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

“SUBSCRIPTIONS for the SPY are also taken in by J. Larkin, Chairmaker, and Mr. W. Calder, Painter, in Charlestown.”

A colophon could include all sorts of information or little information at all.  Isaiah Thomas could have confined the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy to its first line: “BOSTON: Printed by ISAIAH THOMAS.”  However, he devised one of the most extensive colophons in colonial newspapers.  His colophon gave directions to his printing office, gave the price for annual subscriptions, and solicited advertisements and “Articles of Intelligence” to include among the contents of his weekly publication.  Thomas also announced, “PRINTING in its various Branches, performed in a neat Manner, with the greatest Care and Dispatch, on the most reasonable terms.”  Job printing orders included “Small HAND-BILLS” ready “at an Hour’s Notice.”  Other printers who used their colophons as perpetual advertisements at the bottom of the final page of each newspaper included some or all of these elements.

Thomas included a unique feature in the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy.  It was the only newspaper that listed a network of local agents in other towns who accepted subscriptions and forwarded them to the printing office.  “SUBSCRIPTIONS for the SPY,” the colophon advised, “are also taken in by J. Larkin, Chairmaker, and Mr. W. Calder, Painter, in Charlestown; Mr. J. Hillers, Watch-maker, in Salem; Mr. B. Emerson, Bookseller, in Newbury-Port; Mr. M. Belcher, in Bridgewater; and by Dr. Elijah Hewins, in Stoughtonham.”  Printers who published newspapers established networks for exchanging their newspapers with their counterparts in other towns, readily reprinting items from one publication to another to fill the pages.  They also forged relationships with printers and booksellers for the purposes of collecting subscriptions for proposed books, magazines, and pamphlets.  Throughout the second half of 1773, Thomas advertised his plans to publish the Royal American Magazine, enlisting printers and booksellers in towns in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to aid in the endeavor.  His colophon indicates that his efforts to promote his newspaper extended beyond fellow members of the printing and book trades to include associates from a variety of occupations.  At least in the case of the Massachusetts Spy, chairmakers, painters, watchmakers, and doctors all participated in creating an infrastructure for disseminating the news during the era of the American Revolution.