Almanac

October 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston Evening-Post (October 24, 1774).

“This much esteemed Almanack will contain … the FIRST CHARTER granted to the Province of Massachusetts-Bay.”

On October 24, 1774, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, the printers of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, took to the pages of their own newspaper as well as the Boston Evening-Post to announce that they would publish “Bickerstaff’s Boston ALMANACK, For the Year of our Redemption 1775” later in the week.  A few weeks earlier, “Isaac Bickerstaff” ran a notice promoting the almanac and requesting that proprietors of “new Houses of Entertainment” submit their names to the printing office “immediately” for inclusion in the list of taverns in the forthcoming almanac.  Although the imaginary Bickerstaff was the purported author, Benjamin West provided the astronomical calculations and the printers compiled the rest of the contents.

Once Mills and Hicks were tavernkeepers a few weeks to submit updates before they moved forward with printing the almanac.  As they prepared for publication, they promoted the images that accompanied the pamphlet.  Three woodcuts “Embellished” it: “A fine Representation of a New-Zealand WARRIOR: Two Natives of New Holland advancing to Combat: [and] The Anatomy of Man’s Body, as governed by the Twelve Constellations.”  The anatomy was a standard image incorporated into many almanacs, while the depictions of indigenous warriors from Australia (known at the time as New Holland) and New Zealand reflected the fascination with James Cook’s voyage aboard the Endeavour from 1768 through 1771.  Accounts of that mission to the Pacific Ocean to observe the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769 had been advertised widely in American newspapers in recent years.  Whether or not they purchased books that documented Cook’s endeavor, readers were likely familiar with it from newspaper accounts and conversation.

Yet Mills and Hicks did not focus solely on images depicting people in faraway places to market their almanac.  They also referenced current events and local politics.  “This much esteemed Almanack,” the printers declared, “will contain … a Variety of useful, entertaining historical Matter, and the Substance of the FIRST CHARTER granted to the Province of Massachusetts-Bay.”  That charter, granted by Charles I in 1669, had particular importance in the fall of 1774 because Parliament recently revoked the more recent charter, granted by William and Mary in 1691, via the Massachusetts Government Act, one of the Coercive Acts passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party.  That legislation gave more authority to a governor appointed by the king, significantly reducing the role that colonizers formerly played in governing themselves under both charters.  In publishing the “FIRST CHARTER” and disseminating it widely in a pamphlet that readers would consult throughout the coming year, Mills and Hicks gave colonizers ready access to an important historical document and provided a ready reminder of the ideals of government that had been long practiced in the colony and recently overturned by a spiteful Parliament.  The printers practiced politics in choosing to include the charter among the contents of the almanac.

October 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (October 22, 1774).

“On Wednesday next will be published, and sold by the Printer hereof, WEST’s ALMANACK.”

Although he sometimes ran advertisements on the first page of his newspapers, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, opted to place all of them at the end of the October 22, 1774, edition.  News filled most of the first three pages, with the final third of the last column on the third page given to advertising and then the entire fourth page as well.  As usual, the news concluded with local updates, including accounts of sheep being sent to the “distressed Towns of Boston and Charlestown” to relieve the residents while the Boston Port Act remained in effect and coverage of the capture of a suspected burglar.

As readers finished with the news, they immediately encountered an advertisement for “WEST’s ALMANACK, For the Year of our Lord 1775” before paid notices submitted by Carter’s customers.  That advertisement announced that the printer would publish and sell the almanac on the following Wednesday, the first mention of Benjamin West’s almanac for the coming year in the Providence Gazette.  The public likely anticipated its publication and marketing since West, an astronomer and mathematician, had been collaborating with the printer of the Providence Gazette for more than a decade.  The partnership began before Carter became the proprietor of the newspaper, passing from printer to printer as the Providence Gazette changed hands.  West initially worked with William Goddard, followed by Sarah Goddard, before Carter ran the printing office.

For his part, Carter often gave advertisements for the works that he printed, whether books or West’s almanac, a privileged place.  Sometimes they appeared as the first item on the first page, while other times he positioned them as the first item following the news.  Either way, he increased the chances that readers would see and take note of advertisements that promoted his own endeavors in the printing office.

October 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 3, 1774)

“I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.”

The first advertisement in the October 3, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, purportedly placed by Isaac Bickerstaff, announced the impending publication of an “ALMANACK for 1775.”  Bickerstaff, however, was a pseudonym.  Benjamin West provided the astronomical calculations, though Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, the printers of both the newspaper and the almanac, likely compiled the rest of the content for Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1775.  That explains the privileged place the advertisement received.

Yet Mills and Hicks did not insert this notice immediately after the news merely in hopes of increasing sales for the almanac once it went to press.  They also deployed it as a means of crowdsourcing some of the contents.  Writing as Bickerstaff, the printers requested, “If any new Houses of Entertainment have been opened, or if any were omitted in my last ALMANACK, I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.”  The printers would then pass along those entries to “Bickerstaff” to incorporate into “his” forthcoming almanac, but any proprietors who wished to have their establishments included needed to act quickly or risk missing out on the opportunity.

This advertisement previewed some of the useful contents of the almanac for prospective buyers, including those who lived outside Boston but might have occasion to visit.  Yet Mills and Hicks did not provide a list of taverns only to direct readers to “Houses of Entertainment” where they could eat, drink, and socialize.  Instead, they put together a guide to places where customers could expect to discuss politics and learn more about current events, realizing that taverns were popular places for stoking political engagement during the imperial crisis.  At the time Mills and Hicks published their advertisement, the harbor was closed due to the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts enraged residents of city.  Mills and Hicks disseminated news and opinion via their weekly newspaper, but they also knew that a lot of information circulated among patrons gathered in taverns.  A list of “Houses of Entertainment” served as a compendium of places for discussing politics and hearing the latest updates before they appeared in print.

September 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 21, 1774).

“THE LANCASTER ALMANACK, for the year 1775.”

It was a sign of the changing seasons.  As the summer of 1774 came to a close, the first advertisements for almanacs for 1775 began to appear in newspapers, part of an annual ritual.  Each year printers deployed advertisements in weekly periodicals to hawk their annual periodicals.  Francis Bailey, a printer in Lancaster, was among the first to do so in 1774, placing notices in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal on September 21.  Readers still had more than three months to acquire their almanacs before the new year, yet each year many printers saw opportunities to increase sales and beat their competitors by making the useful and entertaining pamphlets available in the late summer and early fall.  That also allowed plenty of time for shopkeepers to purchase in volume, often receiving a discount, to stock and sell to their own customers.

For his part, Bailey relied on the contents of the “LANCASTER ALMANACK, for the year 1775” in generating the copy for his advertisement, adopting a common practice among printers of almanacs.  It was his first endeavor in printing and marketing an almanac, having opened a printing office Lancaster in 1771 and initially focusing on job printing.  Bailey realized that printing an almanac of his own could be a lucrative venture, supplementing the other sources of revenue in his printing office.  Some of the contents he could compile on his own, such as the essays and poetry, but he needed a mathematician or astronomer to supply the astronomical calculations, including “the motions of the sun and moon; the true places and aspects of the planets; the rising and setting of the sun; [and] the rising, setting and southing of the moon.”  The title page listed Anthony Sharp as the author of those astronomical calculations, though, as was the case with many other almanacs, the author was a pseudonym.  According to the entry in the American Antiquarian Society’s catalog, Anthony Sharp was “a pseudonym found only in the almanacs published by Bailey.”  Furthermore, the “calculations throughout duplicate those in Father Abraham’s almanack for 1775 (Philadelphia) whose title page states that it is [David] Rittenhouse’s work.”

Each year colonizers in and near Lancaster had ready access to various almanacs published by the several printers in Philadelphia, yet Bailey recognized his chance to give them an option for a local edition.  He established a relationship with a noted astronomer to provide the tables, then advertised his Lancaster Almanack before the Philadelphia editions went to press.  The success of his venture depended in part on making his new almanac available to local customers before they had an option to purchase any of the alternatives that would come off the presses in Philadelphia.

May 13

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

What might have been advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Handbill (recto) perhaps distributed with the South-Carolina and American General Gazette (May 13, 1774).

“WELLS’S REGISTER: TOGETHER WITH AN ALMANACK … For the Year of our LORD, 1774.”

Most colonial newspapers consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and folding it in half.  On occasion, printers issued supplements, postscripts, or extraordinaries, sometimes just two pages on a half sheet and other times another four pages.  Robert Wells, the printer of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, took a different approach when he distributed additional content.  He printed additional pages without a masthead that designated them as part of a supplement.  Instead, they featured continuous numbering with the other pages in the issue, which continued the numbering from the previous edition, and no indication that they were not part of the standard issue for that week.  The May 13, 1774, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazetteincluded two extra pages, numbered 129 and 130.  When delivering the newspaper to subscribers, that additional half sheet would have been tucked inside the broadsheet portion, between pages 126 and 127.  Eighteenth-century readers understood the system for navigating such issues.

A broadsheet or handbill, likely printed on a smaller sheet, may have also accompanied that edition of the newspaper.  Accessible Archives, the database that provides the most complete coverage of newspapers from colonial South Carolina, includes an advertisement for “WELLS’S REGISTER: TOGETHER WITH AN ALMANACK … For the Year of our LORD, 1774.”  What seems certain is that the archive with the run of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette originally photographed for greater accessibility and eventually digitized by Accessible Archives has that handbill in its collection.  If the newspaper had been bound into a volume with other newspapers, by Wells or a subscriber or a collector, then the handbill was bound between the May 13 and May 20 issues.  Sometimes the binding is so tight that it distorts the image of the newspaper, especially the column nearest the binding.  While the images of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette in Accessible Archives suggest that the individual issues were part of a bound volume, they have been cropped in such a way as to hide the binding.  If the pages are indeed in a bound volume, the binding is not so tight that it resulted in distorted images when photographing the newspaper.  If the pages are not in a bound volume, then the handbill may have been tucked into the four-page broadsheet portion of the newspaper along with the additional half sheet of news.

Handbill (verso) perhaps distributed with the South-Carolina and American General Gazette (May 13, 1774).

That these items ended up together in an archive, however, does not necessarily mean that they were distributed together in 1774.  The middle of May seems rather late for Wells to distribute a handbill promoting an almanac and register for that year.  More than a third of the material in the almanac would not have much utility for readers, the months of January, February, March, and April having passed.  The register, on the other hand, with its lists of officials in Great Britain, Ireland, North America, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and other information about local governance in the southern colonies, retained its full value.  Printers sometimes continued advertising almanacs well into the year, hoping to find buyers for surplus copies.  If Wells did happen to distribute this handbill in May 1774, then the handbill itself, proclaiming that “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED … WELLS’S REGISTER,” was likely left over from previous marketing efforts.  The printer may have been trying to get both the handbill and remaining copies of the Register out of his shop.

The inclusion of this handbill as part of the May 13, 1774, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazetteraises questions about its production, distribution, and preservation.  While those questions do not have ready answers, that the handbill is part of the newspaper collection, regardless of how it ended up there, testifies to Wells’s use of media beyond newspaper notices to promote the Register.  Handbills and other advertising media, like broadsides and trade cards, were much more ephemeral than newspapers and, in turn, less likely to become part of collections that historians can examine.  They sometimes survived in quirky ways, such as a handbill tucked inside a newspaper.  Those instances suggest a much more vibrant culture of advertising than the scattered examples in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections.

January 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (January 25, 1774).

“Lists of Public Officers; Members of the Commons House of Assembly; Days for holding Courts in South-Carolina and Georgia.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, also published almanacs.  Most newspaper printers did so.  Almanacs, those popular pamphlets, represented an important revenue stream for any printing office, yet publishing them could be a tricky business.  Printers aimed to produce enough copies to meet demand, but not so many that they had a significant number of leftovers that cut into their profits.

As January 1774 neared its end, Crouch seemed to have a surplus of “THOMAS MORE’s ALMANACK, for the Year 1774” that he needed to move out of his printing office on Elliott Street in Charleston.  On January 25, he ran an advertisement that offered the almanacs for sale “Wholesale and Retail, with good Allowance to those who take a Quantity.”  In other words, he offered a discount to shopkeepers, peddlers, and others who bought in volume.  He placed the notice at the top of the center column on the first page, enhancing its visibility in that issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  The introduction to the advertisement proclaimed, “Just published,” but that probably was not the case.  Crouch previously inserted the same advertisement as the new year approached.  As was common practice, he likely inserted the notice once again, type already set, without making revisions.

With each passing day, some of the contents became obsolete, including “the Sun and Moon’s Rising and Setting,” “Length of Days and Nights,” and “Judgment of the Weather.”  Other items, however, remained relevant.  Crouch relied on these “useful Particulars” in marketing the almanac.  Its pages contained “Lists of Public Officers; Members of the Commons House of Assembly; [and] Days for holding Courts in South-Carolina and Georgia.”  For those who might have occasion to travel to other colonies by land rather than by ship, the almanac included “Descriptions of the Roads throughout the Continent.”  Throughout their advertising campaigns, printers highlighted the various contents of the almanacs they published and sold.  Each year, the “useful Particulars” beyond what many described as the “usual Astronomical Calculations” (though Crouch did not happen to use that phrase) became increasingly important in marketing almanacs in January, February, and March.

January 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (January 13, 1774).

“People in the Country are already cautious of Counterfeits.”

On behalf of his partners, Richard Draper, printer of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, placed an advertisement in the January 6, 1774, edition to inform the public that “Ames’s Almanack For the Year 1774, Is now in the Press, and will be ready for Sale” two days later, “on Saturday next.”  Customers could acquire copies from Draper, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, and Benjamin Edes and John Gill.  On the following Monday, the Fleets, printers of the Boston Evening-Post, ran an updated version in the January 10 edition of their newspaper, announcing “THIS DAY PUBLISHED. Ames’s Almanack For the Year 1774.”  That advertisement also listed all three printing offices.  Edes and Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, ran a similar advertisement on the same day.  Often competitors, those printers collaborated in publishing, advertising, and distributing the popular almanac.

Just a few days later, however, Draper published a very different notice in the January 13 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  “Some Pidlers,” he warned, “have patched up an Almanack under the Name of Nathaniel Ames, to impose upon the Public.”  Someone not affiliated with those printing offices produced and disseminated counterfeit almanacs!  Draper was especially concerned about the impact that would have on sales to retailers who purchased in volume to stock in their shops.  “Those who purchase by the dozen,” he cautioned, “are desired to be careful to see that the Almanacks are printed by R. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & J. Fleet, as none other are true.” To encourage such vigilance, Draper asserted that “the People in the Country are already cautious of Counterfeits.”  In other words, retailers better not think they could pass off the false almanacs to their customers because, according to Draper, those consumers knew which printers produced the authentic version and would not accept any other.

Although the notice did not indicate who printed the “Counterfeits” sold by the peddlers, Draper, the Fleets, and Edes and Gill faced competition for almanacs supposedly authored by Nathaniel Ames from printers in Boston (“Printed and Sold by E[zekiel] Russell”), Hartford (“Reprinted and Sold by Ebenezer Watson”), New Haven (“Reprinted and Sold by Thomas & Samuel Green”), and New London (“Printed and Sold by T[imothy] Green”).  It was not the first time the partners encountered other printers attempting to infringe on what they considered their product to market exclusively.  A year earlier, they advertised widely that they printed the “only true and correct ALMANACKS” by Ames, inserting a testimonial to that effect into their newspaper notices.  The partners showed a similar concern for the effect on sales to retailers, directing “Purchasers, especially by the Quantity, … to be particular in enquiring whether they are printed by” Draper, the Fleets, and Edes and Gill.  Several years earlier, on the other hand, they had been the counterfeiters.  Almanacs generated significant revenue for early American printers, prompting them to print, to reprint, and to counterfeit the most popular titles.

January 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (January 1, 1774).

“NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY, For the Year of our LORD 1774.”

There may not have been a better day to buy an almanac … or to advertise the “NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY, For the Year of our LORD 1774.”  On January 1, all of the astronomical Calculations in the almanac for the previous year became obsolete.  Colonizers who had not yet acquired almanacs for the new year could no longer delay if they wished to have access to current information.  In addition, some of the contents of that new almanac also became outdated with each passing day.  To take full advantage of the useful reference manual, readers needed to have it on the first day of the year.  Prospective buyers knew it.  John Carter, the printer of both the New-England Almanack and the Providence Gazette, knew it as well.  He placed an advertisement for it in the upper right corner of the final page of the January 1, 1774, edition of his newspaper.

It was part of an annual ritual of advertising almanacs in Providence and throughout the colonies.  On occasion, advertisements appeared as early as August or September, though those usually announced that the printer intended to publish a particular title.  Such advertisements alerted readers that their favorite titles would be available again, an effort to discourage them from purchasing others instead.  In October and November, more and more printers inserted notices stating that they took their almanacs to press and offered them for sale.  These advertisements increased in number, frequency, and length.  Multiple advertisements for almanacs sometimes appeared in a single issue, especially in newspapers published in the largest port cities.  Some of those advertisements featured extensive lists of the contents, seeking to entice buyers with more than the “usual astronomical Calculations.”  Carter opted for a streamlined version, but he did promote “a brief historical Account of the Rise and Settlement of RHODE-ISLAND Government, in which are interspersed some Anecdotes of the celebrated Mr. ROGER WILLIAMS, Founder of this Colony,” as additional items of interest that customers could read when they acquired the New-England Almanack.  The volume of advertising for almanacs continued in December, a last push before the new year, and into January, while the astronomical Calculations and schedules for courts, meetings, and other events remained relevant for the entire year.  Those contents became less relevant with each passing day, but many printers still had surplus copies that cut into any profits they made from publishing almanacs.  Advertisements continued to appear in January, February, and March, tapering off over time.  By the time spring arrived, most advertisements for almanacs disappeared from colonial newspapers.  Their presence, absence, and number became signs of the seasons among newspaper readers, corresponding to changes in the weather and the amount of sunlight in the day.

December 11

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

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

Providence Gazette (December 11, 1773).

“WEST’s ALMANACK for the year 1774.”

For more than a decade, Benjamin West, an astronomer and mathematician, collaborated with the printers of the Providence Gazette in publishing “THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY.”  In 1773, John Carter worked with West, but other printers previously entered into partnership with him before Carter became the proprietor of the Providence Gazette.  Advertisements promoting the New-England Almanack became a familiar sight in that newspaper each fall, continuing into the winter.  Some notices provided extensive details about the contents of the new edition for the next year.  A shorter advertisement in the December 11 edition of the Providence Gazette promoted “the usual astronomical Calculations,” “a brief historical Account of the Rise and Settlement of RHODE-ISLAND Government,” and “some Anecdotes of the celebrated Mr. ROGER WILLIAMS, Founder of this Colony” in the almanac for 1774.

Carter sold the almanac in “large or small Quantities.”  Consumers could purchase individual copies for use in their own households, while merchants and shopkeepers could obtain multiple copies to sell in their own stores and shops.  Thurber and Cahoon, for instance, acquired copies to sell in their shop “at the Sign of the Bunch of Grapes.”  They stocked a “great Variety of English and India GOODS” imported via “the last Vessel from London” as well as the almanac produced in their own town.  To entice prospect customers to visit their shop, Thurber and Cahoon listed many of those items, concluding with “WEST’s ALMANACK for the year 1774.”  They had done so the previous year as well.  Apparently, Thurber and Cahoon considered the New-England Almanack such a draw that it would help get customers into their shop, though it may have been Carter, rather than the merchants, who decided that the title should appear in capital letters, thus drawing attention to it over the rest of the merchandise in the advertisement.  Regardless of who made that decision, Carter and West certainly welcomed the assistance in marketing the almanac beyond their own advertisements.

November 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (November 11, 1773).

“Dr. OGDEN’S very successful Method of Cure, which the Printer inserted in the Almanack at the particular request of some of the Inhabitants.”

As the new year approached and printers throughout the colonies advertised almanacs for 1774, James Rivington of New York took to the pages of his own newspaper to advise prospective customers that the “very great Demand for Rivington’s Almanack … HAS occasioned him to print a new Edition.”  Like many other printers who marketed the almanacs they published, Rivington provided an extensive list of the contents as a means of generating interest.  He enumerated twenty items.  They included helpful reference information, such as “Courts in this and the neighbouring Provinces,” “Fairs,” “FRIENDS Meetings,” and “Roads.”  They also included six “Cures for Disorders in Horses” and five “Receipts [or cures] from some of the most eminent Physicians” for a variety of symptoms.  For entertainment, the almanac contained “Pleasant Jests.”  For the edification of readers, it included “A very important Lesson.”  Rivington emphasized that the contents of his almanac “vary in many particulars from others” sold by competitors.  The items he selected for inclusion “have been so well received by the Public, as to occasion a very large Quantity to be sold in a few Days.”  Existing demand served as a recommendation for the new edition.

Before commenting on the reception that the almanac already enjoyed or listing the contents, Rivington opened his advertisement with a note intended to resonate with prospective customers in nearby Connecticut.  “The following Almanack is particularly recommended to the Inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut,” the printer asserted, “where the ulcerous and malignant Sore Throat, at this Time rages in a very high Degree.”  Rivington reported that he inserted “Dr, OGDEN’S very successful Method of Cure … at the particular Request of some of the Inhabitants.”  Among the contents enumerated in the advertisement, “Dr. JACOB OGDEN’S Method of treating the Malignant Sore Throat Distemper” appeared first.  That item alone, Rivington suggested, justified purchasing this particular almanac.  He implied that he provided an important service, though his altruism had limits.  After all, he could have published the “Method of Cure” in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer; or the Connecticut, New-Jersey, Hudson’s-River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser for the benefit of readers throughout the region he distributed his newspaper.  Still, Rivington framed his choice of contents for his almanac as an act of benevolence that took current events in account.  His awareness of the particular needs of prospective customers in Connecticut led him to respond in a manner that he intended would simultaneously contribute to public health and further his own commercial interests.