Mary Aldrich

February 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

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

Feb 26 - 2:24:1766 New-York Mercury
New-York Mercury (February 24, 1766).

“Mr. James Ramsey … Will hear of something much to his Advantage.”

Mr. James Ramsey originally from the North of Ireland, who were you and what did Mr. William Gilliland want with you? Could this William Gilliland be the prosperous merchant who bought land in the Champlain Valley where he planned to build an estate and after whom the town of Willsborough is named?

I wonder what he could have wanted with James Ramsey, whom he obviously knew a deal about: where he was born, when he came to the colonies, and where he was living for a while. Yet he does not know where he went and for some reason  Ramsey did not leave a forwarding address with the man whom he previously had his letters directed to, Samuel Scott, Esq. Maybe he did not want to be found by Gilliland. This advertisement is not addressed only to Ramsey but instead to the population at large, as if Gilliland is hoping that someone will see this advertisement and bring it to the attention of Ramsey.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

This advertisement testifies to the mobility that was part of everyone’s experience in eighteenth-century America. Some colonists moved around quite regularly as they pursued opportunities to improve their lives or fled from debtors, to name just a couple of the many reasons for migration in the colonies and throughout the Atlantic world. Anyone who remained in one village, town, or city throughout his or her lifetime would have certainly witnessed others moving in, moving out, or passing through.

For instance, William Moraley migrated from England to Philadelphia and, eventually, Burlington, New Jersey, when he became an indentured servant after a series of misfortunes (some of his own making) befell him. After “earning” his freedom, he wandered around the Middle Colonies, half-heartedly seeking work, before returning to England and publishing a memoir and travelogue about his experiences.

James Ramsey also appears to have been a mobile fellow, moving from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to an unknown location in New Jersey. Today we have many tools for locating long lost friends and relatives, but the situation was much more difficult in the eighteenth century. A newspaper advertisement like this one, an open announcement for all readers to see and pass along, would have been William Gilliland’s best option for contacting Ramsey. No newspapers were published in New Jersey in 1766, but issues printed in New York would have circulated in the colony. Again, Gilliland deployed one of the best technologies and most sophisticated methods of disseminating information available at the time, but his efforts still relied on chance.

February 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

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

Feb 25 - 2:24:1766 New-York Gazette
New-York Gazette (February 24, 1766).

“This Day has published … The CHILD’s best INSTRUCTOR. In SPELLING and READING.”

This advertisement for a child’s spelling and reading book consists of instruction in the “true and correct pronunciation of every word.” According to E. Jennifer Monaghan and Arlene L. Berry, children were mainly taught to read before they could even write because the majority of reading was done orally. This particular book caters to that method of teaching by including words that are broken up into syllables so that the child will learn to pronounce words correctly.

Within the book, there are lessons on morality. In a time when faith was very much a part of people’s lives, whether they went to church or not, teaching one’s children to be virtuous was encouraged. They also mention the presence of historical events from England. It is interesting that the history of Britain is mentioned as a selling point because of the colonies eroding relationship with Britain.

This book was not just aimed at children. At the end of the advertisement, foreigners are invited to use it as well in order to learn the proper pronunciation of words.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Mary correctly notes that the relationship between Britain and the colonies was eroding in 1766. The Stamp Act was still in effect (and would not be repealed until March 20, 1766, almost simultaneously with passage of the Declaratory Act). I have previously featured several advertisements that reacted to the Stamp Act in one way or another, often encouraging consumers to purchase locally produced goods rather than imported wares.

In selecting this advertisement, Mary helps to provide balance in the narrative and interpretation. Colonists were engaged in resistance to what they considered abuses perpetrated by Parliament, but most were not yet prepared to advocate revolution and separation from Britain. Indeed, many objected to the Stamp Act and other measures because they believed they departed from traditional British liberties.

Even as political tensions rose, Americans continued to feel connected to Britain culturally. They believed that they shared a common past. As a result, it did not seem odd to colonists to oppose the Stamp Act imposed by Parliament while simultaneously celebrating the feats of William the Conqueror and other monarchs through seven centuries. Note that Noel also marketed this book by stating that it was used “by the most eminent Schoolmasters in and about London.” Noel likely believed that such connections to the metropolitan center of the empire imbued the book with greater cachet among potential readers.

(As an aside, Garrat Noel placed the first advertisement featured on the Adverts 250 Project when it started publication as a blog.)

February 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a colonial newspaper 250 years ago today?

Feb 24 - 2:24:1766 Boston Post-Boy
Boston Post-Boy (February 24, 1766).

“A Servant who writes a good Hand … may hear of a Place.”

Having a servant “who writes a good Hand” would be most valuable to his master, along with the other duties that he would perform: shaving, dressing a wig, helping with the accounts, and “the Business of a Butler.” Having a servant doing these tasks would have freed up his master to pursue other activities and would have provided standing among his peers. The emphasis on writing implies that the person who placed the advertisement was keen to find a servant that would possibly assist in managing his household by doing his writing for him as well as keeping track of his accounts.

This person that the advertiser was going to hire could not be just anyone; he needed to be well recommended. Recommendations in some cases had more weight than experience, especially in a busy port city like Boston with people coming and going.

In this case, it seems like the man looking for a servant did not want to deal directly with those responding to the advertisement but instead went though the newspaper printers, Green and Russell.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

When I decided to combine my own research with my teaching duties by inviting students in my Public History course to take on responsibilities as guest curators for the Adverts 250 Project I hoped that their relative unfamiliarity with eighteenth-century print and consumer culture would uncover elements of various advertisements that I take for granted.

I have appreciated, for instance, how some of the guest curators have interrogated the language used in the advertisements they selected, demonstrating how usage has changed over time. Similarly, for today’s featured advertisement Mary suggested in her first draft that Green and Russell were an employment agency of some sort, not realizing that “enquiring of GREEN & RUSSELL” was a variant of “Enquire of the Printers.” Other guest curators have reached similar conclusions when working with advertisements that directed readers to printers when those men were identified by name rather than occupation. Given the modern process for matching applicants with jobs through agencies, this seems like a natural assumption.

In turn, it opens the door for productive conversations about the role of printers in eighteenth-century America. Their print shops were hubs of activity – commercial and political. Many printers also served as postmasters in addition to publishing their newspapers, which meant that people visited their offices to send and pick up letters. Information, including employment possibilities, circulated through printing offices. Local residents, unlike twenty-first-century readers, would have recognized the printers by name and would have been familiar with the practice of instructing interested parties to gain more information at the local print shop.

In this regard, today’s advertisement is a nice companion to the two advertisements concerning wet nurses featured yesterday. In each of them printers played a role as intermediaries after the advertisements were published.

“May hear of a Place by enquiring of GREEN & RUSSELL.”

“Enquire of the Printers.”

“Inquire of W. Weyman.”

February 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

Who were the subjects of advertisements in a colonial newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Feb 23 - 2:20:1766 Massachusetts Gazette
Massachusetts Gazette (February 20, 1766).

“WANTED, a young Woman with a good Breast of Milk.”

“A Very good WET-NURSE is willing to take a Child.”

These two advertisements are interesting in the fact that they relate to the same service but come from different angles. The first is an advertisement for a wet nurse while the second is advertising a woman’s willingness to be a wet nurse. Using a wet nurse was a common practice among European elite women that was not as popular across the pond in the colonies.

Feb 23 - 2:24:1766 New-York Gazette
New-York Gazette (February 24, 1766)

There were cases when a wet nurse was needed, such as the death of the mother or if she was too busy to take care of her child or some kind of ailment that prevented her from breastfeeding. Women generally used breastfeeding as a form of contraception, albeit unreliable, but it did give them some control over the spacing of their pregnancies.

The first advertisement is looking for “a young woman with a good breast of milk” to “go into a family.” It is interesting that this advertisement is seeking to incorporate this wet nurse into the family whereas the second gives the option of nursing “abroad,” which meant not in the house.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

I noted last week that women offering goods and services (shopkeepers, milliners, schoolmistresses, and the like) were disproportionately underrepresented in newspaper advertisements in colonial America. Today, Mary has selected two notices that illustrate the most common reason women were featured in advertisements for goods and services during the eighteenth century: offering or seeking assistance from wet nurses.

Note that even though both advertisements testify to labor (pun not necessarily intended) undertaken by women, they both also obscure the identity of the woman seeking or offering this service. Instructions to “Enquire of the Printers” or “Inquire of W. Weyman” (the printer of the New-York Gazette) rendered these women anonymous, perhaps by their own choice as a means of retaining their privacy. These advertisements figuratively put women’s bodies on display for public consumption, making it understandable why the advertisers might not have desired further identifying information.

Mary notes that these advertisements speak about two sides of the same transaction. I would like to suggest that each also incorporates concerns specific to the woman who placed the notice. For the first, seeking a wet nurse, it is quite possible that the advertisement was a last resort. A woman and her family may have first exhausted a network of family and trusted friends and neighbors before looking more broadly for a wet nurse. For the second, offering services as a wet nurse, Mary comments on the distinction between “in the House or abroad.” The advertiser demonstrated her willingness to adapt to conditions set by a potential employer. In looking for employment, she likely had to acclimate to the wishes of potential employers, whereas those seeking to hire wet nurses may have felt that they had more flexibility to set the terms.

February 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

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

Feb 22 - 2:17:1766 Connecticut Courant
Connecticut Courant (February 17, 1766).

“The above Goods will be sold … for Cash or Country Produce.”

It is interesting that Davidson starts his advertisement assuring his potential customers that the “neat assortment of English and East-India Goods [were] suitable for the season.” He is letting them know that the products he was currently carrying could be used immediately and did not need to be stored until their use was required.

Davidson also mentioned that if people did not have cash on hand he would be more than happy to barter. He even went beyond mentioning his openness to bartering; he listed specific items that he would accept in lieu of cash. He would have accepted country produce and a list of other products that costumers from the town would likely have gotten from another source or grown themselves.

By accepting items other than cash in exchange for goods, he interested a larger audience because hard currency was not as common at this time. Davidson appealed to a larger constituency than if he had advertised cash only.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Mary notes that Davidson described his stock of “A Neat Assortment of English and East-India Goods” as “suitable for the Season.” This was one of many appeals the shopkeeper incorporated into his advertisement, along with mentioning price, quality, and the possibility of bartering. This advertisement also includes several stock phrases, including “Neat Assortment” and “suitable for the Season,” among its attempts to woo potential customers.

Davidson inserted one element that did not always appear in eighteenth-century advertisements: the date. While it was not exceptional for an advertiser to include a date, it was not the standard practice either. In this case, the date of the advertisement matched the date of the issue in which it appeared. (The type would have been set and the newspaper printed before February 17, so most likely Davidson intentionally specified that the date of his commercial notice would bear the same date as the issue in which it appeared.) Davidson, like other newspaper readers of the period, would have realized that sometimes an advertisement might be repeated for weeks or even months. Including the date in his advertisement buttressed his claim that his “Assortment of English and East-India Goods” was indeed “suitable for the Season,” or at least allowed readers and potential customers to better assess that claim.

February 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Aldrich

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

Feb 21 - 2:21:1766 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (February 21, 1766).

“Assortment of the best of Medicine, among which are the following, viz. Burlington’s Balsom of Life.”

Robert Turlington’s Balsam of Life was an English nostrum that claimed to contain twenty-seven ingredients. It was patented in England in 1744 with the claim that it could cure kidney and bladder stones, colic, and inward weakness. Turlington’s pamphlet contained testimony from users that a multitude of other ailments would be cured because they took this medicine. In order to appeal to people, Burlington stressed in his pamphlet  the natural ingredients he used, specifically balsam, which is “a perfect Friend to Nature, which it strengthens and corroborates when weak and declining, vivifies and enlivens the Spirits, mixes with the Juices and Fluids of the Body and gently infuses its kindly Influence into those Parts that are most in Disorder.”

Patent medicines began in Europe and quickly became a hit, so much so that rivals were almost instantly a problem. Many people were too busy or too poor to go call the doctor; these “cure alls” were perfectly marketed to these people. And the multitude of products all advertising as being the best kept the price of them down to some extent.

For more, see George B. Griffenhagen and James Harvey Young’s Old English Patent Medicines in America.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Some histories of advertising in America suggest that little was advertised – with the exception of patent medicines – in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Adverts 250 Project, on the other hand, regularly demonstrates the diversity of goods and services marketed in colonial America, including, on occasion, the patent medicines that have given early American advertising such a bad reputation.

Mary discusses a 46-page pamphlet that Turlington published in England in hopes of convincing potential customers to choose his Balsam of Life over the medicines offered by a host of competitors. Colonial merchandisers sometimes distributed similar pamphlets, but did not engage in newspaper advertising for patent medicines to the same extent as in England because the American market did not have the same surplus of such products. Newspaper advertisements in colonial period tended to mention patent medicines only by name, without expounding on their contents or promised effects (as seen in today’s featured advertisement). This shifted a bit after the Revolution. In the wake of a greater number of newspapers being published, as well as many expanding to multiple issues each week, more space for advertising became available. Newspaper advertising for patent medicines became more extensive after the Revolution, sometimes including the same sorts of testimonials that Turlington used to promote his Balsam of Life in his original pamphlet from the 1740s.

In Old English Patent Medicines in America, Griffenhagen and Young describe advertisements in the colonies as “drab” compared to those in London and the English provinces. Note, however, that Josiah Gilman offered one innovative marketing method: “Customers may depend on being served as well by sending as if present themselves.” In other words, Gilman offered an early form of mail order shopping. Customers did not need to visit his shop in person. Instead, they could select which items listed in the advertisement that they wished to purchase and send for them.

Welcome, Guest Curator Mary Aldrich

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , ,

Mary Aldrich is a senior at Assumption College, majoring in History. She finds all areas of history interesting because every period has contributed to the human consciousness in some way. She has enjoyed immensely working on the Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project, a collaborative effort with the American Antiquarian Society.  She will be guest curating from Sunday, February 21 through Saturday, February 27.

Welcome, Mary Aldrich!