Medical Supplies

December 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (December 26, 1775).

“N.B. A Negroe woman Cook, healthy honest and sober, 33 years old.”

Alexander Stenhouse apparently wished to discontinue his medical supply business in Baltimore.  In the final week of December 1775, he placed advertisements in both Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal that listed a “general Collection of DRUGS and MEDICINES” available for sale.  He added vials, “Large bottles for Distilled Waters,” “Pill pots of various sizes, labelled and plain,” “Mortars and pestles,” “Surgeons Instruments,” and other medical equipment.  He even included “Shop Furniture,” suggesting that he no longer needed it because he would no longer pursue that trade.  In addition, he declared that the “Drugs and Medicines will not be sold singly, so it is expected those who want will take an assortment.”  To make the offer even more attractive, Stenhouse promised a “considerable discount … to a person who will purchase the whole.”  Perhaps Stenhouse even intended to leave Baltimore.  His inventory concluded with a “Collection of Books, mostly modern publications,” and “Houshold and kitchen furniture, in general almost new.”

Stenhouse offered more than just the contents of his shop and home for sale.  In a nota bene that followed his signature, he described a “Negroe woman Cook, healthy honest and sober, 33 years old.”  The sale of that woman whose name was once known testifies to the widespread use of the early American press to perpetuate slavery and the slave trade.  At a glance, the phrases “TO BE SOLD” and “DRUGS and MEDICINES,” dominated Stenhouse’s advertisement.  The list of items for sale, divided into two columns, unlike any of the other in either newspaper, likely caught readers’ eyes as well.  Those aspects of Stenhouse’s advertisement overshadowed but did not eclipse the portion that offered an enslaved woman for sale.  The format did not indicate that Stenhouse felt any shame or embarrassment about selling a “Negroe woman Cook” and wanted to downplay it; instead, the format demonstrated just how casually enslavers incorporated such transactions into everyday advertising and routine business.  “N.B.” or nota bene, after all, meant “take note.”  Stenhouse wished for readers to “take note” that he wished to sell an enslaved woman as he “disposed of” the contents of his shop and home.

November 12

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

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

Providence Gazette (November 12, 1774).

“He pretends not to say that no one can sell so cheap, but believes no one will.”

According to his advertisement in the November 12, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, Amos Throop stocked a variety of popular patent medicines, including Hooper’s Pills, Stoughton’s Elixir, Bateman’s Drops, Godfrey’s Cordial, James’s Fever Powder, Turlington’s Balsam of Life, and Hill’s Balsam of Honey “for coughs and consumptions.”  He also sold a variety of medical supplies for both physicians, apothecaries, and home use, such as “pocket cases of surgeons instruments,” “a pretty assortment of bell-metal and glass mortars,” and “beautiful smelling bottles of various figures.”

Throop’s advertisement did not list every item that he recently imported from London.  Like other retailers often did, he promised that prospective customers would discover much more merchandise upon visiting his shop.  “Many more articles might be enumerated,” he proclaimed, “but suffice to say, that a more general assortment never was imported.”  Not only did he offer an array of choices, but the selection was supposedly unrivaled in Providence or anywhere else in the colonies.

In case that was not enough to get the attention of prospective customers, Throop also promoted his prices.  He initially referred to them as “very cheap indeed,” but then elaborated on that point.  Readers would not find more choices elsewhere, “nor can any reasonable objection be made to the prices.  He pretends not to say that no one can sell so cheap, but believes no one will.”  In making that declaration, he invited readers to consider the choices made by purveyors of goods when they set prices for their wares.  Throop claimed that he was not in any sort of special position to offer such bargains.  Anyone else in his line of business could have done the same, but he did not suspect that anyone would.  Throop deliberately chose to sell his merchandise “very cheap indeed.”  Physicians, apothecaries, and other consumers, he suggested, should reward that choice by choosing to buy their patent medicines and medical supplies from him rather than any of his competitors.