Pennsylvania Gazette

November 29

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (November 29, 1775).

“We, the subscribers, do recommend the above named John Spering as a Rider.”

In the fall of 1775, John Spering, a resident of Easton, took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Gazette to announce that he “proposes to ride POST” between Philadelphia and Northampton.  Along the way he would make stops in “Germantown, Bussel-town [now Bustleton], Four-lane-end [now Langhorne], Newtown, Durham, Easton, Bethlehem, and Northampton.”  Until January 1, he would depart Philadelphia each Wednesday evening.  In January, February, and March, he planned to scale back service to “once every fortnight,” presumably due to the weather, and then resume weekly service on April 1.  He assured “All Gentlemen and ladies who are pleased to encourage this undertaking” that they “may depend upon being punctually served, and that the greatest care will be taken of such letters, or other things,” such as small parcels, entrusted to him.  Given that the Pennsylvania Gazette circulated widely beyond Philadelphia, Spering hoped that his advertisement would attract patrons in the many towns along his route.

He also realized that most prospective customers did not know him and thus might be cautious about handing over letters and packages.  To address such concerns, he included a character reference signed by nine residents of Easton.  “We, the subscribers,” they declared, “do recommend the above named John Spering as a Rider, as we believe he will perform his duty therein faithfully and honestly.”  They noted that Spering had been “a resident in Easton for upwards of thirteen years, where he has, during that time, behaved himself very well.”  Prospective clients could have confidence that he would faithfully deliver their letters without tampering with them.  The signatories would have been as unknown to most readers as Spering, but the titles that accompanied some of their names testified to their trustworthiness and standing in their community: “Lewis Gordon, Esq; Henry Fullert, Esq; Dr. Andrew Ledlie, [and] Jacob Orndt, Esq.”  That so many of his neighbors endorsed Spering at the risk of their own reputations may have helped to convince the “Gentlemen and Ladies” that Spering addressed to avail themselves of his services when they had letters to post.

November 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (November 22, 1775).

“A VOYAGE to BOSTON: A POEM.”

An advertisement for a new publication, “A Voyage to Boston: A Poem,” appeared on the front page of the November 18, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger.  William Woodhouse, a bookseller, stationer, and bookbinder marketed a work that historians attribute to the pen of Philip Freneau and the press of Benjamin Towne.  The imprint on the title page merely stated, “Philadelphia: Sold by William Woodhouse, in Front-Street.”  The advertisement did advise that “A Voyage to Boston” was “By the same Author of AMERICAN LIBERTY: A Poem. General Gage’s SOLILOQUY, &c.”  A similar note appeared on the title page.  Woodhouse likely hoped that associating this publication with ones already familiar to readers would aid in inciting demand for the work.  He also inserted five lines about peace and war from Shakespeare, transcribing them from the title page of the pamphlet.

Four days later, he published a much more extensive advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette.  It contained all the content from the version in the Pennsylvania Ledger, including a nota bene that announced, “The Military Instructions, illustrated with Plans of the Manœuvres, to be sold by said Woodhouse.”  The new advertisement also featured the “ARGUMENT” of the poem.  That summary provided an overview of recent events as observed by an imaginary “traveller [who] undertakes a voyage to Boston” and, after being bestowed with a cloak of invisibility by the “Genius of North-America,” entered the city and witnessed General Thomas Gage and “several other ministerial tools sitting in council” as they discussed the battles at Lexington and Concord and “their late loss at Bunker’s Hill,” the “cutting down of the Liberty Tree in Boston,” and the “Distresses of the imprisoned citizens in Boston” as the siege of the city continued.  The traveler departed from Boston, visited “the Provincial Camp,” returned the cloak, saw “the Rifle-men, Virginians,” and others who supported the American cause, and listened to the “Speech of an American Soldier,” delivered with “determined resolution, which is that of all America, to defend our rights and privileges.”  The poem concluded with a “sincere hope of reconciliation with Great-Britain, before a wicked ministry render it too late.”  Most colonizers still sought a redress of grievances rather than separating from the British Empire.  In adding this lengthy “ARGUMENT” to the advertisement, Woodhouse did not compose original copy.  Instead, just as the lines from Shakespeare came from the title page of the pamphlet, the “ARGUMENT” filled two pages of the pamphlet preceding the poem.  Although he did not write the copy, Woodhouse apparently decided that providing more information about the contents of the poem would help to increase sales.

November 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (November 8, 1775).

“PROPOSALS FOR PRINTING BY SUBSCRIPTION, A TREATISE OF FORTIFICATION.”

Thomas Hanson announced a new project in the November 8, 1775, editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal.  For several months he had been engaged in soliciting subscribers for his Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements, a military manual that garnered the support of both officers and politicians.  With that book “published … and now delivering out by the Author,” Hanson distributed subscription proposals for printing “A TREATISE OF FORTIFICATION, in the Manner now practiced in Europe: Likewise that made use of in America the late War.”  The Prussian Evolutions included thirty copperplate engravings; similarly, this new endeavor would be “illustrated with 32 Copper-plates.”

Hanson adopted a different method for publishing the proposed treatise than he had for the Prussian Evolutions.  Rather than produce a single volume, he planned for the “Work to be published in a Series of Numbers, printed in Quarto, with the same Letter as the Prussian Evolutions,” “Each Number to contain eight Pages, and a Copper-plate or Plates, that they demonstrate,” and “One number to be delivered to the Subscribers every two Weeks.”  Eighteenth-century readers would have been familiar with such “CONDITIONS” for publishing books.  Hanson planned to use the type (“same Letter”) as his first book, giving the two works a similar appearance.  Instead of taking the entire book to press at one time, Hanson planned to print and distribute two sheets (“eight Pages”) and the corresponding illustrations once every two weeks.  Each sheet would have four pages on it, creating a quarto sized book when folded by the printer, bookbinder, or subscriber.  Subscribers paid six pence “per Number” or set of eight pages with corresponding illustrations upon delivery.

Hanson declared that “the Work will be engraved and put to the Press” once “a sufficient Number of Subscribers approves of these Conditions.”  Why did he opt to publish his treatise on fortifications in smaller parts rather than all at once?  Perhaps Hanson had grown frustrated with the delays in publishing the Prussian Evolutions.  In an earlier advertisement, he noted that he first published subscription proposals on May 3, shortly after learning about the battles at Lexington and Concord.  In July, he thought that the book would be completed “in three or four weeks,” yet more than three months passed before the volume was published and ready for delivery.  Printing and distributing a new “Number” every two weeks would keep the project moving forward and the revenues collected upon delivery would likely help as well.  Hanson expected that “the first Number may be published in three Weeks Time,” but it seems that he was disappointed once again.  It does not appear that this proposed project met with the same success as the Prussian Evolutions.  Even if some “Numbers” went to press, no complete volume of the proposed treatise survives today.  Most likely, Hanson did not entice a “sufficient Number of Subscribers.”  According to the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, he faced a lot of competition.  Presses in Philadelphia produced more than thirty works on military subjects in 1775 and 1776, including Hanson’s Prussian Evolutions.

September 20

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 20, 1775).

“A neat and correct VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN, not inferior to any hithero proposed.”

After appearing in the Pennsylvania Ledger on September 16, 1775, the subscription proposal for “An exact VIEW of the late Battle at Charlestown,” now known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette four days later.  It featured nearly identical copy, including a list of local agents, among them several printers in Philadelphia, who collected the names of subscribers in that city and other towns from New York to Virginia.  The notice named Nicholas Brooks as the “printer of said view,” but did not mention that he collaborated with Bernard Romans, the cartographer and engraver.  An addition at the bottom of the advertisement, “Frames and Glass may be had at the abovesaid N. Brooks’s,” suggested that Brooks managed the marketing of the proposed print.

Immediately below that advertisement, Robert Aitken announced, “NOW engraving for the Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Monthly Museum, a neat and correct VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN, not inferior to any hitherto proposed.”  Aitken, who was not among the printers listed as local agents for the Brooks and Romans print, promoted a competing print!  This one, however, “shall be printed in a size proper for the Magazine.”  The two prints looked strikingly similar, not unlike the competing prints of the Boston Massacre produced by Henry Pelham and Paul Revere in 1770, though one was larger than the other.  Aitken’s print measured 18 x 26 cm (approximately 7 x 10 inches), the right size to tuck it inside the magazine for delivery to subscribers.  Brooks and Romans’s print measured 31.5 x 42.2 cm (approximately 12.5 x 16.5 inches) on a 40.6 x 50.5 cm sheet (approximately 16 x 20 inches), perhaps making it a better candidate to frame and display.

Robert Aitken (engraver and publisher), “A Correct View of the Late Battle at Charlestown” (1775). Courtesy Library of Congress.

Subscribers to the Pennsylvania Magazine received the print as a premium.  Nonsubscribers could purchase the issue for “One Shilling and Sixpence, on account of the great expence of the engraving.”  On other occasions, including the September 16, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, Aitken advertised the price as one shilling per issue.  He now informed “those Gentlemen who incline to purchase this View of the Battle may be furnished with it at the moderate price of Sixpence.”  In effect, he did not give readers who purchased a single issue of the magazine any sort of discount, perhaps hoping to encourage them to subscribe to receive the print as a gift.  Whatever the case, Aitken’s print was slightly more expensive than the five shillings that Brooks and Romans charged for their uncolored print.

Nicholas Brooks (publisher) and Bernard Romans (engraver), “An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown” (1775). Courtesy Massachusetts Historical Society.

Given the similarity of the prints, did Aitken pirate his “VIEW of the late BATTLE at CHARLESTOWN” from Brooks and Romans?  That had been the case with Revere issuing a print based on a drawing by Pelham before the artist managed to publish his own.  Or did Aitken collaborate with Brooks and Romans?  It was not the first time that an image that accompanied his magazine resembled one of their projects.  The July 1775 issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine featured a map, “A New and Correct Plan of the Town of Boston, and Provincial Camp.”  Aitken marketed it at the same time that Brooks and Romans published a map of eastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island that featured an inset showing a “Plan of BOSTON and its ENVIRONS 1775.”  The two did not resemble each other as much as the “VIEW” that each advertised.  Whether they collaborated or competed, Aitken and Brooks and Romans all aimed to disseminate a commemorative item that simultaneously kept buyers better informed and inspired them to support the American cause.

July 26

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (July 26, 1775).

“A SERMON, on the present Situation of American Affairs … to distribute … among the Military Associators.”

A few days ago, I examined an advertisement for “A sermon on the present Situation of American Affairs” by William Smith that ran in the July 21, 1775, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.  I concluded that Wells likely sold copies of the pamphlet printed by James Humphreys, Jr., in Philadelphia and shipped to his “GREAT STATIONARY & BOOK STORE” in Charleston.  An advertisement in the July 26, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette suggests that was indeed the case.

That notice listed several printers who stocked the sermon.  It gave top billing to James Humphreys, Jr., and noted that “the other Printers in Philadelphia” also sold the sermon.  Radiating outward from the city, the list next named Matthias Slough and Francis Bailey in Lancaster and then Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, in New York.  The list concluded with “Mr. ROBERT WELLS, in Charlestown, South-Carolina.”  Humphreys apparently dispatched copies to associates both in his own city and in other towns and colonies.

Another aspect of that advertisement indicates that Wells most likely sold copies of the sermon printed by Humphreys in Philadelphia.  Wells did not mention the price in his advertisement, but Humphreys gave prices for a single copy and multiple copies: nine pence for one copy, six shillings for a dozen, and six dollars for one hundred copies.  That pricing structure concluded with a note that Humphreys intended the discount for purchasing in volume as a benefit “for such Persons as may desire to distribute them among the Military Associators.”  He encouraged officers and other Patriots to disseminate the sermon widely by making a gift of it to those who volunteered to defend American liberties.  Humphreys was not alone in envisioning that officers would give books and pamphlets about current affairs as gifts.  George Washington had recently ordered eight copies of Thomas Hanson’s Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements to distribute among his subordinates.

The details in Humphreys’s advertisement strengthen the case that Wells did not publish his own edition of Smith’s sermon but instead advertised and sold copies that Humphreys printed in Philadelphia and distributed to printers and booksellers in several cities and towns.  Doing so contributed to the creation of what Benedict Anderson terms an “imagined community” grounded in print.  Newspapers played an important role as printers reprinted news and editorials from one to another, yet colonizers also had access to pamphlets, tracts, and sermons that circulated widely.  They did not have to be present when Smith delivered his sermon to engage with the ideas and arguments that the minister offered for consideration.

July 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (July 12, 1775).

“All Sorts of Military Articles.”

It was a sign of the times.  The headline for Wolere Ming’s advertisement in the July 12, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette proclaimed, “All Sorts of Military Articles.”  The brief notice listed some of the items the merchant stocked, such as “Cartouch-boxes [for carrying cartridges], Morocco and other Sword-belts, Scabbards, Pistol Holsters, [and] Rangers Pouches.”  Hostilities had commenced with the battles of Lexington and Concord less than three months earlier, followed by the siege of Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill.  The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, appointed George Washington of Virginia as commander of the Continent Army, and dispatched him to Massachusetts.  Colonizers in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere mobilized as they followed the news, some of them heading to Massachusetts to lend their support and others preparing to defend their communities.

Responding to current events meant new opportunities for colonial entrepreneurs.  For instance, Charles Oliver Bruff, a goldsmith and jeweler in New York, advised “gentlemen who are forming themselves into companies in defence of their liberties” that they could purchase swords of various sorts at this shop in May 1775.  In Philadelphia, those seeking to outfit themselves for military service could do so very well at Ming’s shop “nearly opposite the Harp and Crown Tavern” where they selected among items “made on the best Construction” available “on the shortest Notice.”  Ming addressed a particular kind of consumer, the “Military Gentlemen, from Town or Country,” as he sought to leverage current events to establish revenue streams.  The headline for his advertisement played an important role in attracting the attention of prospective customers, especially considering that most newspaper advertisements did not have headlines of any sort.  Only one other in the issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette that carried Ming’s advertisement featured a headline that mentioned goods offered for sale, Thomas McGlathry’s notice for “IRISH LINENS, of various Prices.”  Merchants and shopkeepers who had been restrained by the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement, since December 1774 now faced new circumstances that they could make work to their benefit if they shifted their marketing strategies accordingly.

June 28

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 28, 1775).

“JUST PUBLISHED … SWAN’s BRITISH ARCHITECT … Illustrated with upwards of ONE HUNDRED DESIGNS AND EXAMPLES.”

At the end of June 1775, Robert Bell, “Printer and Bookseller,” and John Norman, “Architect Engraver,” published an American edition of Abraham Swan’s British Architect: Or, the Builders Treasury of Staircases.  Norman had previously promoted the work with newspaper advertisements and proposals “with a specimen of the plates and letter press” that prospective subscribers could examine.  When the volume was ready for sale and for subscribers to collect the copies they reserved, Bell and Norman ran advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal on June 28.  The following day they placed the same advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  On July 1, it appeared in the Pennsylvania Ledger and in Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury on July 7.  Of the newspapers printed in English in Philadelphia at the time, only Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet did not carry the advertisement.  Bell and Norman made a significant investment in marketing their edition of Swan’s British Architect.

Pennsylvania Journal (June 28, 1775).

To entice prospective customers, they specified that the book was “Illustrated with upwards of one hundred DESIGNS and EXAMPLES, curiously engraved on sixty Folio Copper-Plates” bound into the volume.  They also appended a “Memorandum” requesting that the “Artists and all others who wish to see useful and ornamental ARCHITECTURE flourish … look at the Work.”  If residents of the largest and most cosmopolitan urban port in the colonies wanted their city to maintain and enhance its level of sophistication, Bell and Norman implied, they needed to consider architecture and design important cultural pursuits.  To that end, they also marketed similar publications to those who purchased Swan’s British Architect.  Readers found to subscription proposals bound into the book.  The first one, advertising The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Assistant with drawings by John Folwell, a local cabinetmaker, and engravings by Norman (dated June 20), faced the title page.  The other, advertising an American edition of Swan’s Collection of Designs in Architecture, Containing New Plans and Elevations of Houses, for General Use (dated June 26), appeared immediately after the letterpress explanations of the engraved illustrations.  The dates on the subscription proposals suggest that they might have circulated separately, yet Bell and Norman made certain to place them before customers who already confirmed an interest in the subject matter.

March 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (March 8, 1775).

“The importation of Goods from Britain being stopped, obliges the said ACKEROYD to dispose of his stock on hand.”

With the Continental Association in effect throughout the colonies, John Ackeroyd decided that doing business in Philadelphia was no longer viable for him.  He concluded an advertisement in the March 8, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette with a note that the “importation of Goods from Britain being stopped, obliges the said ACKEROYD to dispose of his stock on hand and return to England as soon as he can.”  To that end, he called on customers and associates to settle “all accounts past due to him.”  Ackeroyd did not reveal his own politics in his newspaper notice, but he made clear that he believed the Continental Association had a devastating effect on his business.  That he planned to return to England suggests that he may have favored the Tory perspective.

Whatever his views, Ackeroyd abided by the Continental Association, though he utilized a loophole to do so.  That nonimportation agreement went into effect on December 1.  Ackeroyd advertised that he sought to sell “the remainder of his GOODS, imported in the London Packet, Capt. Cook, from London.”  When the London Packet arrive in Philadelphia to deliver those goods?  The “INWARD ENTRIES” for the custom house in the December 12, 1774, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet included Cooke’s vessel.  That should have meant that importers had to refuse their shipments or surrender all goods aboard the London Packet to the local committee of inspection, according to the provisions of the tenth article of the Continental Association.  The entry, however, did not state that Cooke arrived from London.  Instead, it reported, “Ship London Packet, J. Cooke, Lewis on Del.”  The London Packet apparently landed the goods at Lewes, a town at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, before December 1 and then continued up the Delaware River to Philadelphia.  That technicality would have allowed Ackeroyd to accept and then sell “GOODS … from London” without involving the local committee of inspection.  Consumers may have embraced such cleverness … or found it violated the spirit of the Continental Association if not the letter of that pact.

February 22

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (February 22, 1775).

“Goods … have been exposed to sale … under the direction of the Committee, pursuant to the tenth article of the Congress.”

Even as the imperial crisis intensified in February 1775, Peter Stretch expected that consumers in and near Philadelphia would respond to marketing appeals that connected the textiles and accessories that he imported and sold to current fashions in London.  Such had been the case for quite some time before the political situation became so troubled.  A transatlantic consumer revolution bound together England and the colonies in the eighteenth century, helping to fuel a process of Anglicization among subjects of the empire in British mainland North America.  When it came to advertising, it made sense to Stretch to open his notice in the February 22 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette with a “NEAT assortment of superfine BROADCLOTHS, consisting of a beautiful variety of the most fashionable colours now wore in London.”

He anticipated such an appeal would resonate with prospective customers even with the Continental Association in effect.  The First Continental Congress enacted that nonimportation agreement in response to the Coercive Acts.  Yet Stretch acknowledged those circumstances as well.  He wanted consumers to know that he sold new merchandise rather than items that had lingered on the shelves or in the warehouse for years, so he assured readers that “the above assortment are all fresh Goods, one older than the last spring importation.”  He went into more detail, explaining that “the greatest part of them were shipped the latter end of last August, in London, on board the ship Jamaica, Captain Jermyn.”  That meant that his wares had been ordered and shipped before the First Continental Congress began its meetings in September and October 1774 and certainly before delegates devised the Continental Association.

However, the Jamaica “arrived here since the first of December,” the day the nonimportation agreement went into effect.  The tenth article made provisions for imports that arrived in December 1774 and January 1775, allowing merchants to refuse and return the goods, turn them over to a local committee to store while the pact remained in force, or entrust them to the committee to sell with the original costs returned to the importer and any profits designated to the relief of Boston where the harbor had been closed and blockaded since June 1774.  Stretch reported that he adhered to the Continental Association.  His wares “have been exposed to sale at the City Vendue-store, under the direction of the Committee, pursuant to the tenth article of the Congress.”  Having done its due diligence, the committee apparently returned items not sold at auction to Stretch, provided that he also observe the ninth article that prohibited price gouging or “tak[ing] Advantage of the Scarcity of Goods that may be occasioned by this Association.”  Stretch pledged that he offered his merchandise “at the same prices that Goods of the same quality have been usually sold for in this place.”  The merchant demonstrated to consumers that they could still acquire textiles “of the most fashionable colours now wore in London” without violating the Continental Association.

Happy Birthday, Benjamin Franklin!

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features , , , ,

Today is an important day for specialists in early American print culture, for Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 (January 6, 1705, Old Style), in Boston. Among his many other accomplishments, Franklin is known as the “Father of American Advertising.” Although I have argued elsewhere that this title should more accurately be bestowed upon Mathew Carey (in my view more prolific and innovative in the realm of advertising as a printer, publisher, and advocate of marketing), I recognize that Franklin deserves credit as well. Franklin is often known as “The First American,” so it not surprising that others should rank him first among the founders of advertising in America.

benjamin-franklin
Benjamin Franklin (Joseph Siffred Duplessis, ca. 1785).  National Portrait Gallery.

Franklin purchased the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729. In the wake of becoming printer, he experimented with the visual layout of advertisements that appeared in the weekly newspaper, incorporating significantly more white space and varying font sizes in order to better attract readers’ and potential customers’ attention. Advertising flourished in the Pennsylvania Gazette, which expanded from two to four pages in part to accommodate the greater number of commercial notices.

jan-17-pennsylvania-gazette-19-161736
Advertisements with white space, varying sizes of font, capitals and italics, and a woodcut from Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette (December 9-16, 1736).

Many historians of the press and print culture in early America have noted that Franklin became wealthy and retired as a printer in favor of a multitude of other pursuits in part because of the revenue he collected from advertising. Others, especially David Waldstreicher, have underscored that this wealth was amassed through participation in the colonial slave trade. The advertisements for goods and services featured in the Pennsylvania Gazette included announcements about buying and selling enslaved men, women, and children as well as notices offering rewards for those who escaped from bondage.

jan-17-pennsylvania-gazette-slave-19-161736
Advertisement for an enslaved woman and an enslaved child from Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette (December 9-16, 1736).

In 1741 Franklin published one of colonial America’s first magazines, The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for all the British Plantations in America (which barely missed out on being the first American magazine, a distinction earned by Franklin’s competitor, Andrew Bradford, with The American Magazine or Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies). The magazine lasted only a handful of issues, but that was sufficient for Franklin to become the first American printer to include an advertisement in a magazine (though advertising did not become a standard part of magazine publication until special advertising wrappers were developed later in the century — and Mathew Carey was unarguably the master of that medium).

general-magazine
General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, For all the British Plantations in America (January 1741).  Library of Congress.

In 1744 Franklin published an octavo-sized Catalogue of Choice and Valuable Books, including 445 entries. This is the first known American book catalogue aimed at consumers (though the Library Company of Philadelphia previously published catalogs listing their holdings in 1733, 1735, and 1741). Later that same year, Franklin printed a Catalogue of Books to Be Sold at Auction.

Franklin pursued advertising through many media in eighteenth-century America, earning recognition as one of the founders of American advertising. Happy 319th birthday, Benjamin Franklin!