Dancing Master

September 12

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (September 12, 1775).

“Mrs. TAYLOR’s BOARDING SCHOOL … [for] young LADIES.”

The first advertisement in the September 12, 1775, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, published in Baltimore, promoted “Mrs. TAYLOR’s BOARDING SCHOOL” for “young LADIES” on Philadelphia, apparently an elite institution based on the tuition.  The headmistress charged forty-five pounds per year along with an initial entrance fee of five pounds.  Taylor advised the parents and guardians of prospective pupils that they would be taught “Reading and the Grammar, plain work and to make every particular for their dress, to flower Muslin after the Dresden and French method, all kind of open work, to crown childrens caps, make up baby linen, mark letters, to pickle, preserve, and to clear-starch.”  The standard curriculum combined practical skills that prepared young women to run a household with some leisure activities that testified to their status.

Yet that was not the extent of the instruction that took place at Taylor’s boarding school.  For additional fees, her charges could opt for additional lessons taught by tutors that Taylor hired.  Students learned to form their letters from a “Writing Master” for fifteen shillings each quarter.  They learned their steps from a “Dancing Master” for a guinea (or twenty-one shillings) each quarter.  Although Taylor did not say so, those students presumably learned to dance with grace rather than focusing exclusively on the mechanics of minuets and other popular dances.  Lessons from a “Drawing Master” cost twenty-five shillings per quarter.  Taylor also listed a “Musick Mater &c. &c.” but did not note their rates.  Repeating the common abbreviation for et cetera twice suggested that other tutors taught painting, French, and other genteel pursuits in addition to singing and playing instruments.  Taylor operated her boarding school in the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies.  For pupils aspiring to gentility, she could arrange for access to all sorts of instructors, allowing her students and their families to choose which kinds of lessons they needed or desired in addition to the standard curriculum.  For the gentry in Baltimore, a port growing in size and importance on the eve of the American Revolution, Taylor’s boarding school for young ladies may have looked very attractive indeed.

May 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (May 9, 1775).

“Musick and Dancing.”

Among the advertisements for textiles, patent medicines, vessels preparing to depart for distant ports, and enslaved people for sale in the May 9, 1775, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, Mr. Abercromby promoted lessons in “Musick and Dancing.”  He started by expressing his appreciation for the support he already received, stating that he was “happy in this Opportunity of acknowledging his Gratitude for the Kindness of the Public to him hitherto, in his Profession.”  Doing so bolstered his reputation; readers not previously familiar with Abercromby, especially genteel readers who knew that their social standing depended in part on their ability to demonstrate that they had mastered the steps of various dances or could play a musical instrument, may have asked themselves why they did not know Abercromby and whether they should make his acquaintance.

Abercromby next made two important announcements.  First, he moved to a new location, a “convenient House [in] the Upper End of Broad-street” in Charleston, that offered “better Accommodation of his Pupils.”  In addition, he “entered into Partnership with Mr. SODI, who, for many years had the sole Conduct of the DANCES at the ITALIAN OPERA in London.”  Signior Sodi, as he styled himself, previously advertised his services in the Pennsylvania Journal in the summer and fall of 1774, but by the spring of 1775 he had migrated from Philadelphia to Charleston.  Just as Sodi had done in his own advertisements, Abercromby emphasized the cachet of learning to dance from an instructor with connections to such an illustrious institution.

Abercromby listed nearly a dozen dances that he and Sodi taught, including “The Minuet, Minuet Dauphin, Minuet à quatre, Louvre, [and] Rigadoon,” as well as “other Fashionable Dances.”  Their pupils could learn new dances or refine their steps for those they already knew.  In addition to the lessons they gave at their “convenient House,” Abercromby and Sodi visited boarding schools in Charleston.  Parents and guardians could arrange to enhance the curriculum that their young “LADIES” studied, trusting that the schoolmistresses provided appropriate supervision of the dancing masters and their pupils.  Such services may have been especially attractive to the gentry in one of the largest and most cosmopolitan urban ports in the colonies.  Abercromby and Sodi did not merely teach dancing, after all, but instead sold status to those who succeeded at their lessons.

September 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (September 7, 1774).

“He will teach … all the Dances that are danced in the several Courts in Europe.”

It could have been a coincidence that dancing masters Mr. Pike and Signior Sodi placed advertisements in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal at the same time.  When Pike arrived in the Pennsylvania after teaching fencing and dancing in Charleston for a decade, he introduced himself to prospective pupils and the rest of the public with an advertisement in the September 5, 1775, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  He placed the same advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette two days later.

Sodi ran his own advertisement in the same issue of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  The two notices appeared on the same page, Sodi’s at the bottom of one column and Pike’s at the top of the next one.  Two days later, Sodi inserted his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal.  Perhaps the “Late principal DANCER at the Opera in Paris and London” had previously intended to advertise in early September.  After all, he stated in his newspaper notice about a “GRAND CONCERT & BALL” in June that he “proposes to open a School publicly next September.”  He did not, however, commence advertising that school before Pike was on the scene.  Sodi may have heard that a new competitor would soon offer lessons to the local gentry, prompting him to advertise in the city’s newspaper published on Mondays and one of the two published on Wednesdays.

While Pike touted his experience as an instructor and a reputation that could be confirmed by “many respectable gentlemen” from South Carolina “present in this city,” likely including delegates to the First Continental Congress, Sodi emphasized his connections to some of the most cosmopolitan and refined places in Europe.  In addition to describing himself as the “Late Principal DANCER at the Opera in Paris and London,” he declared that he assisted students in learning “all the Dances that are dance in the several Courts in Europe.”  He also gave French names for several dances, suggesting the sophistication associated with the steps he taught at the Fountain Tavern and at private lessons in the homes of his pupils.

The advertisements that ran in Philadelphia’s newspapers outlined the choices available to prospective students and their families.  They could engage the services of a newcomer with endorsements from prominent men visiting the city or an Italian dancing master with experience in Paris, London, and European courts.  No matter which one they chose, the presence of these advertisements in the public prints reminded readers that dancing proficiently and gracefully was an important part of demonstrating gentility and status.

September 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (September 5, 1774).

“MR. PIKE, Ten years a teacher in Charlestown, South-Carolina, is arrived.”

When Mr. Pike arrived in Philadelphia near the end of the summer of 1774, he introduced himself to his new neighbors and prospective students with an advertisement in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  He devised a headline, “DANCING AND FENCING,” to attract attention and provide a general overview of the services he offered.  As a newcomer with a reputation largely unknown in the bustling urban port, he gave his résumé, declaring that he had been “Ten years a teacher in Charlestown, South-Carolina.”  (The Adverts 250 Project has traced his career there throughout most of his time in that city.)  For quite some time, Pike had been planning to leave Charleston, announcing his intentions in the newspapers there and publishing a farewell message in early May.

According to the dancing master, some of the gentry in Philadelphia already knew how well he had served his students and the community in Charleston.  He chose Philadelphia as his new home, he explained, “Agreeable to an invitation from several respectable families in this city.”  Furthermore, Pike feigned modesty, as many advertisers often did, in declaring that he “flatters himself that his abilities as a master of his profession, may be sufficiently known, as many very respectable gentlemen of the above province are at present in this city.”  He likely referred to Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Henry Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and John Rutledge, South Carolina’s delegates to the First Continental Congress.  They had commenced their meetings in Carpenters’ Hall on the very day that Pike’s advertisement first ran in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  Even if Pike had not instructed any of those gentlemen or members of their families, they almost certainly were familiar with his reputation and the balls he hosted so his pupils could demonstrate their grace and proficiency in “cotillions and other fashionable dances.”  The dancing master hoped that casual conversations would include inquiries about him directed to delegates and others from Charleston who happened to be in Philadelphia at the time, resulting in recommendations to supplement and support his advertisement in the public prints.

August 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (August 19, 1774).

“A School for the Instruction of Youth … in the polite and agreeable Exercise of dancing MINUETS.”

Francois-Dominique Rousseau, a “Native of Old France,” arrived in New Haven by way of the West Indies in the summer of 1774.  When he took up residence in the town, he placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Journal to inform the public that he “intends to open a School for the Instruction of Youth, of both Sexes, in the polite and agreeable Exercise of dancing MINUETS.”  The dancing master further explained that he gave lessons “agreeable to the most exact Rules,” so his charges would be proficient when they completed their studies.  Unlike other dancing masters who advertised in colonial newspapers, he specified how many lessons that would require, a total of twenty-four to be “compleatly instructed” for “the moderate Price of one Dollar.”  For those who preferred private lessons rather than have their initial awkwardness on display in front of fellow students at the school, Rousseau offered to instruct them “at their Places of abode at Nine Shillings.”

The dancing master could have chosen to migrate to one of the largest urban ports, such as Boston or Charleston or Philadelphia, in search of a cosmopolitan clientele rather than take his chances in New Haven.  Dancing masters frequently advertised in those cities.  Yet Rousseau might have been confident that he would indeed find “suitable Encouragement” in New Haven.  Perhaps he had even spoken with ship captains or merchants familiar with the town when they conducted business in the West Indies, getting a sense of his prospects before setting off for Connecticut.  After all, other smaller towns in New England apparently had some demand for dancing masters.  St. George de Viart and Edward Hackett, for instance, operated dancing academies and gave private lessons in New Hampshire.  Viart had even left Portsmouth for Philadelphia, but returned to New England after a short time.  He must have considered his prospects in the smaller town more favorable.  Perhaps he faced too much competition from other dancing masters in the larger city.  That could have been why Rousseau chose New Haven over New York.  Just as the goods associated with the consumer revolution found their way to even the smallest towns in the colonies, not just major urban centers, so did admiration for the skill and gracefulness exhibited through genteel pastimes like dancing.  Rousseau likely encountered prospective students just as eager for instruction in New Haven as any in larger cities.

June 15

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (June 15, 1774).

“This concert and ball is made by the desire of several Ladies and Gentlemen of this city.”

Genteel residents of Philadelphia did not want to miss the “GRAND CONCERT & BALL, At the ASSEMBLY TOOM in Lodge Alley” on June 17, 1774.  At least that was the intention of Signior Sodi, “First DANCING MASTER of the Opera in Paris and London,” when he advertised the event in the Pennsylvania Journal.  Sodi worked with “Mr. VIDAL, who has been a Musician of the chambers of the King of Portugal,” in putting together a program that included ten musical performances in two acts followed by demonstrations of Sodi’s dancing.  He claimed that he hosted the event “by the desire of several Ladies and Gentlemen of this city” who wished for him “to shew his talents as a master.”  For his part, he “humbly requests the favour of the public to give their countenance.”  To do that, the audience needed to purchase tickets, either from Sodi “at the Bunch of Grapes” on Third Street or “at the Bar” at the London Coffee House, a popular place for socializing and conducting business.

Whether or not “Ladies and Gentlemen of this city” encouraged Sodi to host a concert and ball, he used the opportunity to market other endeavors to support himself beyond ticket sales for that event.  He used the occasion to announce that he planned to “open a School” in September.  Until then, he “will wait on any Lady or Gentleman privately at their houses or elsewhere” to give lessons.  In addition to learning the steps for several dances, his students would also receive instruction “to walk with propriety.”  His pupils, Sodi suggested, would demonstrate more grace both on and off the dance floor, an important goal for colonizers anxious about so many aspects of their comportment.  Indeed, those interested in lessons from Sodi may have also taken note of lessons that Francis Daymon, “Master of the French and Latin Languages,” advertised in the same column in the Pennsylvania Journal.  Yet Sodi did not stake his entire livelihood on teaching the genteel and those aspiring to join their ranks to dance.  He also “acquaints the public in general” that he “bro’t a parcel of fine trinkets and jewels of the newest fashion, with a variety of diamond rings, and a great quantity of instrumental strings.”  He offered those items for sale at the Bunch of Grapes.  His “GRAND CONCERT & BALL” presented an opportunity for merchandising, not unlike the modern entertainment industry.

May 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Maryland Journal (May 28, 1774).

“Next door but one to the London coffee-house, on Fell’s-Point, Baltimore.”

Baltimore was growing in importance on the eve of the American Revolution, though the port did not yet rival or surpass Annapolis.  In August 1773, William Goddard launched the Maryland Journal, the first newspaper printed in Baltimore.  Joseph Rathell attempted to establish a circulating library in the fall of 1773, but in the end could not compete with bookseller William Aikman’s library in Annapolis.  Still, the advertisements in the Maryland Journal testified to other amenities available in Baltimore, a town that offered a style of life becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Among the advertisements in the May 28, 1774, edition, one promoted a “Stage … between the city of Philadelphia and Baltimore-Town.”  Instead of directing their attention solely toward Annapolis, residents of Baltimore also cultivated connections with Philadelphia, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies.  In addition to transporting passengers, the operators of the “stage wagon” and “stage boat” also carried goods.  Yet consumers in Baltimore did not need to rely on placing orders with merchants and shopkeepers in Philadelphia or any other city.  Retailers in their own town carried all sorts of imported goods.  Christopher Johnson and Company advertised their “neat and general assortment of goods, just imported … from LONDON,” listing an array of textiles and housewares comparable to the selection available in towns of all sizes throughout the colonies.  In his advertisement, William O’Bryan previewed a “fresh supply of Books, of the latest Publication, from London, Dublin, and Edinburgh.”

Yet it was not solely the availability of goods that marked Baltimore’s participation in the transatlantic consumer revolution.  Residents also appreciated the latest fashions, aiming to demonstrate that even at a distance they kept up with current styles.  Edward Kearns, a tailor, trumpeted that he “has conducted business, with approbation, for some of the most celebrated fashions in Dublin.”  Clients could find his shop “at the sign of the Hand and Shears, … next door but one to the London coffee-house.”  That establishment also represented connections to the metropolis that elevated Baltimore’s standing as more than a distant outpost.  In addition, George Pointon ran a “DANCING SCHOOL … FOR the accomplishment of young ladies and gentlemen, in the most modern variety in that genteel branch of polite education.”  The dancing master also tended to the comportment of his pupils, pledging “his earnest attention to the improvement of their behaviour.”  His description of his services corresponded with newspaper notices placed by dancing masters in major urban ports like Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston.  Displays of gentility mattered as much to colonizers in Baltimore as in other cities and towns.  Not only did they acquire clothing and goods that matched the latest fashions, they also developed manners that confirmed their status … or at least had opportunities to do so, according to the goods and services represented among the advertisements in the Maryland Journal.

April 15

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

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (April 15, 1774).

“Taught in such a Manner as to add Grace and Beauty to the Deportment of either Sex.”

Monsieur Viart once again took to the pages of the New-Hampshire Gazette in the spring of 1774, announcing that he “opened his Accademy for dancing last Monday at the Assembly Room” in Portsmouth.  Viart had previously advertised in that newspaper in the summer of 1772 and as spring approached in 1773, but by the end of the summer he was running notices in the Pennsylvania Journal.  Perhaps he had experienced too much competition with Edward Hackett and decided that he might have better prospects in Philadelphia, the largest and most genteel city in British North America.  Whatever his motivation, Viart’s time in the Quaker City did not last long.  That city had plenty of dancing masters and French tutors, a factor that may have influenced Viart’s decision to return to a place where he had cultivated a reputation among prospective students.

His presence in Portsmouth suggests a market for his services even in smaller towns, not just the largest urban ports like Boston, Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia.  Viart described himself as a “Professor of the polite Arts,” signaling that his instruction aided students in maintaining or improving their status as they strove to display their gentility to others.  He provided dancing lessons to “Ladies and Gentlemen who have not perfected themselves in that agreeable Accomplishment,” promising that he taught “in such a Manner as to add Grace and Beauty to the Deportment of either Sex, in the Genteelest Characters in Life.”  In addition to dancing, Viart “teaches the French Language in the easiest Method.”  He reassured even the most anxious prospective students, those “Scholars of the least Aptitude,” that in just six months they “may be sufficiently acquainted with the Rudiments of the Language” that they would “pronounce and write it with Delicacy and Propriety.”  Viart’s advertisements in the New-Hampshire Gazette demonstrate that just as the consumer revolution reached far beyond major port cities and into smaller towns and even the countryside, so too did concerns with refinement of character and comportment.  As colonizers acquired more goods and associated meaning with them, they also recognized that dancing well and speaking French testified to their gentility and validated their choices to wear fine clothing and purchase fashionable housewares.  As a “Professor of the polite Arts,” Viart marketed skills that helped his students complete the picture of their “Genteelest Characters.”

September 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (September 21, 1773).

“MR. PIKE’s Dancing and Fencing SCHOOLS.”

Mr. Pike may have remained in Charleston longer than he intended … and longer than he previously announced to the public.  In an advertisement in the March 30, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, the dancing master advised readers that the “BALL, for the young Ladies and Gentlemen under his Tuition” to be held on April 2 would be the “last Ball he proposes to make in Charles-Town.”  In addition to current students, he invited “former Scholars” to visit his school to brush up on their skills and then participate in an exhibition at that final ball.  This gave the impression that Pike intended to leave the city soon after the ball.

Yet six months later, he placed new advertisements in the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  In one, he announced that “MR. PIKE’s Dancing and Fencing SCHOOLS, commenced on Monday the 20th of September, as usual for the Season,” as though there had been no disruption in the schedule.  He did not, however, mention that the term would culminate in a ball, a strategy that he sometimes deployed as a means of inciting anxiety among prospective students and their parents.  In previous advertisements, Pike lectured that students needed to attend his school regularly in order to master the steps and avoid embarrassing themselves at the ball he hosted when their lessons concluded.  Perhaps Pike knew all along that he was not leaving Charleston immediately but rather had chosen not to sponsor any more balls as part of his curriculum.  However closely he followed his original plans, Pike moved to Philadelphia in 1774.  He advertised dancing and fencing lessons in the Pennsylvania Packet on October 17 and in the Pennsylvania Gazette on October 19.  He did not mention his students dancing at a ball, but he did attempt to incite anxiety among “such persons as may have forgot or had not an opportunity of learning to dance very young.”  His instruction tended to comportment more generally, including “genteel address with a proper carriage.”

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (September 21, 1773).

During the time that her remained in Charleston, Pike leased or “hired the New-Assembly Room in Church-street” and sought to rent the venue for a variety of events, including “Public Sales of Estates, Negroes, [and] Dry Goods.”  The dancing master aimed to supplement the revenues he earned from giving lessons by facilitating auctions, including auctions of enslaved men, women, and children.  He also leased the space for “private Balls” on Monday and Friday evenings and meetings for “Societies” or clubs such as the Charles Town Library Society, the Saint George’s Society, and the Fellowship Society.  Pike underscored that the venue was “very airy, private, and more commodious than any one of the Kind ever built in this Province,” making it an ideal place for dancing lessons, auctions, balls, meetings, and other events.  Pike invited anyone interested in leasing the space to visit him there for “further Particulars.”

Even without promoting any balls that would take place at the end of the current season of dancing lessons, Pike maintained his status in Charleston during the time that he stayed in the city.  In addition to giving dancing and fencing lessons at the New Assembly Room, he also provided instruction at boarding schools “Four Days in the Week.”  Beyond that, he worked with local elites to schedule balls and club meetings in the venue that became synonymous with his “Dancing and Fencing SCHOOLS.”  Although not a member of the gentry, Pike positioned himself as a cultural broker whose assistance genteel Charlestonians needed to maintain their own status.

August 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (August 18, 1773).

“This important part of the education of their children.”

In the summer of 1773, Monsieur de Viart introduced himself to the residents of Philadelphia with an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal.  He informed “Gentlemen and Ladies of this City, that he proposes to open an ACADEMY OF DANCING,” underscoring that “he has, for many years, with approbation, professed in several parts of France.”  Accordingly, parents of prospective pupils should consider him “capable of qualifying the youth of both sexes committed to his care, in a very short time, for any assembly whatsoever.”  Viart described himself as “lately arrived from Paris,” conveniently not mentioning that he had been in the colonies for at least a year and offered lessons in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Paris certainly had greater cachet in the minds of genteel Philadelphians than Portsmouth did!  Similarly, Viart realized that he would likely enroll more students in the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies.

Whether in Philadelphia or Portsmouth, Viart’s marketing strategy remained the same.  He played on the anxieties of parents who wanted to prepare their children to represent themselves and their families well at balls and, more generally, in all sorts of social encounters.  In his effort to set himself apart from other dancing masters, Viart republished copy from his advertisement in the New-Hampshire Gazette earlier that year: “It is not everyone, who pretends to teach this delicate art, who will take pains to instruct their pupils, in those rules of decorum and politeness, which are so absolutely necessary to be inculcated into them, before they can step abroad, into the world, with elegance and ease.”  In a single sentence, Viart called into question the abilities of his competitors to teach dancing while simultaneously asserting that their flawed instruction in the steps distracted them from focusing on comportment.  Viart knew that graceful movement and impeccable manners reinforced each other.  He warned that “it often happens, that scholars (through the ignorance or negligence of their masters) are guilty of great rudeness, and commit gross blunders, on their first appearance, in company.”  Concerned parents could avoid such a travesty, instead depending on Viart’s “utmost care and assiduity, in this important part of the education of their children.”  When they completed their lessons, his pupils would hold their own in Paris rather than look like backwater provincials from Portsmouth.