Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette

July 30

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 30, 1776).

“The Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.”

Calls for linen rags appeared regularly in colonial American newspapers, though some readers may have had the impression that the frequency increased after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Printers and their associates needed rags for American paper mills to recycle into paper.  They needed them more than ever due to disruptions in the supply of paper from England that resulted from nonimportation agreements and the Revolutionary War.

John Dunlap made a plea for “LINEN RAGS” in the July 30, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  Some advertisements consisted of only a couple of lines, but Dunlap made a longer appeal.  “THE highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP, in Market Street, Baltimore,” the printer proclaimed.  He “begs leave to inform the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular,” he continued, “that the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags; and of consequence, the Presses … must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.”  In other words, anyone who got even some of their news from Dunlap’s newspaper had a duty to collect rags if they wanted that newspaper to continue circulating updates about the war and the actions taken by the Continental Congress as well as all sorts of other news.  Dunlap described printing presses as “the important vehicles of instruction and amusement,” underscoring the responsibility that he felt toward subscribers and “the Public in general.”  The printer hoped that this appeal, “this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture” as rags into paper, “will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale to JOHN DUNLAP.”  Women, those “careful Housekeepers” in Baltimore and the countryside, could make an essential contribution to keep the presses operating and news about the war circulating.

American Gazette (July 30, 1776).

On the same day, John Rogers made a similar request to readers in Salem, Massachusetts, for “clean Linnen RAGS” in the American Gazette.  “Little Masters and Mistresses, who are kind enough to bring RAGS,” he instructed, “are reminded, That the Days most convenient to take them in, are WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS.”  In addressing “Little Masters and Mistresses,” Rogers suggested that children played an important part in gathering rags, delivering them to the printing office, and receiving payment on behalf of their families.  In addition to women, boys and girls made significant contributions when it came to supplying an important resource for producing the paper necessary to keep newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, and other items coming off of American presses during the American Revolution.

July 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 23, 1776).

“All residents in said Town … are requested to attend and give in their votes.”

Newspaper advertisements sometimes made important announcements during the era of the American Revolution.  An advertisement in the July 23, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, for instance, informed readers that the most recent provincial convention “resolved, that Baltimore Town shall have two Representatives in a Convention to be held in August next, for the express purpose of forming a New Government,” a government established “by the authority of the people only” in the wake of the Continental Congress declaring independence from Great Britain.  “Notice is hereby given,” the advertisement continued, “that an election will be held by open poll, on Monday the 5th day of August next, at the Court-House, to choose the two members aforesaid.”  Furthermore, “all residents in said Town, who by law were intitled to vote for Delegates in Assembly, (except such as have been published as enemies to this country) are requested to attend and give in their votes.”

That notice appeared among the other advertisements in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, alongside employment notices, descriptions of indentured servants who ran away, and an advertisement for “KEYSER’s FAMOUS PILLS” and other patent medicines.  The men who signed the notice – James Calhoun, John Merryman, Jr., and William Aisquith – apparently paid to insert it in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and in the Maryland Journal as well.  The printers of those newspapers could have included such important information with the news that they selected to disseminate to readers. They could have even given the notice a prominent place on the front page, publishing it as a public service as the state created its “New Government, by the authority of the people.”  Instead, they treated the notice as an advertisement rather than news, presumably generating revenue each time it appeared in their newspapers.  Readers knew that news of various sorts, including legal notices, often ran as advertisements.  They realized that the news in any issue of an early American newspaper did not necessarily end when the advertisements began.

July 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 16, 1776).

“The Utility of such a Map must appear obvious to every Officer who understands the nature of Actual Service.”

On July 9, 1776, Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette became the first newspaper outside of Philadelphia to publish the Declaration of Independence.  A week later, its first advertisement promoted a map that the printer considered essential for officers now that the aims of the war had shifted from achieving a redress of grievances to achieving independence from Great Britain.

An introduction that indicated a “MAP of New-York, Staten Island, part of Long-Island, and New-Jersey” would be ready for sale in a few days emphasized that the map was “absolutely necessary for every Officer under Marching orders for New-York.”  As they gathered equipment and supplies in advance of departing to defend New York, officers needed to outfit themselves with a map that “delineated, the situation of the British Forces now on Staten-Island” as well as the “different Batteries thrown up for the defence of the Continental troops in those parts.”  Just in case the target audience had not grasped the appeal made in the introduction, the advertisement concluded with an assertion that the “Utility of such a Map must appear obvious to every Officer who understand the nature of Actual Service.”  Not purchasing the map, the advertisement suggested, amounted to a dereliction of duty.

The advertisement, without revision, ran for two more weeks, promising the imminent publication of the map even after the time that it “will be ready for Sale” based on when the notice first appeared in the newspaper.  The printer did not follow up with another advertisement announcing the publication and availability of the map.  Was that because he did not consider such an advertisement necessary … or because plans for publishing the map did not work out?  I cannot find an extant copy of the map described in the advertisement, but copies of a map with a similar (but much lengthier) title are in the collections of several historical societies and research libraries: A Plan of New York Island, with part of Long Island, Staten Island & East New Jersey, with a Particular Description of the Engagement of the Woody Heights of Long Island, between Flatbush and Brooklyn, on the 27th of August 1776 between Hist Majesty’s Forces Commanded by General Howe and the Americans under Major General Putnam, Shewing also the Landing of the British Army on New-York Island, and the Taking of the City of New-York &c. on the 15th of September Following, with the Subsequent Disposition of Both the Armies.  William Faden published that map in London.  It certainly was not the map from the advertisements in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette in July 1776 … yet the possibility exists that the engraver consulted (and updated) an American map that depicted the same area when creating the map of those historic battles.

June 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Maryland Journal (June 19, 1776).

“The Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement, must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.”

During an ongoing shortage of paper, John Dixon and William Hunter, the printers of the Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg, were not the only printers in the Chesapeake who inserted a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into paper in their newspaper in June 1776.  Frederick Green, the printer of the Maryland Gazette in Annapolis, inserted such a notice in the June 20 edition: “THREE PENCE per pound is given for fine white LINEN RAGS, and one penny per pound for coarse, by the Printer hereof.”  On June 19, the printers of both newspapers published in Baltimore ran similar notices.  Mary Katharine Goddard, the printer of the Maryland Journal, ran (once again!) an advertisement similar to Green’s notice.  Since May 1, she had been informing readers that “THREE PENCE per Pound WILL be given for the best Sort of good, dry, clean LINEN RAGS, and so in Proportion for those of an inferior Quality.”  To draw attention, she used “Linen Rags” in a much larger font as a headline for the advertisement.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (June 19, 1776).

John Dunlap composed a more elaborate notice for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  Beneath a headline that proclaimed, “LINEN RAGS,” in capital letters, he informed readers that the “highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP.”  He went on to explain to “the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular” that “the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.”  As a result, “the Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement” – and news about politics, commerce, and current events as the war continued and the Continental Congress moved closer and closer to declaring independence – “must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation” of sitting idle.  “We therefore flatter ourselves,” Dunlap confidently asserted, “that this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale.”  In other words, anyone who wanted to continue receiving the news via Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette or any other newspaper needed to do their part in supplying rags for the paper mills.  Women in particular, those “careful Housekeepers,” had an important role to play in making it possible for newspapers to disseminate the “FRESHEST ADVICES, both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC,” promised in the masthead of the Maryland Journal and other newspapers.

May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (May 21, 1776).

“Enquire of the Printer.”

John Dunlap’s printing office in Baltimore was a busy place.  The colophon for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette informed readers that in addition to printing the newspaper there, it was the place to purchase subscriptions and submit advertisements.  In addition, they could have “all manner of Printing Work done with the utmost Expedition.”  Yet those were not the only services available at the printing office.  Even more information flowed in conversations with the printer than in the newspapers, broadsides, and handbills that came off the press.  Advertisements placed for a variety of purposes instructed interested parties to “Enquire of the Printer” for more details.

That included employment advertisements.  Consider those that appeared in the May 21, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  One prospective employee, “A PERSON regularly bred to the mercantile business,” hoped to gain a position “in the writing way.”  In other words, he sought work as a bookkeeper, advising “[a]ny merchant or trader having their books unposted, or wanting them put in proper order, or accounts drawn, may depend on their being speedily and well done at a reasonable rate.”  The advertiser did not reveal his identity but instead asked such merchants and traders to “Enquire of the Printer” for an introduction.  The headline “WANTED” started another advertisement, that one seeking a distiller who “mist be a single Man, honest, capable, and sober.”  His “chief employment will be to make Whiskey from rye, apples and peaches” in exchange for a “good salary and kind treatment” by his employer.  To learn more, prospective applicants had to “Enquire of the Printer.”  Another “WANTED” notice sought a “Person properly qualified to teach a SCHOOL.”  Candidates needed references.  Upon “being well recommended,” one would “meet with great encouragement by applying to the Printer.”  The advertisement did not specify whether the printer would make the call about what qualified as “being well recommended” before making an introduction to the prospective employer.

The printing office was not a brokerage, an intelligence office, or an employment agency, but it served some of those functions, especially when printers acted as intermediaries who supplied details that did not appear in advertisements and made introductions.  Early American printers trafficked in information via conversations in their bustling offices and correspondence directed there in addition to printing and distributing newspapers and other advertising media.

April 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (April 16, 1775).

“He finds himself obliged to raise the subscription to Fifteen Shillings a year instead of Ten.”

As Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; or, the Baltimore General Advertiser neared the end of its first year of publication, John Dunlap, the printer, ran a notice addressed “TO THE SUBSCRIBERS.”  In the April 16, 1776, edition, just a couple of weeks shy of the anniversary of establishing the newspaper, that notice appeared first among the advertisements.  Dunlap exercised his discretion as printer to give his notice a privileged place.

“AS the price of Printing Paper is greatly encreased since the first Publication of the Maryland Gazette, and the labor an expence of Publishing and delivering it to the Subscribers much more than the Printer expected” he explained, “he finds himself obliged to raise the subscription to Fifteen Shillings a year instead of Ten.”  Dunlap happened to commence publication a couple of weeks after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress in protest of the Intolerable Acts, already disrupted the supply of paper.  The outbreak of war meant even more shortages, causing some printers in New England to make adjustments or to suspend publication.  Printers in other regions also commented on the scarcity of paper and its impact on their newspapers.  To make matters even more complicated, Dunlap continued publishing Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet in Philadelphia and entrusted his printing office in Baltimore to James Hayes, Jr.  They experienced other difficulties, including the theft of newspapers intended for delivering in Elk Ridge, Annapolis, and Alexandria in the summer of 1775.

Now Dunlap found it necessary to increase the annual subscription significantly, raising it from ten shilling to fifteen.  “Those who do not approve of this advance,” he advised, “are desired to call and pay off as speedily as possible.”  Those customers presumably dealt with Hayes in the printing office on Market Street in Baltimore rather than directly with Dunlap.  He also called on “they who think him not unreasonable in his Demands … to pay up their former subscriptions, which will prevent confusion hereafter.”  Whatever their decision about whether to continue receiving Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, the printer wanted subscribers to check in to confirm their decision and, just as importantly, to pay what they owed for the past year.  Printers often allowed generous credit to subscribers and depended on advertising revenue to make their newspapers viable ventures.  Dunlap did brisk business in advertising, but he apparently wished for more security than those paid notices provided.  The issue that carried his notice also featured resolutions passed “In CONGRESS” in Philadelphia and a “Proclamation … by his Excellency General Washington, on his taking possession of the town of Boston.”  If subscribers wished to continue receiving such news, they needed to share the cost with advertisers by paying more for their subscriptions.

March 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (March 26, 1776).

“All Watch and Clock Maker’s please to stop the above mentioned Watch.”

What happened to Alexander Shaw’s watch?  In an advertisement in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, he reported that it had been “STOLEN out of the house of James Carson, in Gay-street” in Baltimore on March 12, 1776.  He did not give other details about the circumstances, instead focusing on a description of the “SILVER WATCH.”  It could be identified as “No. 178, the make’s name Daniel Hubert, White Frier’s, London,” though Shaw did not indicate whether those details had been engraved on the watch or appeared on a watch paper that protected the face of the watch when stored.  Other identifying characteristics included: “siler faced, with a pinchbeck chain, and a seal stamped King George’s head.”  Shaw offered a reward of forty shillings to anyone who returned the watch to him.

He also took an opportunity to enlist the aid of watchmakers and clockmakers in recovering his stolen watch.  In a nota bene, he requested that they “stop the above mentioned Watch, if given to be cleaned or offered for sale.”  Artisans and shopkeepers sometimes placed advertisements to alert readers that they “stopped” or confiscated items that they suspected had been stolen and presented to them for repairs, for sale, or to barter.  Thieves, burglars, and shoplifters participated in what Serena Zabin has called an “informal economy” that gave them access to consumer culture in early America, though not everyone who possessed stolen goods had taken them.  Instead, consumers active in the “informal economy” purchased items that had been fenced, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly.  Shaw seemed less concerned with capturing whoever had stolen his watch than with recovering it, perhaps realizing that anyone who took it to a watchmaker or clockmaker to have it cleaned or to sell it had not necessarily stolen it.  He hoped that the reward would encourage members of that trade to be vigilant in examining watches brought to their shops, increasing the chances of recovering his precious keepsake.  Many newspaper notices promoted goods to consumers, but Shaw used this advertisement to recover an item previously in his possession.

March 12

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (March 12, 1776).

“AN ORATION, IN MEMORY OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY.”

The March 12, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette carried an advertisement for “AN ORATION, IN MEMORY OF GENERAL MONGTOMERY: And of the OFFICERS and SOLDIERS who fell with him before QUEBEC.”  Readers knew well that Major General Richard Montgomery, the commander of the American invasion of Canada, had been killed in action in failed attack on Quebec City on December 31, 1775.  The deaths of Montgomery and Major General Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, had been the most significant losses during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  After the war, John Trumbull memorialized both patriots in paintings that depicted their sacrifice.

Shortly after Montgomery’s death, the Continental Congress invited William Smith, an Anglican minister and provost of the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania, to preach at a memorial service for Montgomery on February 19, 1776.  The message that he delivered surprised many members of the Continental Congress, angering them with the blatant loyalism he espoused.  As Christopher A. Hunter outlines, Smith “prais[ed] Montgomery’s ‘loyalty to his sovereign.’”  Furthermore, he proclaimed that “the delegated voice of the continent … supports me in praying for a restoration ‘of the former harmony between Great Britain and these Colonies.”[1]  Smith directly quoted the Olive Branch Petition, a final effort to broker peace and a redress of grievances.  When George III refused to even read that missive, it convinced many colonizers that reconciliation was not possible.

In a letter to Abigail Adams, John described the oration as “an insolent Performance” and described what happened after William Livingston, a delegate from New Jersey, suggested that the Continental Congress publish Smith’s memorial to Montgomery.  “A Motion was made to Thank the orator and ask a Copy—But opposed with great Spirit, and Vivacity from every Part of the Room, and at last withdrawn, lest it be should be rejected as it certainly would have been with Indignation.”  Yet an advertisement for the oration appeared in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and several other newspapers.  “The orator then printed it himself,” Adams continued, “after leaving out or altering some offensive Passages.”  Hunter notes that Smith doubled down on some parts that Adams and others found most troublesome, “adding a preface declaring, ‘whatever claim he may have to the appellation of a good Citizen or Friend to Liberty’ must rest on his efforts to prevent American independence.”[2]

John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet and Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, printed the “ORATION,” advertised it in his newspapers, and sold it at his printing offices in Philadelphia and Baltimore.  Despite the controversy, printers in New York, Newport, and Norwich published local editions, disseminating even more copies.  Each also published, marketed, and sold their own editions of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a pamphlet that strongly advocated for declaring independence.  Perhaps they thought that honoring Montgomery and the officers and soldiers killed during the Battle of Quebec outweighed the portions of Smith’s commentary that patriots found so “insolent.”  Perhaps they merely sought to generate revenue by publishing a pamphlet that commemorated Montgomery.  Maybe they simultaneously pursued both courses.  Whatever their inspiration, readers of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and other newspapers repeatedly saw Montgomery memorialized when they perused the advertisements.  Many likely did not associate that act of veneration with the problematic rhetoric Smith introduced in his “ORATION.”

**********

[1] Christopher A. Hunter, “William Smith’s Catonian Loyalism, Race, and the Politics of Language,” Early American Literature 52, no. 3 (2017): 531.

[2] Hunter, “William Smith’s Catonian Loyalism,” 531.

February 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (February 13, 1776).

“FATHER ABRAHAM’s ALMANACK, For the Year of our LORD 1776.”

John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, apparently had surplus copies of “FATHER ABRAHAM’s ALMANACK, For the Year of our LORD 1776,” that he hoped to sell in the middle of February of that year.  Although the “Astronomical Calculations by the ingenious DAVID RITTENHOUSE” for the first six weeks of the year were no longer of use to readers, the rest of the contents still had value.  Hoping to move some or all the remaining copies out of his printing office in Baltimore, Dunlap once again placed an advertisement that had first appeared in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette in October, well before the new year began and readers would refer to the calendars and astronomical calculations in the handy reference manual.  Prospective customers knew that the phrase “Just Published” at the beginning of the advertisement merely meant that copies were available to purchase, not that the almanacs just came off the press.

In addition to operating a printing shop and publishing a newspaper in Baltimore, Dunlap also ran a printing shop in Philadelphia.  It was there, according to his advertisement, that he had printed the almanac and then sent copies to his printing office in Baltimore.  He had also advertised the almanac in the newspaper he published in Philadelphia, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  He did not, however, continue running advertisements for the almanac in that newspaper in February 1776.  Perhaps he sold out of copies in Philadelphia.  After all, he established his printing office and newspaper there before his second printing office and newspaper in Baltimore.  Consumers in Philadelphia and its hinterlands had greater familiarity with Dunlap, the printer, and Rittenhouse, the astronomer and mathematician who did the calculations for the almanac.  Alternately, Dunlap may not have continued advertising the almanac in the newspaper published at his printing office in Philadelphia because that location received a heavier volume of advertisements.  The printer may have determined that the revenue generated from advertisements submitted by customers outweighed any potential revenue from advertising the almanac once again.  With limited amount of space in each issue, delivering news also took precedence over yet another advertisement for the almanac.  Dunlap and those who labored in his printing offices may have had other reasons for continuing to advertise the almanac in Baltimore but not in Philadelphia.  Whatever the explanation, the advertisement in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette became a familiar sight to readers over the course of several months.

December 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (December 26, 1775).

“N.B. A Negroe woman Cook, healthy honest and sober, 33 years old.”

Alexander Stenhouse apparently wished to discontinue his medical supply business in Baltimore.  In the final week of December 1775, he placed advertisements in both Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal that listed a “general Collection of DRUGS and MEDICINES” available for sale.  He added vials, “Large bottles for Distilled Waters,” “Pill pots of various sizes, labelled and plain,” “Mortars and pestles,” “Surgeons Instruments,” and other medical equipment.  He even included “Shop Furniture,” suggesting that he no longer needed it because he would no longer pursue that trade.  In addition, he declared that the “Drugs and Medicines will not be sold singly, so it is expected those who want will take an assortment.”  To make the offer even more attractive, Stenhouse promised a “considerable discount … to a person who will purchase the whole.”  Perhaps Stenhouse even intended to leave Baltimore.  His inventory concluded with a “Collection of Books, mostly modern publications,” and “Houshold and kitchen furniture, in general almost new.”

Stenhouse offered more than just the contents of his shop and home for sale.  In a nota bene that followed his signature, he described a “Negroe woman Cook, healthy honest and sober, 33 years old.”  The sale of that woman whose name was once known testifies to the widespread use of the early American press to perpetuate slavery and the slave trade.  At a glance, the phrases “TO BE SOLD” and “DRUGS and MEDICINES,” dominated Stenhouse’s advertisement.  The list of items for sale, divided into two columns, unlike any of the other in either newspaper, likely caught readers’ eyes as well.  Those aspects of Stenhouse’s advertisement overshadowed but did not eclipse the portion that offered an enslaved woman for sale.  The format did not indicate that Stenhouse felt any shame or embarrassment about selling a “Negroe woman Cook” and wanted to downplay it; instead, the format demonstrated just how casually enslavers incorporated such transactions into everyday advertising and routine business.  “N.B.” or nota bene, after all, meant “take note.”  Stenhouse wished for readers to “take note” that he wished to sell an enslaved woman as he “disposed of” the contents of his shop and home.