New-York Journal

May 16

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

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

New-York Journal (May 16, 1776).

“STOP A TORY!”

The headline almost certainly grabbed the attention of readers of the New-York Journal.  Other advertisements had headlines that announced, “WRITING PAPER,” “SCRIVENER’S OFFICE,” or “GEORGE WEBSTER, GROCER,” but this one proclaimed, “STOP A TORY!”  It delivered news that Moses Kirkland “MADE his escape from the gaol” in Philadelphia on the evening of May 7, 1776.  Colonel Kirkland, a Loyalist planter from South Carolina, had been confined in the jail “by order of the Honourable Congress, for practices inimical to this Colony.”  An account that first appeared in the January 17, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal and subsequently in many other newspapers reported that Kirkland had been “at the head of the tories in the back parts of South Carolina” before making his way to Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia who offered freedom to enslaved people who fled from Patriot enslavers and joined the king’s forces.  Dunmore dispatched Kirkland “to general Howe at Boston,” but he was captured along the way, imprisoned in Cambridge, and then transported to Philadelphia.

The advertisement provided a physical description of Kirkland and documented the clothes he had been wearing when he made his escape, though he “may possibly have taken other clothes with him” and donned them to elude capture.  The advertisement also gave an account of Kirkland’s likely movements, noting that he crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey at Cooper’s Ferry and “it is supposed [he] will either endeavour to get on board one of the men of war in the river, or at Sandy Hook.”  According to Michael Adelberg, Sandy Hook became a haven for Loyalists as the Revolutionary War entered its second year.  The British Navy took possession of Sandy Hook in April 1776, making it an appealing destination for Loyalists seeking refuge and a good place for Kirkland to make his escape.

The notice further advised that the “public are earnestly desired to endeavour to apprehend this dangerous enemy to the American cause.”  To that end, “a reward of One Hundred Dollars is hereby offered to any person, or persons that shall take and bring him back” to the jail in Philadelphia.  A nota bene called on the “Printers of the several news papers in the Colonies” to aid in the search for Kirkland by running the advertisement.  Several newspapers from New York to Virginia, Adelberg states, did publish the notice, though not all of them gave it a vivid headline that called on readers to “STOP A TORY!”  Despite the reward and the widespread dissemination of the advertisement, Kirkland managed to elude capture and went on to serve as a Loyalist officer in southern campaigns during the Revolutionary War.[1]

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[1] See, for instance, Randall M. Miller, “A Loyalist Plan to Retake Georgia and the Carolina, 1778,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 75, no. 4 (October 1974): 207-214.

April 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

“The Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES.”

George Webster, a grocer, kept shop “At the Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, in Leary-street,” in New York during the era of the American Revolution.  In an advertisement in the April 18, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal, he listed a variety of items, including “Best green citron, West-India sweet meats and pickles, a quantity of cloves, Ground ginger and Cayanne pepper, French and Italian olives and capers, [and] anchovies of a peculiar quality.”  He also stocked some housewares, such as “China bowls of different sizes, Chinas cups and saucers of various colours and sizes, with or without handles, [and] A few sets of tea table china complete, which he will sell lower than any in town by ten shillings on the set.”  That was a bargain for a tea seat, though colonizers were supposedly abstaining from drinking tea in protest of the Intolerable Acts.

The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” must have been a familiar sight for many residents of New York.  It had marked Webster’s location on Leary Street for several years.  In addition, the grocer commissioned a woodcut that depicted his sign to adorn some of his newspaper advertisements.  It featured a taller sugar loaf in the center, flanked by two shorter sugar loaves, all enclosed in a thin border with scalloped corners.  It may have replicated the sign that marked Webster’s location, creating a visual identity or brand through the consistency.  Webster used the woodcut in his advertisements in the fall of 1772 and then discontinued it for a few years before using it again in his advertisements in the spring of 1776.  Perhaps he retrieved it from the printing office and tucked it away at his shop, though he could have left it in the care of the printer during that time.  After all, the image was so tied to his business that it would not have been of much use to other advertisers.  Unlike some entrepreneurs who commissioned woodcuts and advertised in multiple newspapers, Webster did not collect his woodcut from one printing office and deliver it to another.  His advertisements in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer in the fall of 1773 featured a decorative border and gave his location as “the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, In LEARY-STREET,” but did not include the woodcut.  When he revived the image, it helped distinguish his advertisement from others in the New-York Journal.  In the April 18 edition for instance, only one other advertisement included a woodcut.  A stock image of a horse, a fraction of the size of Webster’s woodcut, appeared in an advertisement offering the stud services of True Briton.  The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” at the top of Webster’s advertisement no doubt helped draw attention to it.

March 21

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

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

New-York Journal (March 21, 1776).

“This balsam is sold in bottles … seal’d with my own seal.”

Richard Speaight hawked a variety of patent medicines in an advertisement in the March 21, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal.  He listed Turlington’s Balsam, Anderson’s Pills, Lockyer’s Pills, Hooper’s Pills, James’s Powders, Story’s Worm Cakes, and Stoughton’s Bitters.  All these remedies were so familiar to consumers that Speaight did not consider it necessary to indicate which of them relieved which maladies.  Prospective customers knew them as well as modern consumers know the over-the-counter medications available at local pharmacies.  He sold all of them, along with “an assortment of [other] Drugs and Medicines,” for reasonable prices.

On the other hand, Speaight did devote a significant portion of his advertisement to describing a “CHYMICAL Balsam approved of by some of the best Physicians in London.”  Those practitioners, he reported, considered the balsam “an excellent medicine for coughs, asthmas, those in a consumptive decay, pains in the breast and all rheumatic disorders.”  It supposedly worked to “great effect,” a welcome promise to readers who had tried other treatments without success.

In addition to customers who purchased the balsam for their own use, Speaight also hoped to attract the attention of retails who would stock it in their own shops.  He set the price at one dollar per bottle and four shillings for a half bottle while also making “allowances to those who buy to sell again.”  In other words, he offered discounts for buying in volume.  To avoid counterfeits, he informed the public that bottles of the balsam were “seal’d with my own seal.”  Furthermore, he provided “directions signed with my own name.”  Retailers and consumers alike could refer to those instructions when selling or using the balsam.  For a medicine not nearly as familiar as Anderson’s Pills and Stoughton’s Bitters, a seal and printed directions likely enhanced confidence in the efficacy of the product.

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 lasted 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.