What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).
“A NUMBER OF ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE.”
More than a dozen advertisements appeared in the August 12, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet. Among them, Leonard Hills, a post rider, called on delinquent customers to pay for his services, William Mansfield sought to hire a journeyman shoemaker, and John Baker Brimmer solicited “Small Furrs, Bees-Wax, OLD COPPER AND PEWTER.” In separate advertisements, Peabody Clement and Peter Lanman each offered rewards for the return of lost pocketbooks, while Thomas Adams advertised that he had “TAKEN up … a bay Mare” and would return it to the owner upon “proving his Property” and paying for expenses.
Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).
Even though the compositor used a variety of fonts to draw attention to each advertisement, only two of them featured borders made of decorative type. Both concerned business conducted “AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE IN NORWICH.” One announced, “A NUMBER of ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING OFFICE.” If they checked the newspaper to confirm that their advertisements did indeed appear, Clement and Lanman likely spotted the notice that informed them where they could purchase replacements for their lost pocketbooks, though John Trumbull, the printer, certainly hoped to attract other customers as well. The other decorative border enclosed a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” that the printer would recycle at the paper mill and, in turn, use to publish subsequent issues of theNorwich Packet. Trumbull promised “CASH … FOR Clean Linen Rags.” Similar notices appeared in newspapers throughout the new nation, though not usually spruced up with printing ornaments. In addition, the advertisements with borders did not run on the same page. That further distinguished each of them since readers would spot only one at a time. Neither border was especially sophisticated, but they did not need to be to serve their purpose. They only needed to create visual interest that enhanced their visibility compared to news and other advertisements. Trumbull exercised his discretion as printer to give his notices an advantage.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 30, 1776).
“The Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.”
Calls for linen rags appeared regularly in colonial American newspapers, though some readers may have had the impression that the frequency increased after the battles at Lexington and Concord. Printers and their associates needed rags for American paper mills to recycle into paper. They needed them more than ever due to disruptions in the supply of paper from England that resulted from nonimportation agreements and the Revolutionary War.
John Dunlap made a plea for “LINEN RAGS” in the July 30, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette. Some advertisements consisted of only a couple of lines, but Dunlap made a longer appeal. “THE highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP, in Market Street, Baltimore,” the printer proclaimed. He “begs leave to inform the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular,” he continued, “that the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags; and of consequence, the Presses … must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.” In other words, anyone who got even some of their news from Dunlap’s newspaper had a duty to collect rags if they wanted that newspaper to continue circulating updates about the war and the actions taken by the Continental Congress as well as all sorts of other news. Dunlap described printing presses as “the important vehicles of instruction and amusement,” underscoring the responsibility that he felt toward subscribers and “the Public in general.” The printer hoped that this appeal, “this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture” as rags into paper, “will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale to JOHN DUNLAP.” Women, those “careful Housekeepers” in Baltimore and the countryside, could make an essential contribution to keep the presses operating and news about the war circulating.
American Gazette (July 30, 1776).
On the same day, John Rogers made a similar request to readers in Salem, Massachusetts, for “clean Linnen RAGS” in the American Gazette. “Little Masters and Mistresses, who are kind enough to bring RAGS,” he instructed, “are reminded, That the Days most convenient to take them in, are WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS.” In addressing “Little Masters and Mistresses,” Rogers suggested that children played an important part in gathering rags, delivering them to the printing office, and receiving payment on behalf of their families. In addition to women, boys and girls made significant contributions when it came to supplying an important resource for producing the paper necessary to keep newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, and other items coming off of American presses during the American Revolution.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 24, 1776).
“FOUR PENCE per pound will be given for the best Sort of good, dry, clean LINEN RAGS.”
Colonial printers regularly inserted advertisements offering cash for rags in their newspapers. They collected linen rags to supply to paper mills to transform into paper that they could then use to print more newspapers (with more calls for rags) or sell to consumers for other purposes. Such notices seemed to multiply during the Revolutionary War. Colonizers already participated in nonimportation agreements that reduced the amount of imported paper and then the war further disrupted trade. Some printers briefly suspended their newspapers or resorted to smaller sheets amid the disruptions.
Two calls for rags appeared in the June 24, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, just days after similar notices ran in the Freeman’s Journal, published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal, both published in Baltimore, and John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg. Other newspapers in New England, the Middle Atlantic, and the Chesapeake also carried calls for rags. In the Lower South, James Johnston published the last known issue of the Georgia Gazette in Savannah on February 7, 1776, and John Wells suspended the South-Carolina and American Gazette from May 31 to August 2, 1776, when the British fleet approached Charleston, leaving the entire region without any newspapers and, as a result, no notices offering cash for rags.
In the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, John Keating ran a short advertisement with a headline that proclaimed, “LINEN RAGS.” He promised four pence per pound for “the best Sort of good, dry clean LINEN RAGS, and so in Proportion for those of an inferior Quality.” Many readers likely knew that Keating operated a “Paper Manufactory” since he frequently advertised in the various newspapers published in New York. On many occasions he went into greater detail in his efforts to encourage the public to assist him in that enterprise by supplying rags from their households. He depicted doing so as a patriotic duty and a way that everyone, especially women, could demonstrate their political principles. He was much more constrained in his latest notice.
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 24, 1776).
Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, ran an advertisement with identical copy except he substituted his name for Keating’s name. Gaine likely collected rags to supply to Keating, perhaps receiving a discount on paper in return. He distinguished his own advertisement with an elaborate border composed of printing ornaments, a line of decorative type that separated the headline from the body of the advertisement, and printing his name in a larger font. Gaine’s advertisement ran on the first page along with notices for patent medicines that he peddled as an alternate revenue stream. Immediately below his call for linen rags, the printer informed readers that he “HAS FOR SALE, AMERICAN MANUFACTURED WRITING PAPER, Of Excellent Quality, BY the Quire of Ream,” as well as writing supplies and a variety of other goods. The rags that he collected might become broadsheets for printing the news or writing paper for letters that carried news that might eventually appear in the public prints.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Maryland Journal (June 19, 1776).
“The Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement, must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation.”
During an ongoing shortage of paper, John Dixon and William Hunter, the printers of the Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg, were not the only printers in the Chesapeake who inserted a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into paper in their newspaper in June 1776. Frederick Green, the printer of the Maryland Gazette in Annapolis, inserted such a notice in the June 20 edition: “THREE PENCE per pound is given for fine white LINEN RAGS, and one penny per pound for coarse, by the Printer hereof.” On June 19, the printers of both newspapers published in Baltimore ran similar notices. Mary Katharine Goddard, the printer of the Maryland Journal, ran (once again!) an advertisement similar to Green’s notice. Since May 1, she had been informing readers that “THREE PENCE per Pound WILL be given for the best Sort of good, dry, clean LINEN RAGS, and so in Proportion for those of an inferior Quality.” To draw attention, she used “Linen Rags” in a much larger font as a headline for the advertisement.
Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (June 19, 1776).
John Dunlap composed a more elaborate notice for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette. Beneath a headline that proclaimed, “LINEN RAGS,” in capital letters, he informed readers that the “highest price is given for clean Linen Rags, by JOHN DUNLAP.” He went on to explain to “the Public in general, and the good people of this town in particular” that “the Paper Mills are idle for want of Rags.” As a result, “the Presses, the important vehicles of instruction and amusement” – and news about politics, commerce, and current events as the war continued and the Continental Congress moved closer and closer to declaring independence – “must soon be reduced to the same unhappy situation” of sitting idle. “We therefore flatter ourselves,” Dunlap confidently asserted, “that this intimation of the languishing state of so interesting a manufacture will be sufficient to prevail upon all careful Housekeepers to save their RAGS and send them for sale.” In other words, anyone who wanted to continue receiving the news via Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette or any other newspaper needed to do their part in supplying rags for the paper mills. Women in particular, those “careful Housekeepers,” had an important role to play in making it possible for newspapers to disseminate the “FRESHEST ADVICES, both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC,” promised in the masthead of the Maryland Journal and other newspapers.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 15, 1776).
“A GOOD PRICE GIVEN FOR CLEAN LINEN RAGS, By the Printers of this Gazette.”
John Dixon and William Hunter continued to publish the Virginia Gazette on a smaller sheet than usual two weeks after running a notice that explained the circumstances. The “present Scarcity of Paper” forced them to resort to what they had on hand, the smaller sheets, but they assured readers that despite “the Size of this Gazette” it did contain “all the material Intelligence that came to Hand this Week.” The printers also declared that a “considerable Supply of Paper is daily expected from NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA.” Once they received it, “our Customers shall be served as formerly.” Those deliveries took longer than anticipated. Dixon and Hunter expanded the June 8, 1776, edition to eight pages printed on the smaller sheet, allowing them to disseminate more news and advertisements. They did so again with the June 15 edition. The new format meant that that could not include the usual masthead at the top of the first page, but that may have been the least of Dixon and Hunter’s concerns.
The printers aimed to do their part to increase the production of paper in the colonies amid the disruption in trade with England due to the war. That meant collecting linen rags that could be transformed into paper. They concluded the June 15 edition with a short advertisement, just three lines, that proclaimed, “A GOOD PRICE GIVEN FOR CLEAN LINEN RAGS, By the Printers of this Gazette.” A border comprised of printing ornaments enclosed that notice, distinguishing it from all the other advertisements in that issue. Dixon and Hunter used printing ornaments sparingly. Plain lines separated most news items and paid notices, though a delicate line of decorative type indicated where news ended and advertisements began on the fifth page of that issue. Even bolder lines of decorative type appeared above and below the poem in the upper left corner on the final page (a weekly feature in many colonial newspapers), setting the poet’s corner apart from the advertisements. Dixon and Hunter also enclosed an initial capital for the first news item on the first page within decorative type. Beyond these few examples, they did not use printing ornaments in that issue of the Virginia Gazette. That made the border enclosing their call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” even more remarkable. Even if readers quickly passed over other advertisements, the printers wanted to increase the chances that they took note of that final notice.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Postscript to Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (May 13, 1776).
“A large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.”
The colonies experienced a paper shortage when they adopted the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, and then compounded by the disruptions of the war after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord. Some newspapers skipped or reduced the size of some of their issues. Printers published notices informing subscribers about the difficulty in acquiring paper. Stationers also struggled to supply their customers.
In Philadelphia Jospeh Crukshank and James Truman attempted to increase the amount of paper produced locally, but to do so they needed “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into that increasingly scarce commodity. That meant enlisting the aid of others, far and wide, in collecting rags and sending them to Crukshank or Truman. A few months earlier, Nathanil Patten, a bookbinder and stationer in Norwich, Connecticut, issued a similar call to “all true Friends to America, [to] exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage” paper production by collecting “Clean Linen Rags.” There was more on the line, Crukshank and Truman warned, than just the newspapers that kept colonizers updated about current events. “THE great scarcity of writing and printing papers must make the necessity of saving linen rags obvious to every person,” they declared, “and unless cares is taken of this very necessary article, it will not be in the power of the Paper-makers to furnish a sufficient quantity of writing paper for the use of schools.” If that happened, then “a large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.” In addition, it would result in a “great obstruction to business which must arise from the want of paper.” Education and commerce would both suffer if the colonies did not produce more paper, yet practically everyone could help to avoid that outcome.
That included women as they went about their daily tasks. “In many parts of Great-Britain,” Crukshank and Truman observed, “it is customary for the women that sew, to have a small bag hanging to their chair.” That made it easy to collect “the cuttings of linen, even to the smallest shred.” Even as the colonies contested with Britain over their rights within the empire, Crukshank and Truman suggested that American women should follow a custom common on the other side of the Atlantic. “If this were generally adopted here,” they asserted, “there is very little doubt but we should have paper enough to serve this province, and probably some to supply our neighbours.” They were not the first to recruit women during the imperial crisis, making a mundane task resonate with political principles. When John Keating needed clean linen rags for his “Paper Mill at Peek’s-Kill” in New York in 1773, he proclaimed that he “must humbly address the Fair Sex, requesting their aid, without which it will be impossible for him to establish this manufactory.” He recommended that women “hang up a bag in some convenient part of the house, and take care to put every piece of linen that is unfit for any other use, in it.” Every woman who did so, he pledged, “will have the satisfaction of being conscious of contributing her part to the advancement of her country.” In February 1776, Ebenezer Watson, the printer of the Connecticut Courant, asked “the Ladies, to be very careful of their Rags,” because the local paper manufactory “must fail” without them. Crukshank and Truman made a similar appeal to women in Philadelphia and its hinterlands, acknowledging that they could play a vital role as both education and commerce were threatened by the shortage of paper.
They also made an appeal to shopkeepers to act as local agents who organized the collection of clean linen rags. “Persons sending rags” to Crukshank or Truman, they offered, “may generally be supplied with writing paper in proportion to the quantity of rags sent.” In particular, “store-keepers in the country, who take in rags and send them” would benefit from this system. Everyone could play a part in this endeavor. What seemed like a small effort for any one person would have cumulative effects when they all joined together.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 23, 1776).
“THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.”
A year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the landscape of newspapers published throughout the colonies had changed. Some ceased publication, including most of the newspapers previously printed in Boston and Charleston as well as the only newspaper printed in Georgia. During that time, one printer also launched a new newspaper. Samuel Loudon commenced the New York Packet on January 4, 1776. Printers and others experienced a scarcity of paper because of the war and nonimportation agreements. That contributed to the suspension or irregular publication of some newspapers. On April 23, 1776, William Trickett, a stationer in Philadelphia, ran an advertisement offering “THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.” Readers knew that he planned to recycle that linen into paper.
I periodically provide a census of newspapers consulted for the Adverts 250 Project. These are the newspapers published throughout the colonies as the Revolutionary War entered its second year. This list includes only those that have been digitized and made widely accessible. A couple titles have not survived or have not been digitized, so this list does not reflect every newspaper that circulated in the colonies in late April 1776.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Norwich Packet (January 29, 1776).
“CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags.”
Nathaniel Patten’s advertisement in the January 29, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet was neither as lengthy nor as visually stimulating as some of his previous advertisements, but that may have been because he had a different purpose in running it. The “BOOKBINDER and STATIONER, at the East End of the Green,” did not provide a list of titles that he sold in this notice. Instead, he announced, “CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags, Of any Kind, Old Sail Cloth,” and other remnants of textiles that could be recycled into paper. Similar calls for rags appeared frequently in early American newspapers, most often placed by the printers of those newspapers. Such advertisements often consisted of only one or two lines. Printers offered cash for rags without further explanation because readers knew exactly why they wanted the rags and how they would be used.
The proprietors of paper mills sometimes ran more elaborate advertisements requesting rags. Especially when colonizers enacted nonimportation agreements that disrupted the supply of paper coming from England, those advertisements depicted saving rags to produce paper as a patriotic duty and a means for all colonizers, including women, to support the American cause. Patten did not go into as much detail as John Keating did when promoting ‘THE FIRST Paper Manufactory Established in the city of New-York,” but he did say more than most printers. “As Paper is one of the most necessary Articles now wanted,” the bookbinder and stationer asserted, “it is hoped that all true Friends to America, will exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage such Manufactory” in Connecticut. A lack of paper had indeed caused some printers to sometimes reduce the size of their weekly newspapers to half sheets (two pages) instead of full sheets (four pages) or miss publishing for a week or two. That was the situation in New England and beyond. Two days before Patten issued his call for rags in the Norwich Packet, for instance, John Pinkney, the printer of one Virginia Gazette, ran a notice in another Virginia Gazette to explain that he could not print his newspaper that week because he could not acquire paper.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
New-York Journal (December 2, 1773).
“Those who really wish to promote the interest of America … will contribute their aid to the success of the paper manufactory.”
John Keating, the proprietor of a “PAPER MANUFACTORY” near New York, had a task for every household in the colonies: collect rags to make into paper. That might seem like an insignificant act, he argued in an advertisement that appeared week after week in the New-York Journal, but it had value beyond measure. “The smallness of the value of rags in a family, is apt to make people careless in saving them, as being scarce worth the trouble,” Keating acknowledged. However, “small as the value is, it is more than sufficient, taking one family with another, to supply each with all the paper necessary for its use.” This endeavor, like so many acts of protest against the abuse of Parliament, depended on colonizers working in unison. Cooperation yielded strength. Keating elaborated on his vision: “And the benefit each will receive in common with the community, will be much greater than the immediate profit by the of the rags.” To achieve that goal, he encouraged every household to designate a spot for collecting rags, noting that “a little practice in saving them, would soon make it habitual to do it, and establish this valuable manufactory upon a permanent foundation.”
True patriots would heed this call to help meet the demand for paper in America, “of late so greatly increased, that very large sums are continually sent abroad for the purchase of it.” Importing paper instead of producing it locally resulted in “the great impoverishment of the colonies,” an assertion that Keating made in advertisement after advertisement for several years in the late 1760s and early 1770s. “All the paper which is manufactured among ourselves,” he proclaimed, “is a clear saving, to us, of all the money that would be sent out of the country to procure it.” Rather than exacerbate a trade imbalance with England, “those who really wish to promote the interest of America … will contribute their aid to the success of the paper manufactory in this place.” That meant purchasing paper from Keating, yet his advertisements usually emphasized participating in the production of paper rather than the consumption of his product. Given the demand, he likely assumed that he could sell paper as quickly as he produced it. He needed the most assistance with procuring the necessary materials, “linen rags, quite useless for any other purpose, and generally thrown away.” The strength of the local economy depended on the efforts of the members of every household. According to Keating, wives and mothers, indentured servants and enslaved people, and youths and children all had a role to play in supporting this important industry in New York during the era of the American Revolution.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (February 1, 1773).
“He most humbly addresses the Fair Sex, requesting their aid.”
John Keating regularly offered “READY MONEY … for CLEAN LINEN RAGS” in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury in the late 1760s and early 1770s. The papermaker needed as many rags as he could gather to supply his mill with raw materials. To convince readers to make an effort to collect and submit rags, he developed appeals that emphasized both commerce and devotion to the best interests of the colonies.
In an advertisement that ran on February 1, 1773, for instance, Keating stated that the “advantages that must result to this colony from the establishment of manufactories in it, are so obvious that the subject needs no elucidation.” Then he elucidated. “Since paper manufactories were established in Pennsylvania, the money saved and brought into that province, the money saved and brought into the province” amounted to “the many thousand pounds of which is annually drained of[f] by purchasing paper in England.” Supporting domestic manufactures, goods produced in the colonies, helped to address the trade imbalance with Great Britain. Keating challenged readers to think about what more they accomplish by working together. “Might not every shilling of this money be saved? Have we not materials amongst ourselves? Is our patriotism all pretence …?”
New Yorkers did indeed already have the materials necessary for making paper, clean linen rags. Keating suggested that women played a vital role in sustaining the patriotic project that he pursued, declaring that he “most humbly addressed the Fair Sex, requesting their aid, without which it will be impossible for him to establish this manufactory upon a respectable or prudent footing.” He requested that every “frugal matron … hang up a bag … and take care to put every piece of linen that is unfit for any other use, in it.” When the bag was full, the frugal matron would sell the contents to Keating in an eighteenth-century version of recycling to support a good cause. The papermaker indicated that in return for the clean linen rags the frugal matron would receive enough money to “supply herself and family with the very essential article of pins.” Just as significantly, “she will have the satisfaction of being conscious of contributing her part to the advancement of her country.” Women’s industry served a dual purpose when it manifested patriotism.
The project did not depend solely on those frugal matrons. Keating also asked “young ladies to co-operate … in saving rags,” though he presented a more romantic rationale to them. The papermaker asked young women to “observe a very curious remark made by the celebrated Mr. Addison in the Spectator, ‘That a young lady who sends her shift to the paper mill, may very possibly in less than six months, have it returned made into a piece of fair paper, upon which her lover has written a billet doux.’” Although Keating (and Addision) asked young women to imagine love letters, their shifts and other linen garments may just as likely been transformed into newspapers that kept their households informed about the imperial crisis that faced New York and other colonies.
Women, both “frugal matrons” and “young ladies,” participated in politics and expressed their patriotism when they heeded the call of papermakers who encouraged them to collect clean linen rags. Similarly, their actions and decisions made an impact when they produced homespun textiles and garments and participated in nonconsumption agreements. During the era of the American Revolution, both men and women understood that the personal was political. That included gathering clean linen rags in “a bag in some convenient part of the house.”
