Norwich Packet

March 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Ethan Sawyer

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

Norwich Packet (March 4, 1776).

“All Sorts of Doe and Buck-Skin Breeches.”

This advertisement announced the arrival of John Saltmarsh, a “LEATHER BREECHES MAKER” from London.  He offered to make breeches for anyone who needed them in Norwich, Connecticut.  He uses both doe and buckskin and made them fit properly.  He also promised they would fit well, offering to “make them fit properly, or demand nothing for his trouble.” This sounds confusing, but it was the equivalent of modern lawyers only asking for a payment if they win.  Saltmarsh was that confident in his ability to make new breeches or alterations that pleased his customers.

I was not sure what “breeches” were when I first read this advertisement.  From an interview with historian Kate Haulman in Vox, I learned that breeches are a kind of pants made distinctive through the wrappings that tighten them just below the knees.  Some had buttons or buckles, but for a cheaper option some just had simple ties to hold them in place.  They were fashionable, which was one reason Saltmarsh said that he was “from London,” but that was not the only way he tried to convince customers to buy breeches from him.  He also focused on service, promising the work to be done with “one Day’s Notice” or else he will compensate the customer for the inconvenience.  He even said, “he will pay for their trouble of coming after them.”  Overall, Saltmarsh ran an honest business. He focused on not only making a good product that fits the needs of each customer, but also on a timetable that works for them.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

One of my favorite parts of having students in my upper-level early American history courses serve as guest curators for the Adverts 250 Project is observing their sense of wonder and discovery as they encounter everyday life in the eighteenth century for the first time.  That starts with each student compiling an archive that consists of one week of newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution.  Those newspapers look familiar, but they also have significant difference compared to modern newspapers … and not just the long “s” that looks so strange to novice researchers.  The purposes of some advertisements surprise them, such as what are today known as “runaway wife” advertisements in which husbands made public proclamations that they would not pay any expenses incurred by the unruly women who abandoned their household responsibilities (and that gives us a chance to discuss both coverture and the perspectives of the wives who did not have ready access to the public prints).  Students also encounter consumer goods commonly advertised in early America that are not familiar to them, such as andirons and “AMERICAN CAKE-INK.”  Breeches also fall in that category.  Ethan was not the only student enrolled in my senior seminar in Fall 2025 who included an entry on breeches in the advertising portfolio he created throughout the semester.

In addition to seeing fresh perspectives on consumer goods, I am always interested to see which advertisements draw the attention of my students because they usually select different advertisements to examine as guest curators than I would if I produced that entry of the Adverts 250 Project on my own.  I would have skipped over “JOHN SALTMARSH, LEATHER BREECHES MAKER, FROM LONDON,” in favor of the two advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that appeared in the March 4, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet, advertisements even more notable because the printers also included “EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET ENTITLED, COMMON SENSE.”  Perhaps they previewed the pamphlet for the edification of their readers, though they likely also hoped to incite greater demand for sales of the pamphlet at their printing office.  This helps make a point that I underscore in all my courses: the stories that historians tell about the past depend on the sources they consult and, among those, which they choose to examine in greater detail.  Ethan and I both chose advertisements that illuminate the past, though different advertisements engaged our curiosity.  Elsewhere in his advertising portfolio, Ethan examined other advertisements from other newspapers.  Considered together, his advertisements looked at many aspects of consumer culture, commerce, politics, and everyday life during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  They included an advertisement for a riding manual “for gentlemen of every rank and profession,” an advertisement for pig iron, an advertisement for an assortment of books and pamphlets for supporters of the American cause, … and an advertisement for a local edition of Common Sense that appeared in the March 1 edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  When we perused that newspaper, Ethan and I selected the same advertisement!

February 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (February 26, 1776).

“A few Copies of a Pamphlet ENTITLED, Common Sense.”

As February 1776 came to a close, more printers and booksellers made copies of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense available to local readers.  Two advertisements for the popular political pamphlet appeared in the February 26 edition of the Norwich Packet.  In one, the very first advertisement that appeared in that issue, Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumbull announced that “A few Copies of a Pamphlet ENTITLED, Common Sense; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF NORTH AMERICA, May be had of the Printers hereof.”  They did not provide any other details.  In contract, Nathaniel Patten, a bookbinder and stationer, inserted a notice that resembled many others that appeared in newspapers in other towns, including the advertisements for the first edition published by Robert Bell in Philadelphia.  It gave the title, previewed the contents with a list of the section headings, and concluded with an epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.

Norwich Packet (February 26, 1776).

Which editions of Common Sense did the printers and Patten sell?  Three days earlier, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette in New London, announced the imminent publication of a local edition jointly undertaken with Judah P. Spooner in Norwich.  Curiously, Spooner did not place his own advertisement in the Norwich Packet.  The “few Copies” that the Robertsons and Trumbull stocked may have been sent to them by the industrious Bell who had previously supplied William Green, a bookbinder in New York, with copies of the first edition and an unauthorized second edition.  The printers could have also received copies of a New York edition published by John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, or a Providence edition, published by John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, that went to press even more recently.  By the time the Robertsons and Trumbull ran their advertisement, the paths of circulation for the various editions crisscrossed each other.  Similarly, Patten could have sold any of those editions.  His advertisement declared, “Just published and sold by Nathaneil Patten,” yet eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “Just published” and “sold by.”  The latter referred to Patten, but not necessarily the former. Instead, “Just published” meant “Now available.”  Patten very well have promoted the local edition produced by Spooner.  According to Richard Gimbel, Spooner and Green produced the only editions of Common Sense published in Norwich in 1776.[1]  Whatever the origins of the copies advertised in the Norwich Packet, the printers and Patten participated in the widespread dissemination of the most influential political pamphlet published during the era of the American Revolution.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 90.

January 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (January 29, 1776).

“CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags.”

Nathaniel Patten’s advertisement in the January 29, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet was neither as lengthy nor as visually stimulating as some of his previous advertisements, but that may have been because he had a different purpose in running it.  The “BOOKBINDER and STATIONER, at the East End of the Green,” did not provide a list of titles that he sold in this notice.  Instead, he announced, “CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags, Of any Kind, Old Sail Cloth,” and other remnants of textiles that could be recycled into paper.  Similar calls for rags appeared frequently in early American newspapers, most often placed by the printers of those newspapers.  Such advertisements often consisted of only one or two lines.  Printers offered cash for rags without further explanation because readers knew exactly why they wanted the rags and how they would be used.

The proprietors of paper mills sometimes ran more elaborate advertisements requesting rags.  Especially when colonizers enacted nonimportation agreements that disrupted the supply of paper coming from England, those advertisements depicted saving rags to produce paper as a patriotic duty and a means for all colonizers, including women, to support the American cause.  Patten did not go into as much detail as John Keating did when promoting ‘THE FIRST Paper Manufactory Established in the city of New-York,” but he did say more than most printers.  “As Paper is one of the most necessary Articles now wanted,” the bookbinder and stationer asserted, “it is hoped that all true Friends to America, will exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage such Manufactory” in Connecticut.  A lack of paper had indeed caused some printers to sometimes reduce the size of their weekly newspapers to half sheets (two pages) instead of full sheets (four pages) or miss publishing for a week or two.  That was the situation in New England and beyond.  Two days before Patten issued his call for rags in the Norwich Packet, for instance, John Pinkney, the printer of one Virginia Gazette, ran a notice in another Virginia Gazette to explain that he could not print his newspaper that week because he could not acquire paper.

November 13

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

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

Norwich Packet (November 13, 1775).

“Wanted, a Quantity of Hog’s Bristles [from] Friends to American Manufactures.”

Cornelius Cooper, a brushmaker who had relocated from Philadelphia to Providence, needed materials to continue operating his business in the fall of 1775.  He ran an advertisement to that effect in the Providence Gazette, but his efforts did not end there.  He also enlisted the help of Richard Collier, a coppersmith, in Norwich, Connecticut.  An advertisement in the November 13, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet proclaimed, “Wanted, a Quantity of Hog’s Bristles, For which six Pence Lawful Money per Pound will be given.”  The notice listed Collier as the local agent who collected the bristles and paid the premium, yet it did not end there.

Instead, it also advised that “Cornelius Cooper,” his name in a font as large as “Hog’s Bristles,” offered the same price.  After giving directions to his shop on “the west Side of the Great-Bridge, Providence,” the “BRUSH-MAKER” declared that he “earnestly requests those Gentlemen that are Friends to American Manufactures, and keep Stores in the Country, to collect as large Quantities as possible.”  In his advertisement that simultaneously ran in the Providence Gazette, he indicated that he wished to acquire “Five Thousand Weight of Hog’s Bristles,” a considerable quantity.  In making an appeal to “Friends to American Manufactures,” he invoked the Continental Association and efforts to replace goods imported from England with items produced in the colonies.  That became more important than ever after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Decisions in the marketplace, including collecting hog’s bristles and purchasing brushes made from them, had political implications.  Collier supported the cause by serving as a local agent for Cooper; the brushmaker presented an opportunity for others to do the same, especially shopkeepers in the countryside who collected bristles from their patrons.  In return for that “Kindness,” Cooper not only paid “ready Cash” but also “allow[ed] them 30 per Cent.”  It seems that he offered a discount to retailers who collected bristles if they purchased his brushes to stock in their stores.  That strategy meant acquiring supplies and making sales at the same time, a neat arrangement for a brushmaker seeking to establish himself in New England.

June 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Norwich Packet (June 1, 1775).

“One Dollar Reward [for] a Negro Man, named Jack.”

Among its other contents, the June 1, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet carried an advertisement that offered a “One Dollar Reward” for the capture and return of “a Negro Man, named Jack” who had liberated himself by running away from his enslaver, Joseph Farnham, Jr. of Canterbury, Connecticut, on the morning of April 8.  Farnham provided a description that included Jack’s age, height, other physical characteristics, and clothing.  He also stated that Jack “speaks broken English,” hoping that would assist readers in identifying the fugitive seeking freedom.  In addition, Jack “has formerly been at Sea.”  He had experience as a sailor, making it even more important to include the standard warning that “All Masters of Vessels and others are forbid to harbour or carry off said Negro, or they may depend on being prosecuted.”  Farnham suspected that Jack was headed to Boston.  He departed before the battles of Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston.  Those events may have worked to Jack’s advantage, distracting colonizers from taking too much notice of him.

What they certainly did notice was that the imperial crisis had entered a new stage.  “HOSTILITIES are at length commenced in this colony,” Massachusetts, “by the troops under command of General Gage,” Joseph Warren, president pro tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress declared in an address to “the INHABITANTS of GREAT-BRITAIN.”  He considered it vital that “an early, true, and authentic account of this inhuman proceeding should be known to you.”  He then outlined the recent battles, especially the “ravages of the troops” in “General Gage’s army.” Farnham’s advertisement about Jack appeared immediately below Warren’s address in the June 1 edition of the Norwich Packet, though most readers likely did not grapple with the contradictions.  On behalf of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Warren lamented that “ministerial vengeance against this colony, for refusing, with her sister colonies, a submission to slavery.”  He meant figurative slavery, yet Farnham’s advertisement concerned the literal enslavement of a Black man, prompted by Jack’s quest for his own liberty.  Time and time again, advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children appeared alongside news and editorials about the dangers that Parliament posed to the freedoms of colonizers.  The revenue from Farnham’s advertisement about Jack, for instance, helped in making it possible for the printers to publish an editorial from the president pro tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

April 27

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

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

Norwich Packet (April 27, 1775).

“I am sorry that I have drank any Tea.”

Ebenezer Punderson had the misfortune of appearing in an advertisement placed in the Norwich Packet by the local Committee of Inspection in the issue that carried the first newspaper coverage of the battles of Lexington and Concord.  The committee accused him of drinking tea in violation of the Continental Association, disparaging the First Continental Congress, and refusing to meet with the committee to discuss his conduct.  In turn, the committee advised the public not to carry on any “Trade, Commerce, Dealings or Intercourse” with Punderson.

Perhaps Punderson would have weathered that sort of public shaming under other circumstances, but news of events at Lexington and Concord made his politics even more unpalatable and his situation more dire.  From what ran in the newspaper, it did not take him long to change his tune, meet with the committee, and publish an apology for his behavior.  In a missive dated four days after the committee’s advertisement, Punderson reiterated the charges against him and “seriously and heartily” declared the he was “sorry I have drank any Tea since the first of March” and “will drink no more until the Use thereof shall generally be approved in North-America.”  In addition, he apologized for “all and every Expression that I have at any Time uttered against the Association of the Continental Congress.”  Furthermore, Punderson pledged that he “will not at any Time do any Thing that shall be inimical to the Freedom, Liberties, and Privileges of America, and that I will ever be friendly thereto.”  He requested that his “Neighbours and fellow-Men to overlook” his transgression and “sincerely ask[ed] the Forgiveness of the Committee for the Disrespect I have treated them with.”

Norwich Packet (April 27, 1775).

Punderson apparently convinced the committee to give him another chance.  Dudley Woodbridge, the clerk, reported that Punderson “appeared before them, and of his own Accord made the above Confession” and seemed “heartily sorry for his … conduct.”  In turn, the committee voted to find Punderson’s confession “satisfactory” and recommended that he “be again restored to Favour” in the community.  The committee also determined that “the above Confession, with this Vote, be inserted in the Public Papers,” perhaps less concerned with restoring Punderson’s good name than the example his recantation set for other Tories.  When the notice appeared in the Norwich Packet, Punderson inserted an additional note that extended an offer to meet with anyone “dissatisfied with the above Confession” and asserted that he would “cheerfully submit” to any further decisions the Committee of Inspection made in response.

Yet what appeared in the Norwich Packet did not tell the whole story.  According to Steve Fithian, Punderson “attempted to flee to New York but was captured and returned to Norwich where he spent eight days in jail and only released after signing a confession admitting to his loyalist sympathies.”  He did not stay in Norwich long after that.  “Several weeks later he fled to Newport, Rhode Island and boarded a ship which took him to England where he remained for the entire Revolutionary War.”  Apparently, he convincly feigned the sincerity he expressed, well enough that the committee accepted it.  While imprisoned, Punderson wrote a letter to his wife about his ordeal.  After arriving in England, he published an account with a subtitle that summarized what he had endured: The Narrative of Mr. Ebenezer Punderson, Merchant; Who Was Drove Away by the Rebels in America from His Family and a Very Considerable Fortune in Norwich, in Connecticut.  Just as the Committee of Inspection used print to advance a version of events that privileged the patriot cause, Punderson disseminated his own rendering once he arrived in a place where he could safely do so.

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The Committee of Inspection’s notice appeared with the advertisements in the April 20, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet.  Punderson’s confession, however, ran interspersed with news items in the April 27 edition.  It may or may not have been a paid notice, but it was certainly an “advertisement” in the eighteenth-century meaning of the word.  At the time, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an advertisement was a “(written) statement calling attention to anything” and “an act of informing or notifying.”  Advertisements often delivered local news in early American newspapers.  Punderson definitely made news as the imperial crisis became a war.

April 20

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

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

Norwich Packet (April 20, 1775).

“Ebenezer Punderson … has repeatedly drank Tea … in open Contempt and Defiance of the Continental Association.”

Ebenezer Punderson went too far and now it was time for consequences.  He brazenly and repeatedly violated the Continental Association, the nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement enacted by the Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts.  As a result of his actions, the Committee of Inspection in Norwich, Connecticut, placed an advertisement in the April 20, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet to document his behavior and advise the community to shun Punderson.

The committee reported that Punderson “has repeatedly drank Tea … in open Contempt and Defiance of the Continental Association.”  When the committee sought to investigate the matter, he “utterly refuse[d] to pay any Regard to their Requests” to appear before it.  Even worse, he “endeavours to discard and vilify the Doings of the Continental Congress; and by every Means to persuade and entice Mankind to disregard and break over the Continental Association.”  His refusal to abide by the Continental Association damaged the movement and had the potential to do even more harm by inspiring others to ignore it as well.  In addition, he stridently declared that he had no intention of adhering to the agreement, insulting the Continental Congress in the process:  “to use his own words, ‘that he has drank Tea, and means to continue in that Practice, that the Congress was an unlawful Combination, and that the Petition from the Congress to his Majesty was haughty, insolent, and rascally.’”

The Committee of Inspection, in turn, determined that it was Punderson who was haughty, insolent, and rascally.  It ordered that the “Conduct of the said Punderson be published, and that no Trade, Commerce, Dealings or Intercourse whatsoever be carried on with him.”  Furthermore, the committee declared that “he ought to be held as unworthy of the Rights of Freemen, and as inimical to the Liberties of his Country.”  Punderson acted in opposition to the patriot cause.  The Committee of Inspection intended to see him pay for his transgressions.

Norwich Packet (April 20, 1775).

Punderson chose the wrong time to draw attention to himself.  Some of the first coverage of the battle at Lexington to appear in American newspapers ran at the top of the column that featured the advertisement about his offenses.  “Just as this Paper was ready for Press,” the printers declared, “an Express arrived here from Brookline with the following Advices” from J. Palmer, “One of the Committee of S[afet]y,” and dispatched to “Col. Foster, of Brookfield.”  The missive reported that before dawn on the morning of April 19 “a Brigade [of British troops] … marched to Lexington, where they found a Company of our Colony Militia in Arms, upon whom they fired, without any Provocation, and killed Six Men, and wounded Four others.”  Palmer stated that he had “spoken with several Persons who have seen the Dead and Wounded.”  He also relayed news that another Brigade “are now on their March from Boston.”  Israel Bissell carried the message, “charged to alarm the Country” in western Massachusetts all the way to Connecticut.  The printers published this account from a “true Copy, taken from the Original, per Order of the Committee of Correspondence for Worcester.”  The details were sparse, yet the “FRIENDS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” reading the Norwich Packet now knew that fighting had commenced near Boston.  That news quite likely had an impact on their attitude when they read about Punderson’s offenses further down the column.

January 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR: Braydon Booth-Desmarais

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

Norwich Packet (January 19, 1775).

“A fresh ASSORTMENT of DRUGS, and GENUINE PATENT MEDICINES.”

Benjamin Dyer Published this advertisement in the Norwich Packet on January 19, 1775.  The advertisement says that he was selling many items, including “GENUINE PATENT MEDICINES,” at his shop in Norwich-Landing.  Patent medicines were available to anyone without needing a prescription.  According to the American Antiquarian Society’s Past Is Present blog, “Usually patent medicines were made of relatively inexpensive ingredients sold at high prices. It is important to know that because many patent medicines did not explicitly list their ingredients.”  Due to this the people selling the items can make claims about what was in the medicine without being fact checked.  It is also important to realize that Dyer referred to all the medicines as “GENUINE,” meaning that whatever was supposed to be in each medicine was in that medicine. Another interesting thing about this advertisement was how it listed each type of medicine that he sold instead of just saying that medicines were available.  I believe that this is because he wanted to show that he had a large number of medicines available.  Shopkeepers like Dyer tried to convince people that their “ASSORTMENT” of medicines were truly genuine and not fakes.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes

When Braydon and I met to discuss the advertisement that he selected to examine for the Adverts 250 Project, we talked about patent medicines as the over-the-counter medications of the eighteenth century.  They were so familiar to consumers that they did not need descriptions of what each did.  Readers of the Norwich Packet recognized, for instance, Turlington’s Balsam of Life and knew which illnesses, complaints, or discomforts that nostrum treated.  Stoughton’s Elixir, Godfrey’s Cordial, and Bateman’s Drops were the name brands of the period.  When consumers had access to multiple remedies that purported to treat the same symptoms, many had favorites based on experience and reputation.  Reading the list of “GENUINE PATENT MEDICINES” in Dyer’s advertisement in 1775 would have been similar to browsing the aisles of a pharmacy in 2025.

As I worked on other aspects of producing the Adverts 250 Project and Slavery Adverts 250 Project beyond working with Braydon on developing his entry, I noticed another interesting aspect of Dyer’s advertisement.  In addition to running it in the Norwich Packet, he also inserted it in the Connecticut Gazette, published in New London, on January 20.  That increased the circulation of his advertisement, placing it before the eyes of many more prospective customers. This aspect of Dyer’s marketing campaign resonates with the analysis of yesterday’s advertisement, also selected by a student in my Revolutionary America course, that ran in the Connecticut Journal, published in New Haven.  Connecticut had four newspapers, printed in four towns, yet each circulated widely throughout the colony and beyond.  Many advertisers dispatched advertising copy to printing offices in more than one town.  In addition to Dyer’s advertisement, the January 19, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet featured a notice from clock- and watchmaker Thomas Harland.  He simultaneously ran an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford.  In his case, he ran two different advertisements rather than submitting identical copy.  Though both advertised in more than one publication, Dyer and Harland made decisions that suited their needs when it came to which messages for consumers they wished to disseminate in which newspapers.

November 20

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (November 17, 1774).

“NATHANIEL PATTEN, BOOK-BINDER & STATIONER.”

The decorative border that enclosed David Nevins’s advertisement for hats and hat trimmings in the Norwich Packethelped in distinguishing it from most others in that newspaper, yet it paled in comparison to the use of ornamental type in Nathaniel Patten’s advertisement.  Patten, a bookbinder and stationer, commissioned a border for his notice, but he arranged for something much more elaborate than the relatively simple borders for Nevins’s notice and another placed by clock- and watchmaker Thomas Harland.

For some readers, the border for Patten’s advertisement may have evoked a highboy chest or other large piece of furniture.  It may even have been intended as a bookcase and secretary desk that would have held the various books and stationery listed within the border.  For the lower portion, the left, right, and bottom of the border were composed of a single line of decorative type, just like the borders in the other advertisements, while in the upper portion the left and right sides had three lines of even more intricate type.  Those sides rose into an arch composed of other kinds of detailed printing ornaments.  The compositor even created five finials, one each on the left and right at the bottom of the arch and three clustered together at the top.  The year, 1774, appeared within a pendant inside the arch, much like a piece of furniture would have an engraving.  If the type remained set into the new year, Patten had the option to update the date.  The advertisement was massive, filling almost an entire column on the final page of the November 17, 1774, edition.  The first time that it appeared, it ran on the first page on November 3, that time occupying an entire column because of the amount of space required for the masthead.  The border appeared heavy, giving Patten’s advertisement more weight compared to others in the Norwich Packet.  The finished product does not reveal how closely Patten worked with the compositor in designing or approving the border.  Whatever the case, he almost certainly paid extra for it.

That newspaper had recently marked its first year of publication.  Throughout that time, it did not tend to incorporate visual images except for the packet ship that appeared in the masthead.  The printers did not make stock images of ships, houses, horses, indentured servants, or enslaved people available to advertisers, nor did advertisers commission woodcuts that represented their businesses.  However, the newspaper did regularly embellish advertisements with decorative borders, establishing a different kind of visual appeal to engage readers.

October 27

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

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

Norwich Packet (October 27, 1774).

“HATS … of as good a Quality and at as low a Price as they are sold in New-York and Boston.”

The use of decorative type as a border certainly distinguished David Nevins’s advertisement from other content in the October 27, 1774, edition of the Norwich Packet.  It appeared in the final column on the third page along with several other advertisements.  News items filled the facing page as well as the first two columns of that page, each of them in relatively small type compared to some of the fonts in the advertisements.  The compositor used printing ornaments to separate those news items, but nothing as extensive as the border that surrounded Nevins’s advertisement.

Some of the advertisements featured larger fonts to draw attention to consumer goods and services and their purveyors and providers, including “THOMAS COIT” and “Drugs and Medicines” in one, “FLAX SEED, SMALL FURRS, BEES-WAX” in another, and “PUBLIC VENDUE” in a third.  The same was true in Nevins’s advertisement, with his name, “Musquash Skins,” and “HATS” each centered and in larger fonts.  Yet Nevins did not deploy those fonts alone in his effort to draw the attention of readers.  He must have submitted a request for the decorative border along with the copy for his advertisement when he contacted the printing office.

Even with that visual advantage, Nevins also devised copy intended to sell the hats that he produced at his shop.  In addition to hats made of musquash or muskrat pelts, he promoted others “Of all Kinds” that customers could depend on being “of as good a Quality and at as low a Price as they are sold in New-York and Boston.”  Norwich was a small town compared to those major urban ports, yet that did not mean that consumers had to settle for second best or inflated prices. Nevins consistently mad that point in his advertisements.  In February, he “warranted” his hats “to be of the best Quality, and as cheap and fashionable as can be purchased in Boston and New-York” in an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette.

Other advertisers who placed notices in the Norwich Packet may or may not have made requests about the design elements.  In writing the copy, they may have assumed that the compositor would select certain words to capitalize, center, and print in larger font without providing instructions to do so.  After all, that was a common feature of advertisements in that newspaper.  Nevins, on the other hand, almost certainly stated that he wished to enhance his advertisement with a decorative border to aid in highlighting the appeals he made in his copy.