Printed Directions

May 30

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

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (May 30, 1775).

“Dr. KEYSER’s GENUINE PILLS, With FULL DIRECTIONS for their Use in all CASES.”

Like many eighteenth-century printers, Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, sold patent medicines as a side hustle to supplement revenues from newspaper subscriptions, advertisements, job printing, and selling books and writing supplies.  In the May 30, 1775, edition of his newspaper, for instance, he ran an advertisement for a “FRESH PARCEL of Dr. KEYSER’s GENUINE PILLS.”  He did not need to explain that the pills treated venereal diseases because they were so familiar to consumers, but that did make it necessary to assure the public that he carried the “GENUINE” item rather than imitations or counterfeits.  Crouch also stocked “Dr. BOERHAAVE’s GRAND BALSAM of HEALTH.”  Realizing that many prospective customers would have been less familiar with this “admirable Remedy,” the printer explained that they could take it for “the dry Belly-Ach, Cholic, Griping in the Bowels, [and] Pain in the Stomach.”  In addition, the balsam “cleanses the Stomach.”  Today, many consumers have favorite over-the-counter medicines for similar symptoms.

Crouch realized that treating venereal disease was a sensitive subject and that customers purchasing Keyser’s Pills wanted to use them correctly and effectively.  He promised in his advertisement that he provided “FULL DIRECTIONS for their Use in all CASES.”  Doing so also minimized the amount of contact between the purchaser and the seller.  Customers did not need to visit an apothecary and go over how to use the medication.  Instead, they could visit the printer, ask for the pills and the directions, and avoid additional interaction.  Some may have even requested Keyser’s Pills along with other items, perhaps ink powder or a recent political pamphlet, to draw attention away from a purchase that caused embarrassment or discomfort.  Crouch also assured prospective customers that the pills were effective, inviting them to examine a “NARRATIVE of the Effects of Dr. KEYSER’s MEDICINE, with an Account of his ANALYSIS, by the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences.”  Perusing those accounts did require more interaction between buyer and seller, but Crouch may have believed that some readers would have considered it sufficient to know that they were available.  That the printer could provide documentation upon request increased trust in the remedy.

The advertisement for Keyser’s Pills and Boerhaave’s Grand Balsam appeared immediately above a notice listing more than a dozen kinds of printed blanks commonly used for commercial and legal transactions.  Beyond publishing the South-Carolina and Country Journal, Crouch generated revenue through a variety of other means, some of them more closely related to printing than others.  He could earn money with both printed blanks and patent medicines, especially when he deployed savvy marketing.

March 25

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

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (March 25, 1775).

“Certificates of its success shall be speedily inserted in this and the other Papers on the continent.”

William Drewet Smith, “Chemist and Druggist,” ran an apothecary shop “At HIPPOCRATES’s Head, in Second-street” in Philadelphia in the 1770s.  He expected that prospective customers would associate Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician known as the “Father of Medicine,” with the “general Assortment of Drugs and patent medicines, surgeons instruments, [and] shop furniture” that he sold.  Yet those were not the only items that Smith peddled.

The apothecary ran an advertisement for “Baron Van Haake’s royal letter pattent composition, for manuring land” in the March 25, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger.  In addition to medicines for treating the body, the Smith sold this compound for nurturing soil and raising crops.  For those not familiar with its use, the chemist explained that the “valuable composition has been tried in England with the greatest success.”  In addition, “a number of gentlemen of this province are giving it a fair trial here.”  Trials demonstrated that the treatment “is not only fit for arable, meadow, and pasture land, but is also excellent for hop, turnip, tobacco grounds and vineyards” as well as “kitchen gardens and nurseries.”  In other words, any farmer, any gardener, or anybody else who raised crops or plants of any kind needed to try Varon Van Haake’s composition to see for themselves its positive impact on their endeavors.

Smith stated that he included “printed Directions for its use” free with every sale.  He also planned to insert “Certificates of its success” (or testimonials from satisfied customers) “in this and the other Papers on the continent,” suggesting that he was already in possession of such endorsements.  To further entice prospective customers, he offered a “five per cent discount” to customers who “take two hundred pounds weight at a time, or upwards.”  He also mentioned that he imported this product from England “last fall,” signaling to readers that he acquired it before the Continental Association went into effect so they could purchase it with a clear conscience.

Elsewhere in the same issue of the Pennsylvania Ledger, Smith published a lengthy advertisement for “Baron SCHOMBERG’s Grand Prophylactic LINIMENT” that supposedly prevented and cured “most venerial complaints.”  He included a statement from the “ingenious” chemist responsible for the liniment and noted that he provided printed directions “for its particular use.”  When it came to advertising Baron Van Haake’s composition for treating soil, Smith applied marketing strategies already familiar from the patent medicines that he sold.

November 9

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (November 9, 1774).

“Dr. Hill’s own direction is wrapped about each bottle.”

In the fall of 1774, William Young and his associates offered consumers exclusive access to “Dr. Hill’s AMERICAN BALSAM.”  According to an advertisement in the November 9 edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, this patent medicine “is an infallible, innocent, sure and effectual” cure for “coughs, colds, [and] swimming in the head” as well as a “very admirable remedy for children in the whooping cough, and in most all their disorders.”  Young implied that such recommendations may not have been necessary since the “virtue and goodness” of the medicine “are now so well known in America,” yet figured that trumpeting the efficacy of Dr. Hill’s American Balsam would aid in convincing consumers not yet familiar with this product.

As a means of guarding the reputation of this medicine and “to prevent counterfeiting,” a limited number of local agents stocked and sold this medicine.  Young made it available in Kingsess (or Kingsessing), just outside of Philadelphia.  William Sitgreaves, a merchant in Philadelphia, Christoper Sower, a printer in Germantown, and Ludwig Lauman, a merchant in Lancaster, each sold it as well.  Young also distributed Dr. Hill’s American Balsam to Michael Hoffman, a shopkeeper in New York, to sell there.  He had relied on that method for some time, having placed similar advertisement in May and October 1772.  Unlike some popular patent medicines widely stocked by apothecaries, merchants, shopkeepers, printers, booksellers, and other retailers throughout the colonies, only a select few carried Dr. Hill’s American Balsam.  The medicine came with “Dr. Hill’s own direction … wrapped about each bottle” to instruct patients how to use it to relieve or even cure “the most painful rheumatism, cholic, consumption,” and other maladies.  Such packaging represented another layer of marketing for this product, continuing to promote it to customers after they purchased it and took it home.

Young apparently considered these various strategies effective given that he invested in them on several occasions.  His marketing of Dr. Hill’s American Balsam incorporated the same elements in November 1774 that he deployed two and a half years earlier in May 1772.  That does not demonstrate the impact those methods had on consumers yet does suggest that Young considered them successful enough to repeat when he advertised once again.

October 14

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

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

Connecticut Journal (October 14, 1774).

“The directions for taking the above [medicines], may be seen at the Printing Office.”

Colonial printers not only disseminated advertisements for patent medicines but also sold them to supplement the revenues from the other goods and services they offered at their printing offices.  In some instances, printers cooperated with others in advertising and selling patent medicines.  That seems to have been the case with Thomas Green and Samuel Green, printers of the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy, and Eleazer Oswald in the fall of 1774.  Oswald advertised a “few Boxes of OGDEN’s Antidysenteric Pills, For the Cure of the BLOODY-FLUX, And a few Bottles of WEED’S Syrup, with Powders” in the October 14 edition of the Connecticut Journal.  For those unfamiliar with these nostrums, he explained, “These are excellent medicines for the disorder now prevalent in town, as Ogden’s Pills, when properly administered, have never failed effecting a cure, even in the most desperate Fluxes; nor have Weed’s Syrup and Powder been attended with less success.”  As further evidence, Oswald suggested that prospective customers could examine the directions for the patent medicines at the printing office.

Oswald did not mention his affiliation with the Greens, nor did he give a separate address where customers could purchase the medicines.  In a town the size of New Haven, local readers did not always need advertisers to list their addresses.  In this instance, doing so might have been unnecessary if Oswald worked in the printing office and the community knew that without him stating it in the advertisement.  He apparently spent some time in New Haven in addition to seeking opportunities in other towns.  Born in England, Oswald migrated to the colonies in the early 1770s.  He served as an apprentice to John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal.  In 1779, he entered a partnership with William Goddard in printing the Maryland Journal in Baltimore.  In 1782, he established his own newspaper, the Independent Gazetteer, in Philadelphia.  In the time between his apprenticeship with Holt and his partnership with Goddard, Oswald formed some sort of relationship with the Greens.  He may have worked in their printing office, selling patent medicines as a side hustle, or he may have been a tenant.  Either way, his advertisement for Ogden’s pills and Weed’s syrup and powders had the potential to increase traffic in the printing office, making it an even more bustling hub of activity as colonizers exchanged goods and information.

May 17

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

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

Pennsylvania Packet (May 14, 1772).

“Enquire only for Dr Hill’s American Balsam.”

Advertisements for patent medicines frequently appeared in early American newspapers.  In the spring of 1772, William Young took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Journal to promote “Dr. HILL’s AMERICAN BALSAM, LATELY imported from London.”  For those unfamiliar with this remedy, Young explained that “Experience has fully testified, that by the proper use of this excellent medicine, great numbers of people in America have been relieved in the consumption, gravel [or kidney stones] and rheumatic pains.”  In addition, it helped with colds, coughs, and “swimmings in the head.”

Many consumers may have been more familiar with popular patent medicines commonly sold by apothecaries, merchants, shopkeepers, and even printers and booksellers.  Newspaper advertisements suggest that colonizers could easily acquire Bateman’s Drops, Godfrey’s Cordial, Hooper’s Pills, Turlington’s Balsam, and a variety of other patent medicines in shops from New England to Georgia.  Hill’s American Balsam, in contrast, was not as readily available.  Instead, a small number of sellers in the colonies exclusively handled the distribution, including merchants in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, North Carolina; shopkeepers in New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania; a printer in Germantown, Pennsylvania; and a goldsmith in Wilmington, Delaware.  Young proclaimed that consumers would find this patent medicine “no where else.”

Such exclusivity had the potential to lead to confusion or even counterfeits.  In a nota bene, Young warned that “People, in buying this so highly esteemed medicine, should be careful not to get a wrong one and be deceived.”  To prevent that from happening, he gave instructions “to enquire only for Dr. Hill’s American Balsam.”  Consumers could confirm that they obtained the correct product by looking for Hill’s “direction wraped about each bottle.”  Printed materials played an important role in marketing this patent medicine, via the advertisements that appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal and via the ancillary materials that accompanied each bottle of Dr. Hill’s American Balsam.

December 6

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

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

Dec 6 - 12:6:1768 South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 6, 1768).

“A List of the Person’s Names may be seen affixed to the Directions.”

According to their advertisements, eighteenth-century printers and booksellers often carried at least some merchandise not related to the book trades. Throughout much of 1768 Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, attempted to supplement the revenues gained from subscriptions, advertisements, and job printing by also selling a patent medicine he imported from Long Island, New York, “EDWARD JOYCE’s famous GREAT American BALSAM.” He placed lengthy advertisements about this patent medicine in the summer; as winter arrived, he inserted shorter notices to remind readers that they could purchase this elixir “at his Printing Office in Elliott-street.”

In case prospective customers suspected that Crouch sought to clear out leftovers that had been sitting on the shelves for several months, he proclaimed that he had “A FRESH SUPPLY.” That was only the first of several appeals he made in the abbreviated version of his advertisement. He also offered a bargain, pledging that customers could acquire the nostrum for “Five Shillings cheaper than any yet sold here.”

The price did not matter, however, if the patent medicine was not effective. Crouch assured consumers that “EDWARD JOYCE’s famous GREAT American BALSAM” was “superior by Trial, for its Use and Efficacy, to any imported from Europe.” Readers did not even need to consider any of those more familiar remedies produced in London and other places on the far side of the Atlantic, not when they had access to a product produced in the colonies that was even better. Crouch did not expect prospective customers to simply take his word that others had found the potion “superior by Trial.” Instead, he reported on “surprising Cures” in both New York and South Carolina, stating that “a List of the Person’s Names may be seen affixed to the Directions.” Even if local customers did not recognize the names of any of the patients cured in New York, they were likely to be familiar with colonists from South Carolina who had benefited from “this very famous BALSAM.” In providing directions that also listed satisfied customers, Crouch deployed printed materials beyond newspaper advertising to market this patent medicine to consumers.