Joint Advert by Man and Woman

April 2

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 2, 1776).

“HYNS TAYLOR, UPHOLSTERER, … AMELIA TAYLORS, MILANER and MANTUA MAKER.”

When Hyns Taylor, an upholsterer, relocated from London to Philadelphia, he introduced himself to prospective customers via an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post in the spring of 1776.  Like other artisans who migrated from the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the empire to the colonies, he encouraged consumers to associate sophistication with his prior experience.  Rather than merely stating that he was “from London,” as many did in their advertisements, he instead specified that he was “late from Saint James’s, London,” apparently believing that readers recognized the cachet of that address.  He also emphasized that he upholstered “all kind of furniture in the newest fashion,” including “drapery, Venetian, Gothic, canopy, four-post and couch beds.”  Even though the colonies were at odds with the empire, many colonizers even calling for independence as the anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord approached, they still looked to London for that “newest fashion,” yet Taylor also took current events into account by noting that he also worked on “field and camp beds” with “all sorts of mattresses.”

Members of Taylor’s household may have assisted him in the upholstery shop, yet Amelia Taylor, most likely his wife, but perhaps a daughter or other female relation, pursued her own enterprise as a “MILANER and MANTUA MAKER.”  Hyns and Amelia devised a join advertisement.  He received top billing in the first paragraph, while the second paragraph informed prospective customers that she “makes up all sorts of milanery goods,” such as “child-bed linen, childrens robes, jams, frocks, vests and tunics, gentlemens shirts, stocks, and all kinds of needlework.”  She emphasized her skill, stating that she did her work “in the very neatest manner,” though the Taylors likely intended for readers to note her origins “from Saint James’s, London,” when they considered engaging her services.  Although Amelia appeared second in the advertisement, her name and occupation in capital letters received the same treatment as Hyns’s name and occupation.  Only the drop cap, the large letter “H” that began the advertisement, distinguished his name from hers.  That may have been by their own design when they composed the copy or it may have been a decision made by the compositor when setting the type.  Either way, it signaled a partnership in which both Hyns and Amelia contributed to the livelihood of the Taylor household.

March 29

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

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

Mar 29 - 3:29:1768 South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (March 29, 1768).

“He intends to open School … she will undertake to teach the Girls their Needle.”

In preparation for opening a school in Charleston, Daniel Stevens placed an advertisement in the March 29, 1768, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal. He advised “the Public, and his Friends in particular” that he would teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, establishing a curriculum that set his school apart from the “British Academy on the Green” that Osborne Straton promoted in another advertisement in the same issue. Osborne taught English, Latin, and French as well as drawing, “Poetry, Rhetoric, [and] Logic.” Instead of “Writing” and “Arithmetic,” he taught “Writing in the Mercantile and Law Hands” and “The various useful and practical Branches of the Mathematicks.” Straton implied that he welcomed only boys as “Day Scholars,” but he tutored “Gentlemen or Ladies” in their homes on selected afternoons.

Stevens, on the other hand, invited readers to send both boys and girls to his school, where he provided a more modest and practical education. To that end, his advertisement included a short section in which Katharine Stevens announced “that she will undertake to teach the Girls their Needle.” As Straton cornered the market when it came to a genteel education, Daniel Stevens offered a different sort of enhancement to his curriculum, an enhancement that readers who could not translate the Latin quotations sprinkled throughout Straton’s advertisement may have considered much more useful and important.

That enhancement depended on the contributions of Katharine Stevens, presumably Daniel’s wife (but possibly a sister, daughter, or other female relation). The wording of the advertisement presents the school primarily as Daniel’s venture, but Katharine likely acted as more than a mere assistant in the endeavor. Even if she did not teach the academic subjects, she did participate in the instruction of the female students. In the process, she also supervised the children at the school, contributing to good order within the classroom. Some parents of prospective students may have been reassured simply by Katharine’s presence, assuming that it signaled more care and attention than Daniel could deliver by himself.

Both the copy and the format of this advertisement position Katharine as subordinate to Daniel. He sought pupils for his school; she taught a gendered skill, sewing, to only some of his students, the girls. Yet that description likely belied a more equal partnership that guided this joint venture in both planning and execution. At the very least, Daniel Stevens relied on the contributions made by Katharine Stevens when marketing his (their?) new school. She provided instruction in an area that he did not possess skill or expertise, an addition to the curriculum intended to make the school more attractive to prospective students and their parents.