American Gazette

July 30

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 30, 1776).

“The Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.”

Calls for linen rags appeared regularly in colonial American newspapers, though some readers may have had the impression that the frequency increased after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Printers and their associates needed rags for American paper mills to recycle into paper.  They needed them more than ever due to disruptions in the supply of paper from England that resulted from nonimportation agreements and the Revolutionary War.

John Dunlap made a plea for “LINEN RAGS” in the July 30, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  Some advertisements consisted of only a couple of lines, but Dunlap made a longer appeal.  “THE highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP, in Market Street, Baltimore,” the printer proclaimed.  He “begs leave to inform the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular,” he continued, “that the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags; and of consequence, the Presses … must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.”  In other words, anyone who got even some of their news from Dunlap’s newspaper had a duty to collect rags if they wanted that newspaper to continue circulating updates about the war and the actions taken by the Continental Congress as well as all sorts of other news.  Dunlap described printing presses as “the important vehicles of instruction and amusement,” underscoring the responsibility that he felt toward subscribers and “the Public in general.”  The printer hoped that this appeal, “this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture” as rags into paper, “will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale to JOHN DUNLAP.”  Women, those “careful Housekeepers” in Baltimore and the countryside, could make an essential contribution to keep the presses operating and news about the war circulating.

American Gazette (July 30, 1776).

On the same day, John Rogers made a similar request to readers in Salem, Massachusetts, for “clean Linnen RAGS” in the American Gazette.  “Little Masters and Mistresses, who are kind enough to bring RAGS,” he instructed, “are reminded, That the Days most convenient to take them in, are WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS.”  In addressing “Little Masters and Mistresses,” Rogers suggested that children played an important part in gathering rags, delivering them to the printing office, and receiving payment on behalf of their families.  In addition to women, boys and girls made significant contributions when it came to supplying an important resource for producing the paper necessary to keep newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, and other items coming off of American presses during the American Revolution.

July 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

American Gazette (July 9, 1776).

“May be had, if applied for immediately, a dew Setts of this Gazette, from the First Number.”

When John Rogers printed the fourth issue of the American Gazette: Or, the Constitutional Journal in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1776, he updated the colophon to advertise the availability of the first three issues for new subscribers who wished to have a complete set of the newspaper.  From the first issue, he had used the colophon to promote subscriptions, solicit advertisements, and offer other services available at the printing office, just as many other printers did with the colophons for their own newspapers.  The original colophon stated that the American Gazette was “Printed by J. ROGERS, at E. RUSSELL’S Printing-Office, Upper End of Main-street: Where all Persons may be supplied with this Paper at EIGHT SHILLINGS per Annum (exclusive of Postage.)  ADVERTISMENTS and Articles of INTELLIGENCE are gratefully received.  ☞ The PRINTING-BUSINESS, in its several Branches, still carried on as usual by said RUSSELL.”

For the fourth issue, Rogers added a line to the colophon, advising that readers could acquire, “if applied for immediately, a few Setts of this Gazette, from the First Number.”  He did not indicate whether that included an unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue published on June 12 to entice subscribers.  Whatever the case, he encouraged new subscribers to collect a complete set of the newspaper.  Unfortunately for Rogers, the American Gazette folded less than two months after he commenced publication.  Clarence Brigham noted that the “last issue located is that of July 30, 1776, vol. 1, no. 7, and it is probably that this issue was the last published.”[1]  Brigham does not, however, report why Rogers ceased printing the American Gazette, nor did Isaiah Thomas in his History of Printing in America in 1810.  Rogers may have found the endeavor more difficult than he anticipated.  He repeated the extended colophon that offered back issues in the fifth issue on July 16, but he reduced the colophon to a single line – “SALEM: Printed by JOHN ROGERS” – at the bottom of the final column of the last page in the June 23 edition.  That issue consisted of only two pages instead of the usual four, perhaps due to shortages of paper.  The seventh issue once again had four pages and the extended colophon.  At the same time that Rogers printed his final issue, he encouraged readers to purchase the issues they had missed so they could put together complete sets.

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[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 394.

June 18

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

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

American Gazette (June 18, 1776).

“THE AMERICAN GAZETTE; OR, THE CONSTITUTIONAL JOURNAL; To be published every TUESDAY.”

Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall moved the Essex Gazette from Salem to Cambridge and renamed it the New-England Chronicle shortly after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  At the same time, the Salem Gazette ceased publication.  That left Salem without its own newspaper until the publication of the American Gazette: Or, the Constitutional Journal in June 1776.  John Rogers signed an address “To the PUBLIC” from the publisher and the colophon stated that the newspaper was “Printed by J. ROGERS, at E[zekiel]. RUSSELL’S Printing-Office.”  The final line of the colophon advised readers that the “PRINTING-BUSINESS, in its several branches, [was] still carried on as usual by said Russell.”  Russell previously published The Censor, a political newspaper-magazine “supported, during the short period of its existence, by those who were in the interest of the British government.,” from November 1771 to May 1772.[1]  Russell had also published the Salem Gazette from July 1775 to April 1775.  He was apparently the publisher of the American Gazette, though Rogers printed and managed the newspaper and presented himself as the publisher.

In the address “To the PUBLIC,” Rogers expressed “his Gratitude, in this First Number, to all the good LADIES and GENTLEMEN, who have so cheerfully, and in such Numbers appeared … by their Subscriptions already come to Hand.”  Rogers (and Russell) likely distributed subscription proposals for the newspaper in advance of issue “NUMB. 1” appearing on June 18, 1776.  “PROPOSALS FOR CONTINUING BY SUBSCRIPTION, THE AMERICAN GAZETTE” appeared immediately below Roger’s address.  The proposal was dated June 3, suggesting that they had been printed separately and circulated in Salem and beyond.  In addition, an unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue was published in June 12.  The only known copy has not been digitized for greater accessibility.  Russell had previously distributed an unnumbered prospectus issue when he announced his plans to publish the Salem Gazette in the summer of 1774.  The unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue of the American Gazette likely featured the subscription proposal, including instructions for “Gentlemen in Town or Country who are possessed of Proposals” with subscribers’ names added to them “to return them by Saturday next, and give Directions for the Conveyance of their Papers.”  Local agents aided Rogers (and Russell) in recruiting subscribers and delivering newspapers.  That explains how Rogers could already “good LADIES and GENTLEMEN, who have so cheerfully, and in such Numbers” subscribed before the publication of the first issue of the American Gazette.

Despite the editorial stance that Russell took in The Censor, the American Gazette, according to the subscription proposal, would “contain the freshest and most important INTELLIGENCE” as part of an “Undertaking agreable to every FRIEND to the RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of Mankind in general” at a time that Patriots fought for the “GLORIOUS CAUSE of the AMERICAN COLONIES.”  The subscription proposal also outlined the “CONDITIONS,” including the price of the newspaper (“one third than the New-York or Philadelphia Papers”) and day of publication (“every Tuesday, unavoidable Accidents excepted”).  The publisher promised that it “will be printed on good Paper and a neat Type, of which this is a Specimen.”  The reference to a “Specimen” or sample suggests that Rogers (and Russell) circulated separated proposals on June 3.

American Gazette (June 18, 1776).

One of the “CONDITIONS” stated that “Advertisements will be thankfully received and inserted in a conspicuous Manner, and at a moderate price.  The unnumbered “Extraordinary” issue from June 12 and separate subscription proposals already in circulation would help explain how Rogers (and Russell) attracted a handful of advertisements for issue “NUMB. 1” on June 18.  That edition contained an advertisement about a mare for sale, another offering a reward for horse that strayed, and one about an auction of several ships.  Rogers (and Russell) also heeded the call for the “Printers of the several News-Papers in the colonies” to assist in the effort to “STOP A TORY” by inserting an advertisement about Moses Kirkland escaping from jail in Philadelphia.  That issue also included one more advertisement.  James Mugford described Jack, a “Negro Boy” who liberated himself by running away from his enslaver in early June.  Mugford offered a reward for Jack’s capture and return.  Mugford resided in Lexington, the site where the war began just over a year earlier.  Even though the subscription proposal stated that the American Gazette would be an “Undertaking agreable to every FRIEND to the RIGHTS and LIBERTIES of Mankind in general,” issue “NUMB. 1” carried an advertisement intended to deprive Jack of his rights and liberties.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 153.