What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston Evening-Post (April 24, 1775).
“They shall desist publishing their Papers after this Day, till Matters are in a more settled State.”
The printers and the public did not know it yet, but the April 24, 1775, edition of the Boston Evening-Post would be the last issue of that newspaper. Thomas Fleet established the newspaper in August 1735. His sons, Thomas and John, continued publishing the Boston Evening-Post after their father’s death in 1758. They even disseminated issues while the Stamp Act was in effect from November 1765 through May 1766, though they did not include their names in the colophon. The events at Lexington and Concord, however, were too much of a disruption to continue. The Fleets initially intended to suspend the newspaper and continue publication at some point in the future. The April 24 issue included only three advertisements, the first one from the printers to “inform the Town that they shall desist publishing their Papers after this Day, till Matters are in a more settled State.” A newspaper that had served Boston for just shy of forty years ended with “NUMB. 2065.”
By that time, Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, had already published the final issue of that newspaper in Boston on April 6 and headed to Worcester. He revived it as the Massachusetts Spy: Or, American Oracle of Liberty in early May. Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks distributed the last known issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on April 17. The April 20 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter was the last for a month. Margaret Draper and John Boyle resumed publication of that newspaper on May 19, though they published issues sporadically for the next several months before turning the newspaper over to John Howe. The February 29, 1776, edition may have been the last; it is the last known issue. Benjamin Edes and John Gill suspended the Boston-Gazette with the April 17, 1775, edition. Edes went to Watertown and resumed publication there on June 5. He remained in Watertown until the end of October 1776. At that time, he returned to Boston and continued publication in November. His sons became partners in 1779. The Boston-Gazette did not close until September 1798.
At the beginning of April 1775, five newspapers served Boston, yet the beginning of the Revolutionary War in nearby Lexington and Concord on April 19 had a dramatic impact on those newspapers. Two folded immediately, even though they hoped to resume when “Matters are in a more settled state.” One suspended publication for a month and then limped along for less than a year. Another relocated to Worcester and experienced success there. Only the Boston-Gazette survived the war and resumed publication in that city. Other newspapers eventually filled the void, commencing publication during the war, but for some time the town that long had more newspapers than any other in the colonies adapted to new circumstances that limited publication of news (and advertisements).
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this month?
Massachusetts Spy (August 25, 1774).
“Suspend the Publication of the Magazine for a few Months.”
For more than a year, the Adverts 250 Project has traced Isaiah Thomas’s advertising campaign for the Royal American Magazine, from his first announcement that he intended to circulate subscription proposals in May 1773 through the notices that ran in newspapers in June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 1773 and January, February, March, April,May, and June 1774. Last month, I noted that Thomas did not advertise the magazine in July 1774, that the sole marketing effort in the public prints was a poem “From the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE” that appeared in the “POETS CORNER” in the July 21, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Spy, the newspaper that Thomas printed. I also commented that newspaper advertisements do not reveal when the June 1774 issue of the magazine became available to readers.
Further investigation, however, reveals that newspaper advertisements do indeed provide that information. The June 1774 issue of the Royal American Magazine was not published until August 1774. Eighteenth-century magazines commonly came out at the end of the month, unlike modern magazines issued in advance of the dates on their covers. Subscribers would have expected the June issue in late June or early July, but Thomas was more than a month late in distributing it. He had perpetually been behind the anticipated publication schedule since the first issue.
On Thursday, August 4, the Massachusetts Spy carried a notice that “Saturday next will be published … NUMBER VI. of THE ROYAL American Magazine.” To promote that issue, Thomas proclaimed that it would be “Embellished with elegant Engravings, I. The able Doctor, or America swallowing the bitter Draught. II. The Hooded Serpent.” Paul Revere produced both engravings. The “Able Doctor,” depicting America personified as an Indigenous woman being held down by members of Parliament and forced to drink tea, protested the Boston Port Act. It is now considered one of the most important examples of visual propaganda supporting the patriot cause produced during the imperial crisis.
By Monday, Thomas took the overdue issue to press. The August 8 edition carried a nearly identical advertisement with the headline updated to “THIS DAY PUBLISHED.” On August 11, an announcement received a prominent place in the Massachusetts Spy, running as the first item in the first column on the first page. Although delinquent in publishing the June issue, Thomas privileged promoting it when he could finally declare, “This day was published … NUMBER VI. of THE ROYAL American Magazine.” As he had done with previous issues, Thomas highlighted the engravings and provided a list of the contents to entice readers who were not already subscribers to purchase copies. The articles included a “Description of the Hooded Serpent” to accompany the second engraving.
The June issue included an address “To the PUBLIC” in which Thomas informed “all those Gentlemen and Ladies, in this and the other Provinces, who have favoured him with their Subscriptions” that current events forced him to suspend publication of the magazine. “The Distresses of the Town of Boston, by the shutting up of our Port,” Parliament’s response to the Boston Tea Party, had “throw[n] all Ranks of Men into Confusion,” including “those good Gentlemen … who kindly promised to assist the Editor with their various Lucrubrations.” Thomas had regularly published advertisements seeking original content for the magazine, but now those who had volunteered to contribute had found themselves overcome by other priorities. As a result, Thomas received “but few original Pieces.” He could not provide readers with “that Entertainment and Instruction, which they have a Right to expect.” Accordingly, he planned to suspend publication for a few months “until the Affairs of this Country are a little better settled” and his correspondents could once again turn their attention to supplying the magazine with content.
Not long after subscribers saw that notice in the June issue of the American Royal Magazine, Thomas took to the Massachusetts Spy with a new update on August 25. He reported that “a Number of Gentlemen have desired that it may not be suspended.” Not in a position to continue with the magazine at that time, Thomas “agreed with Mr. JOSEPH GREENLEAF, to carry on the Publication.” He assured subscribers that the new publisher “will continue it to general satisfaction.” He also instructed them to submit subscription fees for the first six issues to Greenleaf. A notice from Greenleaf “To the PUBLIC, and in particular to the Subscribers for the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE” immediately followed. He pledged to make the magazine “as entertaining and instructive as possible,” yet, like Thomas, needed the “Assistance of the learned and judicious in this and the neighbouring colonies.” He was on track to make good on his promise to subscribers, declaring that the next issue “is now in the Press, and will be published without Delay.” In addition, subscribers “may depend upon having the future Numbers published in good Season,” implicitly acknowledging that publication of previous issues had often been deferred longer than anticipated. The new publisher concluded with a request that current subscriber continue and new subscribers “add their Names,” either at his printing office or with any other printers in Boston.
The suspension could have been the end of the Royal American Magazine, but Greenleaf managed to publish new issues through February 1775. The Adverts 250 Project will continue to document advertisements for the magazine to compare Greenleaf’s marketing efforts to those of Thomas.
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“Saturday next will be published … NUMBER VI.”
August 4 – Massachusetts Spy (first appearance)
“THIS DAY PUBLISHED … NUMBER VI.”
August 8 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
August 15 – Boston Evening-Post (second appearance)
“This day was published … NUMBER VI.” [with list of contents]
August 11 – Massachusetts Spy (first appearance)
“To the Subscribers of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE”
August 25 – Massachusetts Spy (first appearance)
“To the PUBLIC, and in particular to the Subscribers”
