Constitutional Gazette

August 26

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

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

Constitutional Gazette (August 26, 1775).

“He proposes to continue his business of pickling oysters and lobsters.”

John Anderson’s effort to solicit advertisements in the August 23, 1775, edition of the Constitutional Gazette yielded results.  When he published the next issue three days later, the final page carried four advertisements.  The printer was responsible for two of them, one for a pamphlet, “Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless,” and the other for “All sorts of Blanks used in this Province,” children’s books, and “New Pamphlets.”  Another advertisement hawked “JOYCE’s Grand American Balsam,” a patent medicine sometimes advertised in other newspapers.  Customers could acquire the medicine and directions from “Mrs. Joyce, at Brookland Ferry” and from “Messrs. Anderson, Gaine, and Rivington, Printers in New-York.”  Although Edward Joyce’s widow or the other two printers may have played a role in placing the advertisement, Anderson certainly had a hand in publishing it.

One advertisement, however, had not connection to the printer of the Constitutional Gazette.  Abraham Delanoy placed a notice “to inform his customers, and the public in general, THAT … he proposes to continue his business of pickling oysters and lobsters; and also puts up fired oysters so as to keep a long time even in a hot climate.”  His advertisement featured a woodcut depicting a lobster trap and an oyster cage, accounting for half the space and attracting attention in a newspaper that did not have any other visual images.  That woodcut previously accompanied Delanoy’s advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  He either retrieved it from another printing office to deliver to Anderson or carefully stored it in anticipation of using it again.  Delanoy also replicated much of the copy from that previous advertisement. The similarities suggest that he either copied directly from it, making minor revisions as he went, or indicated changes directly on a clipping of the advertisement.  Some readers likely recognized Delanoy’s advertisement, but this time it generated revenue for John Anderson and the Constitutional Gazette.  The printer must have been pleased that Delanoy set an example for others to advertise in this new publication.

August 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Constitutional Gazette (August 23, 1775).

“The Public will easily perceive the advantage of advertising in the Constitutional Gazette.”

A new newspaper began circulating in New York at the beginning of August 1775.  John Anderson commenced publication of the Constitutional Gazette on August 2, judging from the date of the earliest known issue dated August 9.  Anderson published the broadsheet newspaper twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays.  It lasted a little more than a year.  Anderson distributed the last known issue on August 28, 1776.  As Clarence S. Brigham surmises, “the paper must have been soon discontinued, as the British entered New York in September, 1776.”[1]

On August 23, 1775, Anderson converted the seventh issue from a single leaf folio to a quarto of four pages.  At a glance, that would have been the most striking alteration to the format of the newspaper, but it was also the first issue to carry advertisements.  They ran on the final page.  One, placed by the printer himself, filled nearly an entire column.  In it, Anderson hawked pamphlets available at his printing office, including “Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless,” a sermon by David Jones, “Self-Defensive War Lawful,” a sermon by John Carmichael, and a narrative of “Two Visits Made to some Nations of INDIANS, On the West Side of the River OHIO, In the Years 1772 and 1773,” drawn from Jones’s journal.  Another advertisement offered a reward for returning a lost pocketbook.  The anonymous advertisement instructed anyone who found the pocketbook to deliver it to the printer.  Beekman may have placed it himself or he may have manufactured it to suggest that others had sufficient confidence in the circulation of his newspaper to merit investing in advertising in it.

Another notice from the printer followed the advertisement about the lost pocketbook, this one soliciting more advertisements.  Anderson declared that he published advertisement “for half the price charged by others.”  In making his case, he insisted that the “Public will easily perceive the advantage of advertising in the Constitutional Gazette, when we positively assure them that near Two Thousand of this Gazette circulated twice a week through this City and its Environs.”  Furthermore, “a considerable number are sent to most of the country towns, in, and contiguous to this province.”  According to Anderson, the Constitutional Gazette quickly achieved an impressive circulation that rivaled other newspapers.  If prospective advertisers wanted to reach readers near and far, Anderson argued, then they should place their notices in his new newspaper.

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[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspaper, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 618.

April 18

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

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

New-York Journal (April 15, 1773).

“A Paper of as good Credit and Utility as any extant.”

An advertisement address to “the respectable Publick” informed readers of the New-York Journal that Samuel F. Parker and John Anderson “entered into Partnership together … and propose in August next, to publish the New-York Gazette, or the Weekly Post Boy.”  The newspaper, founded as the New-York Weekly Post-Boy in 1743, had a long history in the city.

James Parker, great-uncle to Samuel F. Parker, established the newspaper, took William Weyman into partnership in 1753, and dissolved the partnership one week before retiring in 1759.[1]  At that time, his nephew, Samuel Parker, continued the newspaper, taking John Holt into partnership the following year.  When Parker and Holt dissolved their partnership in 1762, Holt became the publisher of the newspaper.  According to Isaiah Thomas, the newspaper “appeared in mourning on the 31st of October, 1765, on account of the stamp act; it was, however, carried on as usual, without any suspension, and without any stamps.”[2]  When Parker wished to resume printing a newspaper in 1766, Holt opted to adopt a new title, the New-York Journal, and continued the volume numbering of the New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy.  Parker regained that title and resumed publication in October 1766, also continuing the volume numbering.  Upon Parker’s death in 1770, Samuel Inslee and Anthony Car leased the newspaper from his son, Samuel F. Parker, and printed it until the end of their lease in August 1773.

Parker and Anderson anticipated the conclusion of that lease.  While they likely did not expect the public to know all the details of the newspaper’s publication history, they did believe that many readers would have been familiar with Parker’s father and the reputation of the newspaper as “a Paper of as good Credit and Utility as any extant since the first Commencement thereof.”  They intended to continue that tradition “by every possible Means” and pledged to deliver “especial Service [for] the Commercial Interest.”  In addition to publishing shipping news, prices current, and other content for the benefit of merchants, they also planned to provide for “the Amusement and Information of private Families in Matters both Foreign and Domestick.”  Amid the debates of the period, Parker and Anderson promised “free Access to all Parties without Distinction.”  In other words, they did not intend to operate a partisan press but instead welcomed “Pieces directed to the Proprietors” as long as the “Subject Matter” was “consistent, and within due Bounds to admit of Publication.”

Such lofty goals, however, did not meet with success.  Parker and Anderson published the New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy for a few weeks in August and September 1773.  They may have continued the newspaper into November, but no issues bearing their imprint have been identified.  On December 9, Anderson ran an advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer that announced the partnership had dissolved and called on “all persons that may have any demands against said partnership [to] bring in their accompts and receive payment.”  Anderson also noted that he “continues carrying on the Printing-Business in all its branches.”  Despite the difficulty he experienced with the New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy, Anderson launched another newspaper, the Constitutional Gazette, in August 1775.  It lasted thirteen months, folding when the British occupied New York in September 1776.[3]

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[1] Unless otherwise noted, the details of the publication history come from the entries for the New-York Gazette, or Weekly Post-Boy (635-6) and New-York Weekly Post-Boy (704) in Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947).

[2] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 494.

[3] See the entry for the Constitutional Gazette in Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 618.