Providence Gazette

September 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (August 31, 1776).

“At the Sign of the Sugar-Loaf, the third House Northward of the Church in Providence.”

As fall approached in 1776, Melzar Packard took to the pages of the Providence Gazette to inform the public that he sold “West-India and N. England run, brandy, loaf and brown sugar, rice, flour, salt, pepper, allspice, and sundry other articles in the grocery way.”  He also stocked “an assortment of stone and earthen ware,” selling it all “at the cheapest rates.”

Some readers may have been familiar with Packard’s shop “At the Sign of the Sugar-Loaf.”  To help prospective customers find it, he gave additional directions: “the third House Northward of the Church in Providence.”  No American city or town used standardized street numbers in the 1770s.  The largest cities, Philadelphia and New York, would introduce them by the end of the century.  Until they became common, some entrepreneurs used signs to mark their locations and even more gave directions of some sort.  Like Packard, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, did both.  At the end of each issue, the colophon indicated that customers could find the printing office “at Shakespear’sHead, in Meeting-Street, near the Court-House.”  Most advertisers relied solely on giving directions, often invoking local landmarks.  In the August 31, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette, for instance, Nathaniel Greene advertised merchandise available “At his Store on the West Side of the Great Bridge.”  Similarly, Charles Dabney hawked an array of textiles and other wares “At his Shop, a little to the Westward of the Great Bridge.”  Welcome Arnold sold groceries, housewares, and hardware “Near the new Baptist Meeting-House.”  When patients needed the services of Mary Bass, a midwife, they could find her “at Dr. Thomas Truman’s, in Broadstreet.”  Residents and visitors devised ways for navigating Providence (and other American cities and towns) before assigning street numbers became standard practice.  Sometimes they used signs to mark their location, but other times their directions only took customers to the general vicinity.

August 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (August 24, 1776).

“A male CHILD, about 5 Months old, was taken from the House of Susannah Reiley.”

Early American newspapers did not usually carry a lot of local news.  Printers devoted much more space to news received from distant places, whether elsewhere along the Atlantic coast or across the ocean.  After all, most newspapers came out just once a week.  Some local news was old news before it could appear in print because it already spread via word of mouth.  Consider the August 24, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette.  News from London filled the first page, followed by news from Williamsburg, Philadelphia, and New York on the second page.  News from Providence ran on the third page, alongside advertisements.  Paid notices filled most of the final page.

Yet those advertisements delivered all sorts of local news that readers wished to disseminate to the public.  For a fee, they purchased space and served as editor when it came to determining what would appear in that space.  Two advertisements described soldiers that deserted from their regiments.  That had become a common enough occurrence that John Carter, the printer, did not necessarily consider it news that he would select to publish, especially not when he could generate revenue by printing it as an advertisement, but the advertisers and readers considered the information newsworthy.

Another advertisement delivered news of a crime that recently occurred in Johnston, a town just west of Providence.  On July 18, “a male CHILD, about 5 Months old, was taken from the House of Susannah Reiley, while she was gone to bring a Pail of Water from a Spring.”  Reiley had not been negligent.  The spring was only fifteen rods (about 250 feet) from her house, but she was away and out of sight long enough that someone kidnapped the baby.  The advertisement did not describe the search undertaken nor other subsequent events.  Instead, it provided what amounted to a headline summary.  With the fate of the child unknown, residents of Johnston issued a plea for “any Intelligence of said Child,” including “if living or dead.”  The advertisement delivered local news and likely spurred conversations and speculation about what had happened.

July 27

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

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

Providence Gazette (July 27, 1776).

“Certificates signed by the Gentlemen of the Faculty, whose Veracity will not be questioned, she can make appear.”

Mary Bass, a midwife, provided important services to the women of Providence and their families during the era of the American Revolution.  She took to the pages of the July 27, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette to announce that she “now resides at Dr. Thomas Truman’s, in Broadstreet, where any Person requiring her Assistance may apply.”  She likely hoped that an affiliation with Truman, who had been practicing medicine in Providence for several years, would double as an endorsement or a recommendation.

She did not, however, rely on Truman’s reputation alone in her efforts to convince prospective patients that she provided competent medical care.  Bass asserted that she “has studied under the Direction of some of the most eminent Professors in New England.”  In addition to that training, she “since practised with Success” on her own, yet neither prospective patients nor the public had to rely solely on her word about her experience as a midwife.  Instead, she possessed “Certificates signed by Gentlemen of the Faculty, whose Veracity will not be question,” that she could “make appear” on request.  The combination of training and experience prepared her to provide medical care to pregnant women and their infants.  Bass confidently stated that she “doubts not of giving Satisfaction to those who may employ her.”

Bass was not the only woman her made note of certificates that affirmed her skill, training, and experience when advertising her services as a midwife.  When Mrs. Grant arrived in Charleston in 1768, she declared that she “studied that Art regularly, and practised it afterwards with success in EDINBURGH.”  To that end, she “can produce” certificates “from the Gentlemen whose Lectures she attended, and likewise from the Professors of Anatomy and Practice of Physic in that City.”  Whether or not anyone ever asked to see these certificates, both Bass and Grant made clear that they could present their credentials to prospective patients who wanted to confirm their qualifications as midwives.

July 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (July 13, 1776).

“[Advertisements omitted will be in our next.]”

The July 13, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette included a note from the printer, John Carter, that “[Advertisements omitted will be in our next.]”  Even though some advertisements received in the printing office “at Shakespear’s Head, in Meeting-Street,” did not make it into print in that issue, it still carried a significant number of paid notices.  Carter devoted the entire fourth page to advertising as well as the final column of the third page.  That meant that advertising accounted for four out of twelve columns or one-third of the content of that issue.

What prevented Carter from inserting certain advertisements?  Acquiring a copy of the Declaration of Independence and printing it for his subscribers and other readers likely played a part.  Consider where the Declaration of Independence and the note from the printer appeared within the July 13 issue.  Both ran on the third page, the last page for which the compositor set type.  Like other newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution, the Providence Gazetteconsisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and folding it in half.  Printers produced both pages on one side, let the broadsheets dry, and then printed the other two pages on the other side.  In most printing offices, that meant taking the first and fourth pages to press first and later printing the second and third pages.

Carter wedged the note that advertisements that did not appear in the July 13 edition would appear in the next issue into the last column on the third page, placing it at the very bottom after squeezing in as many advertisements as possible.  The Declaration of Independence started near the top of the first column and filled most of the second column as well.  It did not, however, start at the top of the column.  Carter concluded a news update from New York.  He also included a short introduction: “The following Declaration of the General Congress was Yesterday received from Philadelphia.”  That further suggests that he set type for the momentous document as soon as he received it and inserted it into the July 13 edition where it would fit.  Doing so displaced some of the advertisements he intended to print before a copy of the Declaration of Independence came to hand.

June 29

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

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

Providence Gazette (June 29, 1776).

“The Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories.”

Robert Newell undertook “all Kinds of Clothier’s Work … at his very convenient Works, near the Mill Bridge, in Providence.”  In an advertisement in the June 29, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette, he informed the public that “every Branch of the Clothier’s Business is performed in great Perfection” when customers entrusted him their instructions for treating textiles.  For instance, he “dyes all Sorts of Colours, and dresses all Kinds of Cloth, in the neatest and best Manner.”  In addition, he “also dyes Cotton and Linen Yarn a fine Blue, and at a very short Notice.”  Newell made skill and quality centerpieces of his appeals to the public, yet he also emphasized price and customer service.  He declared that he “engaged punctually and faithfully to do” the work delivered to his “convenient Works,” pledging that “[t]hose who favour him with their Custom, may depend on having their Directions faithfully observed, and their Work done to Satisfaction, and at reasonable Rates.”

Artisans and others regularly made all those appeals in their newspaper advertisements.  Newell added one more that he believed would resonate with the public as they contemplated current events, especially the war and calls for the colonies to declare independence rather than seek redress of grievances within the British imperial system.  The clothier opened his notice with a pronouncement with wording that echoed the resolutions made by provincial congresses that appeared elsewhere in the public prints.  “WHEREAS the Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories,” Newell asserted, “upon this Principle the Subscriber requests the Favours of his former Customers, and the Public in general, in supplying him with all Kinds of Clothier’s Work.”  Beyond all his appeals concerning quality and customer service, Newell claimed that residents of Providence and other towns in the area had a civic duty to employ him if they wished for their country to prosper and thrive.  He deployed language similar to the eighth article of the Continental Association devised by the Second Continental Congress and adopted throughout the colonies: “we will, in our Several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The decisions that colonizers made in the marketplace, as producers and as consumers, had political implications.  The Second Continental Congress made that clear.  Newell endorsed that position and sought to use it to his own advantage to attract customers for his “Clothier’s Business.”

June 15

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

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

Providence Gazette (June 15, 1776).

“Palmer and Allen … are determined to dispose of many articles at prime cost.”

In the summer of 1776, Palmer and Allen sold a “Quantity of dry goods” and various spices at “the Shop lately occupied by Mr. Charles Dabney, near the East End of the Great Bridge, … in Providence.”  They ran an advertisement in the June 15 edition of the Providence Gazette, announcing that they “Just opened” and made the selection available to consumers. To entice prospective customers, Palmer and Allen provided a lengthy list of dozens of items, including “superfine and middling priced broadcloths, … a quantity of blankets, … Barcelona and other silk handkerchiefs, … buckskin breeches, … silk and worsted knee straps, … mens and womens stockings, … blond and thread laces, … jack and pen knives, … womens white metal thimbles, … brass ink pots, … steel tobacco boxes, [and] a quantity of very beautiful enamelled and cream coloured ware.”  Spices and other groceries on hand included pepper, allspice, tamarind, coffee, and “choice cocoa.”  With such a lengthy list, Palmer and Allen provided a catalog of their merchandise.

In a nota bene at the end of the advertisement, the partners indicated that they wished to liquidate their inventory as quickly as possible.  “Said Palmer and Allen being desirous to sell their goods speedily,” they informed readers, “are determined to dispose of many articles at prime cost, and the remainder for a very small profit.”  By “prime cost,” they meant the direct cost to them as shopkeepers.  In other words, Palmer and Allen claimed that they did not intend to charge any sort of retail markup for many of their wares, though they did not specify which of them customers could acquire at such a bargain.  For the rest, they generated only a “small profit” with a small retail markup.  Customers could not go wrong when they shopped at Palmer and Allen’s new store!  The savvy entrepreneurs hoped that their pricing would attract consumers, especially those who imagined getting extraordinary deals.  For some prospective customers, bargain prices may have transformed “wants” into “needs” as they envisioned themselves getting the better end of the deal when they made purchases from Palmer and Allen.

May 18

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

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

Providence Gazette (May 18, 1776).

“ONCE MORE!”

Levi Hall and John Foster wanted the headline for their advertisement in the May 18, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette to catch the attention of readers.  Every advertiser certainly wanted their notice to reach the public, but crafting a catchy headline was not a standard practice in the eighteenth century.  Some advertisements did not have headlines at all.  Others gave a generic summary of the purpose of the notice, such as “WANTED,” “FOUND,” and “TO BE SOLD.”  Some named items offered for sale, like “WRITING PAPER,” and others gave the name of the advertiser, including “NATHANIEL GREENE,” “CLARK and NIGHTGALE,” and “ELIHU ROBINSON, Hatter.”  John Sebring, the “saddler and Cap-Maker, from London,” once again deployed his mononym, “SEBRING,” as the headline for an advertisement.  Weel after week, similar headlines for paid notices appeared in the Providence Gazette.

That made “ONCE MORE!” stand out.  Its distinctiveness may have enticed readers to look more closely at the rest of the advertisement.  When they did, they learned that Hall and Metcalf called on those “indebted to the late Company of HALL and METCALF … to pay their respective Debts.”  Hall placed the notice as the “surviving Partner of said Company,” while Foster did so as the “Attorney to Desire Metcalf, Executrix to Nathaniel Metcalf, deceased.”  Tyey reported that a “Settlement of the Company’s Affairs [was] immediately demanded,” warning that “those who neglect this last friendly Notice, must expect to be sued, without Distinction.”  In other words, neither social status nor customer loyalty nor any other factor would prevent Hall and Foster from taking to court those who refused to settle accounts.  Hall and Metcalf’s widow had placed a similar advertisement nearly a year earlier on July 29, 1775, so it was not the first time that such a notice appeared in the Providence Gazette, but it would be the last, especially considering that an attorney rather Desire Metcalf signed the notice.  “ONCE MORE!” signaled some frustration, even though Hall and Foster asked readers to think of the advertisement as a “friendly Notice.”  The headline underscored that they were running out of patience.

In both advertisements, Hall, the “surviving Partner,” added a nota bene to inform the public that he “continues to sell the best dressed Leather of all kinds” and made “Leather Breeches, at the most reasonable Rates, and on very short Notice.”  Although the partnership had been dissolved upon the death of Metcalf, Hall continued the business “at the Sign of the Buck, opposite the Church,” hoping that years of experience serving the residents of Providence would help him gain and maintain his clientele.

April 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (April 27, 1776).

“He is persuaded that none of his Readers will think him unreasonable in adding a Shilling to the Price per Year.”

The first advertisement in the April 27, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette featured news for subscribers.  John Carter, the printer, informed them of an imminent price increase.  His own expenses had gone up in the year since the war began at Lexington and Concord.  “THE increased Price of Paper (the chief Article of a Printer’s Stock) and of almost every Necessary of Life, has been so great,” he explained, “that it must have naturally fallen within the Notice of every Reader of this Gazette.”  Given the circumstances that Carter believed honest readers acknowledged, he was “thereforecompelled to acquaint his Customers, that the Price thereof in future will be Eight Shillings per Annum.”

He emphasized that the situation “compelled” him to take this action rather than doing so willingly or eagerly.  Carter also noted that other printers had recently done the same, so he was not alone in seeking such a remedy to his financial woes.  “He likewise begs leave to inform [subscribers],” the printer stated, “that for the same Reason the Price of the Cambridge Paper,” the New-England Chronicle, “has been raised to Eight Shillings” and “the Philadelphia Evening-Post to Two Dollars.”  (Carter meant the Pennsylvania Evening Post.)  In addition, John Dunlap had recently advertised a price increase from ten to fifteen shillings for Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; or, the Baltimore General Advertiser.  In consideration of those recent precedents, Carter was “persuaded that none of his Readers will think him unreasonable in adding a Shilling to the Price per Year, which is not quite a Farthing on each Gazette” or each issue of the newspaper.[1]

The printer pledged to honor the previous price for current subscribers “till the Year, or other Time for which each Subscriber contracted, shall be expired.”  Once their current year (or other amount of time previously agreed between printer and subscriber) came to an end, the new price went into effect.  Those who did not wish to continue their subscriptions “at the Price above mentioned, … are requested to give Notice to the Printer.”  Carter understood that money was also tight for his subscribers, but he hoped that they would accept a small increase in the annual subscription fee in order to continue receiving the news (about the war, politics, and other matters), editorials, advertisements, and other content he published and disseminated each week.

**********

[1] A farthing was worth one-quarter of a penny.  Carter published the Providence Gazette weekly.  An additional farthing for fifty-two issues amounted to thirteen pence … or one shilling and one penny.  Carter raised the price by only one shilling, so indeed “not quite a Farthing” for each issue.

April 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (April 20, 1776).

“Rasins by the Cask, Cocoa, Coffee, Chocolate, [and] Cinnamon.”

In the spring of 1776, the partnership of Clark and Nightingale advertised a variety of commodities available “At their Store in Providence, by Wholesale and Retail.”  Their inventory included “Muscovado Sugar, Rasins by the Cask, Cocoa, Coffee, Chocolate, [and] Cinnamon.”  Among the beverages they listed, tea was conspicuously absent.  That popular beverage had been so thoroughly politicized that it disappeared from newspaper advertisements.

Does this explain the rise of coffee as the more popular beverage in America?  Historian Michelle Craig McDonald, author of Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States, cautions that we should not be too hasty in reaching that conclusion.  Yes, the Tea Act angered colonizers to the point that members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Indigenous Americans dumped tea into Boston Harbor in December 1773 and residents of cities and towns throughout the colonies gathered for the ritual destruction of their own tea in bonfires.  That could have been the opening for coffee to eclipse tea in popularity.  For a time, coffee did become a substitute for tea.  McDonald relays a story of an innkeeper refusing to serve tea to John Adams but instead offering him coffee in July 1774.[1]  Yet she also cautions, as she did in a presentation at the American Antiquarian Society, that coffee eventually became a prohibited item enumerated in nonimportation agreements.  The first article of the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress that went into effect on December 1, 1774, specified that the colonizers “will not import into British America … any Molosses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee, or Pimenta, from the British Plantations” in the Caribbean.  McDonald asserts that “by 1775, coffee had become a political liability in its own right.”[2]

Yet coffee, unlike tea, did not disappear from newspapers advertisements.  It seemingly did not have the same political valence as tea.  In addition, as McDonald explains, “privateering stepped into the breach” by the time Clark and Nightingale advertised that they sold coffee.[3]  Loopholes allowed colonizers to enjoy the beverage.  In general, consumers never completely abstained from consuming tea or coffee.  Too much evidence demonstrates that they continued to drink both beverages even though they pretended otherwise.  Yet the notoriety associated with tea meant that it stopped appearing alongside coffee in advertisements.  Despite the boycott, readers still saw coffee listed alongside other commodities.

**********

[1] Michelle Criag McDonald, Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025),115.

[2] Coffee Nation, 115.

[3] Coffee Nation, 117.

March 23

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

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

Providence Gazette (March 23, 1776).

“No advantage is meant to be taken.”

As spring approached in 1776, James Green took to the pages of the Providence Gazette to advertise “GARDEN-SEEDS” that he sold “At his little Shop.”  He had done so in recent years, though the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress that went into effect on December 1, 1774, and the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, seemingly had an impact on his business.  He previously promoted a “Fresh Assortment of Garden Seed, just imported in the last Ships from London,” in the spring of 1773 and a “Fresh Assortment of Garden Seeds, imported from London …, warranted to be all of the last Year’s Produce,” in the spring of 1774.  In 1776, on the other hand, he stocked some seeds that he described as “English, the Growth of the Season before last,” meaning that they arrived before the Continental Association went into effect.  This time around he also had seeds for a variety of “American Produce,” adapting his business to the changing times.

As was often the case, Green took the opportunity to hawk other merchandise, including “a few articles of English goods,” presumably imported more than a year earlier, “a small assortment of glass, stone and earthen ware,” and “loaf and brown sugar, coffee, chocolate, indico, rice, [and] flour.”  Tea was conspicuously missing from the list of groceries that Green stocked.  The shopkeeper did not merely list his wares.  He also assured prospective customers his merchandise “will be sold at as cheap a rate as the times will afford.”  In other words, he set reasonable prices, yet he acknowledged that the nonimportation agreement and the war resulted in higher prices.  Still, he sought to avoid suspicion that he engaged in price gouging: “No advantage is meant to be taken.”  In making that statement, he echoed the ninth article of the Continental Association.  It dictated that “such as are Venders of Goods or Merchandise will not take Advantage of the Scarcity of Goods that may be occasioned” by this agreement.  Green wanted the entire community to know that he dealt fairly with his customers.