New-York Journal

February 18

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

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

New-York Journal (February 15, 1776).

“A NEW and CORRECT EDITION … of that justly esteemed PAMPHLET, called COMMON SENSE.”

A month after Robert Bell published the first edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in Philadelphia on January 9, 1776, readers of the New-York Journal certainly knew about the pamphlet, even if they had not read it or heard much about its contents.  Just reading the newspaper would have been enough to get a sense of the pamphlet’s popularity.  After all, the February 15 edition of the New-York Journal carried four advertisements for Common Sense!

Some of them would have looked familiar to regular readers of that newspaper.  William Green, a bookbinder in Maiden Lane and Bell’s agent in New York, once again advertised the unauthorized “Second Edition of COMMON SENSE” that Bell published in Philadelphia.  It was the third consecutive week his notice ran in the New-York Journal.  Also appearing for the third time, another advertisement informed readers that William Bradford and Thomas Bradford would soon publish a “NEW EDITION, (with LARGE and INTERESTING ADDITIONS …) OF COMMON SENSE,” an edition undertaken “by appointment of the Author.”  After a falling out with Bell, Paine approached the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal to publish a new edition.  The Bradfords set about advertising that expanded edition in both Philadelphia and New York.

A variation of one of the other advertisements ran in the previous issue of the New-York Journal.  In it, John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, announced publication of a local edition of “that justly esteemed PAMPHLET, called COMMON SENSE.”  The previous version ended with the title of the pamphlet.  The new one included two elements often included in other advertisements for Common Sense: the section headings that outlined the contents and an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.  The addition material in Anderson’s advertisement may have helped draw attention to it …

… but the final advertisement dwarfed all the others.  For the first time, Bell advertised directly in the New-York Journal rather than indirectly through Green.  In doing so, he transferred to New York the feud that he and Paine had waged in advertisements in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers published in Philadelphia.  Compared to the Bradfords’ new edition “In the PRESS, and will be published as soon as possible,” Bell’s unauthorized second edition was “Out of the Press” and on sale.  His notice included the section headers and epigraph by Thomson as well as an address “To the PUBLIC” that first appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on January 27 and an even longer diatribe “To Mr. ANONYMOUS” that first appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on February 1.  While the Bradfords’ advertisement hinted at discord between Bell and Paine, this advertisement put the argument on full display for readers in New York.  Perhaps that helped generate interest in the pamphlet.  For readers who had not yet perused Common Sense themselves, those four advertisements may have encouraged them to acquire a copy to find out more about all the hullabaloo.

February 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (February 15, 1776).

“When the Association was once and upon a sudden offered to me to sign, I declined signing it.”

Joseph Lyon, a farmer “living at the White Plains in Westchester County” in New York, wanted to get back into the good graces of his community.  He had offended many people when he refused to sign “the Association,” most likely the “General Association, agreed to, and subscribed by the Freeholders, Freemen, and Inhabitants” of New York.  The New York Provincial Congress devised the General Association upon learning of the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Delegates then disseminated the General Association throughout the colony, expecting supporters of the American cause to sign it.  In doing so, subscribers pledged to “adopt and endeavour to carry into Execution, whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposing he Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament; until a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America, on Constitutional Principles … can be obtained.”

Lyon did not sign and apparently others in White Plains made their displeasure with that decision known to him.  The situation eventually prompted the farmer to take out an advertisement in the February 15, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal.  He attempted to explain what caused his error in judgment: “having spent my life in hard labour, and absence from the means of political knowledge, when the Association was once and upon a sudden offered to me to sign, I declined signing it.”  In other words, he did not regularly follow politics, so he did not understand the significance of the General Association when it was first presented to him.  Furthermore, he had not been allowed time to consider the document thrust at him “upon a sudden.”  When colonizers in Massachusetts published advertisements apologizing for signing an address to Thomas Hutchinson when the governor returned to England, many also claimed that they had not had time to consider the implications.  In both instances, those asking forgiveness claimed that events moved too quickly so they should not be faulted for making a poor decision.  Lyon gave the matter “further consideration” and then “applied to the Chairman or one of the Committee for leave to sign” the General Association, but by then “the paper was gone to New-York.”

Since Lyon could not sign his name alongside others on the original document, he resorted to a newspaper advertisement.  “I therefore take this method,” he proclaimed, “to declare, that in my heart I am a sincere friend to the Liberties of America, my native country.”  In addition, “all the worldly comfort I expect for myself and my children, is connected with the happiness of America.”  To demonstrate that point, “I have not done, nor been concerned in any thing in opposition [to] the present measures of America, in defence of its Liberties, nor ever will.”  Although he could not sign the General Association, Lyon made his own pledge to “comply with the recommendations and orders of the Congress and Committees in all things, as far as my conscience will permit.”  He may have hoped that others did not pay too much attention to that caveat.  Lyon concluded by stating that he was “sixty six years of age, and diligently employed in farming and grinding” so he hoped “this will afford full satisfaction to my countrymen.  He asked for sympathy for an old man who knew far more about working a farm and operating a mill than anything involving politics.  Humbling himself in the public prints, Lyon believed, offered a means for restoring his standing in his community.

February 8

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

GUEST CURATOR:  Emma Guthrie

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

New-York Journal (February 8, 1776).

“A NEW and CORRECT EDITION, (Printed on a good paper) of … COMMON SENSE.”

This advertisement for “COMMON SENSE” promoted a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine.  In one of the most important documents in American history, Paine argued for the independence of the colonies from Great Britain.  John Anderson, a printer in New York, published this edition of Common Sense.  He noted that his edition was “Printed on a good paper.”

Due to the nonimportation agreements of the 1760s and 1770s, “the residual of imported paper was nearly exhausted” when the Revolutionary War began in 1775.[1]  Paper used in printing pamphlets and newspapers had been an incredibly common import.  However, due to the nonimportation agreements, paper became a scarce commodity.  According to Eugenie Andruss Leonard in “Paper as a Critical Commodity during the American Revolution,” the domestic manufacture of paper was not sufficient and could not keep up with the demand for the product.[2] Anderson attempted to make his “NEW and CORRECT EDITION” of Common Sense stand out by stating that it was printed on “good paper,” enticing readers to purchase his pamphlet without having to worry about the quality of the printing and, especially, the paper.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

I was excited when Emma selected Anderson’s advertisement for his edition of Common Sense to feature on the Adverts 250 Project.  I encouraged students enrolled in my capstone research seminar in Fall 2025 to peruse previous entries in the project, but I did not discuss with them which advertisements I planned to feature in the coming months. When Emma chose this advertisement, she did not know that I would craft a series of entries about the marketing of Common Sense in the winter and spring of 1775.

Emma could have selected any one of three advertisements for Common Sense that appeared in the February 8, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal.  William Green inserted a version of the advertisement he originally placed in the January 22 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  Green stocked and sold Robert Bell’s unauthorized “Second Edition,” having previously advertised Bell’s first edition.  Another advertisement encouraged readers to reserve copies of a “NEW EDITION (with LARGE and INTERESTING ADDITIONS …)” that Paine did authorize and entrusted to William Bradford and Thomas Bradford to print.  Much of it replicated the advertisement that ran in the January 25 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, including an address “To the PUBLIC” that explained that “the Publisher of the first edition” printed a second edition without the permission of the author.  That edition would not include the new material that Paine arranged for the Bradfords to feature in their edition.  The advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post also noted, “A German edition is likewise in the press,” acknowledging the significant population of German settlers in Pennsylvania and the backcountry.  The version in the New-York Journal, however, changed that note to “A Dutch Edition is likewise in the Press” for the benefit of those families who continued to speak Dutch a little more than a century after the English conquest of New Netherland.

Anderson’s advertisement confirmed what he advertised in his own Constitutional Gazette the previous day: publication of a “NEW and CORRECT EDITION” of Common Sense.  It was the first edition published outside Philadelphia.  Given that the Bradfords’ edition was still “In the PRESS,” Anderson published a local edition of Bell’s edition.  Describing it as “NEW” meant that it was a local edition and describing it as “CORRECT” indicated that Anderson had faithfully reproduced the contents of the original pamphlet.  Emma focused on another important aspect of Anderson’s advertisement.  All the previous advertisements for Common Sense focused on the contents (especially those that listed the section headings) or the dispute between Bell and Paine and which edition readers should consider the superior one.  Anderson was the first to focus on a material aspect of the pamphlet, assuring prospective customers that he used “good paper” when printing his local edition.  The quality of the finished product rivaled any of the pamphlets shipped to New York from Philadelphia.

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[1] Eugenie Andruss Leonard, “Paper as a Critical Commodity during the American Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 74, no. 4 (October 195): 488.

[2] Larsen, “Paper as a Critical Commodity,” 488.

February 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Nicholas Arruda

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

New-York Journal (February 1, 1776).

“MADEIRA Wine.”

Samuel Van Horne advertised “MADEIRA Wine, from eight to 20 years old, Port, Claret, Jamaica spirits, [and] old Brandy” in the New-York Journal on February 1, 1776.  Mentioning that the Madeira was aged between eight and twenty years might have meant that Van Horne was focusing on elite consumers who used imported wines to show their refinement since Madeira wine was not an everyday beverage.  As David Hancock explains, in the eighteenth century, Madeira was “an expensive, exotic, status-laden, and highly processed wine produced on the Portuguese island of Madeira, 500 miles west of Morocco.”[1]  Its status came from its position in Atlantic trade networks. Hancock argues that the status of the wine was created through “an Atlantic network of producers, distributors, and consumers in intense conversation with one another,” which transformed Madeira into a commodity that was recognized across the British Empire.[2]  Van Horne’s advertisement thus shows that selling aged Madeira was not just about selling alcohol but even more importantly participating in elite identity.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Regular readers of the New-York Journal saw Samuel Van Horne’s advertisement for Madeira and other wines and spirits three times before they encountered it in the February 1, 1776, edition.  As the colophon at the bottom of the final page explained, “Advertisements of no more Length than Breadth are inserted for Five Shilling[s for] four Weeks, and One Shilling for each Week after, and larger Advertisements in the same Proportion.”  Many newspapers printed in the colonies solicited advertisements, but they did not always indicate the fees.  John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, hoped to entice advertisers by letting them know how much they would pay to insert notices in his newspaper.  The initial charge covered the space that an advertisement occupied in four consecutive issues at one shilling per week and an additional shilling for setting the type, keeping the books, and other work undertaken in the printing office.

That makes it easy to determine that Van Horne invested five shilling in running his advertisement.  Its length certainly was no more than its breadth, so the printer did not increase the fee in proportion as he did for longer advertisements.  The notation in the lower right of the advertisement, “23-26,” makes clear that Van Horne intended for the advertisement to run only for the four weeks covered by the initial expense.  “23” referred to the issue number for the first issue that carried the advertisement, “NUMBER 1723” on January 11, while “26” indicated the final issue to carry the advertisement, “NUMBER 1726” on February 1.  At a glance, the compositor knew whether to include Van Horne’s advertisement in a new issue or remove it.  The notation, intended for employees in the printing office rather than readers of the newspaper, made it unnecessary to consult a ledger, instructions from the advertiser, or other documents.  Van Horne apparently decided that he did not wish to extend the run of this advertisement.  The compositor did indeed remove it rather than publish it once again in the February 8 edition.

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[1] David Hancock, “Commerce and Conversation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic: The Invention of Madeira Wine,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29, no. 2 (Autumn 1998): 197.

[2] Hancock, “Commerce and Conversation,” 197.

January 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-York Journal (January 18, 1775).

“RULES AND ORDERS FOR REGULATING THE MILITIA, Of the Colony of NEW-YORK.”

Advertisements for military manuals began appearing regularly in many American newspapers in 1775 and 1776.  They appeared most frequently in New England, where the first battles of the Revolutionary War occurred, and in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress met, but not solely in those places.  On January 18, 1776, John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, ran an advertisement for “RULES AND ORDERS FOR REGULATING THE MILITIA, Of the Colony of NEW-YORK, Recommended by the PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, December 20, 1775, and ordered to be PUBLISHED, with an APPENDIX.”

That pamphlet presents a bibliographical mystery.  On September 24, 1775, the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercurycarried the “RULES and ORDERS for regulating the Militia of the Colony of New-York, recommended by the Provincial Congress, August 22, 1775,” filling almost two columns on the first page and spilling onto the second page.  By then, Holt had been advertising a twelve-page pamphlet featuring the “RULES AND ORDERS” for nearly a month.  His first notice appeared in the August 31 edition of the New-York Journal.  He may not have appreciated Hugh Gaine’s decision to disseminate the same content for free, potentially undercutting sales of the pamphlet, yet the pamphlet offered a different format that readers, especially those who had cause the consult the manual regularly, likely found more convenient.  Gaine presented information as a service to the public, while Holt packaged the same content for practical use by officers and others.

The advertisements for Holt’s first edition of the “RULES AND ORDERS” did not mention an appendix.  That first appeared in his advertisement from January 18, 1776, along with an assertion that the “PROVINCIAL CONGRESS” adopted the “RULES AND ORDERS” on December 20, 1775, rather than August 22, 1775.  Had the provincial congress revisited the issue and recommended the same (or revised) “RULES AND ORDERS” after just four months?  Or did the new advertisement feature an error in the date?  What, if anything, did the appendix contain that was not part of the original pamphlet?  Unfortunately, no copy of a pamphlet with a title that includes the date December 20, 1775, survives.  Holt regularly inserted advertisements for it in the New-York Journal for three months, suggesting that he did indeed stock such a pamphlet (but not revealing how many he sold).  How and whether that pamphlet differed from the first one remains a mystery.

January 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (January 11, 1776).

“SAMUEL LOUDON, Published the first Number of his News Paper, intitled the NEW-YORK PACKET.”

After spending several weeks distributing subscription proposals for a new newspaper, the New-York Packet, Samuel Loudon released the first issue on schedule on January 4, 1776.  On that day, Loudon’s notice that he planned to establish the newspaper appeared for the fourth and final time in the New-York Journal.  A week later, a new advertisement promoting the New-York Packet ran in the New-York Journal.  The notation at the end, “23-26” (corresponding to the issue numbers), indicated that Loudon planned for that notice to run for four consecutive weeks as well.

In it, the printer announced that he “Published the first Number of his News Paper … on Thursday the fourth current, to be continued weekly.”  He then provided an abbreviated version of the subscription proposal, stating that the New-York Packet “IS printed on large and good Paper, with elegant Types, almost new.”  For readers who did not subscribe in time to receive that “first Number,” it was not too late to start a subscription that included the first issue and all subsequent issues.  “Those who incline to encourage the Publication of it,” Loudon advised, “will be pleased to send in their Names, with Directions where to send their Papers.”  Loudon had disseminated the subscription proposals widely, including in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Gazette.  He hoped to gain subscribers far beyond the city where he printed the New-York Packet.  To that end, he promised that “Due Pains shall be taken in forwarding the Papers by Post-Riders, and in providing fit Persons to carry them to the Customers in this City.”  That was a necessary part of satisfying both subscribers and advertisers.

Despite the fanfare around its founding, the New-York Packet last only eight months.  Loudon suspended the newspaper shortly before the British occupation of New York.  Unfortunately, surviving issues have not been digitized for greater access, so advertisements and other content from the New-York Packet will not appear in the Adverts 250 Project, though advertisements about the newspaper inserted in other publications testify to its short run at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

December 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (December 21, 1775).

“WILL BE PUBLISHED … A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”

On Thursday, December 21, 1775, John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, ran an advertisement in the New-York Journal to stimulate interest in one of his forthcoming projects.  “On SATURDAY NEXT,” he announced, “will be published, by JOHN ANDERSON … A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”  Just two weeks earlier, William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, advertised that they would soon publish the “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, May 10, 1775.”  It appears that Anderson quickly acquired a copy and set about printing a local edition for the New York market, making him the first printer outside of Philadelphia to publish an overview of the Second Continental Congress when it convened after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  The volume that Anderson published had a slightly different title than what appeared in the advertisement: Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress: Held at Philadelphia, 10th May, 1775.  In the rush to take it to press, the compositor introduced several errors in the page numbers, according to the American Antiquarian Society’s catalog.

Neither the Bradfords nor Anderson merely printed these collections of records of the Second Continental Congress and then advertised them.  Instead, both encouraged readers to anticipate their publication, making the eventual announcements that they were available for purchase even more enticing and persuasive.  On Saturday, December 23, Anderson’s own newspaper featured an advertisement promising that “This Day will be published by the Printer.  A Journal of the Proceedings of the Continental Congress.”  Eager customers could visit his printing office “at Beekman’s-Slip” to see if copies were ready for purchase.  By December 27, they were certainly available.  In the issue of the Constitutional Gazette distributed that day, Anderson described the volume as “Just published by the Printer” and listed three local agents who also sold it.  An updated advertisement also appeared in the New-York Journal on December 28, nearly identical to the one from the previous issue with the first two lines replaced with a single line.  Anderson’s advertisement began, “Just published, and to be sold by” instead of “On SATURDAY NEXT / WILL BE PUBLISHED, by.”  Using a series of advertisements in two of New York’s newspapers, Anderson announced the forthcoming publication of a local edition of “THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS” and kept the public informed of its progress and availability.

November 30

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

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

New-York Journal (November 30, 1775).

“A neat Mezzotinto Print of the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq.”

Richard Sause, a cutler in New York, became a purveyor of patriotic memorabilia during the Revolutionary War.  In October 1775, he advertised “ROMAN’s MAP OF BOSTON,” billing it as “one of the most correct that has ever been published.”  He described the cartographer, Bernard Romans, as “the most skilful Draughtsman in all America,” noting that he earned credibility because he “was on the spot at the engagements of Lexington and Bunker’s-Hill.”  Nicholas Brooks, a shopkeeper who specialized in prints, and Romans collaborated on the project in Philadelphia.  Sause acted as a local agent for marketing and distributing the map in New York.

That was not the only item commemorating current events that Sause advertised and sold.  At the end of November 1775, he took to the pages of the New-York Journal once again, informing the public that he sold a “neat Mezzotinto Print of the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq.”  The print depicting the merchant from Boston who served as president of the Second Continental Congress was another one of Brooks’s projects.  In addition, Sause also stocked “a view of the BATTLE at Charlestown” and “an accurate Map of the Present Seat of Civil War, taken by an able Draftsman.”  Sause seemingly worked closely with Brooks in acquiring the various prints and marketing them to patriots in New York, perhaps even providing him with advertising copy to adapt for his own notices.  The prints that Sause offered for sale appeared in the same order in his advertisement in the New-York Journal that they did in Brooks’s advertisement in Pennsylvania Journal.  Brooks may have sent a clipping along with the prints that he dispatched to the cutler in New York.

Although Sause had established himself as a cutler who also sold hardware and jewelry in a series of advertisements in New York’s newspapers, his activities in the marketplace in 1775 emphasized his commitment to the American cause.  Before he began selling prints, he promoted “SMALL SWORDS” to gentlemen who anticipated participating in the defense of their liberties and their city.  Even though he continued to advertise an “assortment of Jewellery, Cutlery, Hardware, and Haberdashery,” he made items related to the conflict with Parliament and British troops quartered in the colonies the focal point of his advertisements.

October 12

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

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

New-York Journal (October 12, 1775).

“I Acknowledge that I have at several times spoken in favour of the laws of Taxation.”

Lemuel Bower wanted to return to the good graces of his community in the fall of 1775.  Events that occurred since the previous April – the battles at Lexington and Concord, the siege of Boston, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Second Continental Congress appointing George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army, an American invasion of Quebec – had intensified feelings about the imperial crisis and, apparently, made for a difficult situation for Bower since he had expressed Tory sentiments in the past.  In hopes of moving beyond that, he composed a statement that appeared in the October 12, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal.

“I Acknowledge,” Bower confessed, “I have at several times spoken in favour of the laws of Taxation, and against the measures pursued by America to procure Redress, and have thereby justly merited the displeasure of my country.”  To remedy that, “I beg forgiveness, and so solemnly promise to submit to the rules of the Continental and Provincial Congresses,” including abiding by the nonimportation and nonconsumption provisions in the Continental Association.  Furthermore, Bower pledged, “I never will speak or act in opposition to their order, but will conduct according to their directions, to the utmost of my power.”  He did not state that he had a change of heart, only that he would quietly act as supporters of the American cause were supposed to act rather than engage in vocal opposition.  As William Huntting Howell has argued, such compliance, especially when expressed in a public forum, may have been more important to most Patriots than whether Bower truly agreed with them.[1]  How he acted and what he said was more important than what he believed as long as he kept his thoughts to himself.

Bower did indeed express his regrets and his promise to behave better in a public forum.  He concluded his statement with a note that “this I desire should be published in the public prints.  When it appeared in the New-York Journal, it ran immediately below a notice from the Committee of Inspection and Observation in Stanford, New York, that labeled two Loyalists as “enemies to the liberties of their country” and instructed the public “to break off all commerce, dealings and connections with them.”  That was the treatment that Bower sought to avoid!  That notice appeared immediately below news from throughout the colony.  Bower’s statement ran immediately above paid advertisements.  The two statements concerning the political principles of colonizers thus served as a transition from news to advertising in that issue of the New-York Journal.  Did John Holt, the printer, treat them as paid notices?  Did he require Bower to pay to insert his statement?  Or did the Patriot printer publish one or both gratis?  Perhaps he printed the statement from the Committee of Inspection and Observation for free but made Bower pay to publish his penance.  Whatever the case, Bower’s statement was not clearly a news item nor an advertisement but could have been considered both simultaneously by eighteenth-century readers.

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[1] William Huntting Howell, “Entering the Lists: The Politics of Ephemera in Eastern Massachusetts, 1774,” Early American Studies 9, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 187-217.

September 28

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

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

New-York Journal (September 28, 1775).

“The Words of Command used in the Manual Exercise, and an accurate Plan of Boston.”

Almost simultaneously with Hugh Gaine announcing in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury that he had “Just PUBLISHED … HUTCHIN’s Improv’d; BEING AN ALMANACK … For the Year of our LORD 1776,” Frederick Shober and Samuel Loudon inserted an advertisement in the New-York Journal to alert the public that they had “Just published … The NEW-YORK and COUNTRY ALMANACK, For the Year of our Lord 1776.”  It included “all the necessary Articles usual in an Almanac, with the Addition of many curious Anecdotes, Receipts [or Recipes], [and] poetical Pieces.”  Unlike Gaine, Shober and Loudon did not provide an extensive list of the contents.  As printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Gaine had access to as much space as he wished to devote to promoting an almanac he published.  Shober and Loudon, on the other hand, paid to run their advertisement in the New-York Journal.

The partners did, however, specify two items that they wanted prospective customers to know they would find in the New-York and Country Almanack: “the Words of Command used in the Manual Exercise, and an accurate Plan of Boston with the different Situations of the Provincials, and the Ministerial Armies.”  Both reflected current events.  The “REFERENCES TO THE PLAN” (or legend for the map of Boston) in the almanac highlighted the “Battle of Lexington, 19th of April,” and the “Battle of Bunker’s-Hill, 17th of June.”  For readers beyond Massachusetts who did not directly experience those battles, that helped solidify in their minds the dates that they occurred.  By the time that Shober and Loudon took their almanac to press, maps of Boston had circulated widely in the July issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine (and Loudon had been among the booksellers to advertise them).  Nicholas Brooks and Bernard Romans also collaborated on a map that they likely distributed by the end of summer.  Those may have served as models for the “Plan of Boston” that Sober and Loudon commissioned for their almanac.  Gaine also directed attention to the “beautiful Plan of Boston, and the Provincial Camp” in his almanac.  The “whole Process of making SALT PETRE, recommended by the Hon. the Continental Congress” and a “Method of making Gun-Powder” accompanied their map.  In Shober and Loudon’s almanac, the “Words of Command,” taken from the widely published Manual Exercise, supplemented the map.  In both cases, the events of the Revolutionary War inspired the contents of the almanacs and became selling points in marketing them.

“Plan of Boston” [left] and “References to the Plan” [right], in The New-York and Country Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1776 (New York: Shober and Loudon, 1775). Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.