Pennsylvania Gazette

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!

January 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (January 4, 1775).

“Printed proposals, with conditions and a specimen of the work, are given gratis.”

Robert Bell, one of the most significant publishers and booksellers of the eighteenth century, frequently ran advertisements in newspapers and disseminated subscription proposals, book catalogues, and other marketing media.  At the beginning of 1775, he promoted an “AMERICAN EDITION of LECTURES on the MATERIA MEDICA, as delivered by WILLIAM CULLEN, M.D. Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.”  Yet Bell supposedly did not envision this project on his own.  He pursued it, he declared, “At the desire of several PHYSICIANS.”  Given the initial interest expressed by “Gentlemen of that Profession,” Bell inserted an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette in hopes of generating additional demand and determining the viability of publishing an American edition of the influential text.

To that end, he invited physicians and others to obtain “Printed proposals, with conditions and a specimen of the work” at his shop.  Those proposals may have taken the form of a handbill or a short pamphlet, similar to the proposals for A Dissent from the Church of England and the proposals for The Catholic Christian Instructed that Bell disseminated in 1774.  The latter pamphlet devoted two pages to a prospectus that described the purpose of the work, a page to “Conditions” for subscribing (such as number of pages, cost, and payment schedule), and a page to a “Specimen of the type” that demonstrated the quality of an important material aspect of the book.  Based on the description of the printed proposals in Bell’s newspaper advertisement, the proposals for Cullen’s Materia Medica likely had a similar format.

Bell called on “gentlemen, who are desirous of encouraging improvements in the divine art of healing,” to submit their name “speedily” so the book “may be carried into execution immediately.”  He warned against dallying and assuming that surplus copies would be offered for sale after the work went to press: “it will be printed only for those who possess so much animation as to encourage the work by their subscription.”  In other words, anyone who desired copies of this American edition of Cullen’s Materia Medica had only a limited time to pre-order them.  When Bell published the book in 1775, the imprint stated, “Printed for the SUBSCRIBERS,” though perhaps the savvy bookseller produced a small quantity of additional copies to sell to those who neglected to subscribe.  Yet there was no guarantee that he would do so.  Bell attempted to leverage scarcity of the proposed work to encourage customers to reserve copies in advance.

October 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 26, 1774).

“THO’ this is metre it’s no fun, / My servant boy has from me run.”

It was a novel means of drawing attention to the description of an indentured servant who ran away from his master.  Rather than the usual sort of advertisement that crowded the pages of newspapers from New England to South Carolina, John McGoun rejected writing a paragraph of dense text in favor of composing a series of rhyming couplets that gave readers all sorts of information about John Hunter and offered a reward for imprisoning or returning him.  On occasion, aggrieved masters composed and published such poems, yet they were rare enough to merit a closer look when McGoun inserted his advertisement.  In the first couplet, he played with the form, asserting that his situation was a serious matter even as he sought to entertain readers so they would take note of the details he presented: “THO’ this is metre it’s no fun, / My servant boy has from me run.”

Five other advertisements for the same purpose appeared on the final page of the October 26, 1774, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, yet readers may have been more likely to linger over McGoun’s notice.  The others filled the space purchased by the advertisers, running from one side of the column to the other, while McGoun’s poem had white space on each side, making his advertisement visually unique among those on the page.  That aspect initially drew the eyes of readers, with the couplets offering enough “fun” for a subject that was “no fun” for them to peruse the entire poem.  In addition to relaying details about the runaway’s age, height, hair, and eyes, that “fun” included an interesting way of stating that he would disguise himself with new garments: “He left his clothes, both coarse and fine, / To steal some others he’ll incline.”  Likewise, McGoun described Hunter’s habits and comportment: “Talks much, lies some, inclines to sing, / Says he can work at every thing.”  The master apparently did not find the servant as skilled at a variety of tasks as the servant claimed.  McGoun even managed to reference politics and current events in expressing his suspicion that Hunter headed to Boston: “He’s now full eighteen years of age, / I think he’ll push for Thomas Gage.”  He did not need to name the city: “(Where he is almost all men know, / As he’s become our country’s foe).”  The Pennsylvania Gazette and other newspapers certainly provided plenty of coverage of Gage and his role in enforcing the Coercive Acts as governor of Massachusetts.

Readers constantly encountered advertisements about runaway indentured servants, apprentices, and convict servants during the era of the American Revolution.  They usually followed a standard format, yet occasionally masters resorted to verse to distinguish their notices from others that competed for attention in the public prints.

October 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 19, 1774).

“I … am really sorry that my Fellow-Citizens should be so unfriendly to me.”

Tensions rose in the fall of 1774 as the harbor in Boston remained closed and blockaded due to the Boston Port Act and the rest of the Coercive Acts went into effect as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.  Yet that port was not the only place that experienced discord.  John Head’s advertisement, published in both the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal on October 19, revealed his frustration with rumors and accusations that he sought to take advantage of the situation through unscrupulous business practices.

He reported that “a Number of unkind People have industriously propagated through this City, Philadelphia, “I made it my Business to purchase a large Quantity of several Sorts of dry Goods, in order to sell them again at an advanced Price.” Head, like many other colonizers, anticipated that the First Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia at the time, would enact some sort of nonimportation agreement in response to the Coercive Acts.  His critics accused him of attempting to sidestep such measures by stocking up on merchandise in advance, thus not having to make the same sacrifices as truly patriotic merchants.  To make matters worse, they insinuated that once goods became scare because of a nonimportation agreement that Head would jack up his prices and gouge consumers who did not have the usual range of choices available to them.

Head vigorously denied those rumors.  That “Report,” he asserted, “I do declare to be false.”  Furthermore, he challenged “any Person to appear to my Face, and prove that I have bought to the Amount of One Shilling’s Worth of Goods from them, since the Arrival of said Ships.”  Continuing to make his case, Head declared that “on a cool Reflection, I cannot recollect that I have bought to the Amount of Fifty Pounds Worth of dry Goods on Speculation since I have been in Trade.”  He did not have a history of acquiring goods in large quantities, nor had he done so recently, despite whatever his adversaries claimed.  Head expressed his disappointment over the gossip that made it necessary to take to the public prints to defend his reputation.  He lamented that “my Fellow-Citizens should be so unfriendly to me, and unjust to themselves, as to propagate a Report of this Sort.”  In so doing, he positioned himself among the ranks of citizens and patriots, confirming his fidelity to their cause.

September 28

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 28, 1774).

“Goods purchased, delivered to any part of the city.”

As fall arrived in 1774, Samuel Garrigues, Jr., placed a brief advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette to remind readers that he sold a variety of imported goods “as usual at his warehouses, the third door from the London Coffee-house” in Philadelphia.  He supplemented that notice with a longer advertisement informing the public that he and his partners, doing business as Samuel Garrigues, Jr., and Company, just opened a “wet goods warehouse” right next door at “the 4th door from the London Coffee-house.”  There they stocked “Choice old Antigua rum,” “old Jamaica spirits, and West India rum,” “old Madeira wine,” “brandy and geneva,” as well as sugar, spices, snuff, coffee, chocolate, and “every other article common to the wet goods business.”  The inventory curiously included “excellent bohea and hyson tea” despite the controversy associated with that commodity.

In addition to listing the merchandise, Garrigues and Company sought to entice prospective customers by explaining that they had “an opportunity of procuring every article in their business of the first quality, and at the lowest prices,” suggesting that they would pass along the savings while also assuring consumers that they did not need to be wary of such bargains meaning inferior goods.  They pledged to make it their “constant study … to merit the kind custom of their friends in town or country” by “carefully attend[ing] to orders” and “immediately execut[ing]” them.  The partnership promised superior customer service.  They also offered a valuable service, delivering purchases “to any part of the city,” whether just a gallon or quart or an entire hogshead or pipe.  They hoped that ancillary service, provided gratis, would sway customers to shop with them to take advantage of both the convenience and the cost.  Eighteenth-century entrepreneurs sometimes experimented with free services as marketing strategies to convince consumers to choose them over their competitors.  For Garrigues and Company, doing so was one aspect of their “constant study” in serving their customers.