German-Language Advertisements

March 15

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

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

Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (March 15, 1776).

“Gesunde Bernunft.”

An advertisement partially in English and partially in German informed readers of the March 15, 1776, edition of Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote that the printer stocked and sold several political journals, including “The WEEKLY VOTES Of the HONOURABLE HOUSE of ASSEMBLY, of the present Sitting,” “All the VOTES of the last Year’s Session,” and “The Fourth and Fifth VOLUMES of [the] Collection of the VOTES from the Year 1744.”  Miller offered his readers opportunities to learn more about current events as well as the political history of Pennsylvania over the past three decades.  “Gleichfalls” or likewise, he sold “Gesunde Bernunft,” a German translation of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  Among the many printers who had advertised the popular political pamphlet in the two months since Robert Bell published the first edition in Philadelphia on January 9, Miller was the first to list it as an item also available for purchase rather than making it the focal point of his advertisement.

That had not always been the case in the pages of Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote.  On January 16, Bell inserted an advertisement (in English) that announced the publication and sale of Common Sense at his shop on Third Street.  A week later, Bell’s advertisement ran once again, this time competing with an advertisement (in German) that announced that Gesunde Bernunft “Es ist jebt under der Presse” or “is in the press” and soon to be published by Melchior Steiner and Carl Cist.  Although Steiner and Cist did not collaborate with Bell on their German edition, they replicated much of his advertisement.  That included giving readers an overview of the contents by listing the headings for the four sections of pamphlet and publishing an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.  A month later, Steiner and Cist ran another advertisement (in German) announcing publication of Gesunde Bernunft.  They charged one shilling for a single copy or nine shillings for a dozen.  Like other printers, they offered a discount for those who purchased in volume for retail sales or to distribute to family and friends.

The Adverts 250 Project continues to track the proliferation of local editions of Common Sense and newspaper advertisements intended to disseminate the pamphlet widely, yet a complete accounting cannot overlook the German translation, Gesunde Bernunft, published and advertised by Steiner and Cist.  Very shortly after the pamphlet grabbed the attention of English-speaking colonizers, Steiner and Cist set about making Paine’s radical ideas accessible to German-speaking colonizers in Philadelphia and the backcountry.

March 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (March 5, 1776).

“Für Officiers und Soldaten.”

James Butland, a lacemaker who kept shop on Front Street in Philadelphia, placed his advertisements in several newspapers in 1775 and 1776.  Like many other entrepreneurs in urban ports, he inserted notices in multiple local newspapers, including the Pennsylvania Journal in February 1775 and the Pennsylvania Evening Post in July 1775.  Yet he did not confine his marketing solely to newspapers published in Philadelphia.  In December 1775, he ran an advertisement in the New-England Chronicle, published in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  With the Continental Army under the command of General George Washington continuing the siege of Boston, perhaps he thought that he could entice customers interested in “gold and silver epaulets for officers” and other adornments for military uniforms.

Pennsylvania Evening Post (February 10, 1776).

The lacemaker also continued seeking customers, including officers and soldiers, in Philadelphia.  In February 1776, he ran an advertisement for “All kinds of uniforms for officers and soldiers … made to any pattern,” “silk sword belts,” and “very fine white muffatees” (or fingerless gloves) “fit for officers or soldiers to exercise in.”  Butland added a nota bene, stating that “[i]f any commanding officer, or other gentleman, wants a particular dress made in gold or silver, to any pattern, he may … have it done at a short notice.”  Although he continued to make “all kinds of laces and fringes,” Butland took advantage of current events to cater to officers and soldiers.  He did so in two languages!  He inserted the same advertisement in Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, a newspaper published in Philadelphia to serve the community of German settlers that lived near the city and in the backcountry.  A nota bene in the masthead of that newspaper proclaimed, “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”  Butland, who previously described himself as a “FRINGE and LACE-MAKER, from BRISTOL,” presumably availed himself of that service in his efforts to attract new customers.  He made bold decisions about where to place his newspaper advertisements as he sought to increase his share of the market.

June 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 13, 1771).

“Advertisements … are by him translated gratis.”

When printer Henry Miller (Johann Heinrich Müller) moved to a new location in the spring of 1771, he placed advertisements in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal to alert current and prospective customers.  He also used the opportunity to advise them of specialized services he provided, proclaiming that he performed “all Manner of PRINTING-WORK, in English, German, and other Languages.”  In particular, Miller noted “English and German ADVERTISEMENTS done on the shortest Notice; and a German NEWS-PAPER published every Tuesday.”  A migrant from Germany himself, Miller granted prospective advertisers greater access to the sizable German community in Pennsylvania and beyond.

Miller commenced printing the Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote in 1762, making it well established by the time he ran his advertisements in the colony’s English newspapers in 1771.  The final line of those advertisements in those newspapers echoed a note that appeared in the masthead of his own newspaper, usually the only portion printed in English rather than German.  “All ADVERTISEMENTS,” it read, “to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”  In offering his services as a translator and not charging for it, Miller sought to generate revenue by increasing the number of advertisers who placed notices in the Wochentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote.

The printer also produced other forms of advertising.  Items “printed single” likely included broadsides, handbills, trade cards, billheads, and catalogs.  Like their counterparts printed in English, those advertisements were ephemeral compared to the newspapers and almanacs that came off of Miller’s press.  Few survive today, but Miller’s newspaper advertisements and masthead suggest that various kinds of advertisements in German enhanced the vibrant advertising culture that emerged in Philadelphia in the decades before the American Revolution.  As newspapers, handbills, and other items printed by Miller circulated in Philadelphia and beyond, colonists encountered marketing in more than one language, underscoring global networks of commerce and migration in vast early America.