Nicholas Tillinghast

March 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 19, 1774).

“… and many other Articles, as cheap as usual.”

Were advertisements in early American newspapers effective?  Did they work?  Did readers become consumers because advertisements incited demand?  Did consumers select where they would shop because of the advertisements they encountered in the public prints.  There are no easy answers to those questions.

What can be asserted with more certainty is that many merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and others who provided goods and services considered advertising worth the investment, so much so that they placed advertisements for years.  Consider Nicholas Tillinghast and William Holroyd of Providence.  As spring approached in 1774, they once again took to the pages of the Providence Gazette, this time promoting an assortment of “GARDEN SEEDS” as well as a “Variety of English and West India GOODS.”  Perhaps seeing James Green’s advertisement for similar merchandise in the March 5 edition prompted them to insert their own notice in the next edition for fear of losing former and prospective customers to a competitor.

By that time, Tillinghast and Holroyd had been advertising in the Providence Gazette for years.  The Adverts 250 Projecthas not featured every advertisement that they published, but it has examined several of them.  On November 24, 1770, the partners announced that they “newly opened the Shop … at the Sign of the Elephant … where they have to sell a Variety of Articles.”  A year later, they once again hawked “a Variety of well assorted GOODS,” noting that they stocked too many items “to be particularly mentioned in an Advertisement.”  On May 16, 1772, they asserted that they sold a “Variety [of] ARTICLES … at as cheap a Rate as any Goods, of the same Quality, can be purchased in this Town.”  They did not merely announce that they had merchandise for sale.  Instead, Tillinghast and Holroyd repeatedly underscored that they offered choices to consumers and sometimes used prices to encourage prospective customers to choose their store over others.  They did so once again in August 1773 when they directed “their old Customers and the Public” to a new shop “which they have built.”  Their inventory consisted of “English Piece Goods, and Hard Ware of various Sorts, West-India Goods, Groceries and Wines of several Sorts.”  The partners resorted to a familiar refrain: “the Particulars of which would be tedious to enumerate in an Advertisement.”  Instead, they “can be better recounted to any who shall be pleased to make personal Application.”  Tillinghast and Holroyd promised attentive customer service.

Did advertising work?  Tillinghast and Holroyd thought that it worked well enough to justify placing yet another notice in the Providence Gazette in March 1774.  If they suspected that advertising did not yield a return on their investment, would they have continued doing so?

August 14

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

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

Providence Gazette (August 14, 1773)

“Can be better recounted to any who shall be pleased to make personal Application.”

When Nicholas Tillinghast and William Holroyd built a new shop in the summer of 1773, they placed an advertisement in the Providence Gazette to inform “their old Customers, and the Public,” about their new location.  They provided extensive directions, but did not mention if the Sign of the Elephant continued to adorn their business.

The partners gave a brief overview of their “Assortment” or inventory, stating that it “consists of English Piece Goods, and Hard Ware of various Sorts, West-India Goods, Groceries and Wines of several Sorts.”  Some merchants and shopkeepers demonstrated the choices they made available to consumers with lists of merchandise.  Joseph Russell and William Russell, two of the most prominent merchants in Providence, did so in the advertisement immediately above Tillinghast and Holroyd’s notice.  In addition to declaring that they stocked a “general Assortment of ENGLISH and HARD-WARE GOODS,” they named dozens of items and arranged them into two columns.  Tillinghast and Holroyd took a different approach, exclaiming that “the Particulars” of their inventory “would be tedious to enumerate in an Advertisement.”  They had deployed that strategy in the past, asserting that “The Articles are too many to be particularly mentioned in an Advertisement.”

Instead, Tillinghast and Holroyd advised that their merchandise “can be better recounted to any who shall be pleased to make personal Application.”  They invited “old Customers, and the Public” to visit their shop, examine the merchandise, compare items, ask questions, get recommendations, and chat about the “Assortment.”  That gave Tillinghast and Holroyd opportunities to cultivate relationships with consumers and, in the process, encourage them to make purchases rather than merely browse.  They might even convince shoppers to buy items that they had not even previously considered before making “personal Application” at Tillinghast and Holroyd’s new shop.  In their advertisement, the partners emphasized interacting with “their good Customers” rather than treating sales as nothing more than transactions.  They apparently believed that many consumers responded better to that personal touch compared to lengthy lists of goods.

November 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (November 24, 1770).

“Many other articles not enumerated.”

Consumer choice was a key element of Nicholas Tillinghast and William Holroyd’s advertisement in the November 24, 1770, edition of the Providence Gazette.  The partners informed the public that they stocked “a Variety of Articles, both of wet and dry Goods,” at their new shop at the Sign of the Elephant.  To help prospective buyers imagine the choices available to them, Tillinghast and Holroyd provided a list of some of their many wares, naming everything from “WOOLLEN and linen cloths” to “best French brandy.”  They placed special emphasis on “an assortment of stationary ware,” cataloging “writing paper by the ream, account books of different sizes, ink cake, red and black ink powder, wafer, quills and pens ready made, ink stands, sand boxes, pounce boxes, [and] pencils.”  In addition to all of those accessories, Tillinghast and Holroyd carried “many other articles not enumerated.”  While the list helped prospective customers imagine some of the wares available at the Sign of the Elephant, promising even more items than would fit in the advertisement challenged them to consider what else they might encounter when visiting the shop.

Purveyors of goods often deployed these marketing strategies in newspaper advertisements in the second half of the eighteenth century.  Elsewhere in the same issue of the Providence Gazette, Clark and Nightingale promoted a “COMPLEAT Assortment of ENGLISH and INDIA GOODS” at their store at the Sign of the Fish and Frying Pan.  Other advertisers provided lists of merchandise, though all of them were short in comparison to what appeared in newspapers published in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  Still, merchants and shopkeepers in Providence attempted to entice prospective customers by presenting them many choices intended to incite demand.  Many advertisers throughout the colonies concluded their lists with one or more “&c.” (the abbreviation for et cetera commonly used in the eighteenth century) to indicate that consumers would discover many other goods when visiting their shops.  Tillinghast and Holroyd deployed a variation, “many other articles not enumerated,” that delivered the same message.  Along with price and quality, consumer choice was among the most common marketing strategies in eighteenth-century newspaper advertisements.  Merchants and shopkeepers invited consumers to be make a pastime of shopping by considering the many choices available and contemplating the power they possessed in making selections for themselves.

June 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Jun 11 - 6:11:1768 Tillinghast 1 Providence Gazette
Providence Gazette (June 11, 1768).

“NICHOLAS TILLINGHAST Has to sell, GOOD Fyal Wine.”

Readers of the Providence Gazette encountered a rather brief advertisement at the end of the last column of the third page of the June 11, 1768, edition. Limited to four lines, it announced that “NICHOLAS TILLINGHAST Has to sell, Very good Bohea Tea, Which he will warrant, CHEAP for CASH.” On the following page they encountered a second advertisement placed by Tillinghast, this one slightly longer and listing other goods for sale, including “GOOD Fyal Wine” (from Faial in the Azores), “Brandy,” and “choice Vinegar.” In terms of both word count and the amount of space they occupied on the page, both were among the shortest advertisements in that issue. In comparison, Joseph and William Russell ran an advertisement that contained approximately the same number of words as Tillinghast’s second advertisement, but the bold typography – especially the way they deployed fonts of various sizes – made their advertisement appear twice as long.

Jun 11 - 6:11:1768 Tillinghast 2 Providence Gazette
Providence Gazette (June 11, 1768).

Visually, neither of Tillinghast’s advertisements were as flashy as the one placed by the Russells. He relied on a different strategy to capture a place in the minds of prospective customers. He could have placed a single advertisement that included “Very good Bohea Tea” alongside his wine, brandy, and vinegar. Instead, he opted for multiple advertisements that repeatedly introduced him, his wares, and his promises of low prices to consumers. The iterative aspect of his marketing strategy made it more difficult for readers to quickly pass over a single advertisement. In placing multiple advertisements in a single issue of the Providence Gazette he imprinted his name and business in the minds of readers.

This became a much more common strategy in the last decades of the eighteenth century as well as a staple marketing method in nineteenth-century newspapers when some advertisers inserted dozens or more advertisements in a single issue. Although he did not as fully develop the technique as subsequent advertisers, Tillinghast’s efforts at repetition could be considered a precursor to later marketing campaigns that relied on frequent and multiple reiteration.

December 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

dec-13-12131766-providence-gazette
Providence Gazette (December 13, 1766).

“BEST Bohea Tea for 5s. and 4d. per Pound.”

Nicholas Tillinghast’s short advertisement for “Bohea Tea,” “an Assortment of Nails, and sundry other Goods” was one of the few advertisements in the December 13, 1766, issue of the Providence Gazette. Only six advertisements appeared in that issue. Four of them promoted consumer goods and services: Tillinghast’s notice, a modified advertisement for the New-England Almanack (with the second half outlining a dispute with printers from Boston removed, presumably for lack of space), an announcement of a vendue sale (or auction) of household goods and books from the estate of Samuel Pierpoint, and Joseph and William Russell’s full-page advertisement (making its third appearance). One of the other advertisements described a “House, Wharf, and Cooper’s Shop” for sale, while the final one offered to “carry Freight at half price” aboard the General Conway when it sailed for New York (this time set within a column rather than tilted in the margin).

In terms of numbers, readers of the Providence Gazette were exposed to very few advertisements in the December 13 issue. Every since the publication had been revived the previous August it carried relatively few advertisements, especially compared to newspaper printed in the larger port cities, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York. Yet the Providence Gazette steadily gained advertisers during the fall of 1766, making the relatively low number of six, one of them placed by the printers themselves, rather anomalous.

The numbers, however, do not tell the entire story. In terms of column inches or proportion of the issue devoted to advertising, the December 13 edition held steady with recent issues. After all, the Russells’ full-page advertisement took up a quarter of the issue by itself, raising intriguing questions. Did that oversized advertisement displace other advertising that might otherwise have appeared? Did Sarah Goddard and Company continue to insert that advertisement because they lacked for others to publish? Nearly a dozen advertisements of varying lengths appeared on the final page of the previous issue, suggesting that other merchants and shopkeepers in Providence wished to market their wares in the local newspaper. Did the Russells pay such handsome fees for their full-page advertisement that the printers dismissed other advertisements, at least for an issue or two? (Significantly, they did not reduce the amount of space given to news coverage or print a supplement to disseminate a backlog of advertising). Did the repeated inclusion of a full-page advertisement generate prestige for the newspaper or serve as an advertisement for inserting more advertising, thus making it worth temporarily displacing other commercial notices? To what extent did Joseph and William Russell’s full-page advertisement reshape other advertising within the Providence Gazette and beyond?