Isaiah Thomas

September 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (September 5, 1776).

“ISAIAH THOMAS … has removed his PRINTING OFFICE to SALEM.”

Isaiah Thomas had plans to establish a new newspaper in Salem in the fall of 1776.  He announced his intention in an advertisement in the September 5 edition of the New-England Chronicle, declaring that “at the Request of several Gentlemen in the County of Essex, he has removed his PRINTING OFFICE to SALEM” and would begin publishing a newspaper there “as soon as a sufficient Number of Subscribers appear to support it.”  Thomas described himself as the “Late Printer and Publisher of the well-known Massachusetts Spy, in BOSTON,” but he did not mention that he had also left Boston just before the battles at Lexington and Concord and printed the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester throughout the siege of Boston.   Not long after the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, Thomas made plans to return to the coast and leased the Massachusetts Spy to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow.  He had more experience printing a newspaper that supported the American cause than he acknowledged in his advertisement.

To make his new newspaper competitive with others printed in and near Boston, Thomas pledged that customers could purchase subscriptions “on the same Terms as the Boston Papers.”  M. Williams, a bookseller, already collected subscriptions.  The printer anticipated that he would soon take in subscriptions at his printing office in the store previously occupied by John Gooll “in the Main-Street, fronting the Road leading to Marblehead.”  He estimated that it would take about four weeks to gather enough subscribers to support the newspaper.  Despite his efforts and experience, however, the new newspaper never materialized.  Thomas recounted what happened only briefly in his History of Printing in America(1810), stating that “many obstructions to the plan arising in consequence of the war” caused him to sell “the printing materials which he carried to that town.”  In 1778, he returned to Worcester, “took into possession the press which he had left there, and resumed the publication” of the Massachusetts Spy.[1]  People clamored for the news, as a notice from Stearns and Bigelow in the Massachusetts Spy demonstrated, yet that was not necessarily enough to make printing a newspaper a viable enterprise.  Whether or not Thomas attracted enough subscribers, a variety of challenges, including shortages of paper during the Revolutionary War, prevented him from launching a newspaper in Salem.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 181.

August 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 7, 1776).

“He once more earnestly begs that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers … would immediately pay their respective ballances.”

When Isaiah Thomas transferred the Massachusetts Spy to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow and returned to Boston in the summer of 1776, he had difficulty collecting payments from his former customers.  Even though he made several trips to Worcester to tie up loose ends, that was not enough so he resorted to placing advertisements in the newspaper he formerly printed.

“I. THOMAS, the late publisher of this Paper,” he declared, “is very sorry that so many of his Customers are so unkind as to neglect paying him the several small sums due to him for services already performed.”  In addition to newspaper subscriptions, those services likely ranged from job printing of handbills and blanks to purchases of books, pamphlets, stationery supplies, and even patent medicines.  Thomas may even have allowed credit for newspapers advertisements.  He expressed exasperation that he “made several journeys to Worcester on purpose to receive his just due” for the services he had rendered to the public in printing the first newspaper in the town and establishing its first printing office, “but, to his surprise, finds the old proverb verified, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”  In case his former customers considered what they owed so inconsequential that Thomas would not miss it, he made a plea that “that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, &c. (if it is but two-pence) would immediately pay their respective ballances … as so many small sums when collected together will be of essential service” to him.  In contrast, “the want of which will be of great detriment” as he pursued new endeavors.

That advertisement, dated “Boston, July 22, 1776,” was not the first that Thomas ran in the Massachusetts Spy.  He previously inserted a shorter notice, dated “Worcester, June 14, 1776.”  When it did not have the desired effect, Stearns and Bigelow enclosed Thomas’s new advertisement with a border of ornamental type and gave it a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page of the July 24 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have instructed or insisted that the inexperienced printers do so rather than leaving it completely to their discretion.  In subsequent issue, the notice moved to the final page, but the border remained, distinguishing the advertisement from all other content in the newspaper.  The format demanded the attention of readers who had treated Thomas as “Out of sight, out of mind.”

May 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (May 31, 1776).

“A Press, in all probability will be continued, and a public Paper regularly printed each week.”

A notice “To the SUBSCRIBERS for THOMAS’s Massachusetts-Spy” in the May 31, 1776, edition informed that that “this week’s paper compleats the twelve month with most of the Subscribers.”  With the period for an annual subscription coming to an end, Isaiah Thomas “earnestly begs his good Customers would settle with him as soon as possible.”  That was even more imperative because the printer “proposes removing to Boston.”  Thomas had not intended to settle in Worcester.  In the winter and spring of 1775, he advertised plans to open a printing office in that town and set up a junior partner to oversee the business there, including publishing Worcester’s first newspaper.  Events in Boston, however, prompted Thomas to flee to Worcester and run the printing office himself.  He left shortly before the battles at Lexington and Concord and continued printing the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester during the siege of Boston.  After British forces evacuated the city on March 17, 1776, he contemplated returning to Boston.

What did that mean for Worcester?  Thomas expressed appreciation “to all those who have encouraged him in his business the year past” and declared that he “is willing to do what lays in his power towards continuing a Printing-Office in Worcester.”  With most of the annual subscriptions for Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy coming to an end, he needed to assess demand for continuing to publish a newspaper there.  To that end, he requested that “all those who incline to take papers from this town, and support the press, … would give in their names by Friday the 6th day of June.”  At that time, he would publish a handbill “for the Subscribers” with more information and collect subscription fees not yet paid.  Whether the printing office and Worcester’s first local newspaper closed depended on how many subscribers made a commitment to supporting the venture.  “[I]f a sufficient number of Subscribers appear, to continue and support the publication of a news-paper in this Town,” Thomas advised, “a Press, in all probability will be continued, and a public Paper regularly printed each week.”  With the May 31 edition, the printer suspended publication of the newspaper, yet his notice gained that “sufficient number of Subscribers” that three weeks later William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow distributed a new issue on June 21.  They altered the title from Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy to the Massachusetts Spy.  Two years later, Thomas returned to Worcester, resumed his role as printer, and changed the title back to Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy.

May 10

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

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (May 10, 1776).

“A SERMON, preached [on] the day appointed by civil authority, for a public THANKSGIVING.”

Like many other newspaper printers, Isaiah Thomas used the pages of his own newspaper to promote other items that came off his press.  On May 10, 1776, for instance, he ran two advertisements for sermons preached on November 23, 1775, a day designated as a “Public THANKSGIVING” by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and announced in the November 16 edition of the New-England Chronicle.

The first of those advertisements appeared on the first page of the May 10 edition.  When setting the type, the compositor had enough space for news from Philadelphia and Charleston with just a small amount left at the bottom of the last column.  Several of the advertisements that ran on other pages would have fit there, but Thomas opted to give a privileged place to an advertisement for “A SERMON,” by Henry Cumings, “preached in Billerica on … the day appointed by civil authority, for a public THANKSGIVING throughout the Province of Massachusetts-Bay.”  The notice declared that the sermon was “Just published” and cost “Nine-Pence.”  Eighteenth-century readers knew that “Just published” meant that an item was now available for purchase, but it did not necessarily indicate that the advertiser who sold it had printed it.  In this case, however, Thomas clarified that he “Printed and sold” the sermon in Worcester.

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (May 10, 1775).

His advertisement for “A SERMON, preached at Worcester,” by Thaddeus MacCarty followed a similar format.  It opened with a header that declared, “Just published, price Nine-Pence,” and reminded readers that November 23 had been “a Day of public THANSKGIVING, by the appointment of the General Assembly.”  Once again, the printer stated that the pamphlet was “Printed and sold by I. THOMAS” rather than an item that he acquired from another printing office and retailed at his own.  Although this advertisement now appeared on the fourth page among paid notices placed for a variety of purposes, when the two advertisements first ran in the April 26, 1775, edition of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy they appeared together on the third page as the first commercial notices following the news.  The printer sought to increase the chances that prospective customers would take note of advertisements for the sermons he published.

April 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (April 26, 1776).

“He … most earnestly requests that all who are indebted to him for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. would pay him.”

The April 26, 1776, edition of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy opened with a notice from the printer, Isaiah Thomas.  “THE Printer hereby gives notice,” he declared, “that, for the present he shall continue his business in Worcester.”  Thomas had arrived in town a year earlier.  In the spring of 1775, he advertised his intention to establish Worcester’s first printing office and newspaper and entrust both to a junior partner.  As the imperial crisis intensified, however, he departed Boston just before the battles at Lexington and Concord, relocated to Worcester beyond the reach of the British, and set himself up as the town’s new printer.  On May 3, 1775, he published the first issue of the Massachusetts Spy printed in Worcester.  A year later, he considered whether he wished to remain following the British evacuation of Boston.  Although he announced that “for the present he shall continue his business in Worcester,” a month later he leased the newspaper to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow.  Thomas moved to Salem “with an intention to commence business in that place; but many obstructions to the plan arising in consequence of the war, he sold the printing materials which he carried to that town, and, in 1778, returned to Worcester, took into possession the press which he had left there, and resumed publication of the Spy.”[1]

In late April 1776, Thomas had not yet decided to leave Worcester.  In hopes of maintaining he business he pursued there, he issued a call for customers to pay their bills.  Throughout the colonies, printers (and other entrepreneurs) frequently ran similar notices.  Thomas did so occasionally and “once more, earnestly requests that all those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. would pay him.”  Like other printers, he extended generous credit to subscribers and other customers.  Doing so put his business in a difficult position: “Although the sum due from each person is small, yet his accounts of this kind are so numerous, they were they paid, it would enable him to support his business with credit, and satisfaction to his readers and himself.”  Thomas emphasized the benefits to readers and the public – the quality of the newspaper – rather than taking a more common approach, threatening legal action against those who disregarded his notice.  In the era of the American revolution, printers often proclaimed that their communities should give them credit for publishing newspapers as a public service.

Thomas indicated that customers owed him for both newspapers and advertisements.  Historians of the early American press sometimes assert that printers allowed credit for subscriptions but insisted that advertisers pay for notice in advance.  Thomas’s notice may suggest that he took a different approach, but it depends on what he meant by “Advertisements.”  He could have referred to newspaper notices, though not necessarily.  He might have meant broadsides, handbills, and other advertising materials printed separately.  Thomas’s account books and correspondence may clarify which kinds of advertisements qualified for credit and which had to be paid before they went to press.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 181.

Happy Birthday, Isaiah Thomas!

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features , , , , ,

Isaiah Thomas, patriot printer and founder of the American Antiquarian Society, was born on January 19 (New Style) in 1749 (or January 8, 1748/49, Old Style).  It’s quite an historical coincidence that the three most significant printers in eighteenth-century America — Benjamin Franklin, Isaiah Thomas, and Mathew Carey — were all born in January.

isaiah_thomas1818
Isaiah Thomas (January 30, 1739 – April 4, 1831). American Antiquarian Society.

The Adverts 250 Project is possible in large part due to Thomas’s efforts to collect as much early American printed material as he could, originally to write his monumental History of Printing in America.  The newspapers, broadsides, books, almanacs, pamphlets, and other items he gathered in the process eventually became the initial collections of the American Antiquarian Society.  That institution’s ongoing mission to acquire at least one copy of every American imprint through 1876 has yielded an impressive collection of eighteenth-century advertising materials, including newspapers, magazine wrappers, trade cards, billheads, watch papers, book catalogs, subscription notices, broadsides, and a variety of other items.  Exploring the history of advertising in early America — indeed, exploring any topic related to the history, culture, and literature of early America at all — has been facilitated for more than two centuries by the vision of Isaiah Thomas and the dedication of the curators and other specialists at the American Antiquarian Society over the years.

Thomas’s connections to early American advertising were not limited to collecting and preserving the items created on American presses during the colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods.  Like Mathew Carey, he was at the hub of a network he cultivated for distributing newspapers, books, and other printed goods — including advertising to stimulate demand for those items.  Sometimes this advertising was intended for dissemination to the general public (such as book catalogs and subscription notices), but other times it amounted to trade advertising (such as circular letters and exchange catalogs intended only for fellow printers, publishers, and booksellers).

Thomas also experimented with advertising on wrappers that accompanied his Worcester Magazine, though he acknowledged to subscribers that these wrappers were ancillary to the publication:  “The two outer leaves of each number are only a cover to the others, and when the volume is bound may be thrown aside, as not being a part of the Work.”[1]

jan-30-worcerster-magazine-april-1786
Detail of Advertising Wrapper, Worcester Magazine (Second Week of April, 1786).

Thomas’s patriotic commitment to freedom of the press played a significant role in his decision to develop advertising wrappers.  As Thomas relays in his History of Printing in America, he discontinued printing his newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, after the state legislature passed a law that “laid a duty of two-thirds of a penny on newspapers, and a penny on almanacs, which were to be stamped.”  Such a move met with strong protest since it was too reminiscent of the Stamp Act imposed by the British two decades earlier, prompting the legislature to repeal it before it went into effect.  On its heels, however, “another act was passed, which imposed a duty on all advertisements inserted in the newspapers” printed in Massachusetts.  Thomas vehemently rejected this law as “an improper restraint on the press. He, therefore, discontinued the Spy during the period that this act was in force, which was two years. But he published as a substitute a periodical work, entitled ‘The Worcester Weekly Magazine,’ in octavo.”[2] This weekly magazine lasted for two years; Thomas discontinued it and once again began printing the Spy after the legislature repealed the objectionable act.

jan-30-advertising-wrapper-worcester-magazine-4th-week-may-1786
Third Page of Advertising Wrapper, Worcester Magazine (Fourth Week of May, 1786).

Isaiah Thomas was not interested in advertising for its own sake to the same extent as Mathew Carey, but his political concerns did help to shape the landscape of early American advertising.  Furthermore, his vision for collecting American printed material preserved a variety of advertising media for later generations to admire, analyze, ponder, and enjoy.  Happy 277th birthday, Isaiah Thomas!

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, “To the CUSTOMERS for the WORCESTER MAGAZINE,” Worcester Magazine, wrapper, second week of April, 1786.

[2] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers, vol. 2 (Worcester, MA: Isaac Sturtevant, 1810), 267-268.

November 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (November 24, 1775).

“This Almanack contains … a very particular Account of … the Battle of Lexington.”

In the fall of 1775, Isaiah Thomas promoted “The NORTH-AMERICAN’s ALMANACK, For the Year 1776.”  He advertised the handy reference manual in the November 24 edition of his newspaper, Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy, Or, American Oracle of Liberty.  According to the imprint on the title page, the almanac was printed in “MASSACHUSETTS-BAY … by I[SAIAH] THOMAS, in WORCESTER, B[ENJAMIN] EDES,” the printer of the Boston-Gazette, “in WATERTOWN; and S[AMUEL] & E[BENEZER] HALL,” the printers of the New-England Chronicle, “in CAMBRIDGE.”  The advertisement also indicated that each of those printing offices stocked and sold the almanac.

Each of those printers earned reputations for their support of the American cause.  In this instance, their marketing efforts reflected their politics.  The advertisement noted that the almanac included “many interesting and entertaining matters” in addition to “what is necessary and useful,” singling out “a very particular Account of the commencement of Hostilities between Great-Britain and America, and the Battle of Lexington, by the Rev. Wm. Gordon.”  The contents listed on the title page included other items that resonated with current events, including “Description of a Tory and a Whig,” “Directions for preserving the Health of the Soldiers in the Camp,” and “Sir Richard Rum’s advice to the Soldiers, shewing the good effects of Spirituous Liquors when they are used with moderation, and their pernicious effects when they are used to excess, with a cure for Drunkenness.”  Such moral lessons often appeared in almanacs, but it had new significance as the siege of Boston continued.

Thomas and his fellow printers considered the account of the Battle of Lexington “worthy to be preserved by every American,” signaling that their almanac featured more than just “interesting and entertaining matters.”  Readers had a patriotic duty to purchase The North-American’s Almanack and then commemorate the first battle of the Revolutionary War and renew their commitment to defending American liberties each time they consulted the almanac.  The printers sought to disseminate it widely, selling it “by the Thousand, Hundred, Groce, Dozen or single,” intending that retailers purchase in volume for resale.  The price on the title page offered a discount, “6 Coppers Single, and 20 Shillings the Dozen,” and the printers may have negotiated even better deals for those purchasing in even greater quantity.  At the same time that they earned their livelihoods by selling almanacs, they also seized an opportunity to commemorate the Battle of Lexington.  Consumers, they asserted, had a patriotic duty to choose this almanac over any of the alternatives.

November 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (November 17, 1775).

“A CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE is established in this town.”

Isaiah Thomas, the printer of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy, gained a new title in the fall of 1775.  He became the postmaster for the “CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE” in Worcester.  In an advertisement in the November 17 edition of his newspaper, he informed the public that “the Post-Mater General of the United Colonies” established the post office in Worcester.  That meant that “letters sent to this office, may be dispatched to all the principal towns on the continent” via a network of post offices and riders authorized by the Second Continental Congress as an alternative to the imperial postal system.  Thomas provided a schedule.  Outgoing mail “sent by the Eastern Post is closed every Tuesday evening by six o’clock.”  For outgoing mail, the post office dispatched letter received “Friday morning by nine o’clock.”  That corresponded with the arrival of new mail: “The Western mail arrives at this OFFICE every Tuesday evening; and the Eastern, every Friday morning.”  Patrons who planned accordingly could use the new postal system to correspond with friends, relatives, and associates throughout the colonies.

Thomas gave this advertisement a prominent place when he published it, placing it immediately below a notice that the Second Continental Congress created a committee to compile a “just and well authenticated account of the hostilities committed by the ministerial troops and navy in America since March last,” including “proper evidence of the truth of the facts related.”  In documenting buildings destroyed, vessels seized, and stock taken, they justified their resistance and engaged in public relations to demonstrate that colonizers had legitimate grievances.  Thomas could have placed any number of other advertisements below that notice, yet he opted for one that promoted another effort undertaken by the Second Continental Congress to protect American liberties.  It was a fitting editorial decision for a newspaper with American Oracle of Liberty as its secondary title.  In this instance, Thomas deployed an advertisement as a continuation of news about current events, keeping readers updated not only about what occurred but also about how they could support the American cause.

September 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (September 13, 1775).

“Furnish him with correct lists of the names of all gentlemen in office, proper for such a publication.”

The September 13, 1775, edition of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy consisted almost entirely of news selected by the Isaiah Thomas.  It featured only a few advertisements.  Among them, one promoted one of printer’s upcoming projects.  He announced that he “intends publishing as soon as may be, a compleat ALMANACK and REGISTER for the ensuing year.”  The “REGISTER” portion would contain listings of officials, an especially useful resource at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  Yet there had been so much upheaval in the five months since the battles at Lexington and Concord that Thomas needed assistance with this endeavor.  To that end, he asserted that he “will be much obliged to gentlemen in this and the neighbouring provinces … to furnish him with correct lists of the names of all gentlemen in office, proper for such a publication.”  He hoped that they would do so “with all convenient speed” so he had sufficient time to compile the almanac and register, take the combined volume to press, and market it before the new year.

Yet that was not the only information that Thomas wished to update in this annual publication.  He also requested that correspondents submit “[w]hatever alterations there may have been in the names of persons who keep public houses, since the publication of the Almanack last year.”  Taverns were important gathering places for discussing politics and current events as well as convenient places to deliver letters and newspapers.  Thomas likely desired that information to aid in conducting his own business, not solely for publishing in the almanac and register.  Other Patriot printers in Massachusetts joined Thomas in compiling an accurate list of the proprietors of public houses.  The notice indicated that Benjamin Edes, “Printer and Watertown,” and Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, “Printers in Cambridge,” also collected that information.  Edes printed the Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, having briefly suspended the newspaper and moving out of Boston to Watertown once the fighting began.  The Halls printed the New-England Chronicle.  Until recently, they had published the Essex Gazette in Salem.  They relocated to Cambridge and renamed their newspaper as the newspapers in Boston ceased or suspended publication.  Although Thomas, Edes, and the Halls would eventually compete to sell almanacs, they pursued a common cause in compiling a listing of public houses.

Printers sometimes called on readers to participate in this eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing.  A year earlier, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, printers of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, ran a notice to “beg the Favour” of tavernkeepers to submit their names for Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1775.  Not long after that, they made a similar request for “Lists for their REGISTER,” asking “Gentlemen (both in this and the neighbouring Governments) that have been appointed into Office, either Civil, Military or Ecclesiastical” to submit their names for inclusion.  When Thomas issued his request in the fall of 1775, he utilized a familiar practice.

July 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (July 5, 1775).

“A NARRATIVE OF THE EXCURSION and RAVAGES OF THE KINGS TROOPS, Under the Command of General Gage.”

I am fortunate to live just a few miles from the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.  I pass the AAS on my way to campus, take students there to examine primary sources from the era of the American Revolution, and use its collections in my own research.  Over the years that I have been in Worcester, I have become familiar with the stories that scholars and staff affiliated with the AAS most often tell about its founder, Isaiah Thomas.  In recent months, I have used newspaper advertisements to retell some of those stories … and today I want to draw attention to an important detail that I have not heard highlighted nearly as often as the most treasured and repeated parts of the Thomas narrative.

This is a brief version of the story most often told: Thomas was an ardent Patriot whose editorial perspective in the Massachusetts Spy, the newspaper he printed in Boston so angered British officials that for his own safety he left Boston in April 1775, getting out just before the battles at Lexington and Concord and the siege of the city that followed.  Thomas headed to Worcester, taking his press there and continuing to print the Massachusetts Spy in that town.  It took a few weeks for him to acquire the paper necessary to print his newspaper, but when the first Worcester edition appeared on May 3, 1775, it included an account of the events at Lexington and Concord.  Thomas famously signed the bottom of one copy: “This News-paper is the first Thing ever printed in Worcester – Isaiah Thomas.”  (This story does not mention that Thomas previously announced plans to establish a printing office in Worcester and install a junior partner to print the town’s first newspaper or that when he left Boston he advertised that he would publish the next issue of the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester on May 3.)  Thomas settled in Worcester.  He collected as many books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, and other items printed in America as he could to research and publish his History of Printing in America in 1810.  Those items became the initial collections of the American Antiquarian Society, founded in Worcester in 1812.  Thomas did not establish the library and learned society in Boston because he felt Worcester provided greater security as the new nation went to war with Great Britain for a second time.

That’s a great story, one that engages students, scholars, and visitors to the American Antiquarian Society … but there’s even more that, from my perspective, makes it an even better story about this Patriot printer and his contributions to the American cause.  Two months after Thomas printed the first issue of the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester, the newspaper carried an advertisement for “A NARRATIVE OF THE EXCURSION and RAVAGES OF THE KINGS TROOPS, Under the Command of General Gage, On the 19th of April, 1775.”  The book also included “DEPOSITIONS, Taken by ORDER of CONGRESS, To support the Truth of it.”  Just as the first newspaper printed in the town featured an account of Lexington and Concord, so did the first book published there.  Once again, Thomas made a notation on the product of his press: “First Book printed in Worcester.”[1]  The imprint at the bottom of the title page stated, “WORCESTER, Printed by ISAIAH THOMAS, by order of the PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.”  To underscore the point, Thomas printed the corresponding resolution on the verso of that page.[2]  Thomas served as printer, even though other printers had offices closer to where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met in Watertown.  For instance, Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall relocated the Essex Gazette from Salem to Cambridge and renamed it the New-England Chronicle.  Benjamin Edes, another prominent Patriot printer, moved to Watertown and printed the Boston-Gazette there.

When Thomas printed A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops and marketed it in the Massachusetts Spy, Patriots fought a war on many fronts.  In addition to the battles at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, they waged a war of information.  Thomas worked to establish and expand a communications infrastructure to collect and disseminate news from Boston and its environs, the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, and throughout the colonies and beyond.  Yet he competed with misinformation and British officials and Tories who had different perspectives and relayed different versions of recent events and their causes.  That made it even more important to supplement newspaper coverage of the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord, sometimes confused and contradictory, with “the Truth of it,” not just as presented by a Patriot printer but supported by “DEPOSITIONS, Taken by ORDER of CONGRESS.”  Thomas played an important role in establishing the narrative of what occurred on April 19, 1775.

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[1] See the first image on the page linked here.

[2] Advance to the fifth image on the page linked here.