Daily Advert Update

August 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 21, 1776).

“Stoughtons grand Stomachic Elixir, proper for all Soldiers to carry with them in the camp.”

During the Revolutionary War, Shephard and Hunt adapted their newspaper advertisements to the times.  The partners operated a store that sold medicines and a “variety of other articles in the Apothecary way” at a store in Worcester in the summer of 1776.  In a notice in the August 21 edition of the Massachusetts Spy, they listed an assortment of patent medicines and medical supplies that commonly appeared in similar advertisements, including “Anderson’s Pills, Hunters Catheters, neat Lancet Cases, Smelling Bottles with Cases, Vials and half pint Bottles by the Crate, or single dozen, [and] Batemans Drops.”

Under other circumstances, apothecaries and other retailers usually listed patent medicines without commentary or explanation.  Those remedies were so familiar to consumers that advertisers did not consider it necessary to elaborate on them.  In this instance, however, Shephard and Hunt did not merely list Stoughton’s Elixir as one among several patent medicines.  Instead, they named it “Stoughtons grand Stomachic Elixir” and stated that the potion was “proper for all Soldiers to carry with them in the camp.”  The apothecaries identified an ailment that commonly afflicted soldiers and made a pitch to them to purchase a medicine that would provide relief.  They provided a small comfort “at a very moderate advance for Cash” to soldiers fighting a war for independence.

That was not the only service that Shephard and Hunt undertook for the war effort.  They informed all customers that they “may depend upon being well used, and with dispatch,” while extending a special invitation to “Gentlemen who supply the Army of the United States.”  In addition to quick and efficient customer service, those “Gentlemen … may be furnished with a number of articles suitable for the camp.”  Apothecaries sometimes prepared boxes of medicines and supplies for ships or homes.  Shephard and Hunt may have done the same for doctors and others in military camps.  Even if they did not, they stocked medical supplies “suitable for the camp” and sought to attract customers affiliated with the American army who would purchase in volume.  As they continued to serve civilian customers, Shephard and Hunt also marketed their wares to soldiers and the army.

August 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 20, 1776).

“Advertisements omitted this day will have a good place on Thursday.”

The August 20, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post consisted almost entirely of news.  Benjamin Towne, the printer, placed news from London, including an overview of recent events in the House of Commons, on the first page, along with updates from Williamsburg, and Baltimore.  Two advertisements, the only ones in that issue, completed the final column on the first page.  An “ADDRESS of General ROBERDEAU to the Pennsylvania Associators at Amboy” filled the entire second page and spilled over onto the third, “published by order of the Convention of Pennsylvania.”  A copy of the “DECLARATION of RIGHTS passed by the Convention of this state” filled the remainder of that page.  The first column on the last page contained “ADVICES BY THIS DAY’s POST” with reports from Newburyport, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; and New York.  The final column had recent updates from the “CONVENTION for the STATE of PENNSYLVANIA” and the “COUNCIL of SAFETY” in Philadelphia.

A brief notice from the printer and the colophon completed the issue.  “Advertisements omitted this day,” Towne pledged, “will have a good place on Thursday.  In any other newspaper printed in Philadelphia at the time, advertisements “omitted” in one issue would have been deferred for an entire week unless the printer opted to publish a supplement, postscript, or extraordinary issue.  Towne, however, published the Pennsylvania Evening Post three times a a week, “every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Evenings.”  That meant advertisers had to wait only two days until their advertisements appeared.  In exchange for that inconvenience, Towne promised a “good place” for them as he balanced his duty to provide subscribers with news (and even his obligation to publish items “by order of the Convention of Pennsylvania) and his responsibility to disseminate notices that advertisers paid to disseminate in his newspapers.  Two days later, advertisements filled two entire pages and a portion of a third, accounting for more than half the space in the August 22 edition.  Towne made good on his promise of publishing those “omitted” earlier in the week.  As he made his decisions about what to include, it may have helped that the “NEW-YORK POST was not arrived when this paper went to press.”

August 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

“French and Dutch GOODS.”

In an advertisement in the August 19, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette, Martin Bicker listed an array of textiles and other goods in stick at his shop.  He offered a “very great choice of callicoes, patches, printed linens, fine lawns, cambricks, silk gauzes, … silk and linen handkerchiefs, cotton and linen checks, … ribbons, black sattin, persians, kid gloves, pins and needles, … middling and coarse broad-cloths, trimmings to match, … breeches patterns, thread and worsted hose, bedticks, buckrams, durants, sagathees, duroys, wiltons, white silk Damascus, writing paper, [and] castor hats.”  Modern readers may not recognize the names of many of those textiles, but eighteenth-century consumers knew them and could distinguish among them.  Bicker invited prospective customers to make selections according to their own tastes and budgets.  To that end, he carried “macaroni velvets,” but he also had “plain” velvets for those who considered the alternative too extravagant or too expensive.  He concluded his list with “&c,” the abbreviation commonly used for et cetera, to indicate even more choices among his “good assortment.”

Bicker’s advertisement looked much like one that would have run in an American newspaper before the Revolutionary War, but with one exception.  The headline proclaimed, “French and Dutch GOODS.”  Bicker reiterated the origins of his wares when he stated that he “has just received a very good assortment of French and Dutch Goods, which are ready for sale.”  He did not explain how he acquired that shipment, though he certainly expected promoting “French and Dutch GOODS” would resonate with consumers in Boston and the surrounding towns.  After all, the Declaration of Independence so recently adopted by the Continental Congress and published in the Boston-Gazette included “full Power to … establish Commerce” among the “Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”  When Massachusetts was a colony, Bicker and other entrepreneurs had been restricted to trading with Great Britain.  Retailers gave consumers access to “English Goods,” as they were so often described in newspaper advertisements.  Bicker knew that the origins of his merchandise distinguished his shop from others.  The “French and Dutch GOODS” he sold contrasted significantly with the “Variety of ENGLISH GOODS” offered in the advertisement that appeared immediately above his notice.

August 18

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“Gentlemen who rent out farms will find their advantage in distributing them among their tenants.”

In the summer of 1776, James Humphreys, Jr., announced his intention to publish a Philadelphia edition of Arthur Young’s Rural Œconomy: Or Essays on the Practical Parts of Husbandry, originally published in London.  He claimed that he had not set about this venture on his own bit instead pursued the project “At the Request of a Number of GENTLEMEN, and particularly some reputable FARMERS.”  Mentioning those unnamed gentlemen and farmers served as an implicit endorsement of the work, a strategy for stimulating demand for it.

The subtitle of the book, which Humphreys deployed as copy in his advertisement, provided further justification for purchasing and consulting Rural Œconomy: it was “Designed to explain several of the most important Methods of conducting FARMS of various Kinds; including many useful Hints to GENTLEMEN FARMERS, relative to the œconomical Management of their Business.”  In addition, Humphreys composed original copy intended to encourage sales in the city as well as in the country.  “As this work if properly circulated must prove of general utility to this country,” the printer declared, “it is hoped it will not want for proper encouragement.  It it will worthy the perusal and particular attention of every inhabitant on the continent, citizens as well as countrymen.”  Hoping to increase sales, Humphreys even suggested that landlords should purchase copies to give to farmers who rented their land: “Gentlemen who rent out farms will find their advantage in distributing them among their tenants.”

When Humphreys ran his advertisement in the August 17, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, he had not yet taken Rural Œconomy to press.  His advertisement took the form of a subscription notice that called on readers to reserve copies in advance by subscribing for them.  Subscription notices helped printers incite demand, determine how many copies to print, and decide whether a proposed publication had a sufficient market to make it viable.  Not all subscription notices resulted in the publication of the advertised work, though Humphreys did publish his Philadelphia edition of Rural Œconomy in 1776.

The subscription notice indicated that “SPECIMENS” or samples “may be had of the Printer.”  Those short excerpts allowed prospective subscribers to examine the paper, type, and overall quality of the printing.  Subscribers received discounts compared to what Humphreys would charge for any surplus copies he printed.  They had a choice between an unbound copy “in blue boards” for one dollar or a bound copy for ten shillings.  Those who did not subscribe in advance, however, could expect to pay “not less than Twelve Shillings” for an unbound copy “in blue boards.”  Humphreys designed the pricing structure to create anxiety around missing out on the bargain rate.  For those landlords that he encouraged to give copies to their tenants as well as booksellers and shopkeepers who might stock the book, he offered a free thirteenth copy to those who subscribed for twelve books.

Humphreys hoped that these various appeals, separately or in combination, would convince readers to subscribe for copies of Rural Œconomy.  That he published the book does not necessarily testify to the effectiveness of any of those appeals, but their inclusion in his subscription notice indicates what kinds of marketing strategies the printer believed had some chance of working.

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”

In the summer of 1776, Samuel Wetherill took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Ledger to hawk a variety of textiles produced at his “Manufactory in South-street” in Philadelphia.  He offered “Woolens, Linnens, and Cottons, particularly Corded Dimity’s,” to consumers, giving them an alternative to fabrics imported from England.  He emphasized that he sold “domestic manufactures” with a headline that proclaimed, “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”  Wetherill elaborated on that point by noting the “great expence” he had undertaken in his “improve manufactures among us” and, in turn, expected “the public encouragement” for his endeavor.

Wetherill was one of many advertisers who made some sort of “Buy American” appeal during the era of the American Revolution.  As T.H. Breen explains in The Marketplace of Revolution, calls to produce and purchase goods made in America began even before the imperial crisis.  As colonizers participated in the transatlantic consumer revolution, some noticed the imbalance of trade that emerged within a commercial empire organized around Britain producing goods and the colonies consuming those goods.  Once Parliament imposed new regulations on trade, especially duties on imported goods, and the colonies responded with boycotts of those goods, establishing and supporting the production of goods in the colonies became even more important.  When the Second Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement adopted throughout the colonies, the eighth article stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  Producing (and consuming) goods produced in America became even more important after the Continental Congress declared independence.

Wetherill did his part and he used an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger to let prospective customers in Philadelphia and the region know that he did.  Along with his “attempt to improve manufactures among us” came a reciprocal obligation for consumers to give their “public encouragement” by purchasing the textiles that Wetherill and his employees produced “at his Manufactory.”  He presented an opportunity to acquire “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE,” goods produced in their own city or state as a means of strengthening the local economy.

August 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (August 16, 1776).

“A DIALOGUE ON THE Slavery of the Africans.”

Newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Throughout the colonies and the new nation, newspapers regularly carried advertisements that presented enslaved people for sale or offered rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  News items and editorials also stoked fear of enslaved people to justify keeping them in bondage.

On occasion, however, the public prints carried advertisements, news, or editorials that advocated for the liberty of certain enslaved people or emancipating all enslaved people.  In April 1776, for instance, an advertisement announced that “DICK (a Negro) … [was] now made free from Slavery by the Charity of the People” of Middletown, Connecticut, “and by virtue of his Freedom, has Liberty to procure the necessaries of Life by his own Industry, as other free born Subjects have.”  In June 1775, William Henshaw published an advertisement on behalf of the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Massachusetts.  Upon receiving a petition from “the NEGROES in the counties of Bristol and Worcester,” the Committees of Correspondence passed a resolution stating that “we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county.”  They pledged to “use our influence” to aid in efforts for “emancipating the NEGROES.”  They applied the rhetoric of the American Revolution to the literal enslavement of Africans and African Americans instead of considering only the figurative enslavement of colonizers.

In the summer of 1776, Judah P. Spooner published and sold A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of the Africans: Shewing It To Be the Duty and Interest of the American Colonies to Emancipate All Their African Slaves at his printing office in Norwich Connecticut.  The book included “an ADDRESS to the Owners of such Slaves.”  The author, Samuel Hopkins, a Congregationalist minister in Newport, dedicated the volume “to the Honorable the Continental Congress.”  Like the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Hopkins recognized the contradictions inherent in revolutionary rhetoric that espoused liberty for colonizers but did not include calling for the abolition of slavery.

That an advertisement for A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans appeared in the August 16, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette did not mean, however, that Timothy Green, the printer of that newspaper, endorsed anything that Hopkins wrote about slavery.  In the previous issue, Green published an advertisement that described Sy, “a Mustee Fellow,” and offered a reward to “Whoever takes up said Negro, and secures him, or returns him to his Master.”  Similarly, Spooner, the printer of both the Norwich Packet and A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans, published a similar advertisement about “a Negro MAN Servant, named FORTEN,” in the August 5 issue and regularly generated revenue by printing other advertisements about enslaved people.  Even as Hopkins attempted to use the power of the press to advocate for abolition, enslavers and printers continued perpetuating slavery with the advertisements they published.

August 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New York Packet (August 15, 1776).

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY.”

Like other early American printers, Samuel Loudon cultivated multiple revenue streams.  He sold subscription to the New York Packet and collected fees for the advertisements in that newspaper.  In addition, he sold a variety of books, pamphlets, and almanacs, only some of them produced in his printing office, as well as stationery and writing supplies.  Loudon also operated a circulating library, a venture that only a few printers and booksellers incorporated into their portfolios.  Clubs or corporations formed for the purpose of operating libraries oversaw most of those institutions established before and during the era of the American Revolution.

Loudon promoted his circulating library “CONSISTING of Two Thousand Vols. [of] well chosen books” in the August 15, 1776, edition of the New York Packet.  Unlike modern public libraries that allow access to books and other materials for free, circulating libraries charged subscription fees to readers.  Loudon offered discounts for those who subscribed for longer periods.  A three-month subscription cost eight shillings while a six-month subscription cost twelve shillings.  Subscribers gained access for an entire year for twenty shillings, a significant savings over purchasing consecutive subscriptions for shorter periods.  Rather than completely exclude readers who did not purchase subscriptions, Loudon allowed “occasional readers” to borrow books upon paying a fee of “one penny for each shilling the book they read is valued at.”  Readers interested in a particular title could peruse it for a lower price without having to make a larger investment in a subscription.

Loudon established some interesting guidelines for how long subscribers could borrow books, making the determination based on the sizes of the sheets (not to be confused with the length of the book).  “The time allowed for reading a folio,” he explained, “is four weeks,” but only two weeks for a quarto and just one week for “an octavo and under.”  Subscribers (and occasional readers) who kept their books longer had “to pay one penny a day for an octavo, and in proportion for larger volumes.”  Whatever the quirks of this system, it meant that readers could not hoard titles and make them unavailable to other subscriber, at least not without paying penalties for doing so.  In addition, borrowers had to pay for books that were “lost or abused.”

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY” gave residents of New York access to thousands of books without having to purchase them, making them more accessible to many readers.  Loudon operated the library as a public service while simultaneously generating revenue to supplement his other ventures as a printer and bookseller.

August 14

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 14, 1776).

“The freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”

An advertisement in the August 14, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy promoted the services of a “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town twenty-five miles north of Worcester.  The unnamed post rider stressed that there was no quicker way for residents of that town and others in the vicinity to receive the latest news, especially updates about the war being waged for independence.

The post rider explained that he set out from Worcester on Wednesdays, the same day that William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow published a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy, and “arrive[d] in … Fitchburg every Wednesday night,” supplying the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”  Readers could depend on it being the latest news because Stearns and Bigelow printed the Massachusetts Spy “the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail” on Tuesdays, giving them just enough time to glean the most significant news to include in new issues on Wednesdays.  The letters and newspapers the printers received “contain[ed] ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation” as well as “the latest news by the Government Post from Ticonderoga.”  Stearns and Bigelow likely collaborated with the post rider in providing this service as well as in writing an advertisement that promoted the Massachusetts Spy to readers throughout central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  The Massachusetts Spy competed with newspapers published in Boston and Watertown in Massachusetts and Exeter and Portsmouth in New Hampshire, yet subscribers who received the Massachusetts Spy via the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” would “obtain the freshest news much Sooner and Cheaper, than from any other part of the Continent.”  An annual subscription with delivery cost “Ten Shillings per annum (Postage included)” or two shillings more than the base price, “Eight Shillings, per Annum, exclusive of Postage,” listed in the newspaper’s colophon.

The Massachusetts Spy carried all sorts of news, including updates from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, yet the printers and the post rider believed that readers were most interested in the latest news about the progress of the war. Better than any other newspaper printed in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Spy and the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” could deliver that news to subscribers and other readers.

August 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 13, 1776).

“IN MENS CLOTHES … a Mulatto woman slave, named MARIA.”

What kind of story would Maria have told about herself if she had the opportunity to record it in print?  How would it have differed from the account that appeared in an advertisement on the first page of the August 13, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet?

That advertisement described Maria as “a Mulatto woman slave” who “RAN AWAY … from the Jerseys to Philadelphia or New York” at the end of July.  Maria likely thought of that act as freeing herself from her enslavers rather than running away from “a good master and mistress.”  The enslavers who applauded themselves for their supposed benevolence condemned Maria for “going towards New-York after a married white man, who is a soldier in the Continental army there.”  In doing so, she “left behind her three young children.”  They also noted that Maria was “hardly discernable from a white woman,” yet that was not the only form of passing as someone else that threatened the social order or their attempt to exert authority over her.  The headline for the advertisement proclaimed, “IN MENS CLOTHES,” indicating that Maria might make good on her escape by disguising both her sex and her race.  That compounded her transgressions.

Maria’s unnamed enslavers certainly cast her in a negative light, yet just because their account appeared in print did not make them reliable narrators.  That they portrayed themselves as “a good master and mistress” already demonstrated their bias.  They told a lively story, one that probably stunned or distressed many readers, but Maria certainly would have given a much different version of what occurred had she been given the opportunity.  There are too many possibilities to conjecture about the “married white man” or “her three young children” or any of Maria’s relationships except to say that they had to have been more complex than what her unnamed enslavers insinuated in a brief newspaper advertisement.  During the era of the American Revolution, Maria made choices of her that deserve much more consideration than the few lines that her unnamed enslavers published in an advertisement seeking her capture and return.

August 12

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

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

Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).

“A NUMBER OF ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE.”

More than a dozen advertisements appeared in the August 12, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet.  Among them, Leonard Hills, a post rider, called on delinquent customers to pay for his services, William Mansfield sought to hire a journeyman shoemaker, and John Baker Brimmer solicited “Small Furrs, Bees-Wax, OLD COPPER AND PEWTER.”  In separate advertisements, Peabody Clement and Peter Lanman each offered rewards for the return of lost pocketbooks, while Thomas Adams advertised that he had “TAKEN up … a bay Mare” and would return it to the owner upon “proving his Property” and paying for expenses.

Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).

Even though the compositor used a variety of fonts to draw attention to each advertisement, only two of them featured borders made of decorative type.  Both concerned business conducted “AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE IN NORWICH.”  One announced, “A NUMBER of ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING OFFICE.”  If they checked the newspaper to confirm that their advertisements did indeed appear, Clement and Lanman likely spotted the notice that informed them where they could purchase replacements for their lost pocketbooks, though John Trumbull, the printer, certainly hoped to attract other customers as well.  The other decorative border enclosed a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” that the printer would recycle at the paper mill and, in turn, use to publish subsequent issues of theNorwich Packet.  Trumbull promised “CASH … FOR Clean Linen Rags.”  Similar notices appeared in newspapers throughout the new nation, though not usually spruced up with printing ornaments.  In addition, the advertisements with borders did not run on the same page.  That further distinguished each of them since readers would spot only one at a time.  Neither border was especially sophisticated, but they did not need to be to serve their purpose.  They only needed to create visual interest that enhanced their visibility compared to news and other advertisements.  Trumbull exercised his discretion as printer to give his notices an advantage.