Pennsylvania Evening Post

October 15

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

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

Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 15, 1776).

“He likewise returns thanks to such of his friends who have been pleased to employ him.”

Henry Snelling apparently thought that advertising worked.  In the spring of 1776, the “WATCHMAKER from London” inserted an advertisement in the April 20 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Three months later, he ran another advertisement on July 18.  Another three months after that, he placed yet another advertisement “to acquaint the public that he performs the said business in all its branches.”  He promised that customers who “will please to favour him with their commands, may depend on his care in executing the same.”

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 20, 1776).

Comparing the format of the three advertisements reveals some of the decisions that Snelling made as he tinkered with the copy each time that he ran a new notice.  He retained nearly identical copy throughout the three advertisements, but he seemingly did not alert the printing office that he would likely run subsequent advertisements after the one that ran in April.  The printer broke down the type and set it again when Snelling resumed advertising in July.  The new advertisement featured identical copy, making it almost indistinguishable from the previous one except for differences in line breaks near the end.  In addition, Snelling added a note: “Clocks and Watches bought and sold by commission.”  A manicule directed attention to the addition.  Once again, Snelling apparently did not indicate that he planned to run the same advertisement again in a few months.  The October version had almost identical copy with a minor revision to the final note about buying and selling watches on commission.  Significant changes in format make it clear at a glance that the printer rest the type.  The new version had a drop cap for the “H” in “HENRY,” while the previous version had a drop cap for the “B” in “BEGS.”  The words “CHAINS” and “SEALS” appeared in all capitals in the October advertisement but not in the July version.  The manicule on the final line disappeared.  None of the line breaks repeated.

Pennsylvania Evening Post (July 18, 1776).

These changes in format demonstrate that Snelling made new decisions to invest in advertising once again, first in July and then in October.  If he did not consider his previous notices effective, he likely would not have continued to pay for additional advertisements, especially not a third time.  In the absence of market research that reveals the effectiveness of newspaper advertising in eighteenth-century America, the reiteration and updating of advertisements suggests that the advertisers at least believed that placing notices yielded results.

October 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 10, 1776).

“Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA.”

An advertisement in the October 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post alerted readers that a “SALE of a neat assortment of MERCHANDIZE, being the remains of a store,” would take place “at JOHN HART’s VENDUE store” on the following Tuesday.  The notice listed an array of textiles that rivaled many of the lists published in newspaper advertisements before the war, including “velvets and velverets, rattinets, shalloons, calimancoes, tammies, … white and embossed serges and flannels, chintzes, cottons, calicoes and printed linens.”  Eighteenth-century consumers could distinguish among that variety of fabrics and many more.

In addition to that “MERCHANDIZE,” the advertisement also highlighted “Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA.”  For a time, tea had been a prohibited item.  Patriots in Boston tossed tea into the harbor in December 1773 and made bonfires of tea in other communities to protest the duties and other regulations on colonial commerce imposed by Parliament.  Tea figured prominently in the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption pact devised by the Second Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.  Advertisements for tea disappeared from American newspapers for a while, but circumstances changed once the war began.  Once the king declared the colonies in rebellion and ordered the closure of ports at the end of March 1776, nonimportation and nonconsumption testified to the effectiveness of the British blockade rather than the Continental Association.  In addition, some merchants claimed that they possessed tea that they smuggled into the colonies but did not have a chance to sell before the Continental Association went into effect.  On April 13, 1776, Congress allowed for selling and consuming tea.  Tea began to appear in newspaper advertisements once again, though not nearly as often as it had in the 1760s and early 1770s.  More tea hit the market as the result of privateers capturing British ships and their cargoes.  The advertisement for the sale of tea at Hart’s Vendue Store did not mention the origins of that tea, though the local committee of inspection may have cleared it for sale.

With the extensive list of textiles and the “Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA,” the advertisement for an upcoming sale of a “neat assortment of MERCHANDIZE” resembled advertisements that so frequently appeared in American newspapers before the war.  However sincere their political principles, consumers still desired all sorts of goods.  As the Continental Association eroded, they resumed their previous purchasing habits.

October 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 8, 1776).

“He proposes giving LECTURES in FRENCH after the most easy and concise method possible.”

Francis Daymon had competition.  For years the “MASTER of the French and Latin Languages” taught “the useful and polite French language in the newest and most expeditious method” to genteel residents of Philadelphia, the most cosmopolitan city in British North America.  He operated and frequently advertised a “FRENCH ACADEMY,” first at his house on Front Street, “nearly opposite the London Coffee-House,” and later “in the Library Room in Carpenters Hall.”  In addition, he offered private lessons to “Ladies and Gentlemen” who wished to be “instructed at their places of abode.”  On October 5, 1776, he advised readers of the Pennsylvania Evening Post that “he continues to instruct gentlemen in the French language in the most expeditious method, agreeable to the late improvements of the French academy.”  Pupils could now find him “on the south side of Market-street, the fifth door below Fourth-street.”

Three days later, Bartholomew le Petite ran his own advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, addressing the same readers who recently perused Daymon’s notice.  Le Petite informed “the ladies and gentlemen of this city, that he proposed giving LECTURES in FRENCH after the most easy and concise method possible for the scholar to obtain the knowledge and propriety of writing and speaking it with propriety.”  After all, those seeking to deploy their familiarity with the “polite and useful language” to demonstrate their sophistication wished to avoid the embarrassment of clumsy execution that would mark them as pretenders rather than truly genteel.  Le Petite did not make any mention of “the French academy” on the other side of the Atlantic, choosing not to burnish the same sort of credentials that Daymon so often incorporated into his advertisements.  Instead, he focused on making his lessons as accessible as possible via his “most easy and concise method.”  That may have been an attractive prospect to new students as well as students who had been frustrated when receiving lessons from Daymon or others.  Le Petite’s methods might prove the most effective.

Whether learning French for the first time, seeking to expand their vocabulary and improve their pronunciation, or desiring to brush up on their skills, students could compare advertisements from two instructors published within days of each other.  Those advertisements did more than merely announce that French lessons were available.  They played a role in guiding students to the instructors so they could make informed decisions about which one they wished to hire.

October 5

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 5, 1776).

“A MAP of the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy.”

In early October 1776, John Norman, a “print-seller and engraver,” announced that he had for sale a “MAP of the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy” at his shop on Second Street in Philadelphia.  Such a map would have been of great interest to many readers, whether political leaders, military officers, or civilians, considering that it depicted the British invasion of Long Island and occupation of New York along with the retreat of the Continental Army in August and September.  The map, a visual depiction of the region overlaid with troop movements, served as an important supplement for understanding news about current events.

The phrase “JUST published” that opened Norman’s advertisement did not necessarily mean that he was the engraver or publisher of the map, but it seems likely since he had already established his reputation as an engraver when he produced American editions of architectural manuals and he eventually gained acclaim for engraving other maps depicting the Revolutionary War as well as portraits of Patriot leaders.  At the time of writing this entry, I cannot locate a surviving copy of any map by Norman showing “the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy,” published in 1776.  By the end of the year, engravers and publishers in London issued similar maps, but Norman certainly did not advertise and sell any of those maps.  In addition, his purpose in producing and selling such maps would have been very different than the inspiration for the London editions.  Consider, for instance, The Seat of Action, between the British and American Forces: Or an Authentic Plan of the Western Part of Long Island, with the Engagement of the 27th August 1776 between the King’s Forces and the Americans published by Robert Sayer and John Bennett in London in November 1776.  The catalog entry for that map maintained by the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon explains that the map “contained recent information regarding the British campaign to take New York City.  Printed as a broadside, the information could be transmitted in a timely manner – in this case, two months after the events depicted on the map.  After an embarrassing defeat at Bunker Hill …, Britain was eager to transmit the news of the victory in New York … to an eager audience back in England.”  Considering that Norman previously marketed prints and political cartoons that supported the American cause, he probably sold this “MAP of the present seat of war” as a means of keeping the public informed about current events rather than as a piece of pro-British propaganda.

September 24

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 24, 1776).

“Hancock and other printed handkerchiefs.”

When William Adcock first announced a “VENDUE” or auction of “a great variety of goods suitable to the season” to be held on September 18, 1776, he included “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs, and a great variety of other printed handkerchiefs” among the items “exposed for sale.”  A week later he inserted another advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, informing the public that he would host another sale “at his vendue store.”  This time he promoted “a variety of GOODS, among which are … coarse white linens, checks, stripes, superfine mens and womens cotton stockings, silk and worsted knee garters, flax, gimps, fringes, [and] Hancock and other printed handkerchiefs.”  He did not include “Washington handkerchiefs” among his wares.

Did that mean that he had sold all the handkerchiefs bearing a depiction of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at his previous sale?  Possibly.  Even if that was the case, it did not necessarily indicate that commemorative items depicting the general were more popular than those with a likeness of the president of the Continental Congress.  The advertisements did not mention the quantity of each handkerchief available.  Adcock may have had a limited supply of “Washington handkerchiefs” compared to “Hancock handkerchiefs.”  The second advertisement did, however, clarify an element of the design of those handkerchiefs.  It was not clear from the first advertisement whether “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” featured both men on a single handkerchief.  Other handkerchiefs produced during the era, after all, had images of multiple prominent politicians and military officers.  “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” could have had profiles of the two men facing each other, but the second advertisement suggests that each prominent leader had his own commemorative handkerchief.  They may have been made in the same workshop by a savvy entrepreneur who hoped that patriotic consumers would treat them as collectibles by purchasing both rather than just one.  Given that vendues often sold goods in quantities, retailers likely purchased some of the “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” to stock in their own shop and sell to consumers who visited with other purchases in mind.

September 17

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 17, 1776).

“Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs.”

William Adcock placed an advertisement in the September 17, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post to inform the public of a “VENDUE” or auction scheduled for the following day.  He declared that “a great variety of goods suitable to the season” would “be exposed to sale.”  He listed some of them, mostly textiles, to give prospective bidders an idea of the available goods.  In addition to “spotted velvets, silk breeches pieces, … a large quantity of stripes and checks, … silk and worsted gloves and mits, [and] a large quantity of mens fine cotton stockings,” Adcock promoted “a great variety of other goods too tedious for an advertisement.”

He did not, however, find it “too tedious” to mention “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs, and a great variety of other printed handkerchiefs.”  As the Museum of the American Revolution notes, “newspapers, pamphlets, and books … convey[ed] information” during the era of the American Revolution, yet “[s]imilar technology of the time – engraved copper plates, presses, and type – were used to print other paper items used for practical purposes [and the] images used on one type of item were often copied and used on other types of items,” including handkerchiefs.

Most of the handkerchiefs at Adcock’s vendue likely featured decorative patterns, but the “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” sported portraits of the new nation’s most prominent political leader, John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, and its most prominent military leader, George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  A single handkerchief might have included images of both men.  Alternately, the politician and the general may have been depicted individually on separate handkerchiefs, presenting patriotic consumers with more merchandise to purchase.  Either way, the handkerchiefs simultaneously commemorated American leaders and commodified the American Revolution.  Consumers could demonstrate their support for the American cause by purchasing and then using or displaying these handkerchiefs.

Few such handkerchiefs have survived, in part because textiles are so fragile.  In 2023, the Museum of the American Revolution mounted an exhibition that included an anti-Stamp Act handkerchief and a heroes of the Revolution handkerchief (with Washington in the center and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, General Nathanael Greene, and General Benjamin Lincoln in the corners), giving visitors to the museum (and the museum’s website) a glimpse of the commemorative items that the founding generation produced and purchased.

September 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 14, 1776).

“THE ART OF WAR.”

The September 14, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post carried updates about British maneuvers since the Continental Army’s retreat from Long Island.  The enemy invaded and occupied New York.  In the same issue, the newspaper carried an advertisement for a military manual – yet another one – published by a printer in Philadelphia.  Such notices for an array of military manuals had been appearing in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers for the past two years.  This time, Robert Bell announced that he “Just published … THE ART OF WAR … By Monsieur De Lamont, Town-Major of Toulon [and] By the CHEVALIER DE LA VALIERE.”  Despite the significance of the news from New York, Bell’s advertisement ran as the first item in the first column on the first page.

As was common in many advertisements for books, much of the copy merely replicated the extensive subtitle that doubled as a table of contents.  Readers learned that the book consisted of three parts, “I. The duties of all military officers in actual service; … II. The duties of soldiers in general; … [and] III. The rules and practice of the greatest Generals.”  Bell added a “MEMORANDUM” to give more detail, noting that De Lamont wrote the first section and La Valiere penned the other two.  De Lamont, he further explained, held “a post of great trust, and which requires much experience to recommend a man to it.”  He gained that experience “by serving in the army for twenty-three warm campaigns, and during that time was personally engaged in many of the most considerable sieges and battles.”  Once Bell established the Town-Major of Toulon’s credentials, he explained what readers could expect to get out of the first section of The Art of War.  “All his instructions are so regular, and so just, that they in a manner make a soldier of the man that never saw a camp, and leads him, that desires to follow that course of life, so fully into the art of war, that a young officer has nothing to do when he comes into the field but only to put in practice that theory, which he has already conceived, concerning all the operations, belonging to the several posts, in an active and courageous army.”  That may have offered some reassurance to men taking on responsibilities as military officers for the first time.  Even those with more experience may have found it worthwhile to read De Lamont’s “necessary instructions” to brush up on what they needed to know.

Bell did not devote the same attention to the “second and third parts of this work … composed by Gen. La Viliere,” though he noted that the general was “another French officer of great valour and experience.”  The contents already outlined that the “duties of soldiers” included “necessary instructions, in many capital matters, by remaining ignorant of which a man, who pretends to be a soldier, will be every day in danger of brining disgrace upon himself, and material injury to the cause of his country.”  In addition, the “rules and practice of the greatest Generals” described “manœuvres of encamping, marching, order of battle, fighting, attacking, and defending strong places, with the manner of surprising towns, quarters, and armies.”

Even with so many military manuals recently published in Philadelphia, many of them by Bell, the printer believed a market existed for another one.  Current events, especially news from New York, demonstrated that American officers and soldiers needed to learn and apply as much knowledge about military operations as they could.

September 12

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 12, 1776).

“WAS STOLEN … A SILVER MILK URN.”

The woodcut depicting a crown suspended above a large cup likely drew attention to Thomas Shields’s advertisement.  After all, it was the only visual image that appeared in the September 12, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Not even the masthead featured a woodcut.  In the advertisement, Shields lamented that “A SILVER MILK URN, of an oval form, with a lid and spout,” had been stolen from his shop on September 4.  He gave further details to help identify the stolen merchandise.  It “weighed about nine ounces,” was “engraved with a cypher MR,” and had been “made in England.”  Shields offered a reward to anyone who helped him recover the urn, whether intact (three pounds) or “cut to pieces” (four dollars).  At the very least, he wanted the silver back even if the thief had destroyed it in hopes of selling the silver.

What did that have to do with the image that accompanied Shields’s advertisement?  It did not correspond to his description of the stolen urn.  Including it increased the price of running the advertisement since it took up more space.  Some readers may have realized that Shields was a goldsmith who ran his shop “at the Golden Cup and Crown.”  He previously ran an advertisement giving that address in the Pennsylvania Gazette in the fall of 1771.  That advertisement happened to include the same woodcut of a cup and crown that appeared in his advertisement about the stolen milk urn five years later.  Shields had commissioned a woodcut for his exclusive use, one that corresponded to the sign that marked the location of his shop.  He apparently collected the woodcut from the printing office when he discontinued his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette and tucked it away in case he wished to use it again in advertisements in that or any other newspapers.  Although Shields did not mention his shop sign in his notice about the stolen urn, he likely figured that a visual image of any sort (and especially one associated with his business) would draw attention to his advertisement and increase the chances that readers would assist in recovering the milk urn (or the silver).

September 7

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 7, 1776).

“I beg leave … to recommend it to our military gentlemen as a book of public utility.”

In an advertisement in the September 7, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Robert Aitken, a printer and bookseller, promoted “L’INGENIEUR de CAMPAGNE, or FIELD ENGINEER.  Written in French by the Chevalier de Clairac, and translated by Major Lewis Nicola.”  To make the work more enticing to prospective customers, Aitken supplemented it with “a short Treatise on SEA BATTERIES, shewing their defects, and an attempt to remedy them,” and “an explanation of all the technical terms used in the work.  By the Translator.”  The manual also included helpful illustrations, “forty useful quarto copperplates.”  It was one of many military manuals published and marketed in Philadelphia and other cities during the era of the American Revolution.

Quite conveniently, a letter to Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, signed by “A Well-Wisher to the cause” just happened to appear immediately to the left of Aitken’s advertisement.  The anonymous correspondent explained that during a recent visit to Aitken’s printing office for other business he “took up a book which I found to be the FIELD ENGINEER, just published by him in English.”  Enthralled by those parts that he “dipped into,” the “Well-Wisher to the cause” purchased the book and carefully read it.  Now he felt compelled to declare that “the inhabitants of America are obliged to the translator for furnishing us, in our own language, with instructions so useful to all officers in the species of war we are obliged to wage in defence of our liberties.”  The “Well-wisher to the cause” highlighted the part of the book he considered “particularly applicable to the present exigency and state of things at New-York, as it gives ample instructions for preventing an enemy’s passing a river.”  Following its defeat at the Battle of Long Island near the end of August, the Continental Army retreated from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  Many residents of the city had already fled to the countryside to escape the British invasion and occupation.  Patriots feared what would happen if General George Washington and the Continental Army could not prevent the British from crossing the Hudson River.  The “Well-Wisher to the cause” may have also worried about the prospects of British forces crossing the Delaware River to capture Philadelphia if they could not be stopped in New York.  “I beg leave, by the channel of your paper,” he wrote, “to recommend it,” The Field Engineer, “to our military gentlemen as a book of public utility.”  Whether or not Aitken coordinated with the “Well-Wisher to the cause” (or wrote the recommendation himself), the proximity of the letter to his advertisement reinforced his efforts to sell the book.

August 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 20, 1776).

“Advertisements omitted this day will have a good place on Thursday.”

The August 20, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post consisted almost entirely of news.  Benjamin Towne, the printer, placed news from London, including an overview of recent events in the House of Commons, on the first page, along with updates from Williamsburg, and Baltimore.  Two advertisements, the only ones in that issue, completed the final column on the first page.  An “ADDRESS of General ROBERDEAU to the Pennsylvania Associators at Amboy” filled the entire second page and spilled over onto the third, “published by order of the Convention of Pennsylvania.”  A copy of the “DECLARATION of RIGHTS passed by the Convention of this state” filled the remainder of that page.  The first column on the last page contained “ADVICES BY THIS DAY’s POST” with reports from Newburyport, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; and New York.  The final column had recent updates from the “CONVENTION for the STATE of PENNSYLVANIA” and the “COUNCIL of SAFETY” in Philadelphia.

A brief notice from the printer and the colophon completed the issue.  “Advertisements omitted this day,” Towne pledged, “will have a good place on Thursday.  In any other newspaper printed in Philadelphia at the time, advertisements “omitted” in one issue would have been deferred for an entire week unless the printer opted to publish a supplement, postscript, or extraordinary issue.  Towne, however, published the Pennsylvania Evening Post three times a a week, “every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Evenings.”  That meant advertisers had to wait only two days until their advertisements appeared.  In exchange for that inconvenience, Towne promised a “good place” for them as he balanced his duty to provide subscribers with news (and even his obligation to publish items “by order of the Convention of Pennsylvania) and his responsibility to disseminate notices that advertisers paid to disseminate in his newspapers.  Two days later, advertisements filled two entire pages and a portion of a third, accounting for more than half the space in the August 22 edition.  Towne made good on his promise of publishing those “omitted” earlier in the week.  As he made his decisions about what to include, it may have helped that the “NEW-YORK POST was not arrived when this paper went to press.”