Commemoration of American Revolution

April 1

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

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

Boston-Gazette (April 1, 1776).

“AN ORATION … To Commemorate the Bloody Massacre at Boston: Perpetrated March 5, 1770.”

The annual tradition continued during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Each year since the Boston Massacre, residents of the city gathered to mark the anniversary, honor the men who died when British regulars fired into a crowd of protestors, and hear an oration about the dangers of a standing army stationed in an urban port during times of peace.  James Lovell delivered the address in 1771, followed by Joseph Warren in 1772, Benjamin Church in 1773, and John Hancock in 1774.  In March 1775, Joseph Warren gave the last oration before the Revolutionary War commenced with the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  Three months later, he was killed in action at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Patriots made adjustments to the ritual in 1776.  The British occupation of Boston continued.  The Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, continued the siege of the city.  The Massachusetts Provincial Congress met at Watertown.  It was from there that William Cooper, the “Town Clerk of Boston” in exile, announced that according to a “vote in a town-meeting legally assembled” on March 5, 1775, “an ORATION will be delivered at the meeting-house, in Watertown, on the 5th of March next, … to commemorate the horrid Massacre perpetrated in Boston, on the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, by a party of Soldiers of the 29th Regiment, under the command of Capt. Thomas Preston.”  Refugees from Boston and the inhabitants of Watertown and other nearby towns gathered in Watertown for the annual oration about “the ruinous tendency of Standing armies being placed in large and populous cities, in time of peace.”  It was also a rally for asserting “the necessity of such exertions as the inhabitants of Boston then manifested, whereby the designs of the conspirators against the public safety, have been frustrated.”

Although circumstances forced those “who were inhabitants of Boston” to shift the location for the annual commemoration, other aspects remained constant, including the printing, marketing, and dissemination of the oration a few weeks after the gathering occurred.  This time, Peter Thacher delivered “AN ORATION … To Commemorate the Bloody Massacre at Boston: Perpetrated March 5, 1770.”  Benjamin Edes, who had relocated the Boston-Gazette from Boston to Watertown, printed the pamphlet and sold it at his printing office.  As had been the case with previous orations, this gave those who had been present an opportunity to experience Thacher’s address again and as many times as they wished to read it.  The pamphlet also gave those who had not attended a chance to read what Thacher said and imbibe the arguments made in support of the American cause.  Gathering for the oration was an important civic act, yet the circulation of the oration in print may have had an impact just as significant.

March 12

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (March 12, 1776).

“AN ORATION, IN MEMORY OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY.”

The March 12, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette carried an advertisement for “AN ORATION, IN MEMORY OF GENERAL MONGTOMERY: And of the OFFICERS and SOLDIERS who fell with him before QUEBEC.”  Readers knew well that Major General Richard Montgomery, the commander of the American invasion of Canada, had been killed in action in failed attack on Quebec City on December 31, 1775.  The deaths of Montgomery and Major General Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, had been the most significant losses during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  After the war, John Trumbull memorialized both patriots in paintings that depicted their sacrifice.

Shortly after Montgomery’s death, the Continental Congress invited William Smith, an Anglican minister and provost of the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania, to preach at a memorial service for Montgomery on February 19, 1776.  The message that he delivered surprised many members of the Continental Congress, angering them with the blatant loyalism he espoused.  As Christopher A. Hunter outlines, Smith “prais[ed] Montgomery’s ‘loyalty to his sovereign.’”  Furthermore, he proclaimed that “the delegated voice of the continent … supports me in praying for a restoration ‘of the former harmony between Great Britain and these Colonies.”[1]  Smith directly quoted the Olive Branch Petition, a final effort to broker peace and a redress of grievances.  When George III refused to even read that missive, it convinced many colonizers that reconciliation was not possible.

In a letter to Abigail Adams, John described the oration as “an insolent Performance” and described what happened after William Livingston, a delegate from New Jersey, suggested that the Continental Congress publish Smith’s memorial to Montgomery.  “A Motion was made to Thank the orator and ask a Copy—But opposed with great Spirit, and Vivacity from every Part of the Room, and at last withdrawn, lest it be should be rejected as it certainly would have been with Indignation.”  Yet an advertisement for the oration appeared in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and several other newspapers.  “The orator then printed it himself,” Adams continued, “after leaving out or altering some offensive Passages.”  Hunter notes that Smith doubled down on some parts that Adams and others found most troublesome, “adding a preface declaring, ‘whatever claim he may have to the appellation of a good Citizen or Friend to Liberty’ must rest on his efforts to prevent American independence.”[2]

John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet and Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, printed the “ORATION,” advertised it in his newspapers, and sold it at his printing offices in Philadelphia and Baltimore.  Despite the controversy, printers in New York, Newport, and Norwich published local editions, disseminating even more copies.  Each also published, marketed, and sold their own editions of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a pamphlet that strongly advocated for declaring independence.  Perhaps they thought that honoring Montgomery and the officers and soldiers killed during the Battle of Quebec outweighed the portions of Smith’s commentary that patriots found so “insolent.”  Perhaps they merely sought to generate revenue by publishing a pamphlet that commemorated Montgomery.  Maybe they simultaneously pursued both courses.  Whatever their inspiration, readers of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and other newspapers repeatedly saw Montgomery memorialized when they perused the advertisements.  Many likely did not associate that act of veneration with the problematic rhetoric Smith introduced in his “ORATION.”

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[1] Christopher A. Hunter, “William Smith’s Catonian Loyalism, Race, and the Politics of Language,” Early American Literature 52, no. 3 (2017): 531.

[2] Hunter, “William Smith’s Catonian Loyalism,” 531.

February 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (February 16, 1776).

“An ORATION will be delivered … to commemorate the horrid Massacre perpetrated in Boston.”

It was an annual tradition that commenced the year after the Boston Massacre.  The residents of the town gathered for an oration that commemorated the event.  James Lovell spoke in 1771, Joseph Warren in 1772, Benjamin Church in 1773, and John Hancock in 1774.  Joseph Warren once again delivered the oration in 1775, about six weeks before the imperial crisis became an armed conflict at the battles at Lexington and Concord and just three months before Warren, a major general in the colony’s militia, was killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill.  As the siege of Boston continued in 1776, the tradition continued, though in Watertown where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met rather than in occupied Boston

About three weeks in advance, Thomas’ Massachusetts Spy, which had relocated to Worcester from Boston just as hostilities commenced, carried a notice for the “freeholders and other inhabitants who were inhabitants of Boston, in March last.”  It advised that “agreeable to their vote in a town-meeting legally assembled on the 5th of said month,” the fifth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, “an ORATION will be delivered at the meeting-house, in Watertown, on the 5th of March next … to commemorate the horrid Massacre perpetrated in Boston … by a party of Soldiers of the 29th Regiment, under the command of Capt. Thomas Preston.”  As usual, the oration would not merely honor those who died when British soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors; the speaker would also “impress upon our minds the ruinous tendency of Standing armies being placed in large and populous cities, in time of peace.”  The presence of British soldiers in Boston led to what colonizers often called the “bloody Tragedy.”  The oration was also a call to action, asserting “the necessity of such exertions as the inhabitants of Boston then manifested, whereby the designs of the conspirators against the public safety, have been frustrated.”  The annual gathering had even greater significance now that colonizers were fighting a war against British troops and many of them increasingly contemplated declaring independence rather than seeking redress of their grievances within the imperial system.  With an advertisement in the public prints, the organizers hoped to draw crowds for the oration and, in turn, strengthen the resolve of those who attended.

December 23

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

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (December 23, 1775).

“A large and exact VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN.”

Like other printers, John Dixon and William Hunter sold books, pamphlets, almanacs, stationery, and other merchandise to supplement the revenues they generated from newspaper subscriptions, advertisements, and job printing.  They frequently placed advertisements in their newspaper, the Virginia Gazette, to generate demand for those wares.  The December 23, 1775, edition, for instance, included three of their advertisements, one for “SONG BOOKS and SCHOOL BOOKS For SALE at this OFFICE” and another for the “Virginia ALMANACK” for 1776 with calculations “Fitting VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, [and] NORTH CAROLINA” by “the ingenious Mr. DAVID RITTENHOUSE of Philadelphia,” the same mathematician who did the calculations for Father Abraham’s Almanack marketed in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Their third advertisement promoted memorabilia related to the hostilities that erupted at Lexington and Concord earlier in the year.  “Just come to Hand, and to be SOLD at this PRINTING-OFFICE,” Dixon and Hunter proclaimed, “A large and exact VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN,” now known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.  The copies they stocked were “Elegantly coloured” and sold for “one Dollar.”  Dixon and Hunter apparently carried a print, “An Exact View,” engraved by Bernard Romans and published by Nicholas Brooks, rather than a striking similar (and perhaps pirated) print, “A Correct View,” that Robert Aitken included in a recent issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Monthly Museum and sold separately.  Romans and Brooks had advertised widely and designated local agents to accept subscriptions for the print.  Dixon and Hunter also advertised another collaboration between Romans and Brooks, “an accurate MAP of The present SEAT of CIVIL WAR, Taken by an able Draughtsman, who was on the Spot at the late Engagement.”  The map also sold for “one Dollar.”  Previous efforts to market the map included a broadside subscription proposal that listed local agents in various towns, including “Purdie and Dixon, Williamsburgh.”  Romans and Brooks apparently had not consulted with all the printers, booksellers, and other men they named as local agents when they drew up the list or else they would have known that Alexander Purdie and John Dixon had dissolved their partnership in December 1774.  Dixon took on Hunter as his new partner while Purdie set about publishing his own Virginia Gazette.  Those details may have mattered less to Romans and Brooks than their expectation that printers, booksellers, and others with reputations for supporting the American cause would indeed aid them in marketing and selling a map depicting the conflict underway in Massachusetts.  Whether or not Purdie or Dixon and Hunter collected subscriptions, local agents in Williamsburg did eventually sell the print and the map that supplemented newspaper accounts and encouraged feelings of patriotism among the consumers who purchased them.

December 13

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

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

Connecticut Journal (December 13, 1775).

“FOUR different Views of the BATTLES of LEXINGTON, [and] CONCORD.”

The marketing of memorabilia that commemorated events associated with the American Revolution began before the Second Continental Congress declared independence.  Shortly after the Boston Massacre, for instance, Paul Revere, Henry Pelham, and others produced and advertised images depicting the “BLOODY MASSACRE perpetrated in King-Street.”  Revere also marketed a “Copper-Plate PRINT, containing a View of Part of the Town of Boston in New-England, and British Ships of War landing their Troops in the Year 1768.”  As the imperial crisis intensified, Charles Reak and Samuel Okey advertised a print depicting “that truly staunch Patriot, the Hon. SAMUEL ADAMS, of Boston.”  The production of commemorative items accelerated following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.

In December 1775, James Lockwood advertised “FOUR different Views of the BATTLES of LEXINGTON, CONCORD, &c. on the 19th of April, 1775.”  He provided a short description of each: “The Battle at Lexington,” “A View of the Town of Concord with the Ministerial Troops destroying the Stores,” “The Battle at the North Bridge in Concord,” and “The South Part of Lexington where the first Detachment were join’d by Lord Percy.”  Lockwood promoted both the quality and accuracy of the prints, noting that the “Four Plates are neatly engraved on Copper, from original Paintings taken on the Spot.”  He almost certainly stocked and sold a series of prints engraved by Amos Doolittle based on paintings by Ralph Earl.  Although Lockwood may have sold the prints separately on request, he promoted them as a package, charging six shillings for as set of “the plain ones” or eight shillings for “coloured” prints.  This collection of prints supplemented news coverage of the battles, helping educate colonizers about recent events, yet many consumers may have desired them as symbols of their patriotism and support of the American cause to display in their homes and offices.  During the first year of the Revolutionary War, the marketing of images that celebrated Americans who defended their towns and their liberties likely encouraged some colonizers to imagine declaring independence rather than merely seeking a redress of grievances.

November 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (November 24, 1775).

“This Almanack contains … a very particular Account of … the Battle of Lexington.”

In the fall of 1775, Isaiah Thomas promoted “The NORTH-AMERICAN’s ALMANACK, For the Year 1776.”  He advertised the handy reference manual in the November 24 edition of his newspaper, Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy, Or, American Oracle of Liberty.  According to the imprint on the title page, the almanac was printed in “MASSACHUSETTS-BAY … by I[SAIAH] THOMAS, in WORCESTER, B[ENJAMIN] EDES,” the printer of the Boston-Gazette, “in WATERTOWN; and S[AMUEL] & E[BENEZER] HALL,” the printers of the New-England Chronicle, “in CAMBRIDGE.”  The advertisement also indicated that each of those printing offices stocked and sold the almanac.

Each of those printers earned reputations for their support of the American cause.  In this instance, their marketing efforts reflected their politics.  The advertisement noted that the almanac included “many interesting and entertaining matters” in addition to “what is necessary and useful,” singling out “a very particular Account of the commencement of Hostilities between Great-Britain and America, and the Battle of Lexington, by the Rev. Wm. Gordon.”  The contents listed on the title page included other items that resonated with current events, including “Description of a Tory and a Whig,” “Directions for preserving the Health of the Soldiers in the Camp,” and “Sir Richard Rum’s advice to the Soldiers, shewing the good effects of Spirituous Liquors when they are used with moderation, and their pernicious effects when they are used to excess, with a cure for Drunkenness.”  Such moral lessons often appeared in almanacs, but it had new significance as the siege of Boston continued.

Thomas and his fellow printers considered the account of the Battle of Lexington “worthy to be preserved by every American,” signaling that their almanac featured more than just “interesting and entertaining matters.”  Readers had a patriotic duty to purchase The North-American’s Almanack and then commemorate the first battle of the Revolutionary War and renew their commitment to defending American liberties each time they consulted the almanac.  The printers sought to disseminate it widely, selling it “by the Thousand, Hundred, Groce, Dozen or single,” intending that retailers purchase in volume for resale.  The price on the title page offered a discount, “6 Coppers Single, and 20 Shillings the Dozen,” and the printers may have negotiated even better deals for those purchasing in even greater quantity.  At the same time that they earned their livelihoods by selling almanacs, they also seized an opportunity to commemorate the Battle of Lexington.  Consumers, they asserted, had a patriotic duty to choose this almanac over any of the alternatives.

November 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (November 11, 1775).

“AN ORATION … to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy … By the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK.”

In addition to printing The Prussian Evolutions for Thomas Hanson in the fall of 1775, John Douglass McDougall published and sold “AN ORATION, Delivered March 6, 1774, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the fifth of March, 1770.  By the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esquire.”  The bookbinder, bookseller, and stationer had only recently added printer to the occupations he pursued at his shop in Philadelphia.  For his first forays, he focused on works supporting the American cause, either because doing so aligned with his political principles or because he spotted an opportunity to enhance his earnings.  Such motivations were not necessarily mutually exclusive.

In 1771, the residents of Boston marked the first anniversary of the “Bloody Tragedy,” now known as the Boston Massacre, with an oration delivered by James Lovell.  It did not take long for local printers to market copies.  So began an annual tradition.  Each year, a prominent figure delivered an “ORATION” and printers published and marketed those addresses.  Following Lovell, Joseph Warren spoke in 1772, Benjamin Church in 1773, John Hancock in 1774, and Joseph Warren again in 1775, just a few months before being killed in action at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  The annual oration became a ritual in Boston, as did the marketing of copies of the latest address in Boston’s newspapers each spring.  Printers outside of Boston, however, did not publish local editions, nor did booksellers outside of New England advertise copies they acquired from Boston.  The “Bloody Tragedy” and the trials of the soldiers involved had certainly been reported far and wide in newspapers throughout the colonies, but the subsequent commemorations did not receive as much notice, at least not in terms advertisements encouraging consumers beyond New England to purchase their own copies of the most recent oration.

That made McDougall’s new edition of Hancock’s oration from 1774 an innovation in the local market.  Why did he opt to publish Hancock’s address rather than the one more recently delivered by Warren?  As president of the Second Continental Congress, Hancock achieved recognition throughout the colonies, whereas Warren, even though he had died for the American cause, may have been considered a figure associated primarily with Massachusetts and thus not having the same appeal in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress met and McDougall printed and advertised Hancock’s oration.  Whatever the reason, the publication and marketing of Hancock’s oration in Pennsylvania testified to a transition taking place throughout the colonies in the wake of the Coercive Acts and the battles at Lexington and Concord.  More colonizers began to think of themselves as sharing a common cause rather than having interests aligned with their own province.  They began to think of themselves as an imagined community of Americans despite the local and regional differences that distinguished each colony from the others.

November 1

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (November 1, 1775).

“A NEAT Mezzotinto print of the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK.”

“A large and exact VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN.”

“An accurate map of the present seat of CIVIL WAR.”

Nicholas Brooks produced and marketed items that commemorated the American Revolution before the colonies declared independence.  In an advertisement in the November 1, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, for instance, he packaged together three prints previously advertised separately, each of them related to imperial crisis that had boiled over into a war.  For this notice, Brooks presented them as a collection of prints for consumers who wished to demonstrate their support for the American cause by purchasing and displaying one or more of them.

Brooks announced that a “NEAT Mezzotinto print of the Hon JOHN HANCOCK, Esquire, President of the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS,” that had previously been proposed in other advertisements had been published and was now for sale at his shop on Second Street in Philadelphia.  The subscribers who had reserved copies in advance could pick up their framed copies or arrange for delivery.  Others who had not placed advanced orders could acquire the print for three shillings and nine pence or pay two extra shillings for one “elegantly coloured.”

“Likewise, may be had at the above place,” Brooks reported, “a large and exact VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN,” depicting what has become known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.  This print competed with an imitation bearing a similar title, “a neat and correct VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN,” that Robert Aitken inserted in the Pennsylvania Magazine and sold separately.  Brooks, who had long experience selling framed prints, offered choices for his “exact VIEW.”  Customers could opt for an “elegantly coloured” version for seven shillings and six pence” or have it “put in a double carved and gilt frame, with glass 20 by 16 inches,” for eighteen shillings and six pence.  The eleven shillings for the frame, half again the cost of the print, indicated that Brooks anticipated that customers would display the “exact VIEW” proudly in their homes or offices.

He also promoted “an accurate map of the present seat of CIVIL WAR, taken by an able Draughtsman,” Bernard Romans, “who was on the spot of the late engagement.”  Brooks revised copy from earlier advertisements: “The draught was taken by the most skillful draughtsman in all America, and who was on the spot at the engagements of Lexington and Bunker’s Hill.”  The map showed a portion of New England that included Boston, Salem, Providence, and Worcester.   This print, he declared, was a “new impression, with useful additions,” though he did not specify how it differed from the one he previously marketed and sold.  As with the others, customers had a choice of a plain version for five shillings or a “coloured” one for six shillings and six pence.

Brooks added one more item, “a humorous and instructive print, entitled the COMET of 1774, done by a Gentleman in New-York.”  Did this print offer some sort of satirical commentary on current events?  Or was it unrelated to the prints of Hancock, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the “CIVIL WAR” in New England?  Whatever the additional print depicted, Brooks made the prints that commemorated the American Revolution the focus of his advertisement, gathering together three items previously promoted individually.  In so doing, he not only offered each print to customers as separate purchases but also suggested that they could consider them part of a collection.  Consumers who really wanted to demonstrate their patriotism could easily acquire all three at his shop.

October 4

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (October 4, 1775).

“A NEAT MEZZOTINTO PRINT of the HON. JOHN HANCOKC, ESQ; PRESIDENT of the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”

On October 4, 1775, Nicholas Brooks took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Journal to announce that he “JUST PUBLISHED … An Exact VIEW of the Late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN,” now known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Brooks had previously distributed subscription proposals for the project that he pursued in collaboration with Bernard Romans.  Brooks and Romans had recently worked together on a map of Boston that depicted the siege of the city following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Brooks described the new print now ready for purchase as a “Large Elegant PIECE, beautifully Coloured, and much superior to any pirated copy now offered or offering to the public.” Apparently, Brooks had not worked with Robert Aitken in making a version to accompany the Pennsylvania Magazine.  It was not the first time that one colonizer pirated the work of another when producing items that commemorated the imperial crisis that eventually became a war for independence.  Paul Revere had done the same with Henry Pelham’s image of the Boston Massacre, advertising his copy in Boston’s newspapers before Pelham marketed the original.

Despite his frustration with the situation, Brooks must have considered prints commemorating the people and events related to the current crisis viable business ventures.  Immediately below his advertisement for “An Exact View of the Late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN,” he inserted another advertisement, that one proclaiming, “It is PROPOSED to PRINT, in about ten days, A NEAT MEZZOTINTO PRINT of the HON. JOHN HANCOCK, ESQ; PRESIDENT of the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”  Brooks collected subscribers’ names and reserved copies of the print for them at his shop on Second Street in Philadelphia.  Interested parties could also visit the London Coffee House, a popular spot for socializing, conducting business, and talking politics.  Brooks’s advertisement did not give details about what to do at the London Coffee House.  Subscribers may have given their names to an employee who recorded them on a list or they may have signed their own names (and indicated the number of copies they wished to purchase) on a subscription proposal posted alongside other advertisements.  They very well may have perused the names of other patriots who ordered the print as they committed to acquiring their own copy.  Brooks hoped that they would also purchase “Frames and Glasses” to display the prints from his shop, just as he marketed a “Double Carv’d and Gilt Frame … with Crown Glass” for the print depicting the battle.  Brooks certainly wanted commemorative items to become fashionable items that consumers believed that they not only wanted but needed as the imperial crisis intensified.

September 28

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

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

New-York Journal (September 28, 1775).

“The Words of Command used in the Manual Exercise, and an accurate Plan of Boston.”

Almost simultaneously with Hugh Gaine announcing in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury that he had “Just PUBLISHED … HUTCHIN’s Improv’d; BEING AN ALMANACK … For the Year of our LORD 1776,” Frederick Shober and Samuel Loudon inserted an advertisement in the New-York Journal to alert the public that they had “Just published … The NEW-YORK and COUNTRY ALMANACK, For the Year of our Lord 1776.”  It included “all the necessary Articles usual in an Almanac, with the Addition of many curious Anecdotes, Receipts [or Recipes], [and] poetical Pieces.”  Unlike Gaine, Shober and Loudon did not provide an extensive list of the contents.  As printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Gaine had access to as much space as he wished to devote to promoting an almanac he published.  Shober and Loudon, on the other hand, paid to run their advertisement in the New-York Journal.

The partners did, however, specify two items that they wanted prospective customers to know they would find in the New-York and Country Almanack: “the Words of Command used in the Manual Exercise, and an accurate Plan of Boston with the different Situations of the Provincials, and the Ministerial Armies.”  Both reflected current events.  The “REFERENCES TO THE PLAN” (or legend for the map of Boston) in the almanac highlighted the “Battle of Lexington, 19th of April,” and the “Battle of Bunker’s-Hill, 17th of June.”  For readers beyond Massachusetts who did not directly experience those battles, that helped solidify in their minds the dates that they occurred.  By the time that Shober and Loudon took their almanac to press, maps of Boston had circulated widely in the July issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine (and Loudon had been among the booksellers to advertise them).  Nicholas Brooks and Bernard Romans also collaborated on a map that they likely distributed by the end of summer.  Those may have served as models for the “Plan of Boston” that Sober and Loudon commissioned for their almanac.  Gaine also directed attention to the “beautiful Plan of Boston, and the Provincial Camp” in his almanac.  The “whole Process of making SALT PETRE, recommended by the Hon. the Continental Congress” and a “Method of making Gun-Powder” accompanied their map.  In Shober and Loudon’s almanac, the “Words of Command,” taken from the widely published Manual Exercise, supplemented the map.  In both cases, the events of the Revolutionary War inspired the contents of the almanacs and became selling points in marketing them.

“Plan of Boston” [left] and “References to the Plan” [right], in The New-York and Country Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1776 (New York: Shober and Loudon, 1775). Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.