested celebrity and an established reputation.

In this advertisement, Sebring declared that he “Makes all sorts of Saddles, with proper furniture for them, in the most fashionable manner.”  Practical was good, but stylish was even better!  He listed a variety of items that he made “at the White Horse in Providence,” the location featured in his newspaper notices since he first began advertising, and then advised that “Any gentleman wanting any of the above articles may depend on being served with the greatest punctuality and dispatch, by directing a few lines” to him.  Sebring had previously confined his advertisements to the Providence Gazette, but he apparently believed that the disruptions of the war opened new markets to him.  American officers and soldiers gathered in Cambridge and nearby towns, many of them dispatched from distant places.  As they would have been unfamiliar with local artisans, Sebring presented his workshop to supply saddles and other equipment via a mail order system.  In a nota bene at the conclusion of the advertisement, he offered a chance to examine some of his wares before placing orders for customized items.  “Mussetees [or musette bags, lightweight knapsacks used by soldiers], boot garters and sword belts,” Sebring stated, “to be sold at Mr. William Allen’s, near the Anchor in Cambridge.”  Sebring apparently recruited a local agent to help him break into a new market.

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Clarification:  Readers of the New-England Chronicle did not encounter this advertisement in the issue distributed on January 4, 1776.  It should not have been the featured advertisement on January 4, 2026.  Here’s how the mistake happened.

The format for the date in the masthead of some colonial newspapers confuses modern readers.  That’s because some newspapers published weekly did not state only the date on which the newspaper was published but instead indicated the week that it covered.  The New-England Chronicle was one of those newspapers.  Rather than giving “January 4, 1776” as the date, the masthead for that issue stated, “From THURSDAY, Decem. 28, 1775, to THURSDAY, January 4, 1776.”  For the issue published on January 11, the masthead stated, “From THURSDAY, January 4, to THURSDAY, January 11, 1776.”

While America’s Historical Newspapers associates the correct publication date with the issues of the vast majority of newspapers in the database, a couple newspapers use the date for the beginning of the week rather than the publication date.  When an undergraduate research assistant downloaded digital copies of all American newspapers published in 1776, I neglected to warn him that was the case for the New-England Chronicle.  I compounded the error by not looking at the masthead closely enough when I consulted the issue for January 4-11 to select an advertisement to feature on January 4.  I only noticed the problem after publishing the entry.

Since advertisements for consumer goods and services typically ran for multiple weeks, I hoped that Sebring’s advertisement also appeared in the December 28 – January 4 issue.  If that had been the case, I would have simply cropped the image from that issue and substituted it in this entry.  However, Sebring’s notice made its first appearance in the January 4-11 issue.

I decided that the next best solution was updating the date in the citation that accompanies the image of Sebring’s advertisement and adding this clarification.  It provides insight into the process of conducting research with digitized sources … and a warning about the importance of attention to detail.  I have more than a decade of experience working with digitized eighteenth-century newspapers.  I initially saw what I expected to see, not what was actually there, and only discovered the error when I took a closer look at the newspapers as I continued production of this project.  Fortunately, I caught the error quickly and updated the filenames for the downloaded newspapers accordingly.  In addition to this clarification, I am also making small adjustments to the Slavery Adverts 250 Project to adhere to the dates advertisements about enslaved people were published in the New-England Chronicle.

January 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (January 3, 1776).

“MARY MEMMINGER, At the sign of the Golden Pelican.”

In the final issue of the Pennsylvania Journal published in 1775 and continuing in January 1776, Mary Memminger advertised the remedies available at her apothecary shop “At the sign of the Golden Pelican” on Second Street in Philadelphia.  Memminger described her shop as a “distillery,” suggesting that she may have produced some of the “WATERS” (including cinnamon, clove, orange, peppermint, and “Common Mint”) and “Spirits of Wine,” “Spirits of Turpentine,” and “Spirits of Lavender.”  She also stocked popular “PATENT MEDICINES, Imported from London,” listing “Bateman’s Drops, British Oil, Turlington’s Balsam, Godfrey’s Cordial, Daffy’s Elixer, [and] Hooper’s and Anderson’s Pills.”  Memminger apparently tended closely to her advertising.  The first time her notice appeared, it featured an error, truncating “Godrey’s Cordial, Daffy’s Elixer” to “Godfrey’s Elixer.”  The compositor fixed the mistake, a rare instance of an updated version of a newspaper advertisement for consumer goods and services after the type had been set.

Memminger did not indicate when she received the patent medicines “Imported from London,” whether they arrived in the colonies before the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774.  Apothecaries and others who sold patent medicines often gave assurances that they were “fresh,” recent arrivals that had not lingered on shelves or in storerooms for months, yet Memminger left it to readers to draw their own conclusions.  She did assert that she was “determined to keep a constant supply of the above articles, all of which I shall be careful to have the best of their kinds,” perhaps indicating a willingness to make exceptions when it came to certain imported items.  Memminger made the health of her clients her priority, promising that “the public may depend on being served on the most reasonable terms, and my friends in the country may depend on being as well supplied by letter as if they were present.”  As a symbol of the care she provided, a woodcut dominated her advertisement (and the entire final page of the January 3, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal).  As William H. Helfand explains, it depicted “a pelican piercing her breast to nourish her young.”  Perhaps it replicated the “sign of the Golden Pelican” that marked Memminger’s location.  While other apothecaries, like Philip Godfrid Kast and Oliver Smith, deployed images that incorporated mortars and pestles, Memminger declined to include a tool of the trade in favor of emphasizing a symbol of motherly care and sacrifice tending to the welfare of others.

January 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 2, 1776).

“PRINTING In ENGLISH, GERMAN, and other Languages.”

In late December 1775 and early January 1776, Melchior Steiner and Charles Cist placed advertisements for “PRINTING In ENGLISH, GERMAN, and other Languages” in several newspapers published in Philadelphia.  Having acquired a “general assortment of new and elegant TYPES, and other Printing Materials,” they opened an office “where they intend carrying on the PRINTING BUSINESS in all its different branches, with care, fidelity, and expedition.”  Both partners had been born in Europe and migrated to Philadelphia, as Isaiah Thomas explained in his History of Printing in America (1810).  Steiner, born in Switzerland, served an apprenticeship with Henry Miller, the printer of the Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (formerly Der Wochentliche Philadelphische Staatsbote and Der Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote).  Cist, an apothecary born in St. Petersburg, Russia, came to the colonies in 1769, worked for Miller as a translator of English into German, and “by continuing in the employment of Miller several years he acquired a considerable knowledge of printing.”[1]

Steiner and Cist, according to Thomas, “executed book and job work, in both the German and English languages,” the “different branches” of printing that they advertised in their notice.  They competed with other local printers, especially Miller.  Their former associate also took orders for job printing in both languages and annually published an almanac in German.  The masthead of the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote indicated that “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”  Thomas reported, “Not long after the commencement of the revolutionary war, [Steiner and Cist] published a newspaper in the German language; but, for want of sufficient encouragement, it was discontinued in April, 1776.”[2]  The venerable printer appears to have been misinformed on that point.  Clarence S. Brigham does not attribute any newspaper published in 1775 or 1776 to Steiner and Cist, but he does list another newspaper that Thomas credited to the partners, the Philadelpisches Staatsregister, published during the war from 1779 to 1781.[3]  Even if they considered launching a newspaper eventually, the new partners sought to establish a printing office with a reputation for “giv[ing] satisfaction to those who may be pleased to employ them” for job printing.  As they surveyed the local and regional landscape, they may have determined that Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote and the Germantowner Zeitung already met the needs of colonizers who spoke German and the market would not support another newspaper.  That they operated their printing office in Philadelphia throughout most of the war, leaving temporarily during the British occupation of the city, testifies to the multilingual origins of the new nation.  English was the language spoken (and printed) most prevalently in the thirteen colonies that declared independence, but certainly not exclusively during the era of the American Revolution.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; Weathervane Books, 1970), 404.

[2] Thomas, History of Printing, 404.

[3] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 1392, 1487.

January 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (January 1, 1776).

“A CORRECT MAP … in which may be seen the march of Col. Arnold.”

On January 1, 1776, Robert Aitken, a printer and bookseller, advertised that he had for sale a “CORRECT MAP of the great river St. Lawrence, Nova-Scotia, Newfoundland, and that part of New-England, in which may be seen the march of Co. Arnold, from Casco-Bay to Quebec, by wat of Kennebec river.”  The map featured insets depicting the “plains of Quebec, the town of Halifax and its harbour, and a small perspective view of the city of Boston.”  Like several other maps and prints advertised in the months following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, this map supplemented the news that colonizers read in the newspapers and heard when they discussed current events.

This “CORRECT MAP” aided in understanding the dual-pronged American invasion of Quebec that commenced near the end of August.  General Richard Montgomery and 1200 soldiers headed from Fort Ticonderoga, New York, recently captured from the British, toward Montreal.  That city surrendered to Montogomery on November 13.  Meanwhile, Colonel Benedict Arnold and 1100 soldiers sailed from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to the mouth of the Kennebec River on September 15.  They made a harrowing trek through the wilderness of northern New England, losing nearly half their number to death or desertion, before reaching Quebec City on November 14.  Arnold and his soldiers besieged the city, eventually supported by Montgomery and reinforcements on December 2.  The enlistments for many of the American soldiers ended on December 31, prompting Montgomery and Arnold to attack the city during a snowstorm.  The weather did not work to their advantage.  Montgomery was killed, Arnold wounded, and four hundred American soldiers captured.  Arnold assumed command and continued the siege, realizing that British reinforcements would arrive when the St. Lawrence River became navigable again in the spring.  When General John Burgoyne arrived in May, Arnold led a retreat to upstate New York.  Ultimately, the American invasion of Canada failed.

When they saw Aitken’s advertisement for a “CORRECT MAP … in which may be seen the march of Col. Arnold” in the January 1 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, they had no way of knowing about the failed attack that occurred the previous day.  Supporters of the American cause still hoped that Montgomery and Arnold would capture Quebec City, dealing a significant blow to the British.  Along with newspaper coverage, the map chronicled what readers knew about the invasion of Canada, including the hardships endured by Arnold and the soldiers under his command who endured so many hardships in the wilderness of northern New England.

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For more information about the Quebec Campaign, see Nathan Wuertenberg’s more comprehensive overview.