Copperplate Engraving

April 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

“An elegant Edition of the MANUAL EXERCISE [with] the various Positions of a Soldier under Arms.”

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 18, 1775).

Advertisements for The Manual Exercise as Ordered by His Majesty in 1764: Together with Plans an Explanations of the Method Generally Practised at Reviews and Field-Days appeared in several newspapers printed in New England in 1774, one indication of how colonizers reacted to the trouble brewing with Great Britain.  Printers in five towns produced their own editions, including Ezra Lunt and Henry-Walter Tinges in Newburyport, Massachusetts, John Carter in Providence, Rhode Island, Judah Paddock Spooner in Norwich, and Thomas Green and Samuel Green in New Haven, Connecticut.  In Boston, Isaiah Thomas printed the book and Thomas Fleet and John Fleet issued three variant editions.  They may have also published a previous edition in 1773, based on an inscription that appears in one surviving copy.

In 1775, printers beyond New England produced other editions after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord and the ensuing military actions.  In New York, Hugh Gaine published one edition; another printed by J. Anderson has been dated to that year.  William Bradford and Thomas Bradford issued the book in Philadelphia.  So did Robert Aitken, meeting with sufficient demand to issue a second edition.  Francis Bailey in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, James Adams in Wilmington, Delaware, and John Dixon and William Hunter in Williamsburg, Virginia, each published local editions in 1775.

Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumbull in Norwich, Connecticut, were among the printers who published an edition in 1774.  In the October 13 edition of the Norwich Packet, they advertised that they had “Just published … THE MANUAL EXERCISE, AS ORDERED BY HIS MAJESTY, And now adopted in the Colonies of CONNECTICUT, RHODE-ISLAND, and Province of MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.”  On February 23, 1775, they ran much more elaborate subscription proposals for another edition, an “ELEGANT EDITION” that would include “38 Figures on 27 large Folioand Octavo Copper Plates” that depicted the “various POSITIONS of a SOLDIER UNDER ARMS.”  They explained that “Some Gentlemen, distinguished by their patriotic Principles and military Skill, have recommended this Undertaking to the Printers” as a service to the public.  In the interest of disseminating the book widely so “its Utility may be as universal as possible,” the printers set a low price, “only three Shillings … per Copy” for subscribers who ordered theirs in advance.  Those “who do not subscribe before the Book is published,” on the other hand, could expect to pay “a considerable Advance” (or higher price).  The Robertsons and Trumbull set the price such that “the Sale of 500 Copies” would defray “the very great Expence which will be incurred by the engraving and working the Copper Plates” and yield “but a slender Emolument to the Editors.”

In those proposals, the printers listed local agents who collected subscriptions in Boston, Chelsea, Newburyport, and Salem in Massachusetts, Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and Providence in Rhode Island.  In addition, three post riders also took orders from subscribers.  Eventually, a version of the proposals ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  It did not include the lengthy list of local agents in New England, but instead specified that Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, and William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, collected subscriptions in Philadelphia.  Perhaps the Bradfords had not yet determined to publish their own edition.  Those proposals also doubled the number of subscribers necessary for “defraying the great Expence” of the engravings to one thousand.

Even though the Robertsons and Trumbull promoted the copper plates, asserting that they “will be engraved by an Artists who has already exhibited convincing Specimens of his Abilities, and great Care will be taken to have them executed in an elegant Manner,” they did not include those illustrations with the new edition they published in 1775.  That edition closely paralleled their previous edition, though it did have a new title page and “Instructions for young OFFICERS.  By GENERAL WOLFE” on the final page, which had been blank in the 1774 edition.  While it is possible that the engravings were removed from the copy in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society at some point over the past 250 years, it seems more likely that events overtook the printers.  Once the imperial crisis became a war, they may have been less concerned about commissioning copperplate engravings and more interested in issuing a new edition of the Manual Exercise to meet the demand of colonizers who believed more than ever that they needed the instructions in that volume.

Copies of The Manual Exercise printed by Robertsons and Trumbull in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Left: 1774 edition. Right: 1775 edition.

February 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Kolbe Bell

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (February 7, 1774).

“Embellished with a (Quarto) View of the Town of Boston … neatly engraved on Copper.”

The Royal American Magazine was a popular magazine during a run cut short due to the fighting of the American Revolution.  It was first published in 1774 by Isaiah Thomas, a renowned printer who ran the Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper, since 1770.  The Royal American Magazine lasted from January 1774 to early spring of 1775.  Not many successful magazines were started in America before the American Revolution.  Frank Luther Mott states that there were only fifteen magazines published in America before the Royal American started, most of them lasting a year or less.[1]  Isaiah Thomas’s advertisement campaign for the Royal American, however, helped to make it one of the most successful American magazines prior to independence.

The Royal American Magazine was known for having many more engravings than other American magazines at the time; engravings are visual images inserted into a written work, and were made by carefully carving a reverse image onto a copper plate, coating it with ink, and then transferring the image to paper in a printing press.  The engravings representing a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm,” as mentioned in this advertisement, enticed more people to subscribe to the magazine.  According to Mott, “its distinctive feature was a little series of engravings by Paul Revere.”[2]  The fact that the advertisement does not include the name of Paul Revere as the engraver for the magazine shows that Paul Revere’s fame increased after the American Revolution.  Despite the Royal American Magazine containing so many engravings and other content, it did not last much longer than a year.  Nevertheless, it was one of the most popular magazines printed in America before the American Revolution.

Visit the “Royal American Magazine Plates,” part of the “Illustrated Inventory of Paul Revere’s Works at the American Antiquarian Society,” to view the engravings and learn more about them.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Later than he intended (and later than he had advertised), Isaiah Thomas published the first issue of the Royal American Magazine in early February 1774.  The Adverts 250 Project has tracked Thomas’s extensive advertising campaign over many months in 1773 and 1774, including his announcements that he would publish the first issue in January 1774 and an explanation that a ship running aground delayed delivery of the types for the magazine to Boston.  On Thursday, February 3, he inserted a brief notice in his own newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, pledging that “MONDAY next will be published … NUMBER I. of The Royal AMERICAN MAGAZINE.”  Just as he would do four days later in the advertisement Kolbe examines today, he promoted copperplate engravings of a “View of the Town of Boston, and a Representation of a Thunder Storm.”  Subscribers could leave the engravings intact or, as many likely did, remove them to display in their homes, shops, or offices.

Boston-Gazette (February 7, 1774).

Thomas had aggressively advertised in other newspapers, including several published in Boston.  He once again did so when he finally took the magazine to press.  In addition to the version that ran in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on February 7, featured above, he placed a shorter notice in the Boston-Gazette on the same day.  Extending only three lines, it declared, “THIS DAY PUBLISHED, (by I. THOMAS,) Number I. of The Royal American MAGAZINE.”  Perhaps he submitted copy that included the blurb about the copperplate engravings to the printing office only to have the compositors edit it for length to fit on the page with the rest of the news and advertising in that issue.  Whatever the case, Thomas fulfilled the promise he made in the Massachusetts Spy on February 3.  He did indeed publish the Royal American Magazine on the following Monday.  He followed up with much more extensive advertisements in the Massachusetts Spy and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on February 10, announcing his success and encouraging more readers to subscribe.

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[1] Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939), 787-788.

[2] Mott, History of American Magazines, 26.

August 12

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

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

Aug 12 - 8:11:1766 Newport Mercury
Newport Mercury (August 11, 1766).

“DIRECTIONS for making calcined or PEARL ASHES.”

Advertisements associated with the potash industry appeared quite regularly in colonial newspapers. Some advertisers wanted to buy it, offering a good price in exchange for potash. Others supplied some of the equipment, such as oversized kettles, necessary for producing potash. Although not necessarily directly involved in potash production, printers also published advertisements that indicated they stood to profit from it all the same. Some sold “Justices Blank Certificates” used in the packing and regulation of potash, while others peddled instruction manuals to those who wanted to participate in the industry or improve on their previous efforts.

Such was the case with a short pamphlet (less than twenty pages) devoted to “DIRECTIONS for making calcined or PEARL ASHES, As practised in Hungary, &c.” Samuel Hall, the printer of the Newport Mercury, sold the pamphlet at his shop “on the North Side of the Parade,” but the imprint on the pamphlet itself indicated that it was “Printed for and sold by JOHN MEIN, at the London Book-store” in Boston. Both printers (and quite likely others throughout New England that exchanged stock with Mein) looked to make a profit from indirect involvement in the potash trade through the sale of ancillary products.

Aug 12 - Potash Pamphlet
Directions for Making Calcined or Pearl Ashes, as Practised in Hungary, &c. with a Copper-plate Drawing of a Calcining Furnace (Boston:  John Mein, 1766).  Boston Public Library.

Both the advertisement and the title page of the pamphlet underscored that it included “a Copper-Plate Drawing of a calcined Furnace.” This would have certainly increased the expense of producing the pamphlet and, ultimately, the cost to the customer, but such an investment could be readily justified. The accompanying image likely offered valuable insight into the text, making it more comprehensible. Art historian Nancy Siegel has argued that engraved images that accompanied eighteenth-century cookbooks were imperative in demonstrating the meaning of the text to readers. The same would have been true for an instruction manual detailing equipment and processes for producing potash, especially for readers not already well versed in the subject. After all, the directions in the pamphlet were “founded on the most extensive Knowledge of Pearl Ashes—a Knowledge acquired by long Practice, Experience and Success. The advertisement warned readers that this was “the only Means to establish Matters of Fact.” It concluded by jeering that “plausible Theories” were “little better than ingenious Amusements.”

In other words, both the text and the engraved copperplate drawing merited attention from anybody serious about potash production. Both were worth the expense.