Boston-Gazette

January 2

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

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

Boston-Gazette (January 2, 1775).

“The GRAND AMERICAN CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION … to be pasted up in every Family.”

In the first issue of the Boston-Gazette published in 1775, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers, opened with a notice concerning the Continental Association as the first item in the first column on the first page.  The First Continental Congress had devised that nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation pact when it met in Philadelphia in September and October 1774, intending for it to go into effect on December 1.  The Continental Association answered the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, and the other Coercive Acts that Parliament had passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, perhaps not expecting a unified response from the colonies.  The First Continental Congress, however, devised a plan that allowed consumers from New England to Georgia to express their political principles through the decisions they made in the marketplace., drawing inspiration from the nonimportation agreements that went into effect to protest the Stamp Act and the duties on imported goods in the Townshend Acts.

Edes and Gill helped to raise awareness of the Continental Association not only through newspaper coverage but also by disseminating copies far and wide.  “ANY Town or District within this Province,” their notice advised, “may be supplied by Edes and Gill, on the shortest Notice, with the GRAND AMERICAN CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION, printed on one Side of a Sheet of Paper.”  They offered the pact as a broadside “on purpose to be pasted up in every Family.”  The printers wished for local governments to purchase their edition of the Continental Association and distribute them to households for constant reference.  Putting the pact on display demonstrated support for the American cause against Parliament or at least signaled an intention to comply.  Posting it in homes as well as public spaces made it easy to consult, reminding everyone that they had a part to play in the protest.  The Continental Association made decisions about participating in the marketplace inherently political, making it impossible for any individual or household to take a neutral stance.  Edes and Gill recognized that was the case.  Although they stood to generate revenue from selling broadside copies of the Continental Association by the dozen or gross, the political stance they consistently advanced throughout the imperial crisis suggested that increasing awareness of the pact and encouraging compliance with it motivated them as much or even more.

December 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston Gazette (December 5, 1774).

“James Bruce of Boston … was never in Company with a Captain Lovett.”

James Bruce resorted to an advertisement in the December 5, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette in hopes of rehabilitating his reputation.  From London, the mariner sent a sworn statement that addressed a story about him relayed “by a Paragraph in the Boston Journal, dated 28 July, last.”  He referred to an update from a Captain Lovett published in the Massachusetts Spy on that day.  Lovett had recently arrived in Boston from Antigua, by way of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  He delivered news that the “merchants and planters” in Antigua “were in great consternation on learning about proposals to suspend trade with Britain and its Caribbean colonies in response to the Boston Port Act and other Coercive Acts.

Despite anticipating hardships, those merchants and planters supposedly supported the American cause, even to the point of intervening when an “old troubler of Boston, Capt. Bruce, was railing against this town in a large company at a principal tavern.”  According to Lovett’s account, Bruce “expatiated largely on the abuse he had suffered for bringing his blessed cargo of Tea” to Boston aboard the Eleanor, one of the ships involved in the Boston Tea Party, and “hoped the next freight he brought them would be soldiers.”  At that point, a “gentleman” confronted him, noting how ungrateful he sounded toward a town that had contributed to his livelihood for so many years, and “caught Bruce by the nose and led him out of the company, requiring him to keep his distance, as a dirty ingrate, unworthy of any gentleman’s company or countenance.”

That story from July came to Bruce’s attention in September, prompting him to compose the statement that appeared in the Boston-Gazette in December.  Whether or not the incident in the tavern in Antigua occurred, Bruce apparently realized that he “got his bread” from the people of Boston and attempted to undo the damage.  He asserted that he “was never in Company with a Captain Lovett … at a Tavern in Antigua” and “the Contents of the Paragraph” inserted in the Massachusetts Spy “in order to hurt him” were “groundless and void of Truth.”  He “never made use of any such Expressions.”  Furthermore, he claimed that he “did not think or know at the Time he took the East India Company’s Tea on Board the Ship Eleanor, that the same would have been either detrimental, or displeasing to the Town of Boston.”  Had he been more aware of the circumstances, “himself and [the] owners would not have suffered any of the said Tea to have been shipt on Board the said Ship Eleanor.”  Bruce not only backtracked from the story told by Lovett but from his involvement in the events that culminated in the Boston Tea Party.

Just as many colonizers who signed an address to Governor Thomas Hutchinson upon his departure from Massachusetts later ran advertisements apologizing for having done so and claiming that they had not fully considered the contents of that address before affixing their signatures, Bruce paid to have his account of recent events run as an advertisement.  Among the five newspapers published in Boston at the time, he most likely chose to submit it to the Boston-Gazette because of that publication’s reputation for supporting patriots and opposing Parliament, thus placing his message before the eyes of those most offended by the reports of his conduct.  In placing such an advertisement, Bruce contributed to shaping the news that readers encountered, though that did not guarantee that anyone believed his version of events or the sincerity of his regret.

August 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (August 22, 1774).

“Bring him home (without abusing him) or give Information that he may be found.”

Newspaper advertisements carried all sorts of local news that printers did not otherwise select for inclusion in their publications, keeping readers apprised of both ordinary and extraordinary occurrences.  A variety of legal notices, for instance, provided news about the finances and deaths of colonizers, while other advertisements revealed marital discord when husbands decreed that they would not pay the debts of their wives.  Some advertisements provided coverage of thefts and burglaries.  Many described runaway apprentices and indentured servants or enslaved men and women who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  In most colonial newspapers, the local news section was quite short, especially compared to the amount of space devoted to news from England, Europe, and other colonies.  Many historians have explained that news of local events of consequence spread via word of mouth before printers had the chance to take their weekly newspapers to press.  Yet that perspective overlooks the extensive local news that appeared among advertisements.

Among their other purposes, advertisements sometimes served as missing persons notifications.  Such was the case in June 1774 when Jonathan Fales of Walpole, a “Non Compos Mentis” or a man with cognitive disabilities, disappeared from “his House and Family … and has not been Home since.”  Elizabeth Fales, perhaps his mother, sister, or wife, placed an advertisement in the August 22 edition of the Boston-Gazette, stating that Jonathan had not been seen for more than two months and requesting aid in finding and returning him to his family.  She gave a short physical description and described the clothes he wore “when he went away.”  Her concern was apparent, both in calling herself a “distress’d Woman” and pleading that anyone who found Jonathan “bring him home (without abusing him).”  Elizabeth and her family cared for and protected the “large fat Man” at home, but he risked others taking advantage of him or treating him cruelly on his own.  Elizabeth promised a reward to anyone who brought Jonathan home or provided “Information that he may be found.”  Placing an advertisement allowed her to disseminate local news that was most important to her and her family.

August 1

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

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

Boston-Gazette (August 1, 1774).

“This pamphlet has had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, gave an advertisement for their American edition of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America a prominent place in the August 1, 1774, edition of their newspaper.  It appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page, making it difficult for readers to miss.  The printers wished to call attention to the book, originally published in London, not only because they hoped to generate revenue from its sales but also as a means for colonizers to become even better informed about current events and the political challenges they faced as Parliament passed a series of laws, the Coercive Acts, following the Boston Tea Party.  As the imperial crisis intensified, patriot printers like Edes and Gill published newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, books, and other items that documented the ongoing contest with Parliament, the king, and royal officials in the colonies.

To convince prospective customers of the necessity of purchasing and perusing this pamphlet, Edes and Gill explained that it was the “most masterly performance, written since the framing of the several Acts against BOSTON and AMERICA,” including the Boston Port Act and the Massachusetts Government Act, and “the best calculated to convince the Ministry, the people of England, and all the world, of the absurdity and wickedness of the late acts.”  Colonizers used newspapers and other publications in their efforts to shape opinion in the colonies, yet they were just as concerned with the information environment on the other side of the Atlantic.  In their publications and letters, they hoped to sway both officials and the general public in London and throughout Great Britain.  They also took note of the support they received for their plight.  In their advertisement for Considerations, Edes and Gill reported that their “last accounts” indicated “this pamphlet had had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England” that Parliament had not been just in its treatment of the colonies.  Whether that was accurate or wishful thinking likely varied from person to person, but the printers wanted to believe that it was true.

Edes and Gill applauded how the pamphlet made a case about the “ruinous consequences, to England at least,” not just the colonies, “that would certainly attend” from the Coercive Acts “being carried into execution.”  Printers in Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia shared those sentiments, producing other American editions in each of those towns.  They hoped that the dissemination of the ideas expressed in Considerations would buttress the resolve of colonizers distressed by Parliament’s most recent legislation, especially upon learning how their allies in England made a case on their behalf.

July 18

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

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

Boston-Gazette (July 18, 1774).

“I did suddenly and inadvertently sign an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson.”

When he published an advertisement in the July 18, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette, Thomas Kidder of Billerica attempted to extricate himself from a difficult situation.  He explained that he had “suddenly and inadvertently sign[ed] an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson with some others, (Justices of the Peace) of Middlesex.”  Thomas Hutchinson, the outgoing governor, had received several letters praising his administration of the colony, each of them signed by dozens of colonizers.  Some of those letters found their way into print, revealing to the public which members of the community approved of the way the unpopular royal governor had participated in Parliament’s efforts to establish greater control over Boston, the rest of Massachusetts, and all the colonies.

That garnered the wrong kind of attention for Kidder and others, especially those who then professed that they did not actually harbor loyalist sympathies but had instead been “inadvertently” embroiled in the controversy.  Kidder explained that he had signed the letter to Hutchinson “in great Haste, and not so well considering every Part thereof, nor the dangerous Consequences of said Address.”  He did not enjoy the reception he received from colonizers who supported the patriot cause, prompting him to apologize.  He confessed that he was “very sorry” for signing the letter and “as it hath offended my Christian Brethren and Neighbours, I do hereby desire their Forgiveness, and a Restoration of their Friendship.”  Apparently, Kidder’s seeming endorsement of Hutchinson caused so many difficulties in his daily interactions with others that he found it necessary to take to the public prints to disavow an address that he claimed he had not fully considered or understood when he signed it.  It was no mistake that he ran his advertisement in the Boston-Gazette, a newspaper noted for advocating the political views of patriots who opposed the policies enacted by Parliament and Hutchinson’s collaboration in executing them.

In “Entering the Lists: The Politics of Ephemera in Eastern Massachusetts, 1774,” William Huntting Howell documents which newspapers published addresses to Hutchinson and broadsides printed in response, some of them identifying the occupations and places of business of the signatories.  That amounted to an eighteenth-century version of doxing people based on their political views.  Howell argues that such a response was designed “to coerce and secure individual compliance.”  He examines several “RECANTATIONS” that appeared in the newspapers as signatories of addresses to Hutchinson attempted to restore their standing among their fellow colonizers.[1]  Over the next several months, the Adverts 250 Project will feature advertisements, like the one place by Kidder, placed for similar purposes, demonstrating the pressure that patriots managed to bring to bear against real and perceived loyalists as the imperial crisis intensified in 1774.

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[1] William Huntting Howell, “Entering the Lists: The Politics of Ephemera in Eastern Massachusetts, 1774,” Early American Studies 9, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 191, 208-215.

May 9

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (May 9, 1774).

“Cannot fail to give universal Satisfaction to their Customers.”

I originally selected this advertisement to further demonstrate that even though advertisers usually wrote the copy but left the format and other aspects of graphic design to compositors who worked in printing offices they sometimes gave instructions about how they wanted specific elements of how their notices to appear.  In this instance, John Barrett and Sons ran a lengthy advertisement enclosed within a border of decorative type in three newspapers simultaneously.  Their notice appeared in the Boston Evening-Post, the Boston-Gazette, and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on May 9, 1774.  On closer examination, however, I discovered that this advertisement presents further evidence that printing offices in Boston sometimes shared type already set for advertisements.  A week ago, I documented this with Joseph Peirce’s advertisement.

As was the case with that notice, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy operated independently.  Among other newspapers, Barrett and Sons’ advertisement apparently originated in the Boston-Gazette before being reprinted in the Boston Evening-Post.  Notably, it ran next to Peirce’s advertisement in the May 9 edition, that type having made its way back to the printing office for the Boston-Gazette.  The visual evidence makes it difficult to dispute that some printers transferred type from one newspaper to another.  The printing ornaments that formed the border around the advertisement make that clear.  Even if the compositor for the Boston Evening-Post happened to copy the font, capitalization, italics, size, centering, left justification, right justification, and other format exactly from the Boston-Gazette, itself a highly unlikely scenario, matching the decorative type would have been practically impossible.  Note that the compositor chose one type of ornament for the upper and lower borders and a different ornament for the left and right borders, except for the last ornament before the right corner in the lower border.  In that position appears the same ornament from the left and right borders in the advertisements in both newspapers.  Furthermore, the compositor introduced one more variation midway down the left and right borders, marking where the side-by-side columns listing goods begin.  To the left of “Chints, Calicoes” and to the right of “An Assortment,” a different ornament appears, once again in both the Boston-Gazette and the Boston Evening-Post.

Barrett and Sons’ advertisement did not make it into the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, in any form, unlike the type for Peirce’s advertisement that seems to have been transferred from the Boston-Gazette and the Boston Evening-Post to that newspaper.  That might have been due to Richard Draper’s poor health and seeking a partner to assist him in running his printing office making such coordination too difficult at that moment.  Yet the type for Peirce’s advertisement made its way into that newspaper once again on May 12 after running in the Boston-Gazetteon May 9 (but not in the Boston Evening-Post for a second time on that day).  This suggests instead that Barrett and Sons, the advertisers, made decisions about which publications would carry their advertisement, likely based on their own marketing budget and sense of which newspapers had the best circulation.  This instance raises further questions about the coordination among printing offices, especially the logistics, the bookkeeping, and the fees.  These advertisements demonstrate that printers in Boston who usually competed with each other for both subscribers and advertisers cooperated on occasion when it came to inserting advertisements in their newspapers.

Left to right: Boston-Gazette (May 9, 1774); Boston Evening-Post (May 9, 1774).

May 2

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

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

Boston-Gazette (May 2, 1774).

{ Blue }
Rich { Black and } Sattins
{ White }

Joseph Peirce’s advertisement on the front page of the May 2, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette stood out thanks to its unique graphic design.  The shopkeeper provided a list of merchandise that he recently imported from London, but rather than arrange it in a dense paragraph, as in most advertisements, or create columns with one item per line, as in some advertisements, this one featured one item per line with each line centered.  As a result, the text created an irregular shape with a lot of white space on either side.  That certainly distinguished the advertisement from the news in the column to the right, justified on both sides.

Advertisers usually generated copy, while compositors made most decisions about format.  When merchants and shopkeepers ran advertisements with identical copy in multiple newspapers, variations in fonts, capitalization, italics, font size, and other design elements testified to the creative work done by the compositors in each printing office.  Advertisers likely submitted general instructions with the copy for advertisements that arranged goods in columns, but that may not have always been the case.  M.B. Goldthwait’s advertisement for “DRUGS and MEDICINES” in the April 28, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Spy, for instance, listed a variety of patent medicines in a paragraph, while his advertisement in the May 2 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy separated them into side-by-side columns.

Peirce seems to have submitted specific instructions with the copy for his advertisement.  It had the same format in the May 2 editions of the Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy and the May 5 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  They even gave the same treatment to three lines for:

{ Blue }
Rich { Black and } Sattins
{ White }

That indicates that the compositors incorporated the format that Peirce sketched when he composed the copy.  Curiously, the advertisements in the Boston-Gazette, the Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter appear identical, as though the printing offices shared type set in one and transferred to the others.  If that was indeed the case, it raises questions about day-to-day operating practices and collaboration among printers in Boston. Even if some printing office shared type, Pierce’s advertisements in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy had minor variations while retaining the same format.  That suggests that Peirce provided his vision for his advertisement to at least two printing offices, taking an active role in designing as well as writing his notice.

Left to right: Boston-Gazette (May 2, 1774); Boston Evening-Post (May 2, 1774); Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 5, 1774).

April 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to the Boston-Gazette (April 25, 1774).

“A Bell … which is erected over his Auction-Room Door.”

Martin Bicker’s neighbors were not happy with him.  As the auctioneer explained in an advertisement addressed “To thePUBLIC” in the Boston-Gazette in the spring of 1774, some of them objected to one of the methods he deployed to get bidders into his “Auction-Room.”  Bicker had hired someone to stand “at his Door to invite Gentlemen and others to his public Sales.”  In other words, he stationed an employee at the entrance to engage passersby in hopes of convincing them to check out the items going up for bid.  That innovation supplemented other marketing efforts undertaken by auctioneers, including newspaper notices, catalogs, handbills, and previews of goods in advance of auctions.

Other colonizers in the vicinity of Bicker’s auction house apparently did not care for this innovation.  He reported that it “has given Dissatisfaction to some” and singled out “Gentlemen Shopkeepers in particular.”  Perhaps those shopkeepers claimed that they did not like the noise or the constant presence of Bicker’s employee on the street outside the auction house, but most likely they really opposed the competition that potentially affected their own sales.  After all, both consumers and retailers who bought to sell again could often find better bargains at auctions than they could get at local shops and stores.  Bicker underscored in his advertisement that the public should attend his auctions “for their own Advantage.”  An employee outside his door could have made that point to prospective bidders in greater detail repeatedly throughout the day and within earshot of nearby “Gentlemen Shopkeepers.”  They may have worried that someone lurking on the street made their customers anxious about becoming the target of unwanted appeals or having to extricate themselves from uncomfortable conversations as they sought to go about their business, but concerns about losing those customers to the auction house probably motivated their complaints just as much.

Bicker devised a solution that he “flatters himself cannot fail giving universal Satisfaction, as he sincerely wishes so to do,” though the tone suggested that he was not sincere nor that he cared much about the “Satisfaction” of the “Gentlemen Shopkeepers.”  He may very well have been thumbing his nose at them when he installed a bell “over his Auction-Room Door.”  In an earlier advertisement, he noted that a red flag marked his location.  The bell, a new enhancement, likely attracted as much notice, drawing attention to his auction house and calling prospective bidders to his sales from an even greater distance than the employee stationed at the door.  Bicker’s concern for the “Gentlemen Shopkeepers” may have been a polite fiction considering that he concocted a solution with so much potential to cause just as much “Dissatisfaction.”

April 11

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

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

Boston-Gazette (April 11, 1774).

“The SECOND EDITION of Mr. HANCOCK’S ORATION.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, gave their advertisement for the “SECOND EDITION of Mr. HANCOCK’S ORATION Deliver’d March 5th” a privileged place in their newspaper.  Readers did not need further explanation to understand that “March 5th” referred to the date of the Boston Massacre and that Hancock had been selected to give the annual address that memorialized the victims and raised an alarm about the danger of quartering an army in an urban center, like Boston, during times of peace.

Still, Edes and Gill, who printed the “ORATION” as well as the newspaper, did what they could to draw attention to the second edition.  The first time they announced it was “This Day Published,” in the April 4, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette, they ran the notice immediately below news and editorials.  Even if readers chose not to peruse other advertisements closely once they realized they had finished the news, they likely took note of the advertisement for the “ORATION” in its place of transition from one kind of content to another.  In the next issue of the weekly newspaper, the notice ran at the bottom of the last column on the first page, the only advertisement on that page.  Once again, the patriot printers increased the likelihood that readers would spot that advertisement and accept an invitation to demonstrate their own commitment to the patriot cause by purchasing copies for themselves.

That Edes and Gill published a “SECOND EDITION” testified to the demand for the first edition.  It sold well enough to justify another printing.  Edes and Gill took it to press just a few months after the Boston Tea Party and just a few weeks after another destruction of tea.  Although that second Boston Tea Party is not nearly as well known today, it was certainly among the current events that would have been on the minds of colonizers as they participated in commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, discussed the politics of tea, and decried various abuses perpetrated by Parliament.  Purchasing and reading Hancock’s “ORATION” was part of the growing resistance to British rule in the colonies, a means for consumers to practice politics in the marketplace and imbibe the rhetoric of a noted patriot long after the Boston Massacre’s annual commemorative events concluded.

March 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (March 21, 1774).

“THE ORATION DELIVER’D BY THE Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; Will be PUBLISHED.”

Many colonizers commemorated events that were part of the American Revolution before the Revolutionary War began.  For instance, residents of Boston acknowledged the anniversary of the “horrid Massacre on the 5th of March 1770” each year.  That description of the Boston Massacre came from coverage of the fourth anniversary commemorations in the March 7, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers, reported that “the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of this Town met at Faneuil-Hall.”  They selected Samuel Adams as moderator for the meeting.  Adams, in turn, recognized John Hancock to deliver “an ORATION, on the dangerous Tendency of Standing Armies being placed in free and populous Cities” and sought to “perpetuate the Memory of the horrid Massacre … by a Party of Soldiers belonging to the 29th Regiment, commanded by Capt. Thomas Preston.”

According to the printers, a “prodigious Crowd of People attended to hear the Oration, which was received with universal applause.”  In turn, two committees were appointed, one to select a speaker to deliver the oration the following year and the other “to return the Orator the Thanks of the Town for his elegant and spirited Oration, and also to request a Copy of it for the Press.”  Already, the annual commemoration including publishing the oration for further dissemination throughout the city and beyond.  Edes and Gill further reported that the anniversary occurred on Saturday, “the Evening of which is considered by many Persons as the Commencement of the Sabbath,” so the display of the “Exhibition Portraits of the Murderers, and the slaughtered Citizens” was delayed until Monday evening, the same day the printers distributed that issue of the Boston-Gazette.

Two weeks later, on March 21, Edes and Gill ran a notice in their own newspaper to alert readers that “ON WEDNESDAY NEXT … THE ORATION DELIVER’D BY THE Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; Will be PUBLISHED” at their printing office.  They even specified the time, “ELEVEN o’Clock,” so prospective customers would know exactly when they could obtain their copies.  The printers staged an eighteenth-century precursor to a release party.  In hopes of inciting greater demand and gaining even more attention for Hancock’s arguments about the rights of colonizers, Edes and Gill also ran advertisements in the Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on March 21.  The next issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter carried a notice that the oration had been published and was available from “EDES & GILL in Queen-Street.”  Each year, printers published the oration marking the anniversary of the Boston Massacre and advertised it widely.  Commodification of the event went hand in hand with commemoration.