November 23

November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update Advertisement in Multiple Newspapers, Bible-in-Heart, Logo, Multiple Woodcuts, Pennsylvania Chronicle, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pennsylvania Journal, Printer, William Evitt, Woodcuts

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (November 23, 1769).

“PRINTING-OFFICE, AT the Bible-in-Heart.”

In the fall of 1769, William Evitt opened his own printing office, having “just purchased ALL that large and valuable assortment of Printing-Types” and other equipment from the estate of Andrew Steuart. He placed advertisements in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal to inform residents of Philadelphia, the surrounding countryside, and “the neighbouring provinces” that he ran a shop “AT the Bible-in-Heart in Second-street, between Market and Arch-streets.” In addition to “all the necessary utensils fit for carrying on the printing business,” Evitt also acquired both a well-recognized symbol and a location that had been associated with Steuart and his business. Throughout most of the 1760s Steuart operated a printing shop at the Bible-in-Heart on Second Street. The American Antiquarian Society’s catalog includes fifty-nine items with imprints that included some variation of “Printed by Andrew Steuart, at the Bible-in-Heart, in Second-Street” dated between 1760 and 1768.

Pennsylvania Journal (November 23, 1769).

Evitt, who served an apprenticeship with Steuart, sought to take advantage of his former master’s reputation by associating his new business with one that had been well established in Philadelphia for quite some time. He underscored that the Bible-in-Heart continued to be located “in the house where said office has been kept these some years past.” (Sometime in 1770, however, he moved to Strawberry Alley, according to his imprint.) He also made certain that the Bible-in-Heart remained a visible symbol. In addition to displaying the sign at his shop, he also incorporated the image into the advertisements he inserted in all three newspapers published in Philadelphia. In most instances an advertiser who included a unique visual image in an advertisement incurred additional expense, but Evitt may have had woodcuts of the Bible-in-Heart at his disposal among the “assortment of Printing-Types” and other “necessary utensils” that he acquired from Steuart’s estate. Determining whether Steuart previously used any of the three woodcuts that appeared in Evitt’s advertisements in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal requires additional research. Even if Evitt did not have to commission any of the woodcuts, he still had to pay for the additional space required to include them in his advertisements, apparently an expense that he considered a good investment.

Pennsylvania Chronicle (November 6, 1769).

Some advertisers experimented with creating logos in eighteenth-century America, finding it valuable to consistently associate their businesses with particular images. That William Evitt adopted an image previously associated with another printer when he acquired Steuart’s type and equipment suggests that he considered the reputation associated with that logo so powerful that it would work to his advantage to transfer it to his own business. It also suggests that he expected the symbol to resonate with other colonists and attract customers who were previously familiar with Steuart’s work. Evitt experimented with an eighteenth-century version of transferring a trademark from one business to another. He continued to incorporate the Bible-in-Heart into his imprint for at least three years after he opened his own shop.

In his brief biography of Evitt in his monumental History of Printing in America (1810), Isaiah Thomas did not comment on Evitt’s adoption of the Bible-in-Heart as the device to identify his own printing shop. He dismissed Evitt as a journeyman printer, but did note that he “became a soldier in the American army, and died in the service of his country.”

June 26

June 26, 2019June 25, 2019 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update Charles Oliver Bruff, Goldsmith, Jeweler, Logo, New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Shop Sign, Sign of the Tea-pot Tankard and Ear-ring

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 26, 1769).

“Goldsmith and Jeweller, At the Sign of the Tea-pot, Tankard, and Ear-ring.”

When Charles Oliver Bruff, a goldsmith and jeweler, advertised in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, he described his location to prospective clients. They could find him “opposite to the Fly-Market, and but two Doors from the main Street.” Giving these directions was imperative since he had moved from his prior location on Rotten Row. Although his location had changed, another significant means of identifying his shop had not. Customers could continue to find the goldsmith and jeweler “At the Sign of the Tea-pot, Tankard, and Ear-ring.” Bruff had moved and the shop sign had moved with him.

It seemed that no matter where he set up shop in New York that Bruff continued to associate the same image with his business. In previous advertisements he listed his location as “the Corner of King-street, near the Fly-market,” though he also instructed clients to look for “the Sign of the Tea-pot, Tankard, and Ear-ring.” Taking into account his shops on King Street, Rotten Row, and, in the summer of 1769, “opposite to the Fly-Market, and but two Doors from the main Street,” Bruff displayed the same sign at three different locations. He “removed” his shop from one place to another, but the image he used to identify his business remained constant.

Bruff created a logo that made his merchandise and services more memorable by consistently using “the Sign of the Tea-pot, Tankard, and Ear-ring” to identify his business. Residents of New York spotted the image that marked his various locations, a familiar sight to those who regularly navigated the streets of the city in the late 1760s. This lent a sense of continuity to his enterprise even as Bruff moved from place to place. The image on the sign also helped to differentiate Bruff from competitors who did not make similar investments in marketing their merchandise and services.

Regularly advertising in the city’s newspapers would have increased Bruff’s visibility beyond relying on word of mouth to attract customers, but combining a recognizable image with newspaper advertisements enhanced that visibility. Over time, the “Sign of the Tea-Pot, Tankard, and Ear-ring” was not associated with a particular location but instead with the artisan who kept shop at several different locations in New York.

December 29

December 29, 2018December 28, 2018 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update Brand, James Reynolds, John Elliott, Logo, Looking Glasses, Pennsylvania Gazette, Woodcut

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (December 29, 1768).

“A VERY large, neat and general assortment of looking-glasses.”

The copy they composed for their advertisements did not much differentiate the looking glass shops operated by John Elliott and James Reynolds in 1768. Both inserted an advertisement in the December 29 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Elliott promoted “A VERY large, neat and general assortment of looking-glasses” at “his Looking-glass store, the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass, in Walnut Street.” Reynolds offered “A large and general assortment of looking-glasses” at his new location “nearly opposite the London Coffee-House, in Front-street.” Each advertisement even included a nota bene concerning services for maintaining looking glasses prospective customers already owned.

Given these similarities, it was visual imagery rather than copy that differentiated the two advertisements. Reynold relied on a landmark unrelated to his business when giving directions to his new location. Elliott, on the other hand, developed his own brand, instructing prospective customers to look for “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass.” To enhance the association of that image with his business, Elliott included a woodcut depicting his shop sign in his advertisement, more than doubling the amount of space it occupied. Given how few woodcuts accompanied advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Elliott’s large image of a bell and a looking glass enclosed in a decorative frame would have certainly garnered attention. It appeared on the same page as Thomas Hale’s advertisement featuring a much smaller woodcut of a bell, an image that did not similarly increase the length of that advertisement. Elliott’s woodcut alone occupied more space than Reynolds’s entire advertisement.

Supplement to the Pennsylvania Gazette (December 29, 1768).

Throughout much of the year, Elliott demonstrated his commitment to developing an image that consumers would associate with his business. Advertisements featuring a woodcut of “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass” appeared in multiple newspapers published in Philadelphia, including the Pennsylvania Chronicle, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal. Elliott repeatedly deployed this image at his shop and in the press, saturating the local market with the logo he had chosen for his business. In the process, he made a significant investment in marketing. While it is difficult to determine if his strategy yielded better results compared to the advertisements placed by Reynolds, it is telling that Elliott considered it beneficial to devote time and expenses to a more sophisticated marketing campaign. While it might be tempting to dismiss many eighteenth-century advertisements as mere announcements, those placed by Elliott demonstrate that some entrepreneurs experimented with adopting logos and building their brand long before advertising professionals opened offices on Madison Avenue.

October 20

October 20, 2018October 19, 2018 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update Advertisement in Multiple Newspapers, Brand, John Elliott, Logo, Multiple Woodcuts, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pennsylvania Journal, Woodcuts

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

Postscript to the Pennsylvania Gazette (October 20, 1768).

“The Sign of the Bell and Looking-glass.”

Logos are ubiquitous in twenty-first century marketing campaigns, but the modern advertising industry did not invent the concept of branding. Some advertisers experimented with developing readily recognized logos even before the American Revolution. Consider, for instance, John Elliott and the newspaper advertisements he placed in the fall of 1768.

Elliott ran a “Looking-glass store” at “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass” on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. He also operated a second location “at the Three Brushes, in Second-street.” Both shop signs helped customers located Elliott’s shops, but it was the “Bell and Looking-glass” that he chose as the primary visual representation of his business. In addition to a shop sign that depicted these icons, Elliott also commissioned woodcuts of a looking glass and a bell enclosed within a frame to adorn his newspapers advertisements. These images appeared in both the Pennsylvania Journal and the Postscript to the Pennsylvania Gazette on October 20, 1768. To have an image run in two newspapers simultaneously amounted to a significant investment for Elliott, but it also demonstrated his commitment to consistency in portraying his business to prospective customers.

Other advertisers who experimented with visual images replicating their shop signs usually commissioned a single woodcut that they then ran in one newspaper for a period and eventually inserted in another, thus cementing the association by communicating it to multiple, yet sometimes overlapping, audiences. Gerardus Duyckinck, for instance, had an elaborate woodcut depicting “the Sign of the Looking Glass & Druggist Pot” that ran first in the New-York Journal for several weeks and then in the New-York Gazette: Or, the Weekly Mercury. The cost of replicating the rococo frame that enclosed his list of merchandise likely prohibited commissioning a second woodcut, so Duyckinck did his best to circulate the image by staggering its appearance in newspapers published in New York.

Pennsylvania Journal (October 20, 1768).

When it came to publishing woodcuts in more than one newspaper simultaneously, Elliott was not alone. Earlier in 1768 Burrows Dowdney, a clock- and watchmaker, included woodcuts depicting clocks in his advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Chronicle. Those images did not, however, mirror each other as closely as Elliott’s exceptionally similar (but not identical) woodcuts in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal, nor did Dowdney explicitly associate his woodcuts with his shop sign. They certainly represented the work Dowdney did, but he did not indicate that a sign marked his shop at all. In that regard Elliott was particularly innovative in his careful consistency when it came to linking a name and a corresponding image in his efforts to promote his business.

In the second half of the eighteenth century many advertisers experimented with establishing logos to represent their businesses. Although not as fully developed as modern marketing campaigns, these early efforts demonstrated a rudimentary understanding of the power of images to depict commercial endeavors and to augment recognition of particular businesses among prospective customers.

August 5

August 5, 2016August 4, 2016 Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update Boston Evening-Post, Brand, Heart and Crown, John Fleet, Justices Blank Certificates, Logo, Printed Blanks, Thomas Fleet

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

Boston Evening-Post (August 4, 1766).

“To be had at the Heart and Crown, Justices Blank Certificates.”

For printers Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, their business was most widely recognized by the emblem of a Heart and Crown that appeared in a rococo-style cartouche in the masthead of their newspaper, the Boston Evening-Post. A sign featuring the Heart and Crown also hung outside their printing shop, announcing the location to residents and visitors alike. In effect, the Heart and Crown became the Fleets’ logo, a unique device associated specifically with them, their printing shop, and the goods and services they provided. The Heart and Crown was so widely recognized as an alternate means of identifying the Fleets’ printing shop that this advertisement did not include their names or the street on which they were located. They expected readers to recognize the Heart and Crown and associate it with their printing shop.

Heart and Crown: detail from masthead of Boston Evening-Post (August 4, 1766).

Printed blanks, such as indentures and bills of lading (what we would call blank forms today), were among the goods produced and sold by the Fleets. This advertisement pertained to a certain kind of blank: “Justices Blank Certificates, For Persons who bring POT-ASH for Sale.” It appears that such blanks were used to regulate the production of potash, but they present a bit of a mystery. Eighteenth-century readers would have needed as little explanation for “Justices Blank Certificates” as they needed for “at the Heart and Crown,” but the meaning and familiarity have faded over time.

This advertisement demonstrates the ephemerality of many items printed in early America. “Justices Blank Certificates” were used so often that printers produced them in sufficient quantities to merit advertising them, yet unlike other types of printed blanks they do not seem to have survived to the twenty-first century. At least, I have not been able to turn up any examples. (Please let me know if you know of any!) Perhaps some are lurking in libraries and historical societies and have yet to be cataloged or digitized.

I have long suspected that most business forms that came off of printing presses in the eighteenth century have not survived. A precious few that were saved testify to their existence, as do the entries in printers’ ledgers that suggest that such items were frequently printed. This advertisement causes me to question how extensively commercial printed items – both printed blanks and advertisements (handbills, trade cards, billheads, broadsides) – were created and discarded in the eighteenth century. Even if they no longer exist in physical form, we know of some from advertisements and account books, but many, many others likely remain unknown. Those still extant are extraordinary remnants of a vibrant assortment of commercial printed items that circulated in early America.

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The Adverts 250 Project

An Exploration of Advertising in Colonial America 250 Years Ago This Week

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