Graphic Design

March 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (March 3, 1774).

“All kinds of Windsor Chairs.”

On and off for several months, Thomas Ash, a “WINDSOR CHAIR MAKER, At the Corner below St. Paul’s Church, In the Broad Way,” adorned his advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer with a woodcut depicting the item that he made and sold.  In contrast to Abel Buell’s advertisement featuring an image of a gun in the Connecticut Journal, Ash’s woodcut was not the only woodcut commissioned by an advertiser to appear in the March 3, 1774, edition of Rivington’s newspaper.  Elsewhere in that issue, Nesbitt Deane once again ran an advertisement featuring a tricorne hat with his name on a banner unfurled beneath it.  George Webster, “GROCER, AT THE SIGN OF THE Three Sugar Loaves & Scales,” included an image of three sugar loaves, two shorter ones flanking a taller one, enclosed within a simple border.

Those were not the only visual flourishes intended to draw attention to some of the advertisements in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  Decorative borders became a trademark of that newspaper.  In the March 3 edition, five advertisements had such borders, including those placed by Richard Sause for merchandise at his “Hardware, Jewellery and Cutlery Store, John Siemon, a furrier, for muffs and tippets, John Simnet for cleaning and repairing watches, and S. Sp. Skinner for rum distilled in New York.  Except for Simnet, all those advertisers had experience running other notices with decorative borders, as the links indicate.  Simnet previously placed an identical advertisement, including the border. Sause and Siemon also sometimes ran advertisements with woodcuts tied to their businesses.  Indeed, Siemon did so in the New-York Journal published the same day, choosing one method of adding visual interest in one newspaper and another method in the other.  Webster was the fifth advertiser to use a border of decorative type, taking advantage of both methods in a single newspaper notice.

All the woodcuts and borders in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer made its pages more vibrant than those in the Connecticut Journal.  Advertisements with woodcuts and borders still stood out from others since most did not have either of those features, yet they collectively contributed to a cohesive look that distinguished newspapers published in busy ports from those printed in smaller towns.

February 25

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

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

Norwich Packet (February 24, 1774).

“CLOCKS and WATCHES, if left with Mr. JOHN CHAMPLIN, in New-London, will be carefully forwarded to the said HARLAND, and returned with all Expedition.”

In February 1774, Thomas Harland, “WATCH & CLOCK MAKER, From LONDON,” ran an advertisement in the Norwich Packet “to acquaint the public, that he has opened a Shop … in Norwich.”  In it, he incorporated some of the appeals commonly advanced by artisans who migrated across the Atlantic.  In particular, Harland emphasized the quality of his work, declaring that he “makes, in the neatest manner, and on the most improved principles, horizontal, repeating, and plain watches.”  Like others in his trade, he also “cleans and repairs watches and clocks with the greatest care and dispatch.”  Harland devoted a nota bene to engraving and finishing clock faces and cutting and finishing parts, such as watch wheels and fusees, as “neat as in LONDON and at the same price.”  Harland suggested that he offered the sort of superior workmanship available in the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the empire.

Connecticut Gazette (February 25, 1774).

Residents of Norwich and surrounding towns were not the only prospective customers that Harland sought to attract.  He simultaneously ran the same advertisement, with a few modifications, in the Connecticut Gazette, published in New London.  His notice appeared on the front page of the February 25, 1774, edition, supplemented with a short paragraph that informed readers, “CLOCKS and WATCHES, if left with Mr. JOHN CHAMPLIN, in New-London, will be carefully forwarded to the said HARLAND, and returned with all Expedition.”  In his own advertisement on the fourth page of that issue, Champlin, a “GOLDSMITH and JEWELLER,” promoted the work he undertook in his shop and “likewise informs his Customers and others that they may have Clocks and Watches repaired at his Shop as usual.”  Harland’s advertisement suggests that those repairs did not take place in Champlin’s shop, that he instead sent them to Norwich.  Champlin had a history of partnering with associates to provide ancillary services to attract customers to his shop.  The previous fall, Champlin and Daniel Jennings jointly advertised in the New-London Gazette.  In April 1772, Champlin placed a notice in which he stated that he “employed a Person well acquainted” with “Clock and Watch making, mending, cleaning and repairing.”  In December 1769, James Watson advertised that he moved from one silversmith’s shop to Champlin’s shop “where he makes, mends and repairs all kinds of clocks and watches.”  Harland and Champlin mutually benefited from their partnership.  Harland, a newcomer, had an established artisan generating business for him, while Champlin continued providing the same array of services to current and prospective customers.

Champlin may have also played a role in Harland’s marketing efforts.  The watch- and clockmaker in Norwich may have sent his advertising copy to Champlin as part of their regular correspondence rather than directly to the printing office in New London.  An advertisement that had a rather plain appearance in the Norwich Packet featured a variety of embellishments in the Connecticut Gazette.  That version had greater variation in fonts as well as a decorative border.  Champlin’s advertisement also had a decorative border, while most paid notices in the Connecticut Gazette did not.  The compositor could have been responsible for sprucing up Harland’s advertisement, but the connection between Champlin and Harland suggests that the changes may have resulted from specific instructions from one of the advertisers.

February 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (February 21, 1774).

“☛K ☛E ☛Y ☛S ☛E ☛R’s Famous Pills.”

Hugh Gaine, “PRINTER, BOOKSELLER, and STATIONER” (as he described himself in the masthead of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury), continued marketing “KEYSER’s Famous Pills,” a remedy for syphilis, in the February 21, 1774, edition of his newspaper.  He gave his advertisement a privileged place.  It was the first item in the first column on the first page, making it difficult for readers to miss.  The advertisement consisted of several portions, collectively extending half a column.  The first two portions, enclosed within a border composed of decorative type, provided a description of the efficacy of the pills in “eradicating every Degree of a certain DISEASE” and curing other maladies and offered an overview of “a Letter from the Widow Keyser, and a Certificate from under her own Hand” testifying to the “Genuineness” of the pills Gaine sold.  In recent months, both apothecaries and printers in New York and Philadelphia engaged in public disputes about who stocked authentic pills and who peddled counterfeits.  Even though Gaine invited the public to examine the letter and certificate at his store in Hanover Square (where they could shop for “Books and Stationary Ware”), the final two portions of his advertisement consisted of transcriptions of those items and a representation of the widow’s “Seal of my Arms.”

The decorative border, the only one in that issue of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, made Gaine’s advertisement more visible among the contents of the newspaper, yet that was not his only innovative use of graphic design.  For several weeks he had been playing with manicules as a means of drawing attention to his advertisements.  In this instance, a manicule appeared before each letter of “KEYSER,” pointing to the right.  Such had been the case when the advertisement ran on January 24 and 31 and February 7 and 14.  The first time he incorporated manicules into his advertisement for “KEYSER’s FAMOUS PILLS,” however, he had twelve pairs pointing at each other, six pairs above the name of the product and six pairs below the name of the product.  That version appeared just once, on November 1, 1773.  Subsequently, Gaine positioned manicules above each letter of “KEYSER,” pointing down, in six issues.  That arrangement ran on November 8, 15, and 22 and December 6 and 13, each time with a border.  When Gaine used it again on January 17, 1774, he did not include a border but once again had six manicules pointing down, one above each letter of “KEYSER.”  He apparently did not expect the appeals in his advertisements to do all the work of marketing the patent medicine.  Instead, Gaine believed that graphic design aided his efforts to reach prospective customers who much preferred fingers literally pointing at the name of the pills in advertisements over fingers figuratively pointing at them by others who suspected them of being afflicted with “a certain DISEASE.”

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 1, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (January 17, 1774).

December 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (December 14, 1773).

“He is determined to sell so low as to give every Purchaser full Satisfaction.”

Nathaniel Sparhawk emphasized all the choices available to consumers when he advertised a “general Assortment of English and India GOODS” in the December 14, 1773, edition of the Essex Gazette.  To demonstrate some of those choices, he listed some of his merchandise.  His inventory included a “Beautiful assortment [of] superfine, middling and low priced Broad-Cloaths of the most fashionable colours,” “Ribbons of all sorts,” “MEN’s black & cloth colour’d worsted Hose,” “Women’s black, white and cloth-colour’d silk Gloves and Mitts,” “black and white gauze Handkerchiefs,” and “Silk & worsted Knee Garters.”  To further entice prospective customers, Sparhawk pledged to “sell so low as to give every reasonable Purchaser full Satisfaction.”  The shopkeeper intended for the combination of low prices and wide selection to draw customers to his shop in Salem.

In addition to those appeals, Sparhawk used graphic design to attract the attention of readers of the Essex Gazette.  His advertisement was the most visually striking of those that appeared in the December 14 edition.  A border composed of florettes enclosed the entire advertisement, setting it apart from news articles and other advertisements.  It was the only item that featured that sort of adornment on that page or anywhere in the issue.  George Deblois once again published his advertisement promoting a “fine Assortment of ENGLISH and HARD-WARE GOODS.”  It appeared in the column next to Sparhawk’s advertisement.  Both entrepreneurs enumerated many of their goods, but Deblois listed his wares in two dense paragraphs.  Sparhawk, in contrast, opted to divide his advertisement into two columns and list only one or two items on each line.  That likely made it easier for readers to peruse his notice.  In addition to the florettes that surrounded this advertisement, a line of other printing ornaments ran between the two columns, further enhancing its visual appeal.  Sparhawk stocked much of the same merchandise as Deblois and other competitors, but he leveraged graphic design in his advertisement to distinguish his business from the others.

December 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 6, 1773).

“CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN, Gives Notice to his Friends … THAT he is ready to serve them as FACTOR.”

In the fall of 1773, Christopher Gadsden took to the pages of newspapers published in Charleston to offer his services “as FACTOR, upon the usual Terms,” to plantation owners who raised rice, indigo, and other crops “in the Country.”  For those who did not wish to employ him as an agent buying and selling commodities on their behalf, he also rented space in a “great Plenty of Stores” or warehouses “on his Wharf.”

The copy in Gadsden’s advertisement read much the same as the notices placed by his competitors.  The format, however, distinguished his advertisement from the dozens of others placed for many different purposes.  At least that was the case in the South-Carolina Gazette.  In that newspaper, Gadsden’s advertisement extended across two columns.  His name served as a headline, the size of the font rivaling the title of the newspaper in the masthead.  The rest of the copy appeared in larger font than other notices, also demanding the attention of readers.

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 7, 1773).

That differed from Gadsden’s advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  Featuring identical copy, it had a much different format.  His name once again served as a headline, but in a font the same size used for headlines of other advertisements.  Most significantly, the compositor confined that advertisement to a single column, one more notice among the many that ran in that newspaper.

Compositors usually made decisions about the format of advertisements after advertisers submitted copy to printing offices.  In this instance, however, the extraordinary format for Gadsden’s advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazettesuggests that he successfully negotiated for some sort of design to set his notice apart from others.  Did he envision an advertisement spanning two columns?  Or did the compositor make that decision after learning that Gadsden wanted something different?  Did Gadsden make a similar request for his advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, only to have it rejected?  Some printers and compositors seemed more amenable to instructions from advertisers than others.  In Boston, for instance, decorative borders enclosed Jolley Allen’s notices in every newspaper except the Massachusetts Spy.  Isaiah Thomas, the printer, presumably rejected Allen’s trademark format.  Similarly, Gadsden may have had more luck working with Peter Timothy and the South-Carolina Gazette than with Charles Crouch and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.

November 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (November 4, 1773).

“A large assortment of goods.”

In its first six months of publication, Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer developed a signature style for many of its advertisements.  They featured the same copy that appeared in other newspapers published in the city, yet surrounded by borders made of decorative type.  James Rivington and the compositors who worked in his printing office certainly were not the first to devise borders for newspaper notices.  After all, borders enclosed Jolley Allen’s advertisements in several Boston newspapers going back years and the shopkeeper continued to incorporate that design element into his advertisements in the early 1770s (in every newspaper except the Massachusetts Spy, which seemed hesitant to accommodate that request).  Borders occasionally surrounded advertisements in other newspapers as well, but in no newspaper did they appear as frequently as in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

In the fall of 1773, Richard Sause, a cutler “At the CROSS SWORDS,” joined the ranks of advertisers with borders around their advertisements.  Several notices in the November 4 edition had borders, including those places buy John Arthur, a shopkeeper, John Laboyteaux, a tailor, John J. Roosevelt, a merchant, and John Siemon, a furrier.  Borders also enclosed advertisements for “SHIP BREAD” sold by Crommelin and Horsfield and Rivington’s own notice for “Dr. KEYSER’s PILLS.”  The compositor selected different printing ornaments for each advertisement, making them distinctive even though they shared a common feature.

The copy for Sause’s advertisement matched his notice on the front page of the November 1 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  An extensive list of merchandise, divided into two columns with one or two items per line, appeared below a headline and brief introduction that promised a “large assortment of goods, which he will sell cheap for cash or short credit.”  Sause’s advertisement filled three-quarters of a column in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, making it the longest advertisement with a border in that issue.  Yet Sause did not need to experiment with a border as a means of drawing attention to his advertisement.  Like Siemon, he previously ran advertisements with a woodcut depicting some aspect of his business.  For the furrier, it was a muff.  For Sause, it was a sign that showed many of the items that he made and sold, including a table knife with “SAUSE” at the base of the blade and a sword with “SAUSE” in the same position.”  The sign depicted on the woodcut even included his name and occupation, “RD. SAUSE CUTLER,” making it one of the few woodcuts personalized in such a manner.  That image appeared in Sause’s advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer on April 29, only the second issue of that newspaper.  Six months later, however, Rivington opted for the decorative border rather than the woodcut.  The increasingly popular style apparently made an impact on the advertiser, convincing him to give it a try in his own marketing in hopes that it would have a similar effect on prospective customers.

October 3

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

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (September 30, 1773).

“A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF CUTLERY.”

Richard Sause joined other entrepreneurs who experimented with decorative borders enclosing their advertisements when he promoted a “GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF CUTLERY” in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  The cutler had previous experience incorporating visual images into his advertisements in both the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury and Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  By the fall of 1773, many advertisements in New York’s newest newspaper featured borders, a popular means of enhancing notices.  Similar borders sometimes adorned advertisements in other newspapers, but not in the numbers and frequency that they appeared in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

The September 30, 1773, edition of that newspaper, for instance, included eight advertisements with ornate borders.  Most of those notices were relatively short, a single square of text.  Among them, Dennis McReady, a tobacconist, hawked his wares and Aspinwall and Smith announced that they sold “CHOICE OLD JAMAICA SPIRIT.”  Another of these shorter announcements advised that “the Delaware Lottery for the Sale of Lands, belonging to the Earl of Stirling, will commence on Monday the first Day of November next.”  James Rivington, the printer, also enclosed his advertisement for Keyser’s Pills within a decorative border.  George Webster, “At the THREE SUGAR LOAVES,” listed a couple of items “just received from LONDON” and promised “many other Articles which will be inserted next week.”  That advertisement, however, never materialized.  Given that advertisers paid by the amount of space their notices occupied rather than the number of words, borders made advertisements more expensive.  Rivington may have also charged additional fees for the borders, making them especially attractive to entrepreneurs running shorter advertisements.

Still, some advertisers enclosed longer notices within borders.  Thomas Hazard, one of Sause’s competitors, did so with an advertisement for “Ironmongery and Cutlery,” as did Francis Lewis and Sons in their advertisement that listed dozens of items for sale at their store on Queen Street.  Among these three longer advertisements, Sause’s notice was the shortest.  He apparently appreciated the visual appeal of the border and considered it worth the investment.  Four weeks later he placed a much more extensive advertisement that extended approximately three-quarters of a column.  A decorative border enclosed the lengthy list of merchandise that Sause “JUST IMPORTED.”  Along with several other advertisers, the cutler sought to generate interest in his newspaper notices by making them more visually appealing than text alone.  The printing office seems to have encouraged this innovation.

August 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (August 16, 1773).

“IRISH / LINENS, / Sheetings, cotton and / Linen checks; calicoes.”

The format of an advertisement for upcoming sales at Templeton and Stewart’s Auction Room in the August 16, 1773, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury almost certainly caught the eye of readers.  Rather than appear in a blocky paragraph of text or side-by-side columns with one or two items per line, as was the case in other advertisements for consumer goods in that issue, the list of items for sale formed a diamond.  The entries at the top and bottom of the diamond, “IRISH LINENS” and “PLAYING CARDS,” had one word per line, all in capital letters spaced appropriately to create a pleasing and attractive form.  The compositor realized that lowercase letters at the top and bottom of the diamond would have had a jarring and unpleasant visual effect.  Likewise, too many uppercase letters would have crowded the rest of the diamond, so other items appeared in lowercase letters as the list progressively widened and then progressively narrowed.

Using type to form geometric shapes, especially diamonds, was rare but not unknown in newspaper advertisements of the period.    On September 30, 1771, all of the copy in Gilbert Deblois’s advertisement in the Supplement to the Boston-Gazette appeared within a diamond, though the compositor did not manage to create lines nearly as straight as those in Templeton and Stewart’s advertisement.  Such was also the case for Deblois’s advertisement in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter later that week.  The compositor for the Essex Gazette achieved better results in an advertisement placed by John Cabot and Andrew Cabot in the December 3, 1771, edition of the Essex Gazette.  All of the copy ran at a forty-five-degree angle, filling an entire square.  Two weeks later, the compositor and the Cabots experimented with the same copy, devising a shape that resembled a bulb as much as a diamond.  Still, the unique format set it apart from other advertisements.  With a shorter list of goods, Duncan Ingraham, Jr., concluded his advertisement in the April 20, 1772, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy with a diamond that featured straight edges.

Each of these advertisements demonstrates one manner for experimenting with graphic design elements of newspaper notices.  The advertisers likely made special requests or sent instructions.  They may have even submitted copy arranged the way they wished for it to appear in print, though compositors exercised final discretion in making innovative designs work.  While some of these advertisements evidenced greater skill than others, each presented a novelty to readers and prospective customers.  Such innovative graphic design demanded attention on pages largely devoid of visual images, the format encouraging readers to peruse the content.

March 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Chronicle (March 15, 1773).

“A great variety of calicoes, whole and half chintzes, and printed cottons.”

It was not a full-page advertisement, but it came close.  Daniel Benezet’s advertisement in the March 15, 1773, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle filled the first column on the front page, extended throughout the second column, and overflowed into the final column.  Eight much shorter advertisements filled the remainder of the page.  As was often the case in eighteenth-century newspapers, news articles, letters, and editorials began on the second page.

Benezet announced that he recently imported a variety of goods from London, Bristol, and Holland.  To demonstrate the choices that he made available to consumers, he published an extensive catalog of his merchandise.  Benezet’s inventory included “Blue, green, scarlet, claret, brown, cinnamon, drab, copper and mixt coloured, middling and low priced broadcloths,” a “large assortment of men’s women’s and children’s Bath, white metal, steel, block tin, and pinchbeck shoe buckles,” “Best English hammered brass kettles,” and “Newest fashion’d snuff-boxes.”  He concluded with “&c. &c. &c.”  Repeating an abbreviation for et cetera suggested even more wonders available at his store on Arch Street in Philadelphia, too many to appear in the already lengthy newspaper advertisement.  In the first advertisement that followed Benezet’s notice, Peter Wikoff and Isaac Wikoff stated that they “joined both their stocks in trade together … and now have a very large and compleat assortment of dry goods on hand.”  The Wikoffs invited prospective customers to imagine their wares; in contrast, Benezet encouraged consumers to browse through his inventory in the pages of the public prints.  He likely believed that if readers spotted items they wanted or needed in his catalog of goods that they would be more likely to shop at his store.

To aid prospective customers in navigating the advertisement and discovering items that interested them, the compositor divided each column into two columns, ran a dividing line down the center, and listed only one item or category of items on each line.  In most instances, those descriptions required more than one line, with second and subsequent lines indented.  That created additional white space that made Benezet’s advertisement easier to read than notices that clustered merchandise together in paragraphs of dense text.  Benezet and the compositor leveraged graphic design in their efforts to engage readers of the Pennsylvania Chronicle and entice them to become customers.  The compositor apparently did not consider it sufficient to publish a lengthy advertisement, but instead believed that good design made it more effective.

Pennsylvania Chronicle (March 15, 1773).

November 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (November 3, 1772).

“A compleat ASSORTMENT of fashionable GOODS.”

Below the masthead, the entire front page of the November 3, 1772, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal consisted entirely of advertisements.  The one placed by William Stukes dominated the page, due in large part to its size and unusual format.  That newspaper ran three columns per page.  Stukes’s advertisement extended across two columns.  This was not a case of a lengthy advertisement that overflowed from one column into another.  Instead, it had been designed to take up space in more than one column.  The notice ran at the top of the first two columns, making it the first item in that issue.  That enhanced its visibility, though readers could hardly have missed an advertisement that occupied about half the space on the page.

The notice opened with a standard headline and introduction, similar to those in other advertisements for consumer goods.  The advertiser’s name in capital letters, “WILLIAM STUKES,” served as the headline.  The introduction stated that he “ACQUAINTS hid Customers and Friends, that he has removed into Broad-Street … and is now opening a complete ASSORTMENT of fashionable GOODS, imported in the last Ships from LONDON.”  In addition, Stukes declared that he would sell his wares “on the most reasonable Terms, at the usual CREDIT, and extraordinary cheap for CASH.”  He used formulaic language even as the format differentiated his advertisement from others on the same page and throughout the rest of the issue.

While the headline and introduction ran across two columns, Stukes’s extensive list of merchandise ran in three narrow columns.  Other advertisers grouped goods together in dense paragraphs.  Stukes made it easier for prospective customers to skim his advertisement and spot items of interest by giving each item its own line.  That resulted in significantly more white space within his advertisement than in the news and other paid notices.  For instance, “Silk gauze handkerchiefs” appeared on their own line without other items crowding them.  That even allowed space for readers to make notations, if they wished.

Stukes deployed popular marketing strategies and incorporated formulaic language into his advertisement, depending on its size and unique format to draw attention to the low prices and range of choices he offered to consumers.  Even though this newspaper notice consisted entirely of text, Stukes effectively used graphic design to distinguish it from advertisements placed by his competitors.