New York Packet

April 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Packet (April 11, 1776).

“Just Published … by SAMUEL LOUDON.”

Samuel Loudon launched a new newspaper, the New York Packet, on January 4, 1776.  It lasted for about eight months before closing down just before the British occupation of New York.  The Adverts 250 Project featured subscription proposals for the newspaper that ran in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Gazette on December 27, 1775, and an announcement that Loudon “published the first Number of his News Paper” that ran in the New-York Journal on January 11, 1776.  In that latter entry, I stated that “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.”  I have since learned that the New York Packet has indeed been digitized and made available via the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.  When I discovered it there, I also learned that advertisements referred to the newspaper as the New-York Packet (hyphenating “New-York” like other newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution) yet the elaborate script in the masthead presented it as the New York Packet (without the hyphen).

New-York Packet (April 11, 1776).

Throughout the decade I have been producing the Adverts 250 Project, I have relied on four databases of digitized eighteenth-century American newspapers.  Archives of Maryland Online, sponsored by the Maryland State Archives, provides access to issues of the Maryland Gazette published in Annapolis between 1728 and 1839.  Colonial Williamsburg provides access to three newspapers, each named the Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg between 1736 and 1780.  In the 1760s and 1770s, two and sometimes three operated simultaneously.  Accessible Archives, now part of History Commons, provides access to several newspapers published in Charleston, including the South-Carolina Gazette, the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, and the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.  Readex/Newsbank’s America’s Historical Newspapers & Periodicals provides the most comprehensive access to early American newspapers, incorporating dozens of newspapers published throughout the colonies and new nation in the eighteenth century.  That collection, however, does not include the New York Packet.  I neglected to consult Chronicling America before declaring that the New York Packet has not been digitized.

Since then, I have acquired digital copies of all the issues of the New York Packet available via Chronicling America, examined them to identify advertisements that belong in the Slavery Adverts 250 Project and special features chronicling advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and made updates and revisions as necessary.  As I continue with the Adverts 250 Project, I will cross reference issues of early American newspapers available via Chronicling America with those in the other databases that have made this project possible.

Cheers to the National Endowment for the Humanities’ National Digital Newspaper Program and the Library of Congress for making early American newspapers even more accessible to scholars, students, and the public!

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 31

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

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

Connecticut Journal (December 27, 1775).

“He will publish No. I. of a News-Paper … THE NEW-YORK PACKET; OR THE AMERICAN ADVERTISER.”

The American Revolution resulted in an explosion of print.  The disruptions of the war led to the demise of some newspapers, but others continued, joined by new publications during the war and, especially, even more newspapers after the war ended.  The major port cities had one or more newspapers before the Revolutionary War.  Many minor ports also had a newspaper.  Once the new nation achieved independence, printers commenced publishing newspapers in many more towns.  Thoughtful citizenship depended in part on the widespread dissemination of news.  Samuel Loudon’s New York Packet was part of that story.

In December 1775, Loudon announced that he “will publish No. I. of a News-paper, (To be continued weekly)” on Thursday, January 4.  He initially advertised in other newspapers printed in New York, but by the end of the month others carried his proposals, including the Connecticut Journal, published in New Haven, and the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia.  Newspapers circulated far beyond their places of publication.  Printers wanted them to supply content for their own newspapers.  The proprietors of coffeehouses and taverns acquired them for their patrons.  Merchants used them for updates about both commerce and politics.  Loudon had a reasonable expectation of attracting subscribers beyond New York.  A nota bene at the end of his advertisement in the Connecticut Journal noted that “Subscriptions [were] taken by the Printers, and all the Post Riders,” a network of local agents that assisted in distributing Loudon’s newspaper.

Pennsylvania Gazette (December 27, 1775).

To entice potential subscribers, Loudon explained that he “is encouraged to undertake this arduous work by the advice and promised literary assistance of a numerous circle of warm friends to our (at present much distressed) country.”  That signaled to readers that Loudon supported the American cause.  It also offered assurances that he had the means to acquire sufficient content to publish a weekly newspaper.  To that end, Loudon pledged “to do everything in his power to render it a complete and accurate NEWS-PAPER, that the Public may thereby receive the earliest intelligence of the state of our public affairs, and of the several interesting occurrences which may occasionally happen whether at home or abroad.”  In the spirit of newspaper providing the first draft of history, the printer declared that he “flatters himself that the NEW YORK PACKET, will influence every discerner of real merit, who may encourage the work, to preserve it in volumes, as a faithful Chronicle of our own time.”

In addition to expressing such ideals, Loudon also tended to the business aspects of establishing a newspaper.  He reported that he “already possessed himself of a neat and sizeable set of TYPES … together with every other necessary for carrying on a splendid News Paper.”  Soon enough, “the best of hands shall be procured to perform the mechanical part.”  Subscribers could expect the New York Packet “will be printed … on a large Paper, of a good Quality, and equal in Size to the other News-Papers published in this City.”  Subscriptions cost twelve shillings per year.  Loudon also solicited advertisements, indicating that they “will be inserted at the usual Price of Five Shillings, when of a moderate Length, and continued Four Weeks.”  As was the practice in other printing offices, “longer Advertisements to be charged accordingly.”

Loudon did indeed launch the New York Packet on January 4, 1776.  It lasted only eight months in New York, suspended after the August 29 edition, as Clarence S. Brigham explains, “immediately prior to the entry of the British into New York.  Loudon re-established the paper at Fishkill in January, 1777, and at the close of the War returned to New York.”[1]  Without changing the volume numbering, he continued publishing the New York Packet from November 13, 1783, through January 26, 1792.  By then, Loudon published the newspaper three times a week, part of that explosion of print that occurred during the era of the American Revolution.  Shortly after closing the New York Packet, Loudon and his son, Samuel, established a daily newspaper, The Diary; or Loudon’s Register.  Unfortunately, the issues of the New York Packet published in 1776 have not been digitized for greater access, though the run for 1783 through 1792 is available via Readex’s America’s Historical Newspapers.  That means that advertisements and other content from that newspaper will not be featured in the Adverts 250 Project, its story confined to the subscription proposals that ran in other newspapers.

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[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 675.