What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (November 26, 1774).
“Names of those Gentlemen who are now indebted to the Library Company should be inserted … in the Providence Gazette.”
The Providence Library Company, a private subscription library, conducted some of its business in the public prints in the eighteenth century. Early in the fall of 1774, Theodore Foster, the librarian, ran an advertisement in the Providence Gazette, requesting that “All Persons … who have any Books belonging to the Library … return the same immediately” so they could be “examined and numbered.” In addition to conducting an inventory of the collection, the librarian was “ready to settle with the delinquent Proprietors” who had not paid their subscriptions.
At the end of November, Foster published a new advertisement in the wake of a vote at a recent “Meeting of the Proprietors.” They had decided that “the Names of those Gentlemen who are now indebted to the Library Company should we inserted three Weeks successively in the Providence Gazette, with the Sums respectively due from each.” That list consisted of more than two dozen subscribers, most of them with debts going back more than a decade. The proprietors in good standing determined that the grace period had extended long enough. Accordingly, the advertisement also informed the delinquent subscribers that if they did not make payment before December 3 then “their Rights should be sold by the Treasurer” at a public auction on December 10. They took that action “agreeable to the printed and established Rules of the Library.” The advertisement first ran on November 19 and again on November 26. It made its final appearance on December 3, the deadline for settling accounts. Perhaps Foster offered a little more leeway, provided subscribers paid before the auction on December 10, but the advertisement made clear that overdue subscriptions would be addressed, one way or another, “By Order of the Proprietors.” Their next meeting was scheduled for the day of the auction, an opportunity to assess the outcome of their efforts to get everything in good order.
As was often the case, advertisements like this one relayed local news to the readers of the Providence Gazette. John Carter, the printer, selected which news and editorials to publish elsewhere in the newspaper, yet purchasing advertising space gave individuals and organizations opportunities to become editors who decided on some of the information presented to the public.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (October 8, 1774).
“The whole Library may be got together, examined and numbered, as soon as possible.”
Advertisements published in the Providence Gazette reveal some of the work undertaken in administering the Providence Library Company. In 1753, prominent residents founded this subscription library, believing that “a Collection or Library of Usefull and Edifying Books will most certainly tend to the Benefit and Instruction of the Inhabitants of this Town and County of Providence and the Rising Generation thereto belonging.” Two decades later, Theodore Foster held the post of librarian. He took to the pages of the Providence Gazette to address “all the Proprietors” as well as “All Persons, whether Proprietors or not, who have any Books belonging to the Library.” Foster instructed all of them to return their books “immediately.”
The librarian apparently intended to conduct an inventory of the collection. He informed the public that “No Books will be delivered out before the next Meeting, but the Librarian will attend at the Library next Saturday, as usual, to receive in the Books.” Furthermore, he sought to enlist the aid of others in successfully pursuing this project: “All who know of any Books in the Possession of those who are not Proprietors, are desired to inform the Librarian thereof.” Foster intended to be complete and comprehensive, working with a committee tasked with “examin[ing] and number[ing]” the “whole Library … as soon as possible.” Gathering the entire collection together was more important than assessing fines for overdue books or investigating where any of the books had been. “All Fines shall be given up,” Foster declared, “and no Questions asked respecting any of the Books, if they are returned to the Librarian before the next Meeting.” As an aside, Foster noted that he “is ready to settle with delinquent Proprietors” who had not paid their subscription fees.
The Providence Library Company had compiled and published a Catalogue of All the Books Belonging to the Providence Library as well as Rules for Governing the Proprietors of, and Institutions for Rendering Useful the Books Belonging to the Providence Library in 1768. The Rules, adopted in 1762, outlined the procedures for borrowing books and the duties of the librarian. They also specified that that a “Catalogue of all the books belonging to the Library be fairly written in the Register, in alphabetical order, … care being taken to leave Room under each Letter for inserting such Books, as may hereafter be purchased.” Despite those best intentions, the librarian and the proprietors apparently considered a careful and complete inventory necessary to assess the status of the library’s holdings. Beyond the annual meeting for the proprietors, Foster resorted to a newspaper advertisement to reach anyone who had information about any books belonging to the library.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Journal (March 9, 1774).
“A LIBRARIAN IS wanted by the LIBRARY COMPANY of Philadelphia.”
What caught my eye about this advertisement was the need for a librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia, as I have been working with Laura Wasowicz, the curator of children’s literature at the American Antiquarian Society, for my independent research project for my capstone history seminar. I was interested in what the Library Company of Philadelphia was in the eighteenth century and I was excited to find out the Library Company, sometimes known as the LCP, is still alive and well today! According to their website, the LCP is America’s “first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution,” founded by Benjamin Franklin and the members of the Junto in 1731. The Junto Club was a collection of friends, including Benjamin Franklin, who met on Friday evenings to discuss different issues regarding morals, politics, or philosophy. These men were a collection of tradesmen and artisans who were interested in the common good for themselves and their society and were dedicated to finding ways to bring improvements to both. Members of the Junto were devoted readers and believed that if more people in their community had access to books they were reading, it would motivate those people to think and learn on their own, which could improve society.
Franklin wanted the public to have easy access to books since, at this time, books were not readily available and if available were extremely expensive. The members of the Junto themselves, most of them artisans, were not able to afford these books on their own either. Franklin and fifty other shareholders decided to collaborate and contribute forty shillings to buy the original collection of books and ten shillings every year to grow the library’s collection. The Junto was a catalyst for many public projects including this first lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia.
The collection has grown throughout many different eras of American society and remains open to a variety of readers, from high school students to senior scholars. The Library Company of Philadelphia serves as a library full of resources that focus on American society and culture from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century. Their mission is to increase the public understanding of American history by preserving and sharing the materials in their collection.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
The edition of the Pennsylvania Journal that first carried the Library Company of Philadelphia’s advertisement seeking a librarian also carried several advertisements for books, some of them available from printers and booksellers, others in the press, and some proposed for publication if enough subscribers reserved copies. Throughout the colonies, printers and other members of the book trade sometimes placed a disproportionate amount of advertising in newspapers.
Subscription proposals outnumbered other advertisements for books in that issue of the Pennsylvania Journal. One presented to the “GENTLEMEN and LADIES of America. PROPOALS For PRINTING by SUBSCRIPTION, THE History of the Life and Adventures OF Mr. DUNCAN CAMPBELL, (Born DEAF and DUMB).” It would go to press “as soon as a sufficient number of SUBSCRIBERS offer.” To entice them, the proposals promised “a curious well engraven PLATE, shewing the method how the deaf and dumb may obtain the knowledge, and be taught to read and write any language.” For booksellers and shopkeepers who might be inclined to purchase by volume for retail, “Those who subscribe for twelve Books [would] have a thirteenth gratis.” Another subscription proposal offered “THE CELEBRATED American EDITION OF THE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.” Those who chose to have their volumes bound “shall have their names at large on the inside of the cover, done in Gold Letters.” In addition, James Rivington promoted his edition of “NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,” detailing Captain James Cook’s voyage on the Endeavour from 1768 through 1771.
By way of updating subscribers, James Humhreys, Jr., informed them that “STERNE’s WORKS” had been delayed due to “an unlucky accident, by which he has been confined and disabled from work for some weeks past.” He pledged that the first volume was “now almost finished, and will be published in a few weeks, embellished with an elegant copper-plate Frontispiece.” The printer also hawked a “New Edition of Whittenhall’s Latin Grammar” and “several other School Books.” Elsewhere in that issue of Pennsylvania Journal, Robert Bell announced an “EXHIBITION of NEW and OLD BOOKS BY AUCTION.” He anticipated the sale would last “eight or ten evenings.” Readers could bid and acquire books from various genres, including “Arts, Sciences, History, Divinity, Biography, … Poetry, Classics, Voyages, Travels, [and] Novels.” One advertisement even discouraged readers from purchasing a book. Thomas Say once again ran his notice pleading with the public to refrain from buying William Mentz’s unauthorized edition of “The Vision of Thomas Say.”
Perhaps some of these books eventually found their way into the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia, either in the eighteenth century when printers originally published and sold them or in subsequent years as the Library Company collected early American imprints and became a major research library. Advertisements placed by printers, the Library Company, and even the aggrieved Thomas Say all testified to the contours of print culture in the largest city in the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (September 2, 1769).
“The PROPRIETORS of the Providence LIBRARY are hereby notified to meet.”
David S. Rowland was elected and served as librarian for the Providence Library Company (founded 1753) in the late 1760s and early 1770s. Late in the summer of 1769, he placed advertisements in the Providence Gazette to notify “PROPRIETORS of the Providence LIBRARY” of a meeting scheduled for September 4. He also published an outline of the agenda. The proprietors would gather “to concert Measures for the necessary Repairs of said Library, and to conclude whether or not Provision shall be made for the annual Enlargement of the Library, and transact other Affairs relative to its Wellbeing.”
All of this business was to be undertaken by the proprietors for the benefit of members of the Providence Library Company. The “Providence LIBRARY” was not open to the general public; instead members paid annual subscriptions for the privilege of using the library. Those subscriptions paid for the “Repairs,” “Enlargement” of the collection of books, and “other Affairs” that Rowland mentioned in his advertisement. The Providence Library Company was not alone in adopting this model for its operations. Indeed, this was standard practice for early American libraries, including the Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), the Company of the Redwood Library (Newport, 1747), the Charleston Library Society (1748), and the New York Society Library (1754).
The annual fees distinguished these subscription libraries, as they are known, from modern public libraries that open their doors to all users free of charge. Subscription libraries were not supported by the local municipalities for the benefit of all colonists, but rather by associations of readers and members who saw to their affairs and gained access only after pledging financial support. Many subscription libraries founded in the colonial era continue to operate today as research libraries patronized by scholars and others interested in early American history and culture. The Providence Library Company continues as the Providence Athenæum, incorporated in 1836. The new Providence Athenæum acquired the collections of both the Providence Library Company and an earlier Providence Athenæum (1831).
