What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston-Gazette (November 6, 1775).
“The following books … are at present much wanted for the use of the students of Harvard College.”
Samuel Langdon, the president of Harvard College, issued a plea in the fall of 1775. His students needed books! As he explained in his advertisement in the November 6, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, the college held classes in Concord while the siege of Boston continued … yet students could not acquire many of the texts that they needed because of “the unhappy interruption of communication” and trade with booksellers (and other purveyors of goods and services) in Boston. Similarly, Benjamin Edes had moved the Boston-Gazette to Watertown following the battles at Lexington and Concord.
Langdon sought “a considerable number of copies” of “Burlamaqui on the principles of natural and political law, 2 vols. 8vo. Gravesend’s elements of natural philosophy, 2 vols. And Ferguson’s astronomy, 1 vol. 8vo.” In specifying both the number of volumes and the size (“8vo” or octavo) of the books, Langdon made clear that the college preferred certain editions. He reported that others “suggested” to him “that some copies of said books might be dispersed in the libraries of such private gentlemen” who did not have immediate use for them and thus might be willing to “part with them” to “promote the interest of literature” among the youth attending Harvard College.
Langdon requested that “such gentleman” who did have those books “send any such copies, as soon as may be … with the prices marked.” They could “depend on receiving their money immediately, or that the books will be returned unused.” Langdon understood that some readers might not wish to part with volumes from their personal libraries. Alternately, he suggested that that it would “much oblige the college” if they would loan those volumes “for a few months.” With classes continuing despite the disruptions caused by the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord the previous spring, Langdon engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing in his effort to procure books for his students. The college survived a fire in its library a decade earlier, requesting donations of books to recover. Now Harvard faced other obstacles and once again turned to the public to provide the books that the college needed.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (September 13, 1775).
“Furnish him with correct lists of the names of all gentlemen in office, proper for such a publication.”
The September 13, 1775, edition of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy consisted almost entirely of news selected by the Isaiah Thomas. It featured only a few advertisements. Among them, one promoted one of printer’s upcoming projects. He announced that he “intends publishing as soon as may be, a compleat ALMANACK and REGISTER for the ensuing year.” The “REGISTER” portion would contain listings of officials, an especially useful resource at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Yet there had been so much upheaval in the five months since the battles at Lexington and Concord that Thomas needed assistance with this endeavor. To that end, he asserted that he “will be much obliged to gentlemen in this and the neighbouring provinces … to furnish him with correct lists of the names of all gentlemen in office, proper for such a publication.” He hoped that they would do so “with all convenient speed” so he had sufficient time to compile the almanac and register, take the combined volume to press, and market it before the new year.
Yet that was not the only information that Thomas wished to update in this annual publication. He also requested that correspondents submit “[w]hatever alterations there may have been in the names of persons who keep public houses, since the publication of the Almanack last year.” Taverns were important gathering places for discussing politics and current events as well as convenient places to deliver letters and newspapers. Thomas likely desired that information to aid in conducting his own business, not solely for publishing in the almanac and register. Other Patriot printers in Massachusetts joined Thomas in compiling an accurate list of the proprietors of public houses. The notice indicated that Benjamin Edes, “Printer and Watertown,” and Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, “Printers in Cambridge,” also collected that information. Edes printed the Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, having briefly suspended the newspaper and moving out of Boston to Watertown once the fighting began. The Halls printed the New-England Chronicle. Until recently, they had published the Essex Gazette in Salem. They relocated to Cambridge and renamed their newspaper as the newspapers in Boston ceased or suspended publication. Although Thomas, Edes, and the Halls would eventually compete to sell almanacs, they pursued a common cause in compiling a listing of public houses.
Printers sometimes called on readers to participate in this eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing. A year earlier, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, printers of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, ran a notice to “beg the Favour” of tavernkeepers to submit their names for Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1775. Not long after that, they made a similar request for “Lists for their REGISTER,” asking “Gentlemen (both in this and the neighbouring Governments) that have been appointed into Office, either Civil, Military or Ecclesiastical” to submit their names for inclusion. When Thomas issued his request in the fall of 1775, he utilized a familiar practice.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post Extraordinary (September 8, 1775).
“The publisher would be very glad to have some more good original pieces handed to him.”
When Joseph Greenleaf ceased publication of the Royal American Magazine just after the battles at Lexington and Concord, Robert Aitken’s Pennsylvania Magazine, Or American Monthly Museum became the only magazine published in the American colonies. Circumstances in Boston prevented Greenleaf from continuing production of his magazine, acquired from its founder, Isaiah Thomas, the previous summer. Aitken had a more advantageous situation in Philadelphia.
Yet events unfolding in Massachusetts loomed large for Aitken and readers of the Pennsylvania Magazine. When Samuel Loudon, a bookseller in New York, advertised subscriptions for the magazine in August 1775, he noted that the most recent issue came with a bonus item, a “new and correct Plan of the TOWN of BOSTON, and PROVINCIAL CAMP.” Aitken highlighted coverage of the siege of Boston and the threat posed by British troops in his own advertisements. In early September, he informed the public that the contents of the most recent issue included “several useful, curious and interesting original pieces both in prose and verse, embellished with an exact plan of General Gage’s lines on a large scale, with a description of the plan, number of cannon, shot, &c.” When it came to disseminating news about the Continental Army facing off against British forces during the first months of the Revolutionary War, the Pennsylvania Magazine supplemented coverage in newspapers.
While Aitken certainly welcomed any accounts of current events in Massachusetts, he aimed to compile an array of “useful, curious and interesting” content for his readers. To that end, he proclaimed that he “would be very glad to have some more good original pieces handed to him.” During his time as publisher of the Royal American America, Thomas similarly ran advertisements seeking submissions. He solicited “LUCUBRATIONS,” requesting that “Gentlemen” send them “with all speed to his Printing office.” Aitken did not make his request solely of men, perhaps recognizing that genteel women participated in belles lettres literary circles as both readers and writers. Women used pseudonyms, often classical allusions, in those circles. They could do the same when sending pieces for the magazine. “The exercise of different gifts or talents,” Aitken declared, “add much to the spirit of a Magazine.” Like Thomas, he engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing to generate content for his magazine.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 19, 1775).
“Articles of Intelligence, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received.”
It was the first issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter in a month. Margaret Draper published an issue on April 20, 1775, the day after the battles at Lexington and Concord. It carried some of the first newspaper coverage of those skirmishes. Then the presses in Boston went quiet. Isaiah Thomas had already removed the Massachusetts Spy to Worcester. The Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boyceased publication altogether, while their printers suspended the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter temporarily. A city that had five newspapers at the beginning of April 1775 did not have any by the end of the month.
On May 19, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter became the first to resume publication, though it did not manage to stick to a regular schedule during the siege of Boston. A notice to the public filled most of the first column on the first page of that issue: “AS a Number of Gentlemen are very desirous of a Continuation of the MASSACHUSETTS-GAZETTE, the Proprietor therefore proposed to renew the Publication.” The siege of Boston continued. General Thomas Gage had allowed colonizers who wished to depart the city to do so, provided they did not take firearms with them when they departed. These factors meant new “Conditions” for the newspaper. It would “contain two Pages in Folio” instead of the usual four since paper was scarce. In addition, “Communication with the Country is at present impeded” by the siege so “the Number of Customers it’s likely will be but few.” That meant that “the Price to Subscribers cannot be less than Eight Shillings Lawful Money per Year, one Quarter to be paid at Entrance, and another Quarter Part at the end of three Months.” Printers often extended credit to newspaper subscribers, but Draper did not have that luxury under the circumstances. She noted that subsequent issues would appear upon achieving a certain number of subscriber, but that number was next to the left margin, unfortunately not visible in the digitized image of the issue bound into a volume with other editions of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.
Draper added a second notice immediately below the first. “Emboldened by the encouraging assurances of a Number of respectable [gentlemen] … and being willing to oblige them as speedily as possible,” she declared, “we have ventured upon the Publication of the first Paper, hoping that a sufficient Number will be subscribed through the Course of the Week to encourage us to continue it weekly from this Time.” The next two issues did come out on schedule on May 25 and June 1. Draper further explained that the “Difficulties attending the Publication of a News-Paper, at this unhappy Period, when almost all Communication with the Continent is cut off, and so every regular Source of intelligence stopped, obliges us to [beg(?)] a twofold Share of that Candor we have formerly experienced.” Draper needed assistance generating content for the revived Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter. She suggested an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing among those who remained in the city: “we would take this Opportunity to request of Gentlemen who may at any Time be possessed of London Papers, that they would be so kind as to favour us with them.” Furthermore, “Articles of Intelligences, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received; and if Gentlemen would take the Trouble of forwarding them to us, it would in a great Measure supply the Want of a regular weekly Conveyance.” Printers regularly reprinted news from other newspapers they received through exchange networks, but Draper no longer had access to new issues of newspapers from other colonies. She had to depend on other sources, including newspapers from London that residents of Boston had received from correspondents there. Advertisements could also fill some of the space, but few of those appeared in subsequent issues.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Spy (November 24, 1774).
“They hope that Gentlemen … that have been appointed into Office … will give the Editors immediate Notice.”
Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, the printers of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, used crowdsourcing as one means of gathering information for their publications. To one extent or another, all colonial printers who published newspapers did so, seeking news from ship captains and travelers and reprinting items from one newspaper to another. They also regularly asked the public to submit news. In the colophon for the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, Mills and Hicks noted that “Letters of Intelligence for this Paper are taken in” at their printing office. It was a familiar invitation. Isaiah Thomas declared that “Articles of Intelligence, &c. are thankfully received” at the printing office where he published the Massachusetts Spy.
Yet Mills and Hicks did not limit crowdsourcing to their newspaper. They also incorporated it into gathering information for almanacs and registers. In early October 1774, they placed an advertisement requesting that “if any new Houses of Entertainment have been opened, or if any were omitted” in that year’s edition of Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack that “such Tavern Keepers … send their Names immediately” so they could be included in the almanac for 1775. An advertisement for that almanac in the November 24, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Spy featured a list of contents, including “the best Houses for Travellers to put up at.” The printers presumably added any taverns that came to their attention because of their previous notice.
Immediately above that advertisement, they issued another call for the public to assist in compiling Mills and Hicks’s British and American Register for 1775. The commenced with expressing “their Thanks to such Gentlemen as furnished them with Lists for their REGISTER last Fall, and obligingly offered to assist in correcting the same for the ensuing Year (if published).” The 1774 edition had met with sufficient success, a “generous Reception,” that the printers did indeed feel “encouraged” to “put to the Press” a new Register for the coming year. To make it as accurate and comprehensive as possible, they declared that “they hope that Gentlemen (both in this and the neighbouring Governments) that have been appointed into Office, either Civil, Military or Ecclesiastical, will give the Editors immediate Notice, that their Names may be inserted in the same.” Mills and Hicks relied on the public, especially newspaper readers, to supply them with current information for their compendium of officials in New England.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 3, 1774)
“I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.”
The first advertisement in the October 3, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, purportedly placed by Isaac Bickerstaff, announced the impending publication of an “ALMANACK for 1775.” Bickerstaff, however, was a pseudonym. Benjamin West provided the astronomical calculations, though Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, the printers of both the newspaper and the almanac, likely compiled the rest of the content for Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1775. That explains the privileged place the advertisement received.
Yet Mills and Hicks did not insert this notice immediately after the news merely in hopes of increasing sales for the almanac once it went to press. They also deployed it as a means of crowdsourcing some of the contents. Writing as Bickerstaff, the printers requested, “If any new Houses of Entertainment have been opened, or if any were omitted in my last ALMANACK, I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.” The printers would then pass along those entries to “Bickerstaff” to incorporate into “his” forthcoming almanac, but any proprietors who wished to have their establishments included needed to act quickly or risk missing out on the opportunity.
This advertisement previewed some of the useful contents of the almanac for prospective buyers, including those who lived outside Boston but might have occasion to visit. Yet Mills and Hicks did not provide a list of taverns only to direct readers to “Houses of Entertainment” where they could eat, drink, and socialize. Instead, they put together a guide to places where customers could expect to discuss politics and learn more about current events, realizing that taverns were popular places for stoking political engagement during the imperial crisis. At the time Mills and Hicks published their advertisement, the harbor was closed due to the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts enraged residents of city. Mills and Hicks disseminated news and opinion via their weekly newspaper, but they also knew that a lot of information circulated among patrons gathered in taverns. A list of “Houses of Entertainment” served as a compendium of places for discussing politics and hearing the latest updates before they appeared in print.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Spy (June 24, 1773).
“SUBSCRIPTIONS are taken in by I. THOMAS the printer and publisher.”
Near the end of May 1773, Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, placed a notice in his own newspaper to announce that the following week he would publish “PROPOSALS for printing by Subscription, The ROYAL American MAGAZINE.” He may have meant that he would distribute the proposals as as a broadside or handbill separate from the newspaper or he may have meant that they would appear in the next issue of the Massachusetts Spy. Perhaps he did print separate subscription papers, though none have survived. I frequently argue that newspaper notices provide evidence of a greater number of advertising ephemera circulating in eighteenth-century America than have been preserved in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections. On the other hand, the busy printer may have delayed publishing the proposals by several weeks. When they did appear in the Massachusetts Spy on June 24, they ran on the front page. The savvy printer gave the proposals a privileged place.
Extending nearly two columns, the proposals included Thomas’s purpose for publishing the new magazine, a “PLAN” for the contents, and the “CONDITIONS” or details about the price, the paper, the type, and delivery options. Subscription proposals for books, newspapers, and magazines usually included all those elements, though not necessarily at such great length. Thomas, however, exerted significant effort in convincing readers to subscribe. In explaining his purpose for publishing the magazine, for instance, he declared that “Newspapers are known to be of general utility, but not so fit to convey to posterity the labours of the learned, as they are, most commonly, only noticed for a day and then thrown neglected by.” In contrast, “Monthly Publications are preserved in the libraries of men of the greatest abilities in the literary world.” In the last decades of the eighteenth century, many magazine subscribers in America saved each issue for six months and then had them bound into a single volume to display on the bookshelves of their permanent libraries. Thomas acknowledged how subscribers treated magazines and their specialized content differently than newspapers in that regard.
In outlining the “PLAN,” Thomas described how he would go about acquiring items to publish in the Royal American Magazine. He declared that he “has engaged all the British Magazines, Reviews, &c. and all the Periodical publications in America” and “from those will be selected whatever is new, curious, and entertaining.” He did not intend merely to reprint content from those “British Magazines.” Instead, he emphasized a process of discernment in “selecting from the labours of our European brethren,” but promised prospective subscribers that he “shall not fail of making the strictest searches after curious anecdotes, and interesting events in British America.” To that end, he engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing: “the publisher now requests the assistance of the learned, the witty, the curious, and the candid of both sexes, throughout this extensive continent, and hopes they will favour him with their correspondence for the public benefit.” Although the magazine would carry some European content, Thomas aimed to produce a distinctively American publication.
In addition, Thomas offered a premium or gift to subscribers “to complete this PLAN,” a free copy of “Governor HUTCHINSON’S History Of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.” That book alone “will be worth the cost of the magazine.” However, subscribers would not receive a copy at the outset. Instead, they would receive a portion of the book with each issue of the magazine, “printed in such a manner as to be bound up by itself, and on a larger type than the magazine.” Thomas planned to insert the first pages of Hutchinson’s History “at the end of the first number” or issue and continue “until the whole is finished.” To make the premium even more enticing, subscribers would also receive, gratis, “copper plate prints, exclusive of those particularly for the magazine.” Thomas hoped that the free gift would make subscribing to the magazine even more attractive.
Although the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine included many of the same elements as proposals for books, newspapers, and magazines that circulated in the colonies in the eighteenth century, Thomas introduced innovative methods of encouraging colonizers to subscribe. Among those, he pledged to make pieces written in America a priority for publication. He also promoted a premium for subscribers, asserting that the free gift alone covered the cost of a subscription. Even with these marketing efforts, it took some time for Thomas to launch the magazine. He published the first issue in January 1774.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-Hampshire Gazette (August 7, 1767).
“The Printers in this Town would without Charge publish such Accounts.”
Daniel Fowle and Robert Fowle, the printers of the New-Hampshire Gazette, regularly interspersed their own announcements among the other advertisements published in their newspaper. They inserted three such announcements in the August 7, 1767, edition. Two related notices had previously appeared, once requesting that “all Persons, who send Advertisements to this Press, would at the same Time send pay with them” and the other calling on “ALL Persons indebted for this Gazette, Advertisements, &c. … to make immediate Payment” or risk going to court. Both of these announcements addressed the financial operations of the publication.
The third, on the other hand, sought to enhance the content of the newspaper to better serve its subscribers, though the Fowles likely figured that new content of particular interest to readers would also enhance sales. Looking to their counterparts published in other cities, especially Philadelphia and New York, the Fowles noted that “the Publishers by some Means obtain Accounts from the Masters of Vessels on their Arrival of what Vessels they meet with on their Passage.” Such information was valuable to “those in the Mercantile Business” as well as the families of sailors who otherwise heard much less about the “Welfare of their Friends.”
The Fowles wished to include such information in the New-Hampshire Gazette, but they had difficulty collecting it. They called on the “Gentlemen Merchants” of Portsmouth to devise a method of reporting these accounts to the printing office, promising to publish them gratis as a service to the community. Their efforts to obtain these reports amounted to what would be described today as crowdsourcing, accepting and collating contributions of data or information from multiple participants to achieve a cumulative result. The process of crowdsourcing (as well as the term itself) became especially popular in the digital age, but new technologies improved and expanded a method already in practice much earlier. In their advertisements, the Fowles encouraged readers to participate in the production of the news via crowdsourcing the late 1760s.
