Pennsylvania Gazette

June 22

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 22, 1774).

“ABINGTON MINERAL WATER, SO useful in Chronic Diseases.”

As the first day of summer arrived in 1774, a headline in the Pennsylvania Gazette promoted “ABINGTON MINERAL WATER,” inviting residents of Philadelphia and other towns to visit that “most healthy Part of the Province of Pennsylvania.”  There they could experience the waters “SO useful in Chronic Diseases” and recuperate from a variety of ailments.  William French placed that advertisement, offering “good Accommodations, at a modern Expence.”  Interested in encouraging health tourism in his town, he mentioned that “several other commodious Houses in the Neighbourhood of said Spring” also provided lodging for visitors.

In addition to marketing room and board in proximity to the mineral waters, Rush advised that that he had on hand “Dr. RUSH’S Experiments and Observations on the above Mineral Water, with particular Directions in what Diseases, and in what Manner, it should be used.”  He did not specify whether he sold copies or made them available for consultation by his guests, similar to modern hotels displaying fliers, brochures, and other promotional literature for points of interest in the area.  He also did not invoke the full title of the pamphlet, Experiments and Observations on the Minera Waters of Philadelphia, Abington, and Bristol, in the Province of Pennsylvania.  French conveniently left out other sites that competed for health tourism, though he was not the only advertiser who referred to Rush’s pamphlet, originally a paper delivered to the American Philosophical Society in June 1773, as a means of educating the public about the advantages of taking the waters.  The proprietors of the “BRISTOL BATHS and CHALYBEATE WELLS” did so as well in their own advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette a couple of months earlier.  In each instance, those seeking to generate revenue from mineral waters did not simply ask guests to take their word for the supposed benefits to their health; instead, they marshalled evidence from a medical expert as a testimonial on their behalf.  The “commodious Houses” in Abington amounted to pleasant amenities, but it was the healing power of the “MINERAL WATER” that most effectively marketed a stay in that town.

June 8

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 8, 1774).

“There are few or no Inns for the entertainment of travellers, to the southward of Chestnut-street.”

Location!  Location!!  Location!!!  That was the appeal that Joseph Price made when he advertised that he now operated the inn “known by the Sign of the Pennsylvania Farmer” at the corner of Second and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia.  In an advertisement in the June 8, 1774, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he described the location as ideal for colonizers “from the lower counties, both of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys,” heading to market in the bustling city.  Price noted that the business conducted by those visitors “chiefly center[s] at the lower parts of the city,” yet “there are few or no Inns for the entertainment of travellers, to the southward of Chestnut-street.”  The innkeeper insisted that “it must be inconvenient for those, whose business calls them to the lower parts of the city, to be so far from their lodgings.”  Fortunately, they could choose to stay at the Sign of the Pennsylvania Farmer, putting them as close as possible to the market.

Price did not rely on location alone to convince visitors to Philadelphia to lodge there.  He also promoted other amenities that guests could expect, including “a stock of good liquors, bedding, stabling, [and] hay and oats.”  Guests would experience a comfortable stay, whether socializing over drinks or resting in their rooms, while the staff cared for their horses.  In addition to the stables, Price also had a “yard for the reception of market-horses and wagons.”  His guests did not need to go to the trouble of making separate arrangements for their reception at another establishment.  All in all, Price facilitated visits to the city, especially for farmers heading to market from towns to the south.  His marketing strategies anticipated those aimed at modern business travelers, emphasizing the proximity of his inn to the places they conducted business as well as accommodations, such as the yard for parking their wagons, provided specifically to meet their needs.  In addition, a trip to the city did not have to be all business without comforts.  Guests at the Sign of the Pennsylvania Farmer could indulge in the “good liquors” without having to venture elsewhere and then sleep well in the comfortable bedding.  For those who stayed at Price’s inn, a journey undertaken for business also had its pleasures.

May 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 25, 1774).

“His Liquor shall ever be pure and unmixed.”

Thomas Batt believed in the power of advertising to yield success for his business.  In 1774, he took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Gazette to announce that he had “opened his WINE and SPIRIT STORE” on Water Street in Philadelphia, pledging “to render the retailing of Liquors as compleat and convenient to the Public, as it is in the Power of Expence and strict Attention to do.”  Not long after that advertisement concluded its run, Batt placed another advertisement, this one dated May 14, to alert the public to his new location at “the large Bank House and Store … between Chestnut and WalnutStreet.”

He took the opportunity to review his inventory with prospective customers, asserting that he stocked “a most valuable Collection of Old WINES, of all Kinds” as well as “Rum, Spirits, and Porter, in any Quantities.”  Batt made a similar appeal about customers purchasing whatever quantity they desired in his previous advertisement, declaring that he was “determined to sell any Quantity, from a Pipe [a large barrel] to a Gallon.”  Perhaps he sought to distinguish himself from local vendors known for selling only large quantities or only small quantities.  Batt emphasized convenience in his initial advertisement; allowing consumers to select the quantity that suited their needs helped him to deliver on that promise.

He also highlighted quality and satisfaction.  He concluded his advertisement with an assurance that “his Liquor shall ever be pure and unmixed.”  Batt did not water down his wine or dilute higher quality spirits with lesser quality ones to increase his profit margins by fooling customers.  The retailer was well on his way to securing a favorable reputation, especially considering the “repeated Orders” he received from “approved Judges” of wines and spirits.  Batt hoped that existing clientele would follow him to his new location as well as new customers seeking him there.  His advertisements suggested a variety of reasons for choosing him over other retailers.

May 18

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 18, 1774).

“At the Sign of the SCYTHE and SICKLE.”

For marking the location of their workshop and for adorning their newspaper advertisements, Goucher and Wylie, cutlers, used an image closely associated with their trade.  In an advertisement that ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette for several weeks in the spring and summer of 1774, they advised prospective customers that they made and sold all kinds of cutlery “at the Sign of the SCYTHE and SICKLE.”  The woodcut that accompanied their notice depicted a scythe and a sickle within a rectangular border, perhaps replicating their shop sign or perhaps merely evoking the same symbols.  Either way, the image made their advertisement more visible to readers while simultaneously prompting them to think of Goucher and Wylie when they glimpsed scythes and sickles.

Yet they were not the only cutlers to operate at the Sign of the Scythe and Sickle in Philadelphia in the early 1770s.  Stephen Paschall and his son, also named Stephen, previously ran advertisements that gave their location as “the Sign of the Scythe and Sickle, in Market-street, between Fourth and Fifth-streets,” the most recent appearing a year before Goucher and Wylie published their notice.  In the longer version of their location, Goucher and Wylie directed customers to “the Sign of the SCYTHE and SICKLE, in Fourth-street, the fourth Door from Market-street.”  In other words, Goucher and Wylie were just around the corner from the Paschalls.  Did both businesses use the same device in such close proximity?  Or had the Paschalls closed shop, leaving the Sign of the Scythe and Sickle up for grabs for any cutlers who wished to appropriate it (and perhaps benefit from the reputation already associated with that image)?  Alternately, the Paschalls might have transferred the Sign of the Scythe and Sickle to Goucher and Wylie.

Let’s examine the evidence for that last possibility.  In June 1770, Samuel Wheeler advertised that he kept shop “at the sign of the Scythe, Sickle and Brand-iron” at the same time that Stephen Paschall ran notices that gave his location as “the sign of the Scythe and Sickle, in Market-street.”  Wheeler carefully added an item to his sign to distinguish his business from Paschall’s.  Had the elder and younger Paschall still been in business around the corner in 1774, Goucher and Wylie may have hesitated to duplicate their sign and, by extension, the name of their business.  In May 1768, Stephen Paschall and Benjamin Humphreys placed a joint advertisement that featured an image of a scythe and sickle enclosed in a rectangular border.  Both items bore the name “HUMPHREYS.”  That woodcut appears identical to the one in Goucher and Wylie’s advertisement that ran six years later, with the exception of “HUMPHREYS” being removed.  Perhaps Paschall had retained the woodcut when his association with Humphreys ended but had not made use of it.  He could have passed along the woodcut to Goucher and Wylie when transferring the Sign of the Scythe and Sickle to them.  If this scenario did occur, it suggests that some artisans carefully curated the names and images associated with their businesses in colonial Philadelphia.

April 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (April 13, 1774).

“Said BENEZET is leaving off Business.”

Daniel Benezet increased the likelihood that prospective customers would see his advertisements by placing them in every newspaper published in Philadelphia the spring of 1774.  Notices with identical copy appeared in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the Pennsylvania Journal.  Benezet even took advantage of the offer that Henry Miller made in the masthead of each issue of the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote: “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”  That newspaper carried Benezet’s notice to German settlers.  No matter which newspaper colonizers in Pennsylvania read, they would encounter Benezet’s advertisement.

Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote (April 12, 1773).

Like many other entrepreneurs, Benezet listed some of his merchandise in hopes of enticing prospective customers.  He stocked “A VERY large assortment of German SCYTHES,” “a variety of Dutch looking-glasses,” “gold and marble paper,” “best English hammered brass kettles,” “low priced silver watches,” and “a variety of other articles” that consumers would discover when they visited “his STORE, in Arch-street, four doors from the corner of Second-street.”  Yet Benezet did not rely on appeals to choice alone to market his wares.  He also emphasized price and offered a reason for prospective customers to trust that he did indeed offer bargains.  In a nota bene, Benezet advised that since he “is leaving off Business, he is determined to sell the above goods on very low terms.”  In other words, he was holding an eighteenth-century version of a “going out of business” sale.  His desire to liquidate his merchandise justified not only low prices but also investing in advertising in four newspapers to make sure as many prospective customers as possible saw his notice.  Benezet saturated the local media market with his advertisements, signaling that he was serious about the deals at his store as he prepared for “leaving off Business.”

March 30

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (March 30, 1774).

“The superior conveniencies of the above Ferry.”

Rensselaer Williams and Patrick Colvin provided a public service.  At least that was how they wanted prospective clients to think about the “TRENTON FERRY” that they operated.  They opened their advertisement in the March 30, 1774, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette with a declaration that they were “ever desirous of obliging the Public, and to give the utmost satisfaction in their power.”  To that end, they even set prices (or so they claimed) “by a sacrifice of their own interest, and at a rate really not be afforded.”  Williams and Colvin hoped such proclamations would attract attention in advance of opening for business on “the First Day of April next.”

At that time, they pledged to “ferry all persons, horses, [and] carriages” at “as low a rate and price as any ferry within four miles on the river.”  They certainly had in mind unnamed competitors that they expected were already familiar to prospective clients.  To make their service even more attractive, Williams and Colvin asserted that the “superior conveniencies” of their ferry compared to “any other on the river” included “its direct situation on the great road between the cities of Philadelphia and New-York,” a well-travelled corridor between the two largest cities in British mainland North America.  They emphasized that their location was “nearer by a considerable distance than the ferry below,” once again alluding to the competition.  Prospective clients might even consider passage on Williams and Colvin’s ferry faster and safer since the Delaware River was “narrower by upwards of one hundred yards” at their location.

This advertisement, along with others for ferries and stages, helps in mapping the transportation infrastructure in place in the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution.  Advertisements for almanacs frequently included descriptions of roads among the contents of those annual volumes.  Rather than relying on maps as they traveled from place to place, colonizers instead took into account general knowledge acquired through word of mouth as well as printed sources that included newspaper advertisements and almanacs.  Williams and Colvin certainly anticipated that merchants, travelers, and others would share with others what they read about the “TRENTON FERRY,” what they heard about it, and their own experiences hiring the service.

March 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Supplement to the Pennsylvania Gazette (March 23, 1774).

“Remarkable old Spirits, West-India Rum, and Brandy.”

Thomas Batt advertised his “WINE and SPIRIT STORE” in the Pennsylvania Gazette for three months in 1774.  He stocked a “large and valuable Collection” that included “Old genuine Madeira, Lisbon, Mountain and Teneriffe Wines; remarkable old Spirits, [and] excellent Claret.”  He pledged to “sell any Quantity, from a Pipe [a large barrel] to a Gallon” to suit the needs of his customers.

When it ran on March 23, 1774, Batt’s advertisement appeared in the Supplement to the Pennsylvania Gazette rather than in the standard issue for that week.  Colonial newspapers typically consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and then folding it in half.  On occasion, printers had more news, letters, advertisements, and other content than would fit within four pages.  Sometimes they inserted notices that material which they did not publish that week would appear in the next issue.  Other times, however, they had enough content to justify publishing a supplement, either two or four pages.

In this instance, the printers opted for a four-page supplement, doubling the content they distributed to subscribers and other readers that week.  The revenue generated from advertisements likely made the supplement a viable endeavor since paid notices filled ten of the twelve columns.  Those advertisement had not merely been displaced to the supplement by news that appeared in the standard issue.  News items accounted for slightly less than six of those twelve columns.  Overall, that meant that the standard issue and the supplement carried eight columns of news and sixteen columns of advertising.  More than one hundred paid notices, including Batt’s advertisement for his “WINE and SPIRIT STORE,” occupied two-thirds of the space in that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette and its supplement.  Quite often, eighteenth-century newspapers served as vehicles for delivering advertising even more so than for disseminating news.

March 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (March 16, 1774).

“THO. PALMER Gun Smith.”

Jack Healy, a student in my Revolutionary America class, selected Thomas Palmer’s advertisement for “a Quantity of well made RIFLES” and “all Sorts of SHOT GUNS” to feature on the Adverts 250 Project, hoping to learn more about firearms in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution and the Early Republic.  The woodcut depicting a gun, which the gunsmith previously used in other advertisements, helped attract Jack’s attention, prompting him to seek more information.

Among other secondary sources, I recommended that Jack peruse Saul Cornell’s A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America.  In the opening chapter, “English Tyranny versus American Liberty,” Cornell describes militia laws “that required each householder to provide himself with a musket to meet his obligation to participate in the militia” for the purposes of keeping order and defending their communities.  “It would be impossible,” Cornell asserts, “to overstate the militia’s centrality to the lives of American colonists.”  In addition to providing defense, the militia “served an important social role” as “one of the central means for organizing citizens” prior to the emergence of modern political parties.  Communities gathered at musters, drilling, celebrating, and forging bonds.[1]

Palmer did not mention any of that in his advertisement.  He did not need to do so since prospective customers were so familiar with the part that militias played in colonial culture.  Instead, he emphasized the quality of the firearms he produced, declaring that he constructed them “in the best and neatest Manner.”  Furthermore, his work “hath gained the Approbation of some of the best Judges within the three Provinces” of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, though he did not identify who gave such endorsements.  For those not in the market to purchase a new firearm, Palmer offered to repair “old Work, in the most careful Manner.”  To fulfill their civic obligations and to participate in communal gatherings, many colonizers may have turned to Palmer to obtain and maintain the firearms they carried as members of their local militia.

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[1] Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 12-13.

March 2

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (March 2, 1774).

“It is hoped the Public will discourage such unwarrantable Practices by not purchasing the said Pamphlet.”

In the winter of 1774, William Mentz published The Visions of a Certain Tho. Say, of the City of Philadelphia, Which He Saw in a Trance.  That pamphlet did not receive attention in the public prints because Mentz advertised it but instead because Thomas Say ran notices repudiating the work.  On March 2, Say inserted advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal.  Five days later, he ran the same notice in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  He was so intent on disseminating his message as widely as possible that he invested in advertisements in all three of the English-language newspapers published in Philadelphia at the time.

Mentz did not advertise the pamphlet, so Say’s notices may have generated more attention than anything else.  Did they have the intended effect?  Did colonizers refrain from purchasing the pamphlet because Say reacted so strongly to its publication?  Or did the controversy whet their appetites to see what was contained within its pages?  Say denounced “a certain Mentz [who] has printed and published for Sale, without my Knowledge or Consent, a Pamphlet … which is but an incorrect and imperfect Part of what I propose to make public.”  Furthermore, Say did not know “how or where he got the Copy.”  He excoriated Mentz: “publishing any Thing in any Man’s Name without his Knowledge or Consent is, in my Opinion, very unjustifiable, and often attended with ill Consequences.”  Addressing the public, Say made a plea that they “will discourage such unwarrantable Practices by not purchasing said Pamphlet.”  He also requested that printers neither aid nor assist Mentz “in such wrong Proceedings.”

Did that incite instead of quell demand for the pamphlet?  Mentz issued a second version, The Visions of a Certain Thomas Say, of the City of Philadelphia, Which He Saw in a Trance: To Which Is Added, Another Vision. By the Late Reverend Isaac Watts, D.D.  Perhaps he did so because Say’s unintended marketing of the pamphlet yielded interest in it.  On the other hand, Say may have managed to inhibit sales, prompting Mentz to package the pamphlet with a similar item by a popular author in hopes of rescuing the endeavor from financial failure.  Either way, the visibility that the pamphlet received in Philadelphia’s newspapers came solely from Say’s efforts to constrain sales rather than marketing undertaken by the publisher.

February 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (February 16, 1774).

“Perfectly in the stile of a London tavern.”

In February 1774, Daniel Smith took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Packet to promote his latest enterprise, the City Tavern in Philadelphia.  Residents of the urban port had witnessed the building and marketing of the tavern.  As Smith explained, the building “was erected at a great expence, by a voluntary subscription of the principal gentlemen of the city.”  He billed it as “the largest and most elegant house in that way,” meaning a tavern and inn, “in America.”  The previous summer, the proprietors ran an advertisement seeking a tavernkeeper with “an active, obliging disposition” to rent the building, still under construction with completion expected by September, and operate it “for the convenience and credit of the city.”  Those “Gentlemen Proprietors” wanted the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies to have a tavern that rivaled any found in London.

Smith asserted that he achieved that goal, doing so “at a very great expence.”  He proclaimed that he furnished the building and stocked the storerooms with every necessity.  He “laid in every article of the first quality, perfectly in the stile of a London tavern,” just as envisioned by the affluent subscribers who made the City Tavern one of their projects for improving the bustling urban port and enhancing the city’s reputation throughout the British Atlantic world.  The amenities included a “genteel Coffee Room” where merchants and others could socialize and conduct business.  He “supplied English and American papers and magazines” for their entertainment, but also so they could track the shipping news, prices current, and current events that had an impact on their businesses.  Perhaps his subscriptions included the new Royal American Magazine, the only magazine published in the colonies at the time, demonstrating to his patrons the efforts he made to provide the latest and most interesting publications.  For “strangers” or visitors to the city, Smith “fitted up several elegant bed rooms, detached from noise,” and the “best livery stables,” located “quite convenient to the house.”  Smith expected that all those features, along with “the goodness of his wines and larder,” would “give the public entire satisfaction.”

The City Tavern quickly became a popular meeting place, especially as the imperial crisis intensified.  In addition to merchants and the local gentry frequenting the establishment as part of their everyday routines, concerned citizens met there to debate and discuss politics.  In May 1774, just three months after Smith ran his advertisement, more than two hundred of them gathered at the City Tavern to determine how to respond to messages from Boston in the wake of the Boston Port Act that closed the port until the colonizers paid for the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party.  When the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September and October 1774, many influential leaders from throughout the colonies dined and drank at the City Tavern.  John Adams praised it as “the most genteel [tavern] in America.”[1]

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[1] See entry for August 29, 1774, in John Adams diary 21, 15 August – 3 September 1774 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/