Gentility

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.

January 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina and American General Gazette (January 6, 1775).

“That Part of Education so universally admired … corresponding by Letter in a polite easy Stile.”

Benjamin Waller taught penmanship and so much more to female pupils in Charleston on the eve of the American Revolution.  In an advertisement addressed “TO THE LADIES” in the January 6, 1775, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, the tutor announced that he “opened a WRITING SCHOOL … for the Benefit of the Fair Sex only.”  His students learned “the Italian, or any other Hand,” yet Waller’s lessons extended beyond writing to encompass style.  He devoted much of his advertisement to describing the merits of “that Part of Education so universally admired, though very much neglected in this Province, that is, corresponding by Letter in a polite easy Stile.”

Waller likely intended for such an allegation to incite anxiety among many of his prospective pupils.  After all, Charleston was one of the largest and most cosmopolitan urban ports in the colonies.  The local gentry prided themselves on being as fashionable and genteel as their counterparts in New York and Philadelphia.  In addition, they guarded against being considered a backwater outpost when compared to London and other European cities.  Some would have been uncomfortable with Waller’s assertion that writing letters “in a Polite easy Stile” was not widely practiced in South Carolina, questioning whether they fell short of the ideal and put their deficiencies on display each time they wrote to family and friends.

Those were not the only stakes.  Waller deployed a series of questions to illustrate what prospective pupils would gain from his instruction: “What Exstacy does a Letter wrote from Children to parents, or from one Friend to another, raise in their Breast if there appears Simplicity with elevated Sentiments?  What transporting Pleasure must as Man feel while reading kind Expressions from his lovely Consort’s Pen?  What an Impression does every Sentence leave on the Heart, endearing the Writer to the Receiver.”  Writing letters, Waller argued, was not merely a skill but an art, just as much as the drawing and painting lessons advertised by other tutors.  Women who were truly genteel could not take knowing how to write for granted; they also needed guidance, Waller suggested, in forming their thoughts and expressing them gracefully.

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.

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.”

March 3

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

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

“FRENCH SCHOOL.”

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (March 3, 1774).

In late February 1774, Mr. Delile, a French tutor, returned to the pages of Boston’s newspapers to alert readers that he had returned to the area and “continues to teach French and Latin.”  In an advertisement in the February 24 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, he reminded residents that “for these two Years past [he] has taught the French language in Boston, Cambridge, Providence and Newport.”  He had previously taken to the public prints in two colonies to keep current and prospective pupils advised to his whereabouts, explaining to students in Massachusetts, some of them presumably enrolled at Harvard College, that the “Present Vacation at Cambridge” meant “he can be absent without an Injury to his Pupils.”  He pledged to return to the area to guide them in their studies.  His new advertisement underscored his previous affiliation with Harvard students and his desire to once again teach them and their peers.  He declared that he provided lessons “after the Manner of Academies, Universities and Colleges of the Learning World, amongst which Places he has spent his Time.”  Delile offered a proper curriculum, drawing on his own experience and familiarity with educational institutions of the era.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (March 3, 1774).

A week after Delile’s notice appeared, Francis Vandale published his own advertisement for a “FRENCH SCHOOL” in the March 3 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  Although they competed for some of the same clients, Vandale took a different approach than Delile.  Rather than targeting young men studying at Harvard, Vandale sought “Gentlemen or Ladies” as pupils.  Instead of promoting his method of instruction, he emphasized the genteel qualities of the French language and the social standing his students could achieve under his direction.  He conjured an image of how “the French Language when taught agreeable to its native Purity & Elegance, is acquired with that becoming Ease and Gracefulness, as renders it truly Ornamental.”  His pupils, through the “Ease and Gracefulness” that Vandale’s tutelage instilled in them, took on the qualities of the language itself.  He did not mention any prior affiliations with academies or colleges, instead “profess[ing] to be a compleat Master of [French] in all its original Beauty and Propriety, entirely free from any false Mixture or bad Pronunciation.”  For Vandale, speaking French was not an academic exercise but rather a means of artistic expression.

Residents of Boston, Cambridge, and nearby towns who wished to learn or improve their French encountered more than one option when they perused the pages of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  They could take into account both the reputations and methods of Delile and Vandale when deciding if they wished to hire the services of either French tutor.

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.

June 14

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

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

Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (June 14, 1773).

“A Variety of Cabinet-Work … of the newest Fashion and neatest Construction, such as were never offered for Sale in this Province before.”

Richard Magrath’s upcoming furniture sale was going to be an event, at least according to the advertisement that appeared in the supplement that accompanied the June 14, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette.  The venue, “Mr. PIKE’s LONG ROOM,” where the dancing master gave lessons and hosted balls, set the tone for the sale of a “Variety of Cabinet-Work” that included “SOPHAS, French Chairs, Conversation Stools, and Easy-Chairs, of the newest Fashion and neatest Construction.”

Magrath aimed to generate excitement and interest by creating a buzz about the sale.  He proclaimed that “the Gentry may be assured, that it will be the greatest Sale of neat Cabinet-Work ever known in this Place,” a spectacle not to be missed because furniture of such elegance and quality had “never [been] offered for Sale in this Province before.”  Magrath included an eighteenth-century version of humblebragging to entice prospective customers to attend the sale.  “The Subscriber omits giving any further Encomiums on the Construction and Neatness of the different Articles,” he proclaimed, “as he doubts not of meeting with general Approbation, from the great Encouragement and repeated Favours he has already received from most of the First Families in the Province.”  In other words, Magrath declared that he had already earned a reputation among “the Gentry” for providing them with furniture of the highest quality and the most current tastes.  He also suggested that prospective customers could enhance their status by acquiring furniture at his sale, thus joining the “First Families” or most genteel and elite colonizers in South Carolina.

Magrath also laid the groundwork for future sales, confiding that he “intends to have a Sale of neat Cabinent-Work annually.”  He demanded that readers to take note, pledging that he “will always be supplied with the newest Fashions in this Branch” as a result of “his Connection in London,” the most cosmopolitan city in the empire.  For the moment, prospective buyers could examine the items offered at the upcoming sale during viewings at Magrath’s house, selecting which they hoped to purchase at the auction in Pike’s Long Room.  Through both advertisements and viewings, Magrath wanted to generate excitement about his elegant furniture, hoping that the excitement would compound itself before and during the sale.

March 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (March 12, 1773).

“He will teach Dancing in the politest Manner.”

Monsieur de Viart had competition for pupils at his dancing academy in Portsmouth.  The week after Viart commenced a new round of advertising in the New-Hampshire Gazette, Edward Hacket placed his own notice “to acquaint the GENTLEMEN and LADIES” that he would “open a Dancing-School, At the New ASSEMBLY HOUSE” in April.  Although dated February 11, that was likely a mistake.  Hacket’s advertisement did not appear in the New-Hampshire Gazette until March 12.  By then, Viart had taken the lead in advertising for the upcoming quarter in the public prints.

That did not deter Hacket from attempting to convince adults to take lessons from him and parents to enroll their children in his school.  For background, he described himself as “From EUROPE,” but did not go into greater detail.  He apparently hoped that his origins on the other side of the Atlantic gave him some cachet compared to dancing masters from the colonies … and made him competitive with his French rival, Monsieur de Viart.  Hacket did not believe that Viart was entitled to corner the market in Portsmouth.  According to his advertisement, neither did “many of the principal Inhabitants of the Town” who requested that he establish his own school even though Viart already operated a dancing academy there.  To further burnish his credentials, Hacket declared that he “has taught Dancing in many of the principal Towns in England, Ireland, and America.”  That being the case, he taught students how to dance “in the politest manner” and could assist them in learning “perfectly in a short Time,” preparing his pupils “for any Assembly or Company whatsoever.”

Just as participation in the consumer revolution was not restricted to the gentry in the largest colonial cities, neither was adopting the manners and skills associated with gentility.  As spring approached in 1773, two dancing masters offered their services in Portsmouth, Hampshire.  Each operated schools in that town and also offered private instruction in the homes of their pupils.  Hacket indicated that he also gave lessons in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Haverhill and Newbury, Massachusetts.  Prospective pupils in town and country alike, the dancing masters suggested, should consider how learning to dance well would secure and enhance their status.

March 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (March 5, 1773).

“Instruct their Scholars in those Rules of Decorum and Politeness.”

Monsieur de Viart, a dancing master, sought to cultivate a sense of anxiety among prospective clients when he offered his services in an advertisement in the March 5, 1773, edition of the New-Hampshire Gazette.  In particular, he suggested that parents needed to tend to the best interests of their children by enrolling them in classes taught by an expert who emphasized comportment as well as learning the steps of “Minuets, French Jiggs, Horn-Pipes, Rigadoons, and English Country Dances of all Kinds.”  His students, he promised, would exhibit grace in their interactions as well as in their movements.

In making that pitch, Viart asserted that he “has always endeavoured to merit the Approbation of those who have hitherto favoured him with their Custom,” especially parents of his young students, “by having at all Times obliged himself to instruct his PUPIULS in those Principles which he received in that Profession himself.”  The dancing master declared that he incorporated “Rules of Decorum and Politeness” into his curriculum, recognizing that dancing was part of much more extensive social interactions.  He cautioned parents of prospective pupils that their children needed such lessons, “which are absolutely necessary to be known, begore Young Persons can step abroad into the World with Elegance and Ease.”

Viart claimed that other dancing masters did not focus on the relationship between dancing and manners that he did, leaving their students to clumsily stumble through encounters with others.  He lamented that “not every one who pretends to teach this delicate Art … will take the Pains to instruct their Scholars” in manners.  As a result, parents had reason to fear that their children might embarrass themselves.  “[I]t often happens that Scholars,” Viart confided, “through the Ignorance of the Masters, are guilty of great Rudeness and commit gross Blunders on their first going into Company.”  Viart prepared his pupils for much more than moving across the dance floor, helping them avoid various kinds of awkwardness and difficulties when they gathered for social events.

Dancing masters in the largest cities in the colonies – Charleston, New York, Philadelphia – made similar appeals to prospective pupils and their parents.  They touted the gentility that their “Scholars” would exhibit upon taking lessons.  Viart suggested that this was not merely a concern for colonizers who resided in urban ports.  Instead, he encouraged students and, especially, their parents in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to experience a sense of apprehension that they did not meet the standards expected in cosmopolitan society.

January 16

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

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

Pennsylvania Chronicle (January 16, 1773).

“By limiting the number of his pupils … he has a singular advantage.”

Samuel Blair ran a boarding school for boys in Philadelphia in the early 1770s.  In an advertisement in the January 16, 1773, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle, the schoolmaster announced that he had openings for two pupils and promoted the benefits of learning in such an exclusive setting.  He explained that for the “special benefit” of his students, he limited enrollment to only twelve boys.  He advertised “whenever a vacancy occurs,” alerting parents who “choose … to have [their sons] instructed in a private family rather than a public school.”

Blair briefly outlined his curriculum, but devoted most of his advertisement to the virtues of a residential setting for a small number of students.  The course of study included “the Latin and Greek Languages, Geography, Arithmetic, and all the most useful practical branches of the Mathematics” as well as “the arts of reading, writing, spelling, and speaking English with elegance and propriety.”  His school, he suggested, produced genteel young men.

Their comportment, not just the skills they acquired and the subjects they mastered, made them genteel.  Blair asserted that “limiting the number of his pupils” allowed him to “devot[e] himself wholly to the care of their education,” including “constant intercourse and conversations with them as members of his family.”  That represented a “singular advantage” for his students compared to the attention they received from other schoolmasters.  In addition to “bringing [his pupils] on in these studies and exercises with expedition and accuracy … in such a way as shall render them most easy and agreeable to their young and impatient minds,” Blair declared that he instituted a gentle system of discipline that formed young men of character.  In the course of spending time with his students in and beyond the classroom, he took responsibility “for correcting and forming their tempers, for inspecting and regulating their general deportment, and for governing them by the milder and more successful means of argument and persuasion.”  The schoolmaster did not deploy harsh methods of correction.  Instead, he treated his students as members of an extended family.

Blair did not rely on exclusivity alone to generate interest in his boarding school.  To attract interest from the parents of prospective pupils, he described the benefits of that exclusivity.  His students not only received an education but also an upbringing that transformed them into genteel young men.  When they entrusted their sons to his care, parents could depend on them learning a variety of subjects, both practical and refined, under the watchful eye of a schoolmaster who kept order and instilled good manners without resorting to draconian means.  Blair believed that his program presented a “singular advantage” for his students … and aimed to convince parents of prospective pupils that was indeed the case.