Daily Advert Update

August 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (August 10, 1776).

“The Acts and Laws Of this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place.”

A month after the Continental Congress voted to declare independence, Robert L. Fowle set about publishing “The Acts and Laws” of New Hampshire “passed since the new Form of Government took Place.”  He placed an advertisement, dated August 3, 1776, in three consecutive issues of the Freeman’s Journal, printed by Benjamin Dearborn in Portsmouth.  He likely also ran advertisements in his own newspaper, the New Hampshire Gazette, or, Exeter Morning Chronicle.  (That newspaper has not been digitized for greater accessibility.)

Fowle’s advertisement made its first appearance in the Freeman’s Journal on August 10.  He announced, “The Acts and Laws Of this State,” no longer a colony, “are now in the Press, and in a few Weeks will be published, at the Printing Office in Exeter.”  When Fowle referred to statutes passed “since the new Form of Government took Place,” he did not mean the actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in early July.  Instead, he invoked the Constitution of New Hampshire devised by a provincial congress that met at Exeter on December 21, 1775.  Two weeks later, delegates to that convention “VOTED, That this Congress take up CIVIL GOVERNMENT for this colony,” displacing British authority, and outlined the “manner and form” in a framework now known as the Constitution of New Hampshire.  In so doing, they implemented the first state constitution … six months before the Continental Congress declared independence.  Accordingly, the “Acts and Laws Of this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place” advertised by Fowle in August 1776 did not consist of legislation passed solely in the past month but instead during the seven months since the Constitution of New Hampshire written at Exeter went into effect.  Publishing the “Acts and Laws Of this State” buttressed the legitimacy of the new government, while purchasing or perusing the statutes kept citizen-consumers better informed about current events.  The legislature, the printer, and readers each played a role in disseminating the new acts and laws in their state, weaving together the fabric of a new nation from many threads.  Establishing and maintaining a “new Form of Government” required more than the Declaration of Independence.

August 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 10, 1776).

“Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”

Most goods advertised and sold in eighteenth-century America did not have brand names associated with them.  Patent medicines were the exception.  Consumers were familiar with a variety of patent medicines, so much so that advertisers could mention them by name without giving any further explanation of their use and purpose.  In an advertisement in the August 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, for instance, George Weed informed the public that he stocked “Dr. Bateman’s pectoral drops[,] Turlington’s balsam of life[,] Dr. Anderson’s pills[,] Dr. Hooper’s female pills[, and] Dr. Benjamin Godfrey’s cordial” at his apothecary shop in Philadelphia.

On the same page, Robert Appleby once again advertised “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”  Unlike the generic descriptions of the other items in his notice, “OLD MEDEIRA WINE” and “SPRUCE BEER,” Robert Hare’s porter described a particular beer produced by a particular brewer.  When Hare, the son of an English brewer, migrated to Pennsylvania, he became the first brewer to produce porter in the colonies.  He did so at a time that patriotic Americans boycotted imported goods and made a point of supporting “domestic manufactures” and their producers.  Consumers knew Hare’s Best American Draught Porter by name and for many months by the time Appleby ran his advertisement consumers already associated drinking it with support for the American cause.  In a notice in the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the previous November, William Dibley expressed his confidence “that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  A few weeks later, Dibley’s advertisement appeared alongside one from Patrick Meade who promoted Hare’s porter to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” and another from Joseph Price that offered “HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” to “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY.”  Beyond those accolades, Hare’s porter achieved the distinction of becoming one of the dew products other than patent medicines known to consumers by a brand name during the era of the American Revolution.

August 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

“NEW BATH … has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies.”

A health tourism industry began developing in America before the American Revolution.  As Vaughn Scribner explains, “Americans relied on improvements in transportation, roads, and communication during the second half of the eighteenth century to push spa culture forward.  …  Such improvements caused colonists increasingly to view mineral springs – as well as the all-important spas that accompanied them – as a prime opportunity for fashionable ‘improvement’ and genteel leisure.”[1]  The proprietors of various baths, spas, and mineral springs placed newspaper advertisements inviting guests to visit their establishments.  Such notices continued appearing shortly after the Continental Congress declared impendence in July 1776.

Although “regions surrounding northeastern urban centers such as Philadelphia and Boston became especially popular for their well-dev eloped mineral spas,” entrepreneurs in other regions also established and advertised similar facilities.  In early August 1776, for example, Nathaniel Anderson placed an advertisement in Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette.  “THE publick are hereby informed,” he announced, “that NEW BATH, in Louisa county, ten miles above the courthouse, is now in good repair,, and has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies who are inclinable to retire from the lower parts of the country, during the unhealthy season.”  While some clients might visit New Bath merely for leisure, the proprietor emphasized the health benefits for those afflicted with various maladies.  “The waters, from long experience,” Anderson confided, “have been found excellent for removing slow fevers, agues and fevers, and all lingering disorders.”  In addition, they provided “a speedy remedy for ulcers, inflammations,” and other afflictions.  No matter why clients traveled to New Bath, Anderson would extend exemplary hospitality, promising that the “the utmost diligence will be used to render the place agreeable.”  With his advertisement and his facilities at New Bath, Anderson contributed to a process of spas, “along with other ‘improving’ public spaces such as taverns, bowling greens, theaters, and pleasure gardens, … defin[ing] a region’s gentility, sociability, and, ultimately, civility” in the eighteenth century.[2]

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[1] Vaughn Scribner, “‘The happy effects of these waters’: Colonial Mineral Spas and the British Civilizing Mission,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 440.

[2] Scriber, “happy effects of these waters,” 440.

August 8

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

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

New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

“DRUMS … equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”

The frequency that advertisements for drums appeared in American newspapers increased significantly after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Drums, after all, were essential military equipment.  Advertisers who made or sold drums often did not consider it necessary to say much in their newspaper notices.  One brief advertisement, for instance, proclaimed, “AMERICAN MADE DRUMS, Sold by PHILIP PELTON, At the Foot of Cowfoot-hill, in NEW-YORK.”  Pelton made sure that prospective customers knew that his drums were made in America, but he did not make other appeals in that notice.

In a subsequent advertisement, however, he decided to go into more detail in hopes of convincing readers in the market for drums to choose the ones that he “MADE and sold” and provided to an associate, Daniel Pelton, likely a relation, to sell.  In case it was not enough that they were made in America, Pelton asserted that his drums were “equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”  His customers did not have to sacrifice quality when they purchased his drums.  They looked as good as imported alternatives and they sounded as good.  In addition, the Peltons had a “great variety on hand,” so “any gentlemen may be served at the shortest notice.”  Customers did not need to place orders and wait for Pelton to make their drums.  Instead, they could select from a wide inventory, making choices according to size and appearance and price.  No matter which drums customers chose, the Peltons sold them “on the most reasonable terms” or, in other words, for fair prices.  As an ancillary service, the Peltons pledged that “purchasers may depend upon having their Drums tun’d to sound well.”  That was yet another marketing appeal intended to resonate with prospective customers.  As Pelton had done when mentioning the sound and beauty of his drums earlier in the advertisement, he invited readers to engage their senses by imagining the sounds of drums “tun’d to sound well.”  This more elaborate advertisement gave prospective customers more reasons to purchase the drums that Pelton made and sold.

August 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 7, 1776).

“He once more earnestly begs that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers … would immediately pay their respective ballances.”

When Isaiah Thomas transferred the Massachusetts Spy to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow and returned to Boston in the summer of 1776, he had difficulty collecting payments from his former customers.  Even though he made several trips to Worcester to tie up loose ends, that was not enough so he resorted to placing advertisements in the newspaper he formerly printed.

“I. THOMAS, the late publisher of this Paper,” he declared, “is very sorry that so many of his Customers are so unkind as to neglect paying him the several small sums due to him for services already performed.”  In addition to newspaper subscriptions, those services likely ranged from job printing of handbills and blanks to purchases of books, pamphlets, stationery supplies, and even patent medicines.  Thomas may even have allowed credit for newspapers advertisements.  He expressed exasperation that he “made several journeys to Worcester on purpose to receive his just due” for the services he had rendered to the public in printing the first newspaper in the town and establishing its first printing office, “but, to his surprise, finds the old proverb verified, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”  In case his former customers considered what they owed so inconsequential that Thomas would not miss it, he made a plea that “that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, &c. (if it is but two-pence) would immediately pay their respective ballances … as so many small sums when collected together will be of essential service” to him.  In contrast, “the want of which will be of great detriment” as he pursued new endeavors.

That advertisement, dated “Boston, July 22, 1776,” was not the first that Thomas ran in the Massachusetts Spy.  He previously inserted a shorter notice, dated “Worcester, June 14, 1776.”  When it did not have the desired effect, Stearns and Bigelow enclosed Thomas’s new advertisement with a border of ornamental type and gave it a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page of the July 24 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have instructed or insisted that the inexperienced printers do so rather than leaving it completely to their discretion.  In subsequent issue, the notice moved to the final page, but the border remained, distinguishing the advertisement from all other content in the newspaper.  The format demanded the attention of readers who had treated Thomas as “Out of sight, out of mind.”

August 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 6, 1776).

“No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.”

Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, published a dozen advertisements in the August 6, 1776, edition of his newspaper.  They appeared at the end of the issue, following “EXTRACTS from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Convention for the State of Pennsylvania” held in Philadelphia shortly after the Continental Congress declared independence and news updates from Williamsburg, Boston, Providence, Newport, New Haven, and New York.  Immediately above the first advertisement, Towne issued instructions to prospective advertisers: “No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.”  The printer included three asterisks to call attention to his notice.

Historians of the early American press have long contended that newspaper printers extended generous credit to subscribers but insisted that advertisers had to pay in advance.  Printers, they explain, prioritized their circulation numbers as a means encouraging advertisers to purchase space in their newspapers.  In turn, revenue from advertising more than made up for losses from subscribers who did not pay.  Notices like this one from Towne likely contributed to that narrative.  Other printers sometimes ran similar notices … yet some also ran notices calling on advertisers to make payment, suggesting that they did not require advertisers to submit payment with the copy for their advertisements.  In addition, Towne’s notice indicates his policy for new advertisements that he anticipated receiving at his printing office but did not necessarily reflect the practice he previously adopted.  In an address to readers that ran in the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Towne solicited advertisements, stating that they “shall be punctually and conspicuously inserted at the usual Rates,” but he did not specify those rates, nor did he demand payment in advance.  Perhaps Towne found it necessary to institute a new policy – payment in advance – only after too many advertisers neglected to pay for their notices in a timely fashion.

August 5

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

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

Connecticut Courant (August 5, 1776).

“Old books he can metamorphose into new.”

When Nathaniel Patten, a bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer, “opened shop under the Printing-Office in Hartford” in the summer of 1776, he placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant.  He described himself as a “BOOK-BINDER and STATIONER from BOSTON” even though he had been pursuing those trades in Norwich, Connecticut, for more than two years.  He may have believed that prospective customers considered a bookbinder from Boston more qualified than one from Norwich.  He stated that he had been “regularly bred” to bookbinding; in other words, he received training as a youth, perhaps as an apprentice and perhaps in Boston.  That prompted Patten to confidently proclaim that he could “bind, gild, and letter books in as splendid a manner as if done in London.”  Consumers may have considered a bookbinder from Boston more likely to possess such skills than a bookbinder from Norwich.

Patten sought to dazzle prospective customers with a description of what he could do to their books when entrusted to him for new bindings.  “Old books,” he declared, “he can metamorphose into new.”  Yet that promise held only as long as the books remained on shelves to impress those who saw them, but not necessarily upon closer examination.  The bookbinder clarified that “the difference will not be perceptible to those who do not open them.”  Patten encouraged readers to judge a book by its cover … and by its binding and by the gilded edges of its pages.  Appearances mattered, at least according to the bookbinder seeking customers after arriving in a new town.

Patten had some experience making both appeals.  The copy in the first paragraph of his advertisement in the Connecticut Courant replicated copy from the advertisement in which he introduced himself to residents of Norwich and nearby towns in the Connecticut Journal two years earlier, suggesting that Patten clipped the notice from the newspaper or retained his correspondence with the printer.  He apparently considered the appeals effective since he deployed them again.  Artisans often touted their training and skill.  Patten merely adopted a popular marketing strategy when he did so.  His claim about transforming old books, however, was not one that other bookbinders used.  Patten seemingly devised it on his own when deciding the best way to market his services.

August 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 3, 1776).

“For the benefit of others I desire that you may make my case public, that those being imposed upon and labouring under the same complaint may know where to apply for a cure.”

Testimonials worked!  Anthony Yeldall must have thought so because the apothecary repeatedly included testimonials from grateful patients in his newspaper advertisements.  Perhaps some patients mentioned testimonials they read in his advertisements when they consulted him “at his Medicinal ware house” in Philadelphia, prompting him to publish more testimonials.  The testimonials often accounted for much more space than any copy that Yeldall wrote himself.  His advertisement in the August 3, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, for instance, consisted of five paragraphs.  The last four were testimonials that his patients stated that they wanted published “[f]or the benefit of others.”  It was one thing for the apothecary to claim that his “Abilities are well known through most parts of the United Colonies,” but the testimonials demonstrated that was indeed the case.  Joseph Spenser, “Grocer in Second-street,” Benjamin Wilson, “Elizabeth-town, New-Jersey,” Christopher Hughes, “Bedminster-township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania,” and William Bell, “Vincent township, Chester County, Pennsylvania,” each praised the treatment that “DOCTOR YELDALL” provided.

Those testimonials had some common features that suggest Yeldall may have worked with his patients in composing their testimonials or they may have used testimonials that appeared in previous advertisements as models.  Three of the testimonials began with “For the benefit of others” and a request “that my case may be made public” (or some close variation of that phrase).  Hughes expressed similar sentiments but deviated from the formulaic language used by the others: “being desirous that they may reap the same benefit that I have done, I desire that you may make my case public.”  Each testimonial made clear that Yeldall published success stories at the behest of patients he returned to good health.  They did not make their way into print solely due to the self-interest of an apothecary seeking more patients.  Each also told a frustrating story about seeking medical care from physicians and surgeons whose assistance proved ineffective before turning to Yeldall for treatments that returned them to full health.  Spenser, for instance, “applied to several able Physicians in the city, but could find no relief” for a pain that cause him to lose the use of his arm.  He then turned to Yeldall, “who in a short time removed the pain, restored the use of my arm, and I now follow my business.”

Yeldall certainly considered testimonials effective when he decided on his marketing strategy.  He would not have continued to publish them (and invest so much in the space required for each testimonial) if he did believe that they yielded a return on his investment in placing them in the public prints.  He likely appreciated that testimonials helped build trust with patients before they even consulted him for “advice and medicines.”

August 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Constitutional Gazette (August 3, 1776).

“Four weeks, for FIVE Shillings, and One Shilling, for each week afterwards.”

When the Constitutional Gazette completed its first year of publication, John Anderson, the printer, updated the masthead to include both a volume number and an issue number.  The masthead previously featured only an issue number.  The July 31, 1776, edition was the first with both: “VOL. II” AND “NUMB. 105.”  That was not the only way that Anderson marked the conclusion of one year and the beginning of another.  The advertisements in the August 3 edition started with a notice from the printer.

Anderson declared that he “takes this method, of returning his unfeigned thanks, to those Gentlemen, who, favoured him, with their custom, for the NEW-YORK CONSTITUTIONAL GAZETTE, of last year, and hopes for a continuance of their favours.”  In addition to expressing appreciation to his subscribers, Anderson encouraged them to renew their subscriptions.  To that end, he pledged that “he shall, still continue, to make it, his constant study and endeavour, that the CONSTITUTIONAL GAZETTE, shall be, a vehicle, of foreign, as well as domestic intelligence.”  In other words, he promised to publish all the news that was fit to print!

He also used the occasion to solicit advertisements.  “Those Gentlemen, who chuse to advertise in the CONSTITUTIONAL GAZETTE,” Anderson declared, “shall, (in a conspicuous manner) be inserted, (if short) four weeks, for FIVE Shillings, and One Shilling, for each week afterwards.”  Most printers did not regularly disclose the fees they charged for advertisement, though they sometimes mentioned “the usual rates” with an expectation that prospective advertisers were already familiar with them.  A few printers included the price of advertising in the masthead or the colophon, but most did not.  That made Anderson’s disclosure of what he charged to run advertisements a relatively rare occurrence.

Subscriptions and advertisements accounted for only two of the revenue streams that Anderson cultivated.  He concluded his notice with a reminder that “Printing, of all sorts,” including handbills, broadsides, trade cards, and other advertising ephemera, “is done, in the neatest manner, with care and expedition, and on the shortest notice” at his printing office.  Anderson commemorated a full year of publishing the Constitutional Gazette by simultaneously thanking his customers and encouraging all readers to place the orders for subscriptions, advertisements, and job printing necessary to keep his press busy and the newspaper in print.  He did not call on subscribers to make overdue payments, as printers often did in their notices, but instead focused on the services he provided.

August 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (August 2, 1776).

“The Sale of the CARGO of the Prize Ship Lady JULIANA, from Jamaica.”

On August 2, 1776, Joseph Russell, an auctioneer, placed advertisements about an upcoming sale in both newspapers published in Boston, the Continental Journal and the New-England Chronicle.  He advised readers that “the Sale of the CARGO of the Prize Ship Lady JULIANA, from Jamaica,” would begin in the morning on the following Wednesday.  That cargo included “choice Sugars,” rum, ginger, “568 Jamaica Hides, very large,” “63 Planks of Mohogony,” cocoa, tortoise shell, “old Copper, Brass and Pewter,” and “17 Elephants Teeth.”  Russell noted that the ship was “now laying at the Honourable JOHN HANCOCK, Esqr’s Wharf,” but did not indicate whether prospective bidders were welcome to examine the cargo before it went up for bids.

He did, however, provide a list of “CONDITIONS of SALE.”  That was unusual in an advertisement for an auction, but Russell may have considered it necessary since this auction concerned the cargo of a prize ship rather than a private auction.  Some of the proceeds would be divided among the privateers who captured the ship with the remainder going to the government.  In other instances, bidders sought the best possible bargains, but the “CONDITIONS” for this auction required that “every Bidder shall advance 5-per Cent. on every Bid.”  That made bids increase more substantially than smaller increments that bidders might have otherwise preferred.  Russell also informed prospective bidders that “every Purchaser shall pay down as Earnest Money, 10-per Cent. and the Remainder in three Days after the Purchase.”  The auctioneer had no intention of extending credit for long periods.  The winning bidders had to put down a deposit immediately and submit the rest of the payment within three days.  Failure to do so meant not only losing the goods but also “Forfeiture of the advance Money.”  Such “CONDITIONS” warned prospective bidders not to conduct themselves according to the resources available to them on the day of the auction.  The final condition concerned disputes “between two or more Bidders.”  In such cases, “the Article in Dispute shall be put up again.”  The auctioneer expected good behavior and an orderly process.  Those who did not abide risked losing out on the cargo they hoped to acquire at the auction.