Domestic Manufactures

August 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

“THE Manufacturing Society in Williamsburg are in want of a person to superintend the works.”

As the imperial crisis intensified and then became a war for independence, many Americans advocated for producing and consuming “domestic manufactures,” goods made locally rather than imported from Great Britain.  Some entrepreneurs ran newspaper advertisements that promoted “domestic manufactures” that they made or sold, while others worked together in pooling their resources and establishing “manufactories,” such as the “AMERICAN MANUFACTORY, of LINEN, WOOLLEN, &c.” in Philadelphia, that employed local workers and produced goods for local consumers.

In Williamsburg, a “Manufacturing Society” pursued a similar purpose.  In late August 1776, the managers ran advertisements in both newspapers printed there, Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette and John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  They announced that they “are in want of a person to superintend the works, purchase materials, &c. and to keep the necessary accounts,” promising “good wages” to a candidate “qualified to undertake that business,” provided that he came “well recommended.”  The Manufacturing Society offered other opportunities for employment.  “As the making of SAIL CLOTH is one of their objects,” the managers explained, “the Society will give good encouragement to spinners and weavers acquainted with that branch.”  In other words, they sought those with experience making that item.  In addition, the Manufacturing Society planned “taking a number of boys and girls as apprentices to SPINNING [and] WEAVING” once “the works are erected.”  Before consumers could demonstrate their political principles by purchasing domestic manufactures, local workers had to produce them.  The Manufacturing Society created jobs for those workers and provided training for the apprentices who would labor alongside them.  This endeavor allowed women, boys, and girls to contribute to the American cause.  Although they did not vote, hold office, or serve in the military, their work for the Manufacturing Society had political implications.  As both producers and consumers, they participated in politics in the marketplace.

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”

In the summer of 1776, Samuel Wetherill took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Ledger to hawk a variety of textiles produced at his “Manufactory in South-street” in Philadelphia.  He offered “Woolens, Linnens, and Cottons, particularly Corded Dimity’s,” to consumers, giving them an alternative to fabrics imported from England.  He emphasized that he sold “domestic manufactures” with a headline that proclaimed, “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”  Wetherill elaborated on that point by noting the “great expence” he had undertaken in his “improve manufactures among us” and, in turn, expected “the public encouragement” for his endeavor.

Wetherill was one of many advertisers who made some sort of “Buy American” appeal during the era of the American Revolution.  As T.H. Breen explains in The Marketplace of Revolution, calls to produce and purchase goods made in America began even before the imperial crisis.  As colonizers participated in the transatlantic consumer revolution, some noticed the imbalance of trade that emerged within a commercial empire organized around Britain producing goods and the colonies consuming those goods.  Once Parliament imposed new regulations on trade, especially duties on imported goods, and the colonies responded with boycotts of those goods, establishing and supporting the production of goods in the colonies became even more important.  When the Second Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement adopted throughout the colonies, the eighth article stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  Producing (and consuming) goods produced in America became even more important after the Continental Congress declared independence.

Wetherill did his part and he used an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger to let prospective customers in Philadelphia and the region know that he did.  Along with his “attempt to improve manufactures among us” came a reciprocal obligation for consumers to give their “public encouragement” by purchasing the textiles that Wetherill and his employees produced “at his Manufactory.”  He presented an opportunity to acquire “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE,” goods produced in their own city or state as a means of strengthening the local economy.

July 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Constitutional Gazette (July 31, 1776).

“AMERICAN MADE DRUMS.”

“Buy American” and “Made in America” are familiar marketing appeals in modern America.  They are also appeals with a lineage that goes back to the eighteenth century, emerging in advertisements in American newspapers even before the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence.  Colonizers participated in a transatlantic consumer revolution that gained significant momentum by the middle of the century.  As part of the process, they followed the lead of their counterparts in Great Britain, both by purchasing an expanding array of clothing and housewares and by thinking about the role of the colonies in an empire defined by commerce rather than by conquest.  On both sides of the Atlantic, people thought of Great Britain as the producer of goods and the colonies as the consumer of goods.  That led to a trade imbalance that some colonizers sought to address by producing more good for their own consumption, rather than exporting raw materials, even before the imperial crisis.

Once Parliament attempted to regulate trade and impose duties on imported goods after the Seven Years War, some colonizers became more insistent that they should increase their “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies for local consumption.  A series of nonimportation agreements adopted for the purpose of gaining political leverage via commerce (or the lack of commerce) in the 1760s and 1770s made “Buy American” and “Made in America” appeals even more common as producers and consumers both imagined alternatives to goods imported from Great Britain.  Once the Revolutionary War began, such appeals had even greater significance.  Advertisers sometimes included short editorials in their newspaper notices to convince consumers to purchase their “domestic manufactures,” but not everyone considered that an essential part of their marketing efforts.  For instance, a brief advertisement in July 31, 1776, edition of the Constitutional Gazette – just three lines – proclaimed, “AMERICAN MADE DRUMS, Sold by PHILIP PELTON, At the Foot of Cowfoot-hill, in NEW-YORK.”  Pelton did not consider it necessary to elaborate on the drums he sold.  He apparently considered “AMERICAN MADE” a sufficient pitch to attract customers looking to outfit companies of soldiers fighting the war for independence.

June 29

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

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

Providence Gazette (June 29, 1776).

“The Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories.”

Robert Newell undertook “all Kinds of Clothier’s Work … at his very convenient Works, near the Mill Bridge, in Providence.”  In an advertisement in the June 29, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette, he informed the public that “every Branch of the Clothier’s Business is performed in great Perfection” when customers entrusted him their instructions for treating textiles.  For instance, he “dyes all Sorts of Colours, and dresses all Kinds of Cloth, in the neatest and best Manner.”  In addition, he “also dyes Cotton and Linen Yarn a fine Blue, and at a very short Notice.”  Newell made skill and quality centerpieces of his appeals to the public, yet he also emphasized price and customer service.  He declared that he “engaged punctually and faithfully to do” the work delivered to his “convenient Works,” pledging that “[t]hose who favour him with their Custom, may depend on having their Directions faithfully observed, and their Work done to Satisfaction, and at reasonable Rates.”

Artisans and others regularly made all those appeals in their newspaper advertisements.  Newell added one more that he believed would resonate with the public as they contemplated current events, especially the war and calls for the colonies to declare independence rather than seek redress of grievances within the British imperial system.  The clothier opened his notice with a pronouncement with wording that echoed the resolutions made by provincial congresses that appeared elsewhere in the public prints.  “WHEREAS the Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories,” Newell asserted, “upon this Principle the Subscriber requests the Favours of his former Customers, and the Public in general, in supplying him with all Kinds of Clothier’s Work.”  Beyond all his appeals concerning quality and customer service, Newell claimed that residents of Providence and other towns in the area had a civic duty to employ him if they wished for their country to prosper and thrive.  He deployed language similar to the eighth article of the Continental Association devised by the Second Continental Congress and adopted throughout the colonies: “we will, in our Several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The decisions that colonizers made in the marketplace, as producers and as consumers, had political implications.  The Second Continental Congress made that clear.  Newell endorsed that position and sought to use it to his own advantage to attract customers for his “Clothier’s Business.”

April 24

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (April 24, 1776).

“A NEW AMERICAN MANUFACTORY.”

In the spring of 1776, Edward Ryves, a “PAPER STAINER, advertised that he “MANUFTURES and sells all kinds of paper hangings” or wallpaper “at his factory in Pine-street, Philadelphia.”  It was not the first time that Ryves placed such an advertisement.  The previous summer, the partnership of Ryves and Fletcher ran a similar advertisement, one that also proclaimed, “A NEW AMERICAN MANUFACTORY,” in its headline.  Ryves and Fletcher apparently parted ways, but the former retained their marketing strategy and updated it accordingly.  An advertisement that previously stated, “they are the first who have attempted that manufacture on this continent,” now asserted that “he is the first and only one who has attempted such manufacture on the Continent.”  Now that he was on his own, Ryves reserved that accolade exclusively for himself.

He also reiterated appeals intended to enlist consumers who supported the American cause: “he is induced to hope for the countenance and protection of all well wishers of the infant manufactures of America.”  Ryves then expanded on the appeal that he and Fletcher made, stating that “most especially at this time,” a year after a war began at Lexington and Concord, “that the assistance to, and promotion of every kinds of manufacture, must be the most essential service that the inhabitants of this place can render it.”  The paper stainer suggested that buying goods produced in the colonies gave every consumer an opportunity to support the American cause.  Military service was not an option for every colonizer, but every colonizer was a consumer who made decisions about which goods to purchase.  Throughout the imperial crisis, many colonizers advocated for encouraging “domestic manufactures” as an alternative to importing goods from Great Britain.  The Second Continental Congress codified such calls in the eighth article of the Continental Association: “we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  Ryves banked on prospective customers acting on that provision.

As a bonus, Ryves promoted a new product.  In a nota bene, he announced that he “has manufactured a few playing cards, all of the produce of America, which he will sell reasonable, considering the great price of the materials they are made of.”  Readers not in the market for paper hangings could instead support his business (and, by extension, the “infant manufactures of America’) by purchasing a deck of cards for use in their leisure time.

April 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (April 17, 1776).

“Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE.”

For months, an advertisement for goods “Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE, In West-New-Jersey,” ran in the Pennsylvania Journal.  The notice advised prospective customers that they could select from among a “GREAT variety of iron pots, kettles, Dutch ovens, and oval fish kettles, either with or without covers, [and] skillets of different sizes” as well as “open and close stoves of different sizes, … pestles and mortars; sash weights, and forge hammers of the best quality.”

According to the public historians at Batsto Village in Hammonton, New Jersey, “Charles Read of Burlington constructed the Iron Furnace at Batsto in 1766.  The furnace produced cannons, munitions and other items to aid the patriots during their struggle with the British.  …  Following the Revolutionary War, the Batsto furnace produc[ed] a variety of items such as pots, kettles, stoves, and fireplace backing.”  Unfortunately, the furnace no longer stands today, though visitors may view an ore pile and a nineteenth-century ore boat.

The advertisements in the Pennsylvania Journal demonstrate that the Batsto Furnace produced an array of consumer goods during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Read likely responded to calls for “domestic manufactures,” goods produced in the colonies as alternatives to items imported from England, that accompanied nonimportation agreements adopted in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766, the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and the Intolerable Acts in 1774.  The eight article of the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation pact devised by the Second Continental Congress in October 1774 and adopted throughout the colonies, stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The thirteen article address prices: “That all Manufactures of this country to be sold at reasonable Prices, so that no undue Advantage be taken of a future scarcity of Goods.”  Given those provisions, the advertisement for the goods produced at the Batsto Furnace likely resonated with readers.  John Cox, the local agent who sold the pots, kettles, skillets, and other kitchenware in Philadelphia, described them as “much lighter, neater, and superior in quality to any imported from Great-Britain.”  He attempted to assure consumers that they did not need to sacrifice quality when they observed their political principles through buying goods made in the colonies.

April 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 13, 1776).

“LINEN to be SOLD at the Manufactory in Union-street.”

Nearly a year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, many colonizers continued to support the American cause through the decisions they made in the marketplace.  Such efforts began before the Revolutionary War.  Colonizers attempted to use commerce as political leverage, departing from the imperial system they previously embraced.  They experienced a British Empire defined by commerce rather than conquest, one in which England produced goods and the colonies consumed them.  When Parliament enacted new commercial regulations and other measures the colonies found oppressive in the 1760s and 1770s, they enacted nonimportation agreements.  Simultaneously, they encouraged “domestic manufactures” in the colonies as alternatives to imported goods.

That movement led to the establishment of “the Manufactory in Union-street” in Philadelphia.  In the April 13, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the proprietors advertised “LINEN to be SOLD” there.  They also informed the public that they sought to hire two or three journeymen weavers who would enjoy “an advantageous seat of work.”  Yet “domestic manufactures” did not solely refer to goods produced in the colonies as opposed to those made elsewhere.  “Domestic manufactures” could also mean goods produced in homes, in domestic spaces, often by women.  Although not as fine as imported fabrics, wearing “homespun” cloth became a mark of distinction because of the political principles at play.  In addition to the journeymen to be employed “at the said factory,” the proprietors announced, “Weavers that have got looms in their own houses … will meet with good encouragement, the best prices, and constant employment.”  The “Manufactory in Union-street” served as a clearinghouse for textiles produced on site and in homes in and near Philadelphia.  It provided employment for local men and women and merchandise for consumers, allowing everyone involved to support the American cause as more and more colonizers considered the possibility of declaring independence rather than a redress of their grievances and a return to how the empire operated before the imperial crisis.

March 25

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

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (March 25, 1776).

“Work in the jewellery way … all sorts of silver-smiths work.”

By the time that Charles Oliver Bruff, a goldsmith and jeweler, placed his advertisement in the March 25, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury he was a veteran advertiser with at least a decade of experience running notices in the public prints in New York.  While little direct evidence about the effectiveness of advertising in early America exists, the fact that Bruff repeatedly invested in marketing suggests that he believed that it worked and considered it worth the investment.  Indeed, his latest advertisement consisted of two advertisements.  The copy for the first one ran as its own notice in the Constitutional Gazette more than six months earlier.  As the first anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord approached, Bruff once again offered swords to “Those GENTLEMEN who are forming themselves into COMPANIES in defence of their LIBERTIES.”

Bruff may have considered advertising effective because he did more than merely announce that he had goods for sale.  Instead, he carefully crafted appeals to consumers, encouraging them to purchase his wares.  As he targeted prospective customers “forming themselves into COMPANIES,” for instance, he adorned them with likenesses of British politicians who advocated for the American colonies and corresponding mottoes, including “[William] Pitt’s head, Magna Charta and Freedom” and “[John]Wilkes’s head[,] Wilkes and Liberty.”  He also underscored that the words he stocked were “made in America, all manufactured by said BRUFF.”  When nonimportation agreements became one of the primary strategies for practicing politics, Bruff and other entrepreneurs marketed goods produced in the colonies.

The goldsmith and jeweler also deployed visual images to promote his business.  He advised readers that he kept shop “At the sign of the Tea Pot, Tankard, and Earring,” but they likely noticed the woodcut that adorned his advertisement before anything else.  It featured several of the items available at his shop, including a handheld looking glass with an ornate handle and frame, a ring, a buckle, and an earring.  The image also included an elaborate coat of arms.  A shield decorated with two silver balls, a chevron, and a fish was in the center.  A hand grasping a sheaf of wheat appeared above the shield.  Ribbons cascaded over the side, giving way to leaves and flowers.  The ornate woodcut corresponded to an appeal that Bruff made in the second of those advertisements combined into a single lengthy advertisement: “He engraves all sorts of arms, crests, cyphers, heads, and fancies in the neatest manner.”  For good measure, he reminded prospective customers that he also engraved “all emblems of liberty” on jewelry and other items.

In addition to his “work in the jewellery way” and “silver-smiths work,” Bruff provided other services to entice customers into his shop.  He cleaned watches, installed new glass, and made other repairs at reasonable prices and even “works hair in springs, birds, figures, cyphers, crests and cupid fancies” and “plaits hair in the neatest manner.”  Bruff made his advertisements worth the investment by developing a variety of appeals to consumers and promising an array of goods and services to encourage them to visit his shop.

January 31

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

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

Constitutional Gazette (January 31, 1776).

“BEST Geneva, made and distilled from rye.”

Advertisements for consumer goods and services crowded the pages of early American newspaper.  Did they work?  Unfortunately, that question is difficult to answer.  The advertisements reveal what kinds of marketing appeals merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and other entrepreneurs thought would resonate with consumers and influence them to make purchases, but they rarely indicated how readers responded.

That so many entrepreneurs advertised and that they invested in advertising regularly suggests that they believed that they received a sufficient return on their investment to make the expense worth it.  Consider John Felthausen and his advertisement for “BEST Geneva [or Jenever, a type of gin], made and distilled from rye,” in the January 31, 1776, edition of the Constitutional Gazette.  That was not the first time that Felthausen placed that advertisement.  Three months earlier, he ran an advertisement with nearly identical copy in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  If Felthausen believed that previous advertisement had not yielded results, would he have run it again in another newspaper a few months later?

That new advertisement had nearly identical copy, though the compositor for the Constitutional Gazette made very different decisions about the format than the compositor for the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  Felthausen may have even clipped the advertisement from one newspaper and delivered it to the printing office for the other, making marks on it to indicate copy he wished to update.  Those revisions amounted to adding a sentence at the end: “He has also different sorts of best cordials for sale, wholesale and retail.”  He retained his appeal to “every friend to this country” to “encourage” or support his business, “especially at those times when we ought to give preferment to our own manufactures.”  The distiller apparently believed that his previous advertisement met with sufficient success to merit repeating it to hawk both his “BEST Geneva” and additional products not previously included.

January 7

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 6, 1776).

“He has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”

During the first week of 1776, Lewis Nicola took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Evening Post “to inform his friends, and the public in general, that he has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE at his dwelling in Water-street” in Philadelphia.  He promised that “those who favor him with their custom may depend upon his best endeavors to please.

Nicola assumed that readers knew who brewed the porter that he served at his establishment.  After all, “Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER” had been the subject of several advertisements that recently ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  William Dibley served “this new and glorious manufacture” at the Fountain and White Horse Inn on Chestnut Street.  Joseph Price encouraged “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” to drink “Messrs. HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” at his tavern “at the sign of the Bull and Dog” on Market Street.  Similarly, Patrick Meade offered “Messrs. HARE and Co. AMERICAN PORTER” to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” at the Harp and Crown in nearby Southwark.

Robert Hare, the son of an English brewer who specialized in porter, arrived in Philadelphia in 1773.  He established his own brewery where he brewed porter, “the first person to brew the drink in America.”  The timing worked well for Hare; he commenced brewing American porter as the imperial crisis intensified and the Revolutionary War began.  Colonizers looked to support local enterprises by purchasing “domestic manufactures” while they boycotted goods imported from England.  That positioned Hare’s brewery for success.

Just as significantly, consumers liked his porter (unlike some of the substitutes for imported tea that some colonizers concocted).  When John Adams attended the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774, he lauded Hare’s porter in a letter to Abigail: “I drink no Cyder, but feast upon Phyladelphia Beer, and Porter.  A Gentleman, one Mr. Hare, has lately set up in this City a Manufactory of Porter, as good as any that comes from London.  I pray We may introduce it into the Massachusetts.  It agrees with me, infinitely better than Punch, Wine, or Cyder, or any other Spirituous Liquor.”  With Hare’s porter having such a reputation, Nicola did not need to mention the brewer when he opened his “AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”  The public knew the porter came from Hare’s brewery.