Providence Gazette

April 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (April 30, 1774).

“They desire their old Customers and others to call at their Shop.”

In the spring of 1774, Thurber and Cahoon advertised a “Variety of English and India GOODS” available at their shop “at the Sign of the Bunch of Grapes,” a familiar sight in Providence’s North End.  They stocked items “Just imported from London, in the Charlotte, Capt. Rogers.”  Merchants and shopkeepers often provided such information about the origins of their merchandise, allowing consumers to determine for themselves when they received their wares and whether items had been lingering on the shelves or in storerooms.  Thurber and Cahoon, veteran advertisers, first placed this notice in the April 30, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  One of their competitors, Thomas Green, also received a shipment via the Charlotte.  His advertisement for a “large and general Assortment of English and India GOODS” opened with similar copy: “Just imported in the Charlotte, Capt. Rogers, from London.”

Thurber and Cahoon asserted that their new selection was “Suitable to the Season” and “consist[ed] of too many Articles to be enumerated in an Advertisement.”  Merchants and shopkeepers often made such claims, encouraging prospective customers to view the merchandise for themselves.  They promised an array of choices without going into details (and costing a lot more money for purchasing space in the newspaper).  In contrast, “HILL’s ready Money Variety Store” continued running an advertisement that filled an entire column because it “enumerated” so many of the items for sale there, yet the proprietor could not claim that his wares just arrived.  Thurber and Cahoon did spare a couple of lines for textiles, noting that they carried a “compleat Assortment of Calicoes, Chintz, Patches, Hollands, Dowlas, Bengals, Damascus, Gingham, &c.”  The common abbreviation for et cetera suggested even more textiles that Thurber and Cahoon considered “too many” for their advertisement.  They also mentioned several grocery items, including “Melasses, Sugar, Coffee, Tea, [and] Chocolate,” but did not specify when they received those items.  In particular, they did not give specifics about when and how they received their tea, leaving it to prospective customers to determine if they wished to purchase that item even after reading about the politics of tea elsewhere on the same page of that issue of the Providence Gazette.

In a nota bene, Thurber and Cahoon made a final appeal, one intended especially for their existing clientele.  “As they have taken great Pains to get their Assortment suitable to the Season” by acquiring goods consumers wanted or needed for late spring and the summer, the merchants declared, “they desire their old Customers and others to call at their Shop.”  They pledged good customer service, stating that visitors to Sign of the Bunch of Grapes “may depend on being served with Fidelity.”  They could also depend on finding bargains, paying the “lowest Rate” for goods, provided they paid in cash rather than credit.  Thurber and Cahoon incorporated a variety of marketing appeals into an advertisement that occupied a single “square” of space in the Providence Gazette.

April 23

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

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

Providence Gazette (April 23, 1774).

“Subscribers Names may be annexed to the Work.”

When John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, set about publishing a new edition of English Liberties, Or the Free-Born Subject’s Inheritance: Containing Magna Charta, Charta de Foresta, the Statute de Tallagio non Concedendo, the Habeas Corpus Act, and Several Other Statutes, with Comments on Each of Them, he started with subscription proposals.  Early American printers often did not take books directly to press.  Instead, they disseminated proposals that described their intended projects, simultaneously seeking to gauge the market and to incite demand.  In requesting that subscribers reserve their copies in advance, sometimes asking them to pay a deposit, printers determined whether publishing proposed books would be viable ventures and, if so, how many copies to print to avoid producing surplus copies that cut into profits.  Subscription proposals ran as advertisements in newspapers and, for some proposed works, “Subscription-Papers” circulated separately as handbills, broadsides, and pamphlets.

Many printers recruited local agents to assist them in collecting the names of subscribers and how many copies each wished to reserve.  Carter did so with English Liberties.  In an update in the April 23, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, he advised that the book “is now in great Forwardness.”  Most likely much of the type had been set and supplies, such as paper, acquired by the printing office.  Carter instructed the “Gentlemen who have favoured the Printer hereof in promoting Subscriptions … to return [their subscription papers] by the last of May.”  He needed to receive them by that time so “the Subscribers Names may be annexed to the Work.”  That was a popular strategy for inciting demand among prospective customers, promising that their names would appear along with others who also subscribed.  They became part of a community of readers, even if they never met, and, in this instance, a community of citizens committed to those “ENGLISH LIBERTIES” that had been “The free-born Subject’s Inheritance” for generations.  Printers suggested to those who had not yet subscribed that they needed to do so if they wished to be recognized alongside their friends and acquaintances and the most prominent members of their communities who already made a statement about the causes that they supported by subscribing for one or more copies.

Carter deployed other marketing strategies to encourage subscriptions for English Liberties.  He warned that “very few will be printed more than are subscribed for,” so anyone who even had an inkling that they might want a copy should not depend on waiting to purchase the book after it went to press.  In addition, Carter offered a premium: “Those who subscribe for six, to have a seventh gratis.”  Subscribers who purchased multiple copies would receive a free one as a reward.

Carter did indeed insert a list of “SUBSCRIBERS NAMES” at the end of the book.  They appeared in somewhat alphabetical order, with last names starting with “A” coming first, followed by “B,” and so on.  Carter indicated the town for subscribers who did not reside in Providence and, within each letter, clustered subscribers from the same town together.  That made it easier for subscribers to determine which of their neighbors had joined them in supporting the enterprise.  Most were from towns in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, but some subscribed from greater distances, including Robert Johnston of Chester County in Pennsylvania and Thomas Tillyer in Philadelphia.  The roster of subscribers included nearly five hundred names, mostly men, but also Mrs. Elizabeth Belvher of Wrentham, Massachusetts, several lawyers and ministers, and even Darius Sessions, the deputy governor of Rhode Island.  For those who subscribed for multiple copies, Carter listed how many.  A few purchased two or three copies, but more commonly subscribers purchased six, a sign of the effectiveness of the printer’s marketing strategy.

Not all subscription proposals resulted in publishing books.  Printers sometimes learned that they could not generate sufficient demand.  In this case, however, the combination of the subject matter’s relationship to the political climate, widespread distribution of subscription papers to local agents, publishing the names of subscribers, and free copies for those who purchased at least six contributed to the success of the venture, though it had taken more than a year.

April 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (April 16, 1774).

“New-England Rum and Melasses, Claret and Lisbon Wine.”

Joseph Russell and William Russell regularly advertised in the Providence Gazette in the 1760s and 1770s.  In the spring of 1774, the merchants inserted a notice that listed a variety of commodities, including “Jamaica and Barbados Rum, New-England Rum and Melasses, Claret and Lisbon Wine, Coffee, Sugar, Indico, Alspice, large Rock Salt, [and] choice Connecticut Beef and Pork, in Barrels and Half Barrels.”  They did not happen to include tea among their inventory, at least not among the items they enumerated in their newspaper advertisement, even though they frequently stocked it in the past.  Just over a year earlier, they led one of their advertisements with “Excellent Bohea Team, which for Smell and Flavor exceeds almost any ever imported, by the Chest, Hundred, or dozen Pounds.”  Perhaps the crisis around tea – the Boston Tea Party and the efforts of the Sons of Liberty to turn away ships carrying tea in other port cities – convinced them not to advertise that commodity.  As they often did, the Russells concluded with a promise of various “English and Hard-Ware Goods.”

Compared to many of the advertisements they ran in the 1760s, their notices became more restrained in the 1770s.  Their advertisement for the spring of 1774 filled the standard “square,” roughly equivalent in length to most other paid notices in the Providence Gazette.  In contrast, their advertisement in the March 19, 1768, edition listed dozens of items.  The Russells demonstrated that “their assortment is very large” and “customers will have the advantage of a fine choice” with an advertisement that extended more than a column.  On previous occasions, they ran full-page advertisements, including in the November 22, 1766, and November 7, 1767, editions of the Providence Gazette.  Many of their advertisements from the 1760s tended to look like the one for “HILL’s ready Money Variety Store” that appeared in the spring of 1774.  Why did the Russells opt for less elaborate advertisements when facing such competition?  Perhaps they felt secure in their reputation, deciding that shorter notices made customers sufficiently aware of their merchandise.  In 1772, the prominent merchants built “the second brick edifice and the first three-story structure in Providence,” making them and their business even more visible to residents of the growing port.  As their wealth increased and their status reached new heights, the Russells had other means of attracting attention to their enterprise beyond newspaper advertisements, yet they still considered streamlined notices valuable investments in advancing their entrepreneurial activities.

April 9

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

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

Providence Gazette (April 9, 1774).

“… to be sold by the Printer hereof.”

Advertisements filled the final column on the third page and the entire last page of the April 9, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  They generated significant revenue for John Carter, the printer, yet not all the advertisements were paid notices.  Like many other printers, Carter used his newspaper to disseminate his own advertisements.  He inserted five of the notices that appeared in that issue.

Those advertisements related to a variety of aspects of operating Carter’s printing office “at Shakespear’s Head, in Meeting-Street, near the Court-House.”  In one, he called on “ALL Persons indebted for this Gazette one Year, or more” and anyone else indebted to him for other services “to make immediate Payment.”  In another, Carter sought a “trusty and well-behaved Lad, about 13 or 14 Years of Age” as “an Apprentice to the Printing Business.”  Candidates needed to be able to “read well, and write tolerably.”  In yet another, a headline in a larger font than anything else in that issue, even the title of the newspaper in the masthead, proclaimed, “RAGS.”  Carter offered the “best Prices … for clean Linen Rags, of any Kind, and old Sail-Cloth, to supply the PAPER MANUFACTORY in Providence.”  The printer intended to recycle rags into paper that he would then use to publish subsequent editions of the Providence Gazette.

Providence Gazette (April 9, 1774).

Other advertisements promoted items for sale at the printing office.  Most printers also sold books.  A few came from their own presses or other colonial presses, but most were imported from England.  Carter listed several titles for readers with diverse interests, from “PRIESTLY’s Reply to Judge Blackstone, in Vindication of the Dissenters” to “the Fashionable Lover, a new Comedy” to “the Grave, a Poem” to “Fenning’s Spelling-Books.”  An “&c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera) indicated that he stocked many more books, pamphlets, and broadsides.  A shorter advertisement stated, “BLANKS of various Kinds to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Carter printed and sold forms for common legal and commercial transactions.  Even the colophon doubled as an advertisement, informing readers that “all Manner of Printing-Work is performed with Care and Expedition.”

Carter took advantage of his access to the press to tend to the different parts of operating a busy printing office.  While his advertisements did not generate revenue in the same manner as the paid notices placed by merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, estate executors, lottery managers, and others, they supported his business in other ways and some likely resulted in revenue from the sale of books and blanks or the settling of accounts.  Collectively, they gave Carter a very visible presence in the pages of the Providence Gazette.

April 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (April 2, 1774).

“Genteel Boarding, FOR Gentlemen, Strangers and others.”

Thomas Russell provided “Genteel Boarding … at the House lately occupied by Mr. Benjamin Bagnall, deceased, near the State-House” in Boston.  He did not, however, place his advertisement in the Boston-Gazette or the Massachusetts Spyor any of the several other newspapers printed in that city.  Instead, he ran it in the Providence Gazette for six weeks in the spring of 1774.  For “Gentlemen, Strangers and others” who planned to visit Boston, Russell presented an option for accommodations and made planning their journey that much easier.

To convince prospective guests that his establishment was a good choice, he assured readers that the house was “a very noted Place for this Business” as well as “well known to be a large and commodious House.”  For anyone not familiar with its reputation, including those who lived any distance from Boston, they “have only to apply, to be convinced how agreeably they can be accommodated.”  Russell’s hospitality and the amenities he offered, he suggested, would become immediately apparent upon meeting.

Boston and other American towns had not yet adopted standardized street numbers, so Russell provided travelers with general directions to get them to the vicinity of the house and enough information to find it once they spoke with some locals.  Anyone who made their way to the “State-House” could then ask anyone they encountered about Russell’s boarding house, though they might more efficiently find it by invoking Benjamin Bagnall’s name since Russell apparently only recently acquired the property.  Describing the landmark according to local knowledge would get guests to Russell’s door.

In promoting his boarding house, Russell joined entrepreneurs who ran taverns and inns who advertised in newspapers published in other cities.  While they certainly welcomed local custom, they believed that marketing their establishments in publications in other towns would generate additional business.  Russell seemed certain enough of it that he invested in advertising in the Providence Gazette for six weeks rather than starting with the standard three-week run for his advertisement.  With the arrival of spring, he likely anticipated more travelers from Providence and its environs making their way to Boston.  Russell stood ready to provide them with lodgings.

March 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 26, 1774).

“The Sign of the ELEPHANT.”

The advertising campaign for “HILL’s ready Money Variety Store” at the “Sign of the Elephant” in Providence went through stages in the winter and spring of 1774.  An initial advertisement in the January 22 edition of the Providence Gazette promoted a “compleat Assortment of English, Scotch and India GOODS,” listing about a dozen items available at the store.  It also promised “every other Article usually imported, too many to be enumerated in this Week’s Paper.”  That suggested that a portion of the advertisement had been omitted but would appear in a subsequent issue.

The initial advertisement ran for three weeks before a much longer version replaced it on February 12.  That notice almost filled an entire column since it extensively “enumerated” Hill’s inventory, everything from “Scarlet cloths for ladies cloaks” and “New fashioned corded velvets for breeches” to “Mens and boys new fashioned macaroni beaveret and beaver hats” and “Velvet ribbons for hats” to “Looking glasses of all sizes” and “An assortment of toys for children.”  The compositor divided the advertisement into two columns, listing one item per line to make it easier for readers to peruse and identify items of interest.  That advertisement ran for six consecutive weeks.

On March 26, Hill placed a new version.  The inventory remained the same, but it featured a new introduction and, most significantly, a woodcut depicting an elephant.  Hill intensified his effort to associate a logo with his business, presenting readers of the Providence Gazette with an image of an elephant to make his “Variety Store” even more memorable.  Except for the device that appeared in the masthead each week, it was the only image that appeared in that edition of the Providence Gazette.  With the addition of the woodcut, Hill’s advertisement filled an entire column in the newspaper.  Yet the image may have been the more powerful marketing strategy than the list that demonstrated choices for consumers.  By selecting an elephant, Hill emphasized goods, especially textiles, imported from India.  Most likely, none of the colonizers in Providence had ever glimpsed that exotic creature in real life.  Primitive as the woodcut might seem to modern eyes, it may have been one of the few visual depictions of an elephant that readers of the Providence Gazette ever encountered.  The novelty served an importance purpose in Hill’s marketing efforts.

March 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 19, 1774).

“… and many other Articles, as cheap as usual.”

Were advertisements in early American newspapers effective?  Did they work?  Did readers become consumers because advertisements incited demand?  Did consumers select where they would shop because of the advertisements they encountered in the public prints.  There are no easy answers to those questions.

What can be asserted with more certainty is that many merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and others who provided goods and services considered advertising worth the investment, so much so that they placed advertisements for years.  Consider Nicholas Tillinghast and William Holroyd of Providence.  As spring approached in 1774, they once again took to the pages of the Providence Gazette, this time promoting an assortment of “GARDEN SEEDS” as well as a “Variety of English and West India GOODS.”  Perhaps seeing James Green’s advertisement for similar merchandise in the March 5 edition prompted them to insert their own notice in the next edition for fear of losing former and prospective customers to a competitor.

By that time, Tillinghast and Holroyd had been advertising in the Providence Gazette for years.  The Adverts 250 Projecthas not featured every advertisement that they published, but it has examined several of them.  On November 24, 1770, the partners announced that they “newly opened the Shop … at the Sign of the Elephant … where they have to sell a Variety of Articles.”  A year later, they once again hawked “a Variety of well assorted GOODS,” noting that they stocked too many items “to be particularly mentioned in an Advertisement.”  On May 16, 1772, they asserted that they sold a “Variety [of] ARTICLES … at as cheap a Rate as any Goods, of the same Quality, can be purchased in this Town.”  They did not merely announce that they had merchandise for sale.  Instead, Tillinghast and Holroyd repeatedly underscored that they offered choices to consumers and sometimes used prices to encourage prospective customers to choose their store over others.  They did so once again in August 1773 when they directed “their old Customers and the Public” to a new shop “which they have built.”  Their inventory consisted of “English Piece Goods, and Hard Ware of various Sorts, West-India Goods, Groceries and Wines of several Sorts.”  The partners resorted to a familiar refrain: “the Particulars of which would be tedious to enumerate in an Advertisement.”  Instead, they “can be better recounted to any who shall be pleased to make personal Application.”  Tillinghast and Holroyd promised attentive customer service.

Did advertising work?  Tillinghast and Holroyd thought that it worked well enough to justify placing yet another notice in the Providence Gazette in March 1774.  If they suspected that advertising did not yield a return on their investment, would they have continued doing so?

March 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 12, 1774).

“As cheap … as can be bought at any Shop in NEW-ENGLAND.”

Jonathan Russell offered a variety of goods to prospective customers in his advertisement in the March 12, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  The headline promised “New RAISINS.”  A list of other items appeared below the headline, followed by a note about “Different Sorts of early Garden PEASE” and another about a “general and neat Assortment of English and Hard-Ware GOODS.”  Both ran in the same size font as the headline, suggesting that Russell may have instructed the compositor to place greater emphasis on that portion of his inventory.  Although he did not enumerate the “English and Hard-Ware GOODS,” he underscored the choices available to consumers when he asserted that he stocked a “general and neat Assortment.”

Some of the items in the list of goods also attracted attention because they appeared in capital letters.  “Best Rock SALT,” “Choice BRANDY,” “CHOCOLATE,” and “COFFEE” stood out among the “Kippen’s and Tilloch’s Snuff, by the Dozen or single Bottle,” “Lampblack, by the Hundred or single Cask,” “Lynn Shoes, by the Dozen or single Pair,” flour, codfish, and other commodities.  Notably, Russell peddled “CHOCOLATE” and “COFFEE,” but did not mention tea at all. Capitalizing “CHOCOLATE” and “COFFEE” called attention to the fact that tea was absent from his inventory as colonizers continued to debate the politics of consuming that beverage just a few months after the Boston Tea Party.

Russell concluded his advertisement with an appeal to price, claiming that customers could purchase his wares “As cheap … as can be bought at any Shop in NEW-ENGLAND.”  He did not place himself in competition solely with James Green, “HILL’s ready Money Variety Store,” and other merchants and shopkeepers in Providence.  Instead, he declared that his low prices matched those in Newport, Portsmouth, and Boston.  Prospective customers did not need to visit other shops in Providence or send away to merchants and shopkeepers in other towns to get better deals.  Although not as extensive as other advertisements in the same issue of the Providence Gazette, Russell’s notice incorporated consumer choice and competitive prices and even seemed to offer political commentary for those who read carefully.

March 5

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

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

Providence Gazette (March 5, 1774).

“The Advertiser once had a small Sign of a Sugarloaf affixed to his little Shop.”

As spring approached in 1774, advertisements for “GARDEN SEEDS” appeared in newspapers in New England.  John White was the first to advertise in Boston, soon joined by Susanna Renken, Elizabeth Clark, Elizabeth Greenleaf, Elizabeth Nowell, and other women who annually announced they sold seeds in the city’s newspapers.  As Abel Buell hawked firearms in the Connecticut Journal, Nathan Beers promoted “Garden Seeds, Both of English and American Growth.”  In Rhode Island, James Green placed an extensive advertisement for a “Fresh Assortment of Garden Seeds” in the Providence Gazette, as he had done the previous year.  The format distinguished it from other notices, the various types of peas, beans, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, cucumber, and onion clustered together and labeled by category.

Unlike most other seed sellers, Green also marketed all sorts of housewares, garments, and groceries in his advertisement.  That significantly contributed to the length of a notice that extended more than two-thirds of a column.  Green stocked everything from “a neat Assortment of China Cups and Saucers” and “Womens black, red and blue Calimanco Shoes” to “best Four of Mustard” and “Kippen’s Snuff by the Bottle or smaller Quantity.”  Yet that was not all.  He asserted that his inventory included “a Number of other Articles, too many to be confined within the Limits of an Advertisement.”  A newspaper notice could not contain all the choices Green made available to consumers!  The shopkeeper also made an appeal to price, “assur[ing] his Friends and Customers, that his Goods will be sold at a very modest Profit.”  Conversationally, he confided that he “flatters himself that the Smallness of his Shop will be no Objection to Ladies and Gentlemen calling in for a Supply of such Things he has to dispose of.”

All of that was standard for advertisements in newspapers published throughout the colonies.  A final note, however, discussed unusual circumstances that agitated the shopkeeper.  “The Advertiser once had a small Sign of a Sugarloaf affixed to his little Shop,” Green noted.  In marking his location, it “was of signal Service.”  Yet the sign no longer adorned his shop: “unfortunately for him, either by a visible or invisible Hand, it was removed.”  Perhaps bad weather, an “invisible Hand, had carried it away, but if that was not the case, if some prankster had taken it then Green petitioned for its return: “it would be esteemed not only an Act of Justice, but of Kindness, to have it put in Status quo.”  Using an eighteenth-century version of “no questions asked,” he declared that “A Word to the Wise is sufficient.”  If anyone knew what had happened to the sign, he hoped that they would encourage whoever had it to put it back where it belonged.  Green was not interested in the details of where his sign had been or who took it, only its return to its rightful place as the emblem designating his place of business.  The shopkeeper made an aside in his newspaper advertisement to tend to other forms of marketing associated with his shop in Providence.

February 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (February 26, 1774).

“He also attends the Sick as usual, either in Town or Country, upon the shortest Notice, with the greatest Care and Fidelity.”

More than a year after he first positioned himself as the successor to “Doctor SAMUEL CAREW, late of Providence, deceased,” Thomas Truman, “Practitioner of Physic and Surgery,” continued to practice in that town.  As February 1774 came to an end, he once again took to the pages of the Providence Gazette, this time to announce that he “removed” to a new location.  In directing prospective patients to “the House lately occupied by Captain Thomas Munro, opposite Mrs. Carew’s, the upper End of Broad-street, near the Rev. Mr. Snow’s Meeting-House,” he reminded readers of his former affiliation with the deceased doctor.  Mentioning the widow may have jogged the memories of some who had known Truman “during his Apprenticeship with Doctor CAREW.”  When he first sought to establish himself in Providence, Truman faced competition from others who advertised their services as physicians, including Ebenezer Richmond and Daniel Hewes.

Truman’s advertisements may have helped him secure his place.  He expressed “his hearty Thanks to all those who have hitherto employed him … and humbly hopes for the Continuance of their Favours.”  He apparently considered advertising effective enough to justify subsequent investments.  Upon moving to his new location, he advised that he stocked “an Assortment of the very best Medicines, which he is determined to sell as cheap as can be purchased at any Shop in Town.”  Truman realized that for one segment of his business he competed not only with other practitioners but also with apothecaries who compounded medicines and even merchants and shopkeepers who imported patent medicines.  In addition, he “attends the Sick as usual, either in Town or Country, upon the shortest Notice, with the greatest Care and Fidelity.”  Truman wanted readers to remember him when they fell ill.  No matter where they happened to reside, he pledged to provide exemplary care as quickly as possible.  An occasion advertisement in the Providence Gazette enhanced his visibility among prospective patients beyond the reputation he earned through word of mouth.