Boston-Gazette

January 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (January 24, 1774).

“A LARGE Quantity of LIGNUMVITAE.”

In selecting this advertisement, I collaborated with Kendra Apicella, a student in my Revolutionary America class in Fall 2023.  Kendra spotted the notice when she undertook her responsibilities as guest curator for the Slavery Adverts 250 Project.  She was not with familiar with lignum vitae.  Neither was I.  That provided an opportunity for student and professor to learn together as we looked for more information about this commodity that appeared in the pages of the January 24, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette.  Lignum vitae, we discovered, referred to a tree indigenous to the Caribbean as well as wood and resin obtained from the tree and medicines derived from the resin.

Lignum vitae translates from Latin as “wood of life,” a name given to the tree because of its medicinal qualities.  The advertisement in the Boston-Gazette did not seem to market “A LARGE Quantity of LIGNUMVITAE” as a remedy.  Instead, the “different sizes, uncommon straight and sound,” suggests pieces of wood intended for furniture and decorative items.  On behalf of the St. John Historical Society, Eleanor Gibney provides a history of the commodification of the tree in the early modern period in “Lignum vitae: Beauty, Strength, and the Fallibility of Medicine.”  She explains that lignum vitae “is among the hardest and heaviest of all commercial woods.”  Furthermore, “[w]hat makes lignum vitae wood so valuable is not the density alone, but the combination with the oily resin that permeates the wood, lubricating and making it almost indestructible.”

Gibney also notes that a Moravian missionary, C.G.A. Oldendorp, recorded some thoughts about lignum vitae during his time in the Virgin Islands.  In 1767, he described the wood as “difficult to work with, both on account of its hardness and its crooked growth.”  That hardness meant durability.  Iron would rust away more quickly than building timbers made of lignum vitae would rot, he asserted.  Oldendorp further described the wood as “expensive” and “exported to Europe in considerable quantities.”  It also found its way to British colonies in North America.  The anonymous seller who advertised in the Boston-Gazette acknowledged the wood’s reputation for “crooked growth” when describing the pieces available as “uncommon straight and sound.”  The advertiser also banked on widespread familiarity with the wood’s “hardness” and durability, not considering it necessary to elaborate on those qualities.

Eighteenth-century readers, immersed in the language of consumer culture of the era, recognized “LIGNUMVITAE” when they saw it advertised among the notices in the Boston-Gazette, yet many modern readers do not have any immediate associations with the tree, its appearance and other qualities, and the various uses of the wood.  I often tell my students that colonizers spoke their own language, no matter how much it looks like English to us, and that we have to translate the words that they wrote and published.  Sometimes that is because the meanings of words have shifted over time or words commonly used in the eighteenth century are no longer part of everyday speech.  In this instance, like so many others involving consumer culture (including all the different kinds of textiles listed in countless advertisements!), a once-popular commodity no longer has the demand it did in the early modern era.  Kendra and I both learned more about commerce and consumption in the Atlantic World thanks to our curiosity about this advertisement for lignum vitae.

January 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (January 3, 1774).

“A large Assortment of Hard-Ware GOODS, Cutlery, Jewellery, Goldsmith’s, Clock and Watch Articles.”

Readers almost certainly noticed John Welsh’s advertisement in the January 3, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette.  The shopkeeper announced that he imported and sold “A general Assortment of English GOODS, suitable for all Seasons” and “A large Assortment of Hard-Ware GOODS, Cutlery, Jewellery, Goldsmith’s, Clock and Watch Articles.”  To demonstrate the selection he offered to consumers, Welsh published an extensive list of his inventory.

The length of that list alone distinguished Welsh’s advertisement from others that ran in that issue of the newspaper.  More significantly, the format and placement made his notice notable.  Rather than extending in one column and continuing in the next, the advertisement spanned two of the regular columns, an unusual format in the Boston-Gazette or any other colonial newspaper.  Within the space occupied by the advertisement, the list of goods was divided into three columns with lines, but no space, separating them.  While that made the dense text more difficult to navigate, Welsh did provide some guidance with a series of headers.  The “English GOODS,” mostly textiles and accessories, that appeared first did not have a header, but “Hard-Ware,” “Goldsmith’s & Jewellery,” and “Clock & Watch Articles” each had headers that directed readers to items of interest.

The advertisement’s position on the page also enhanced its visibility.  It ran in the upper left corner on the first page, right below the masthead, making it the first item that readers saw when they perused the first issue of the Boston-Gazettepublished in 1774.  Even if readers who knew that the latest news often appeared on the second and third pages rather than the front page immediately flipped past the first page, they likely noticed Welsh’s advertisement as they skimmed to make sure they did not miss any news that might have appeared on the front page.  After all, the organization did vary from week to week depending on the amount of “intelligence” and advertisements submitted to the printing office.  Welsh’s advertisement dominated the first page, as it would have done on any page.  The unusual format underscored the wide selection of merchandise that he made available to customers.

Boston-Gazette (January 3, 1774).

December 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston Evening-Post (December 27, 1773).

“The above Teas were imported before any of the East-India Company’s Tea arrive, or it was known they would send any on their own Account.”

Cyrus Baldwin advertised “Choice Bohea and Souchong Tea” in the December 20, 1773, edition of the Boston Evening-Post, the first issue published following the protest now known as the Boston Tea Party.  In an effort to convince both prospective customers and the general public that he traded in good faith, he appended a nota bene to assert that his teas “were imported before any of the East-India Company’s Tea arrive, or it was known they would send any on their own Account.”  Three days later, he ran a similar advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy.  That notice included new merchandise, but it still listed “CHOICE Bohea and Souchong Teas” and concluded with the same nota bene.  As the politics of tea became a main topic of discussion, in town meetings, in the press, in everyday conversation, did not decide to discontinue his advertisements presenting tea for sale at his shop in Boston.

Boston-Gazette (December 27, 1773).

On December 27, Baldwin once again advertised in the Boston Evening-Post, replacing his advertisement from the previous issue with the one from the Massachusetts Spy.  In addition, that advertisement, complete with the nota bene, also ran in the Boston-Gazette on December 27.  Over the course of several days, Baldwin inserted it in three of the five newspapers published in Boston at the time.  Notably, neither Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, nor Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, rejected the advertisement, though they had earned reputations as the printers who most vociferously advocated for the patriot cause and critiqued Parliament and colonial officials.  Did their willingness to publish the advertisement serve as tacit endorsement of the rationale Baldwin offered to justify selling his tea?  Maybe not.  The printers may have been too busy participating in events as they unfolded after the Boston Tea Party and gathering news from near and far that they did not scrutinize the contents of all the advertisements submitted to their printing offices.  After all, other merchants and shopkeepers continued to advertise tea in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy.  The printers may not have examined each advertisement closely to spot tea among the lists of merchandise.  They might have also been satisfied, at least for the moment, because they knew any tea sold by Baldwin and others had not been acquired via the problematic shipments that ended up in the harbor rather than in shops and stores.

As colonizers, including “Venders of Tea,” debated what to do next following the Boston Tea Party, they did not immediately cease advertising, buying, selling, and drinking tea.  Following strategies that they adopted in response to the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, they eventually devised nonimportation and consumption agreements.  Loyalists like Peter Oliver accused patriots, especially women, of cheating on those agreements.  Such indiscretions would have been a continuation of the flexibility toward tea exhibited in newspaper advertisements published in the days immediately after the Boston Tea Party.

December 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (December 13, 1773).

“He flatters himself that all Merchants who are Lovers of this Country will establish the Trade here and not import this Article.”

John Clarke made and sold “all sorts of Metal Buttons” at the “FACTORY-HOUSE” in Boston.  His advertisement in the December 13, 1773, edition of the Boston-Gazette testified to the many ways that he marketed his buttons, both within and beyond newspaper notices.  For instance, Clarke did more than describe his “Gold, Silver, Gilt, Plated, Silver’d, Lacquer’d, and best Block-Tin BUTTONS, of the newest and most fashionable Taste” and “Fancy Buttons with the Cloth under them of the Colour requir’d.”  He also provided samples on “a Pattern Card,” inviting prospective customers to “come and see the Variety of them.”  Clarke hoped that after examining those specimens they would place orders.  He also devised a means of identifying his buttons once they left his manufactory, advising that “each Card and Gross Paper of Buttons of the said Clarke’s make, are printed as follows, viz. MADE BY JOHN CLARKE, At the FACTORY, in Boston: Where may be had, ALL Sorts of Metal Buttons, as cheap as in London.”  His newspaper advertisement reproduced a shorter advertisement that appeared on the packaging of his products.

Clarke also made an appeal to support domestic manufactures, echoing the sentiments that John Keating so often published in advertisements for his “PAPER MANUFACTORY” in New York and others who wished to support local economies rather than importing so many goods from Great Britain.  He presented his buttons to “all the Well-Wishers of this Country and hopes the Patronage of the Gentlemen of this and the neighbouring Provinces and Towns, that they will give his Buttons the preference of any imported.”  Clarke made this appeal as tensions mounted in Boston over the arrival of ships carrying tea that Parliament intended to tax under the new Tea Act.  Within a week, colonizers would board those ships and throw the tea into the harbor.  Clarke likely expected that his message would resonate with readers of theBoston-Gazette, one of the newspapers that most often decried the abuses of Parliament and the colonial officials that attempted to implement its policies.  Those readers (and his prospective customers) included “Merchants who are Lovers of this Country” who had a duty, Clarke asserted, to “establish the Trade here and not import this Article.”  He did not, however, expect merchants, shopkeepers, tailors, and consumers to accept an inferior product as an alternative to the buttons imported from London.  He asked customers to try his buttons, determine “if on Trial they prove as good or better,” and only then place orders for larger quantities “on as good Terms as they can be furnish’d in London.”

At a time when the imperial crisis intensified, Clarke encouraged colonizers to “Buy American” and support his “FACTORY HOUSE” for making buttons, “the first of the Business ever set up in America.”  In addition to his extensive appeal that ran in the Boston-Gazette, the packaging for his buttons included an abbreviated version that promoted his “FACTORY, in BOSTON,” and compared its output, “ALL Sorts of Metal Buttons,” to those imported from London.

September 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (September 27, 1773).

“A PAMPHLET, Intitled, BATES and his HORSES weighed in the Balance.”

Mr. Bates did not receive a universally warm welcome when he performed his feats of horsemanship in Boston in the fall of 1773.  Bates advertised in several newspapers in the city, announcing his presence and informing prospective audiences of his considerable experience performing at courts in Europe.  On September 27, his advertisement for an exhibition scheduled for the next day ran in all three newspapers published in the city that day.  Although it appeared on its own in the Boston Evening-Post, another advertisement concerning Bates ran in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy.  That notice offered a brief critique of Bates and promised a more extensive treatment in a pamphlet.  The cheeky compositors conveniently placed the advertisements next to each other in the Boston-Gazette and at the top and bottom of the same column in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy.

The new notice announced the anticipated publication of a pamphlet, “BATES and his HORSES weighed in the Balance” in a few days.  The pamphlet would demonstrate that “his Exhibitions in Boston are impoverishing, disgraceful to human Nature, and down-right Breaches of the Sixth Commandment.”  The advertisement concluded with an admonition, “Oh be a Man,” from Edward Young’s The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality.  The line from the poem may have been intended to mock Bates and demean the sense of masculinity that defined him and supposedly made it possible for him alone to perform “a Variety of manly Exercises” never before seen in Boston.  Alternately, it may have condemned the pride that he exhibited, both in person and in newspaper advertisements and handbills.  For his part, Bates may have welcomed the additional attention for his act instead of experiencing embarrassment over the attack in the public prints and the imminent publication of the pamphlet.

Whatever Bates’s reaction might have been, the pamphlet may not have gone to press.  The advertisement stated that it “will be Printed, and Sold at the Printing-Office in Hanover-Street.”  Joseph Greenleaf ran that printing office.  The pamphlet is not among his known imprints, nor among those produced by other printers in Boston.  If Greenleaf or another printer did print “Bates and His Horses,” the pamphlet proved even more ephemeral than the handbills that the performer distributed in the city.  On the other hand, whoever wished to critique Bates may have considered it sufficient to run disparaging newspaper advertisements without investing additional time, money, and resources into the endeavor.  Bates did not remain in Boston much longer.  Before long, he took his act to Newport, Rhode Island.  At least one colonizer there did not welcome his arrival, according to manuscript additions to a newspaper advertisement that the Adverts 250 Project will feature in the coming weeks.

August 23

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (August 23, 1773).

“It would greatly oblige us, if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”

Colonial printers only occasionally addressed the business of advertising in their newspapers.  Some did solicit advertisements in the colophon at the bottom of the final page, though they did not always specify rates or offer additional instructions.  In the colophon for the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, for instance, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks stated that “Subscriptions, Advertisements, and Letters of Intelligence for this Paper are taken in” at their printing office.  John Holt did provide more information in the colophon for the New-York Journal, noting that “Advertisements of no more Length than Breadth are inserted for Five Shillings, four Weeks, and One Shilling for each Week after, and larger Advertisements in the same Proportion.”  A few printers also promoted other forms of advertising.  Isaiah Thomas, for example, informed readers that he printed “Small HAND-BILLS at an Hour’s Notice” in the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy.  The printer of the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote highlighted a particular service in the masthead of that newspaper: “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”

Most printers, in contrast, did not regularly publish information about advertising in their newspapers.  Among those that did, few presented the sorts of specifics that Holt, Thomas, and Miller did in their colophons.  That makes the note that Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, inserted at the bottom of the third page of the August 23, 1773, edition all the more noteworthy.  “It would greatly oblige us,” they pleaded, “if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”  The printers presumably meant “no later than Saturday Afternoon.”  They distributed their weekly newspaper on Mondays.  That meant that production of the first and last pages, printed on the same side of a broadsheet, took place near the end of the week and production of the second and third pages, on the other side of the broadsheet, just prior to distribution.  Edes and Gill and others who worked in their printing office needed time to set type for the latest news and new advertisements, manually operate the press, and hang the newspapers for the ink to dry before folding and delivering them to subscribers.  If advertisers wanted their notices to appear in the Boston-Gazette on Monday then they needed to submit them to the printing office in a timely fashion.  Edes and Gill advised that meant Saturday afternoon.  To increase the likelihood that advertisers would take note of such instructions, they inserted this notice as a single line in the margin at the bottom of the page, a line that ran across all three columns of that page. That notice guided advertisers while also testifying to what the printers considered best practices in the business of advertising in their colonial newspaper.

June 20

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

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

Supplement to the Boston-Gazette (June 14, 1773).

“UMBRILLOES.”

Isaac Greenwood may not have believed that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery when John Cutler decided to run advertisements adorned with a woodcut that closely replicated the image of genteel woman shaded by an umbrella that he had included in many of his advertisements for the past couple of years.  Greenwood first used the image in May 1771 and continued incorporating it into his newspaper notices in 1772 and 1773.  In the summer of 1773, he launched a new advertising campaign that featured the woodcut and the headline “NOT IMPORTED” to underscore that he made the “UMBRILLOES” he sold while simultaneously encouraging consumers to support domestic manufactures by choosing them over imported alternatives.

Boston Evening-Post (June 14, 1773).

Cutler also made “Umbrilloes of all sorts for Ladies and Gentlemen … in the best Manner.”  In addition, he “mended and covered” old umbrellas.  As Greenwood’s latest advertisement with the image of the woman and umbrella appeared in supplement that accompanied the June 14 edition of the Boston-Gazette, Cutler debuted his strikingly similar woodcut in an advertisement in the Boston Evening-Post on the same day.  He then took the rather extraordinary step of having the woodcut transferred to the printing offices of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter in time to run in the June 17 edition.  Such transfers continued for the next several weeks as Cutler increased the exposure for the image by inserting it in more than one newspaper.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (June 17, 1773).

Some prospective customers may have considered the woman depicted in Cutler’s advertisements more elegant than the one in Greenwood’s notices.  Both wore necklaces.  In the original image, the necklace hugged the woman’s chin, making it difficult to distinguish, while in the imitation the necklace hung lower on the woman’s neck and featured a pendant that enhanced it.  The original image offered a view of the woman’s decolletage, while the imitation placed greater emphasis on embroidery and other adornments.  The hairstyles differed as well.  The woman in the original image wore a high roll, but some viewers may have mistaken it for a turban.  In the imitation, the woman had her hair pile high upon her head, but the image suggested elaborate curls and even a tendril that hung below her right ear to frame her face.

In several ways, Cutler’s new image was superior to the familiar one that Greenwood had circulated for more than two years.  Cutler could have chosen another image to represent his business in the public prints.  After all, he advised prospective customers that he made umbrellas “at the Golden Cock, in Marlborough Street.”  Some advertisers experimented with branding and logos in the late eighteenth century, consistently associating an image with their shops and their goods.  Greenwood may not have been very happy that Cutler devised an image that so closely resembled the one that already represented his business.

May 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (May 17, 1773).

“We might go … to ANDREW DEXTER’S CHEAP STORE … and get every Thing we want at our own Price!”

As the summer of 1773 approached, Andrew Dexter experimented with a quirky advertisement in the May 17 edition of the Boston-Gazette.  Though brief, his notice contained a message intended to arouse the curiosity of consumers and entice them to visit his shop.  “What a needless Loss of Time and Labour it is,” Dexter proclaimed, “to go about Town, from North to South, cheapening of Goods, when we might go, with so little Trouble, to ANDREW DEXTER’S CHEAP STORE near the Mill-Bridge, and get every Thing we want at out our own Price!”  A border composed of decorative type helped draw attention to this advertisement.

Dexter encouraged consumers to dispense with haggling and comparison shopping, suggesting that they would not find any better bargains at other stores no matter how many they visited or how much time and energy they invested.  His tone suggested sage advice delivered by an experienced shopper to prospective customers, advising that “we might go” to Dexter’s “CHEAP STORE.”  Rather than thank his patrons as other advertisers often did in their notices, Dexter marketed his wares by assuming the voice of a satisfied customer speaking to other consumers.  He likely intended that this shift in perspective would imbue the advice to go directly to his store to save time, effort, and money with greater authority.  Other advertisers presented all kinds of choices to prospective customers and promised low prices for their wares, encouraging and playing on appetites to participate in the transatlantic consumer revolution.  Dexter adopted a novel strategy with an approach that offered guidance for satisfying those appetites.  Cleverly, he suggested that consumers exercised more power in his store than in any of the other shops “about Town” since they did not need to haggle or compare prices but instead “get every Thing we want at our own Price!”  Dexter’s customers, the “satisfied customer” asserted, would not experience the frustrations and disappointments that they encountered elsewhere in their endeavors to get the deals they wanted.

March 22

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

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

Boston-Gazette (March 22, 1773).

“An ORATION … to COMMEMORATE the BLOODY TRAGEDY of the FIFTH of MARCH 1770.”

Within a week of Benjamin Edes and John Gill announcing that “Dr. CHURCH’S ORATION will be Published by the Printers hereof as soon as possible,” advertisements for that pamphlet appeared in three of Boston’s newspapers.  Edes and Gill referred to the address that Dr. Benjamin Church delivered “At the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of BOSTON” on the third anniversary of the Boston Massacre “to COMMEMORATE the BLOODY TRAGEDY.”  Edes and Gill reported on the commemorations in their newspaper, the Boston-Gazette, on March 8, 1773, reporting that Church spoke about “the dangerous Tendency of Standing Armies” to the “universal Applause of his Audience.”  Furthermore, “his Fellow Citizens voted him their Thanks, and unanimously requested a Copy of his Oration for the Press.”  In the next weekly issue of the Boston-Gazette, Edes and Gill advised the public that they would soon publish Church’s Oration.

Boston Evening-Post (March 22, 1773).

Three days later, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter carried a notice that the “THIRD EDITION, corrected by the AUTHOR” was “Just Publish’d” and sold by Edes and Gill as well as Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, the printers of the Boston Evening-Post.  Apparently, Joseph Greenleaf was the first printer to take Church’s Oration to press, but Edes and Gill produced a superior edition.  In promoting the third edition, the printers gave their advertisement a privileged place in the Boston-Gazette.  It appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page of the March 22 issue, making it difficult for readers to overlook.  The same day, the Fleets ran the same notice in the Boston Evening-Post.  Although not as prominently displayed as in the Boston-Gazette, the placement likely received special attention.  Rather than nestled among the dozens of advertisements on the third and fourth pages, it ran as the sole advertisement on the second page.  As readers moved from “Proceedings of the Town of Westminster” to news from London that arrived in the colonies via New York, they encountered the advertisement for Church’s Oration.  In its own way, that notice served as news, continuing the coverage of current events and shaping how colonizers viewed their place within the empire.

February 21

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

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

Boston Evening-Post (February 15, 1773).

“Early Charlton, early Hotspur, early Golden Hotspur.”

For colonizers in Boston and nearby towns, it was a sign that spring was coming!  The first advertisement for garden seeds appeared in local newspapers on February 15, 1773.  In the late 1760s and the early 1770s, seed sellers, most of them women, took to the pages of the public prints to advertise their wares when they believed that winter passed its halfway point.  Susanna Renken was the first in 1773, just as she had been in 1768 and 1770.  Soon, several other women who advertised seeds each year would join her, as would a smaller number of men.  Indeed, shopkeeper John Adams placed the second advertisement for seeds in newspapers printed in Boston in 1773, but it did not take long for women to outnumber him with their advertisements.

Renken, already familiar to many readers in part due to her annual advertising campaign, had the market to her herself for a few days.  On February 15, she ran notices with identical copy in two of the three newspapers published in Boston that day, the Boston Evening-Post and the Boston-Gazette.  She focused primarily on a long list of seeds, but concluded by mentioning some grocery items, a “Variety of China Bowls and Dishes,” and an “Assortment of India and English Goods.”  Most of her female competitors usually did not promote other items, but Renken recognized an opportunity to encourage other sales, especially if customers were not quite ready to purchase garden seeds in the middle of February.  After all, many of the headlines in other advertisements still hawked “WINTER GOODS.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (February 18, 1773).

She had the public prints to herself for only three days.  Adams inserted his advertisement in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on February 18.  Renken did not expand her advertising to that newspaper or the Massachusetts Spy.  Her next notices ran once again in the Boston Evening-Post and the Boston-Gazette and, for the first time that year, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on February 22.  Other women who participated in the annual ritual joined her on that day, Elizabeth Clark and Nowell, Elizabeth Dyar, and Elizabeth Greenleaf in the Supplement to the Boston-Gazette and Elizabeth Greenleaf in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy.  Ebenezer Oliver, who inherited the business from his mother, Bethiah Oliver, and invoked her name in his notice, also advertised in the Supplement to the Boston-Gazette, as did John Adams.  A few days later, John Adams, Elizabeth Greenleaf, and Ebenezer Oliver advertised in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter and Lydia Dyar, Elizabeth Greenleaf, and Anna Johnson advertised in the Massachusetts Spy on February 25.  By then, Renken decided that she would increase the number of newspapers carrying her advertisements, perhaps after noticing that her competitors launched their campaigns.  She also placed a notice in the February 25 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  For a few days Renken was the sole seed seller promoting her merchandise in Boston’s newspapers, but it soon became a very crowded field.