New-York Journal

March 19

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

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

New-York Journal (March 16, 1775).

“Gilbert Forbes, Gun Maker, At the sign of the Sportsman.”

Gilbert Forbes, “Gun Maker, At the sign of the Sportsman in the Broad Way,” took to the pages of the New-York Journal to advertise “all sorts of guns” that he made “in the neatest and best manner “and sold “on the lowest terms” as spring approached in 1775.  He made some of the standard appeals deployed by artisans – quality and price – yet those were not the focal point of his advertisement.  A woodcut dominated his notice, accounting for more than half the space he purchased in the newspaper.

Commissioning the woodcut may very well have been worth the investment.  It almost certainly attracted the attention of readers, not only because it appeared on the first page of the March 16 edition.  The image depicted a scene of a well-dressed gentleman firing a gun, a bird plummeting out of the sky, and a hunting dog waiting below.  A puff of smoke wafted out of the barrel of the gun, capturing the moment just after the gentleman pulled the trigger.  Such a scene differed dramatically from other images that appeared in newspaper advertisements during the era of the American Revolution.  When advertisers commissioned woodcuts, they usually requested static images that corresponded to some aspect of their business, most often replicating their shop sign or showing an item that they made or sold at their shop.  For instance, an image of a fish adorned an advertisement for “CORNISH’s New-England FISH HOOKS” in the Massachusetts Spy and an image of a spinning wheel appeared in James Cunning’s advertisement for dry goods he sold “At the Sign of the SPINNING-WHEEL” in the Pennsylvania Journal.  In contrast, Forbes provided a scene in motion, distinguishing his advertisement from others.

Relatively few advertisements featured images at all.  Those that did most often incorporated stock images of ships at sea, houses, horses, or enslaved people, each of them provided by the printer.  Occasionally, advertisers commissioned woodcuts intended exclusively for their own use.  Among that small number, an image of a scene, one that invited viewers to imagine events in motion, was exceptionally rare.  As such, it demanded attention.

March 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (March 9, 1772).

“Her husband has absconded, to avoid the payment of his debts.”

It began as a standard “runaway wife” advertisement in the January 19, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal.  “WHEREAS my Wife Mary has lately eloped from me, and my perhaps endeavour to run me into Debt,” Morris Decamp proclaimed, “these are therefore to warn all Persons not to Trust or entertain her on my Account, as I will pay no Debts she may contract.”  That advertisement ran for four weeks, but not without going unnoticed or unanswered by Mary.

Most women who appeared in the public prints as the subject of such advertisements did not have the means or opportunity to respond.  Mary, however, did, perhaps with assistance from some of her relations.  Her own advertisement began its run in the March 2 edition of the New-York Journal, placing it before the eyes of the same readers who saw her husband’s missive.  She acknowledged that “the public would naturally be led to conclude, that she had in some respect or other misbehaved to her said husband” based on what they knew from his advertisement.  On the contrary, she asserted, she “always behaved as a faithful and dutiful wife to him.”  The misbehavior had been solely on his part.  Mary “experienced from him continual ill usage of the worst kind,” yet his villainy extended beyond their household.  The aggrieved wife alleged that Morris committed “a criminal attempt upon a young woman” that resulted in him having to leave town.  Abandoned by her husband, Mary “was reduced to the necessity of returning to her mother.”  Morris somehow managed to resolve that situation; Mary did not provide details but reported that “when the affair was made up, … she was prevailed on, to live with him again,” much to her regret.  Her husband remained unreformed: “by his lewd commerce with other women, he contracted and designedly communicated to [Mary], a loathsome disease, which greatly endangered her life, and from which she with great difficulty recovered.”

The real story, Mary insisted, reflected poorly on her husband, not on her.  She took to the pages of the New-York Journal“in vindication of her injured character.”  Rather than “eloping” from Morris, she had returned to her mother because she did not consider herself safe with him.  It was actually Morris who “has absconded, to avoid the payment of his debts.”  Even as he tried to cut her off from his credit, her notice likely prompted others to think twice about doing business with him.  Wives rarely placed rebuttals to the advertisements published by their husbands.  In the rare instances that they did, women like Mary Decamp attempted to harness the power of the press to defend their reputations by setting the record straight.

March 5

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

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (March 2, 1775).

“PARCHMENT … Made and sold … [in] Philadelphia.”

In the early 1770s, Robert Wood made and sold parchment in Philadelphia, yet he did not confine his marketing or distribution of his product to that city and its hinterland.  As spring approached in 1775, he ran an advertisement in the supplement that accompanied the March 2 edition of the New-York Journal, advising prospective customers that they could acquire his parchment from local agents.  John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, and Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, each stocked Wood’s parchment along with books, stationery, and writing supplies at their printing offices.  In addition, Joseph Dunkley, a painter and glazier, also supplied Wood’s parchment at his workshop “opposite the Methodist Meeting House.”  The New-York Journal circulated beyond the city, so some prospective customers would have found it more convenient to acquire Wood’s parchment from Isaac Collins, a printer in Burlington, New Jersey.  According to previous advertisements, Collins had been peddling Wood’s parchment to “friends to American Manufactures” for several years.

Wood asserted that the “Demand for this Parchment [was] much increased of late,” though he left it to readers to imagine why that was the case.  Most would assume that the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement that went into effect on December 1, 1774, played a role in increased demand for parchment produced in the colonies.  Wood likely intended for prospective customers to draw the conclusion that the quality of his product, not merely its availability, contributed to the demand.  He declared that “those who have tried it … esteemed [it] superior to most imported from England.”  He was bold enough to resort to superlatives, claiming that customers considered his parchment better than any imported to the colonies, yet he offered firm assurances about it quality.  Wood had recently met with so much demand for his parchment that he “extend[ed] his Works … to be able to supply his Customers in a manner more satisfactory than heretofore, without Fear of a Disappointment.”  In other words, he stepped up production to expand his inventory so every customer who wished to purchase his parchment could do so.  Wood answered the call of the eighth article of the Continental Association with his own “Industry” in producing “Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.

January 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (January 12, 1775).

“All kinds of business will be transacted on commission.”

John Holt included a significant amount of content – news, editorials, advertisements – in each issue of the New-York Journal.  Like other colonial newspapers, his publication consisted of four pages published once a week.  Most featured three columns per page, but the New-York Journal had four.  Even then, that often was not enough space for everything submitted to Holt’s printing office, prompting him to distribute supplements with even more content.

Such was the case with the January 12, 1775, edition.  In addition to the standard issue, Holt printed a four-page supplement that featured both news and advertising.  Some of that advertising, however, had an unusual format as the result of Holt using a smaller sheet that accommodated only three columns.  That left enough space to insert advertisements in the right margins, though they had to be divided into shorter segments and printed perpendicular to the rest of the content.

For instance, William Tongue’s advertisement for a “MERCHANT BROKER’S OFFICE” that previously ran in a single column appeared in five short segments in the right margin on the second page.  In addition to maximizing the use of space in the supplement, it saved the compositor time because the type had already been set.  On other pages, the right margins contained multiple shorter advertisements, such as Jonathan Durrell’s advertisement for locally produced “EARTHEN WARE” divided into three segments and a notice concerning Isaac Adolphus’s estate divided into two segments on the first page.  In total, Holt managed to squeeze eight advertisements of various lengths, including one offering an enslaved woman for sale, into the margins of the supplement, following a strategy commonly used by colonial printers.

Supplement to the New-York Journal (January 12, 1775).

Apparently, the printer made a calculated decision about the size of the sheets to use for the supplement; it was not the result of a disruption in his paper supply caused by current events.  A week earlier on January 5, he used the larger sheet for both the standard issue and a supplement with four full columns, but on January 19 used the larger sheet for the standard issue and, once again, the slightly smaller sheet for the supplement.  On that occasion, he used only a half sheet, distributing a two-page supplement devoted entirely to paid notices.  That suggests that he carefully managed his resources rather than resorting to whatever paper came to hand.  Advertisements and other content sometimes appeared in the margins out of necessity when printers had difficulty acquiring paper during the imperial crisis, but seemingly that was not the case in this instance.  Instead, Holt shrewdly balanced how much content to print against anticipated revenues from advertising.

Supplement to the New-York Journal (January 12, 1775).

January 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (January 12, 1775).

“A GENERAL and complete assortment of MUFFS and TIPPETS.”

Lyon Jonas, a “FURRIER, from LONDON,” was consistent in his advertising in two newspapers published in New York on the eve of the American Revolution.  He ran notices with identical copy in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury in November 1774 and the New-York Journal in January 1775.  As was often the case when advertisers purchased space in more than one publication, the notices featured variations in format at the discretion of the compositor, including line breaks and capitalization.  Otherwise, the copy in Jonas’s advertisement was identical.  Rather than writing it out twice, the furrier may very well have clipped his advertisement from one newspaper to submit to the printing office of the other.

The two notices featured another striking similarity.  Both were adorned with a woodcut depicting a muff and a tippet enclosed within a decorative border, the size of the image accounting for approximately half of the space of the advertisement and certainly drawing attention.  Advertisers commissioned such distinctive woodcuts to promote their businesses, making additional investments in their marketing efforts.  In most instances that they incorporated images into advertisements in more than one newspaper, they collected their woodcut from one printing office and delivered it to another.

Jonas, however, commissioned a second woodcut.  Though similar at a glance, enough so that consumers would recognize the devise that represented Jonas’s business, the woodcuts had several variations.  The one in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury was rectangular while the one in the New-York Journal was nearly a square.  The borders had different decorative elements, especially the corners.  The muffs faced opposite directions.  The ends of the tipped almost touched the border in the woodcut in the New-York Journal, but much more space appeared between the ends and the border in the version in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.

Most advertisers who adorned their newspaper notices with custom images limited their investment to one woodcut, transferring it from printing office to printing office when they wished to include those images in more than one publication.  Jonas, however, opted for a second woodcut.  Doing so allowed him, if he wished, to circulate advertisements with identical copy accompanied by distinctive images in two newspapers simultaneously without having to worry about the logistics of the printing offices sharing a single woodcut.

Left: New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 21, 1774); Right: Supplement to the New-York Journal (January 12, 1775).

December 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (December 22, 1774).

“Willing to comply with the association entered into by the late Continental Congress.”

When a shipment of “1 bale of woolens and 1 box of silks” arrived in New York via the Lady Gage on December 10, 1774, Archibald McVickar surrendered the good to the local Committee of Inspection and placed an advertisement to that effect in the New-York Journal.  He declared that he was “willing to comply with the association entered into by the late Continental Congress.”  Accordingly, those goods “will be sold … under the direction of William Denning, John Berrian, and Nicholas Roosevelt.”  Anyone wishing to learn more about the sale should “apply to the above Gentlemen” rather than to the McVickar.

McVickar abided by the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement enacted by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts.  In particular, the tenth article stated, “In Case any Merchant, Trader, or other Persons, shall import any Goods or Merchandise after the first Day of December [1774], and before the first Day of February next, the same ought forthwith, at the Election of the Owner, to be either reshipped or delivered up to the Committee of the County or town wherein they shall be imported, to be stored at the Risk of the Importer, until the Non-importation Agreement shall cease, or be sold under the Direction of the Committee aforesaid.”  In other words, McVickar had three options since his shipment arrived on December 10.  He could return it, turn the goods over to the committee to store until the nonimportation agreement ended, or turn the goods over to the committee to sell.

McVickar chose the final option.  The Continental Association made further provisions that he would be reimbursed for the cost of the goods yet could not earn any profit on them.  Instead, any profit was to be applied to relief efforts for Boston where the harbor had been closed and blockaded since the Boston Port Act went into effect on June 1.  McVickar added a nota bene to clarify that the “goods were ordered in June last.”  At that time, colonizers suspected that a nonimportation agreement might go into effect in the future, but the First Continental Congress had not yet met or composed and disseminated the Continental Association.  McVickar suggested that he had not deliberately attempted to get around that agreement, as he further demonstrated in asserting that he was “willing to comply with the association.”  Whatever he lost in profit, he gained in staying in the good graces of members of the community who supported the Patriot cause.

December 15

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

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

New-York Journal (December 15, 1774).

“JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS.”

According to their advertisement in the December 15, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal, Garrat Noel and Ebenezer Hazard stocked the “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS, Held in PHILADELPHIA” at their bookstore.  They also marketed “STRICTURES On a pamphlet, entitled ‘A Friendly Address to all reasonable Americans, on the subject of our political confusions’” by Charles Lee and “AN ADDRESS, Occasioned by the late invasion of the liberties of the American Colonies, by the British Parliament, delivered in Charles-Town, South Carolina” by William Tennent.  The booksellers provided the public access to news and commentary about current events beyond what appeared in the public prints, though they privileged perspectives expressed by Patriots rather than Loyalists.

Noel and Hazard may have sold Hugh Gaine’s New York edition of the Proceedings of the First Continental Congress, though the other titles in their advertisement suggest that they could have sold the Philadelphia edition printed by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford.  The Bradfords also published Lee’s Strictures and Tennent’s Address, possibly sending copies of all three titles to Noel and Hazard.  Either  way, the masthead of the newspaper that featured the booksellers’ advertisement suggested that the Bradfords’ edition of the Proceedings made their way to New York.  Six months earlier, John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, incorporated a political cartoon depicting a severed snake, each segment representing one of the colonies, with the motto “UNITE OR DIE” into the masthead.  On December 15, he replaced it with a woodcut depicting twelve hands, one for each colony represented at the First Continental Congress, grasping a liberty pole with a liberty cap perched atop it on a pedestal inscribed “MAGNA CHARTA.”  A similar image appeared on the title page of the Bradfords’ edition of the Proceedings, described in Princeton University Library’s online catalog as “the first wood-cut device of the 12 colonies intended to symbolize the need for the true political unity of the colonies.”  Holt enhanced that image, having an ouroboros twice encircle the hands and pillar.  A message on the ouroboros proclaimed, “UNITED NOW – ALIVE AND FREE – AND THUS SUPPORTED EVER – BLESS OUR LAND – FIRM ON THIS BASIS LIBERTY SHALL STAND – TILL TIME BECOMES ETERNITY.”  This addition to his newspaper set the tone for readers to peruse Noel and Hazard’s advertisement, other paid notices, and the news and editorials selected by Holt.

New-York Journal (December 15, 1774).

December 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (December 8, 1774).

“The hatter’s business will be carried on as usual, by her.”

Mary Jarvis assumed responsibility for the family business following the death of her husband, James, a hatter.  In an advertisement that ran in the New-York Journal for several weeks in November and December 1774, she “inform[ed] her friends and the public and general, that the hatter’s business will be carried on as usual, by her, at the house and shop formerly occupied by her said husband.”  Like many others who advertised goods and services in colonial newspapers, she promised that “those who will be pleased to favour her with their custom, may depend upon being served with fidelity and dispatch.”  Jarvis may have consulted with John Holt, the printer, on the wording for her notice when she made arrangements for its publication, though that may not have been necessary.  Considering that she knew enough about the enterprise to continue its operations following the death of her husband, she may very well have been familiar enough with the usual contents of newspaper advertisements to compose it herself.  In addition, she could have perused similar notices many times as a consumer and learned for herself what they should contain.

The widow’s role in the business changed following the death of her husband, yet she likely had experience with many of the tasks from assisting him over the years.  When she declared that “the hatter’s business will be carried on as usual, by her,” she suggested that she did the work herself rather than managing employees previously affiliated with the business or hired after her situation changed.  Although James had been the public face of the venture, Mary no doubt made valuable contributions and learned much about the trade.  She sought to leverage that knowledge to support herself through her own industry, joining many other women – milliners and seamstresses – in the garment trades.  Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich distinguishes between what was probable for women and what was possible for women in early America.  In this case, Jarvis embodied both.  It was probable that she assisted James in his business as a “deputy husband” (a concept developed by Ulrich) and that made it possible for her to work as a hatter in her own right when circumstances demanded.

October 23

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

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (October 20, 1774).

“This being the safest and most efficacious method of convincing the Ministry of Great-Britain of their errour.”

John Keating frequently advertised the “FIRST Paper Manufactory Established in the city of New-York” in the late 1760s and early 1770s.  He often updated his advertisement, yet he incorporated familiar themes about patriotism and supporting the local economy.  He also encouraged readers to save linen rags to make into paper, underscoring that they could play an important role in the production of paper made in the colonies as well as its consumption.

Such was the case in an advertisement in the supplement that accompanied the October 20, 1774, edition of the New-York Journal.  Keating opened with an announcement that his enterprise “is in great want of a large quantity of fine and coarse LINEN RAGS.”  He encouraged “the public in general, to be careful in saving every species of materials that are requisite to support such a useful and necessary branch of business.”  In previous advertisements, he offered instructions for collecting and saving rags as part of the rituals of household management, entrusting women in particular with supplying the resources necessary for the operation of the local paper mill and, in the process, lauding the patriotic spirit of those who heeded his call.  In this instance, he did not distinguish men and women, instead stating that when it came to choosing which paper to consume “that most of his fellow citizens will give the preference to a mill in the province … when it is considered that such a conduct will be a certain means of preventing large sums of money going out of the province.”  In addition to supporting the local economy, Keating asserted that the “present alarming situation of the colonies renders it entirely needless to point out the utility of establishing this and every other kind of manufactory among us, as soon as possible.”  Such a plan, he declared, was “the safest and most efficacious method of convincing the Ministry of Great-Britain of their error, and securing opulence to ourselves.”  Keating effortlessly connected politics, commerce, and the livelihoods and good fortune of colonizers who benefited from domestic manufactures as alternatives to imported goods.  He did so once again with a plea “that more attention will be paid to this affair in the future, both from a principle of patriotism, and frugality.”  In so doing, Keating presented a multitude of reasons for readers to support American industry and buy American products as the imperial crisis intensified.

October 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (September 29, 1774).

“Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”

The headline attracted attention: “Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”  John Burrowes of Middletown Point, New Jersey, was the victim of a crime, one that occurred on the night of September 9, 1774.  A “robber or robbers” stole a variety of goods from his store, including “One piece rich black satin,” “Nine or ten cross-bar’d red and white cotton handkerchiefs, fine,” “Eleven pieces coarse [calico], some of them full pieces, others part pieces,” and “Six pair cypher’d stone sleeve buttons, set in silver.”  In addition, they made off with “sundry others not mentioned.”

A few days after the theft, Burrowes dispatched messages to two printing offices in New York, the nearest town with one or more newspapers.  Advertisements featuring identical copy, but very different formats, soon appeared in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury and the New-York Journal.  Despite the differences in their layouts, both proclaimed ““Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”  That suggests that Burrowes had been quite specific in his instructions about the headline even as he left the rest of the design to the discretion of the compositors who set type for the two newspapers.

The shopkeeper realized that the robbers would likely attempt to sell some or all the stolen merchandise rather than keep it for their own use.  By publishing notices, he alerted readers in New York and far beyond to be wary if offered any of the items he listed.  He sought to enlist their help in capturing the culprits and, if possible, recovering the stolen goods.  To that end, he designated a local agent, Henry Remsen, in New York to represent him should the robbers and the goods turn up there, while also directing readers to contact him in Middletown Point if the robbers were apprehended in the area.

Burrowes’s advertisement appeared in the New-York Journal at the same time that John Holt, the printer, published accounts of the Suffolk County Resolves from Massachusetts.  Those measures called for a boycott of goods imported from Britain until Parliament repealed the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.  Holt ran other news about the imperial crisis under a masthead that included the “UNITE OR DIE” political cartoon that encouraged resistance to the various abuses perpetrated by Parliament.  Whatever else happened to be taking place in terms of current events, however, Burrowes likely considered the contents of his advertisement, a form of local reporting from his small town, among the most important news in the New-York Journal.  Advertisements often served as mechanisms for disseminating news that did not appear elsewhere in colonial newspapers.