Linen Rags

June 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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.

June 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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.

June 16

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

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.

May 13

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

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.

April 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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.

Published on Mondays

  • Boston-Gazette (Watertown, Massachusetts)
  • Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Connecticut)
  • Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Newport Mercury (Newport, Rhode Island)
  • New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (New York, New York)
  • Norwich Packet (Norwich, Connecticut)

Published on Tuesdays

  • Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Published on Wednesdays

  • Connecticut Journal (New Haven, Connecticut)
  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Maryland Journal (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Thursdays

  • Maryland Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland)
  • New-England Chronicle (final issue in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 4; first issue in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 25)
  • New-York Journal (New York, New York)
  • New York Packet (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Fridays

  • Connecticut Gazette (New London, Connecticut)
  • Essex Gazette (Newburyport, Massachusetts)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts)
  • Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Published on Saturdays

  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)
  • Providence Gazette (Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

These American newspapers published in late April 1776 either have not survived or have not been digitized for greater accessibility.

  • Germantowner Zeitung (Germantown, Pennsylvania; few numbers known)
  • North-Carolina Gazette (New Bern, North Carolina; possibly suspended)

January 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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.

December 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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.

February 1

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 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.”

July 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (July 9, 1772).

“Promote the interest of America.”

John Keating operated “PAPER MANUFACTORIES, At and near New-York” in the late 1760s and early 1770s.  He regularly advertised “ALL sorts of paper and paste board,” usually enhancing his newspaper notices with commentary intended to convince consumers to purchase goods produced in the colonies.  In an advertisement in the July 9, 1772, edition of the New-York Journal, for instance, he asserted that his paper “and other articles manufactured here, make a clear saving to this country of all the money that would have been sent out to purchase them from abroad.”  A greater number of advertisers promoted domestic manufactures when nonimportation agreements remained in effect, providing alternatives for consumers who wished for their shopping habits to match their politics, but such appeals tapered off when trade resumed.  Keating, on the other hand, remained adamant in calling on “all those who really wish to promote the interest of America” to “contribute their aid to the success of this undertaking.”

Keating imagined readers as more than consumers who would purchase his paper.  He also envisioned them as partners in producing it.  He needed resources, especially linen rags, “which are generally destroyed or thrown away as useless, tho’ they are absolutely necessary to a paper manufactory, which cannot be carried on without them.”  Colonizers played a vital role in supporting the production of paper in New York, “with which their own interest is closely connected.”  Some colonizers discarded rags that could have been transformed into paper at one of Keating’s “MANUFACTORIES.”  Others sent “considerable quantities … to other colonies,” prompting Keating to lament that the “the legislature have not yet thought proper to prohibit the exportation” of rags.  Even though the colonial assembly refused to act on that matter, colonizers in New York could choose to collect and send rags to Keating on their own.  He expressed his desire that “a due regard to their own interest will incline the inhabitants of this country to supply a manufactory among themselves.”

Keating invited colonizers to participate in both the production and consumption of paper made at his “MANUFACTORIES” in and near New York.  He reiterated that in doing so they not only supported a local business but also attended to “their own interest” in making goods produced in the colonies more widely available at lower prices than imported alternatives.  Doing so corrected trade imbalance that resulted from the colonies exporting resources and importing finished goods.  Keating advocated for the colonies producing more of the goods they consumed, but doing so required widespread cooperation.

March 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to the Pennsylvania Packet (March 30, 1772).

“Prevail upon our LADIES to grant us a little of their industry and assistance.”

Women played a vital role in supporting the early American press.  So claimed John Dunlap, printer of the Pennsylvania Packet, in a notice calling on colonizers to exchange “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” for “READY MONEY” at his printing office on Market Street in Philadelphia.  What was the connection between rags and newspapers?  Printers produced their publications on paper made from linen.  The papermakers who supplied them needed “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to transform into paper for printing items of “Instruction and Amusement” for the public.

Dunlap commenced his notice by addressing “the Public in general, and his Fellow-citizens in particular,” suggesting that colonizers had a civic responsibility to support the press by participating in the production of paper through collecting rags.  He claimed that until recently papermakers in Pennsylvania not only produced enough “Printing-Paper” to serve that colony “but likewise had the glory and emolument of furnishing some of the other Colonies, and West India Islands” with a significant amount of their “Printing-Paper.”  Recently, however, the “Paper-Mills about this city are almost idle for want of RAGS,” thus putting printing offices in danger of a similar fate.

He then pivoted to addressing the “LADIES,” the “FAIR READERS” of the Pennsylvania Packet, imploring them “to grant us a little of their industry and assistance” by collecting rags to recycle into paper.  Dunlap reminded that that paper “was a main article in the late unconstitutional Taxes, which have been so nobly parried by the AMERICANS.”  Readers, both women and men, needed little reminder that Parliament imposed duties on imported paper and other goods in the Townshend Acts.  In response, American merchants and shopkeepers coordinated nonimportation agreements, leveraging commerce into acts of protests.  At the same time, colonizers promoted “domestic manufactures,” including paper, to replace imported goods they refused to consume.  Such protests played a role in convincing Parliament to repeal most of the import duties.

Yet readers of the Pennsylvania Packet still had a responsibility in maintaining the press.  “FAIR READERS” acted as “Fellow-citizens” when they gave their “kind attention” to Dunlap’s “complaint” about the scarcity of rags.  Women could attend to “the welfare of their country,” Dunlap asserted, by heeding his request.  Just as decisions about consumption became political acts for women during the imperial crisis that led to the American Revolution so too did mundane chores like collecting rags.  Women’s work in that regard became imperative to the continued operation of American presses in the era of the American Revolution.