Rags

June 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 24, 1776).

“FOUR PENCE per pound will be given for the best Sort of good, dry, clean LINEN RAGS.”

Colonial printers regularly inserted advertisements offering cash for rags in their newspapers.  They collected linen rags to supply to paper mills to transform into paper that they could then use to print more newspapers (with more calls for rags) or sell to consumers for other purposes.  Such notices seemed to multiply during the Revolutionary War.  Colonizers already participated in nonimportation agreements that reduced the amount of imported paper and then the war further disrupted trade.  Some printers briefly suspended their newspapers or resorted to smaller sheets amid the disruptions.

Two calls for rags appeared in the June 24, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, just days after similar notices ran in the Freeman’s Journal, published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal, both published in Baltimore, and John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg.  Other newspapers in New England, the Middle Atlantic, and the Chesapeake also carried calls for rags.  In the Lower South, James Johnston published the last known issue of the Georgia Gazette in Savannah on February 7, 1776, and John Wells suspended the South-Carolina and American Gazette from May 31 to August 2, 1776, when the British fleet approached Charleston, leaving the entire region without any newspapers and, as a result, no notices offering cash for rags.

In the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, John Keating ran a short advertisement with a headline that proclaimed, “LINEN RAGS.”  He promised four pence per pound for “the best Sort of good, dry clean LINEN RAGS, and so in Proportion for those of an inferior Quality.”  Many readers likely knew that Keating operated a “Paper Manufactory” since he frequently advertised in the various newspapers published in New York.  On many occasions he went into greater detail in his efforts to encourage the public to assist him in that enterprise by supplying rags from their households.  He depicted doing so as a patriotic duty and a way that everyone, especially women, could demonstrate their political principles.  He was much more constrained in his latest notice.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 24, 1776).

Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, ran an advertisement with identical copy except he substituted his name for Keating’s name.  Gaine likely collected rags to supply to Keating, perhaps receiving a discount on paper in return.  He distinguished his own advertisement with an elaborate border composed of printing ornaments, a line of decorative type that separated the headline from the body of the advertisement, and printing his name in a larger font.  Gaine’s advertisement ran on the first page along with notices for patent medicines that he peddled as an alternate revenue stream.  Immediately below his call for linen rags, the printer informed readers that he “HAS FOR SALE, AMERICAN MANUFACTURED WRITING PAPER, Of Excellent Quality, BY the Quire of Ream,” as well as writing supplies and a variety of other goods.  The rags that he collected might become broadsheets for printing the news or writing paper for letters that carried news that might eventually appear in the public prints.

June 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (June 22, 1776).

“The Book so much admired, entitled COMMON SENSE.”

“CASH given for RAGS.”

Benjamin Dearborn launched the Freeman’s Journal in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on May 25, 1776.  He quickly gained advertisers, including advertisers who offered rewards for capturing and returning enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away and advertisers who offered enslaved people for sale.  An advertisement for a “likely healthy NEGRO MAN, aged about twenty-five,” for instance, made its second appearance on the final page of the June 22 edition.  Like every other newspaper printed in the colonies, the Freeman’s Journal simultaneously perpetuated slavery (of some) and advocated for liberty (for others).

On the first page, Dearborn inserted his own advertisement for Thomas Paine’s popular political pamphlet: “The Book so much admired, entitled COMMON SENSE, may be had at the Printing Office.”  It was the first time that Dearborn offered Common Sense for sale.  Neither he nor any other printer in New Hampshire published a local edition, so he apparently acquired copies from a colleague in another town.  By the end of June, local editions published in New England had proliferated to the point that he could have received the pamphlet from printers in Boston, New Haven, Norwich, Providence, or Salem.  In Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress tasked a committee that included Thomas Jefferson with drafting a statement of independence for the colonies on June 10.  As Jefferson worked on a draft of what would become the Declaration of Independence, Dearborn disseminated the pamphlet that made the boldest and clearest call for separation from Great Britain.

Dearborn also issued a call for rags, offering cash for them at his printing office.  Throughout the colonies, printers of other newspapers were doing the same as they all attempted to gather materials for paper mills to recycle into one of the most essential supplies necessary for publishing newspapers.  Throughout the war, paper shortages had an impact on the dissemination of the news.  Printers sometimes suspended their newspapers for short periods or published them on smaller sheets when that was the only paper available.  Dearborn inserted lines to separate most advertisements from those that appeared above and below, but he did not do so with his notices about Common Sense and rags.   That may have been especially fitting because any rags he collected might have been transformed into paper for printing more copies of Common Sense or, more likely, new issues of the Freeman’s Journal with advertisements for the pamphlet and news about the war and the Continental Congress’s decision to declare independence.  Four weeks after his first advertisement for Common Sense, Dearborn devoted an entire page of the Freeman’s Journal to printing the Declaration of Independence.

May 13

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

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

Postscript to Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (May 13, 1776).

“A large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.”

The colonies experienced a paper shortage when they adopted the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, and then compounded by the disruptions of the war after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord.  Some newspapers skipped or reduced the size of some of their issues.  Printers published notices informing subscribers about the difficulty in acquiring paper.  Stationers also struggled to supply their customers.

In Philadelphia Jospeh Crukshank and James Truman attempted to increase the amount of paper produced locally, but to do so they needed “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into that increasingly scarce commodity.  That meant enlisting the aid of others, far and wide, in collecting rags and sending them to Crukshank or Truman.  A few months earlier, Nathanil Patten, a bookbinder and stationer in Norwich, Connecticut, issued a similar call to “all true Friends to America, [to] exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage” paper production by collecting “Clean Linen Rags.”  There was more on the line, Crukshank and Truman warned, than just the newspapers that kept colonizers updated about current events.  “THE great scarcity of writing and printing papers must make the necessity of saving linen rags obvious to every person,” they declared, “and unless cares is taken of this very necessary article, it will not be in the power of the Paper-makers to furnish a sufficient quantity of writing paper for the use of schools.”  If that happened, then “a large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.”  In addition, it would result in a “great obstruction to business which must arise from the want of paper.”  Education and commerce would both suffer if the colonies did not produce more paper, yet practically everyone could help to avoid that outcome.

That included women as they went about their daily tasks.  “In many parts of Great-Britain,” Crukshank and Truman observed, “it is customary for the women that sew, to have a small bag hanging to their chair.”  That made it easy to collect “the cuttings of linen, even to the smallest shred.”  Even as the colonies contested with Britain over their rights within the empire, Crukshank and Truman suggested that American women should follow a custom common on the other side of the Atlantic.  “If this were generally adopted here,” they asserted, “there is very little doubt but we should have paper enough to serve this province, and probably some to supply our neighbours.”  They were not the first to recruit women during the imperial crisis, making a mundane task resonate with political principles.  When John Keating needed clean linen rags for his “Paper Mill at Peek’s-Kill” in New York in 1773, he proclaimed that he “must humbly address the Fair Sex, requesting their aid, without which it will be impossible for him to establish this manufactory.”  He recommended that women “hang up a bag in some convenient part of the house, and take care to put every piece of linen that is unfit for any other use, in it.”  Every woman who did so, he pledged, “will have the satisfaction of being conscious of contributing her part to the advancement of her country.”  In February 1776, Ebenezer Watson, the printer of the Connecticut Courant, asked “the Ladies, to be very careful of their Rags,” because the local paper manufactory “must fail” without them.  Crukshank and Truman made a similar appeal to women in Philadelphia and its hinterlands, acknowledging that they could play a vital role as both education and commerce were threatened by the shortage of paper.

They also made an appeal to shopkeepers to act as local agents who organized the collection of clean linen rags.  “Persons sending rags” to Crukshank or Truman, they offered, “may generally be supplied with writing paper in proportion to the quantity of rags sent.”  In particular, “store-keepers in the country, who take in rags and send them” would benefit from this system.  Everyone could play a part in this endeavor.  What seemed like a small effort for any one person would have cumulative effects when they all joined together.

April 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 23, 1776).

“THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.”

A year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the landscape of newspapers published throughout the colonies had changed.  Some ceased publication, including most of the newspapers previously printed in Boston and Charleston as well as the only newspaper printed in Georgia.  During that time, one printer also launched a new newspaper.  Samuel Loudon commenced the New York Packet on January 4, 1776.  Printers and others experienced a scarcity of paper because of the war and nonimportation agreements.  That contributed to the suspension or irregular publication of some newspapers.  On April 23, 1776, William Trickett, a stationer in Philadelphia, ran an advertisement offering “THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.”  Readers knew that he planned to recycle that linen into paper.

I periodically provide a census of newspapers consulted for the Adverts 250 Project.  These are the newspapers published throughout the colonies as the Revolutionary War entered its second year.  This list includes only those that have been digitized and made widely accessible.  A couple titles have not survived or have not been digitized, so this list does not reflect every newspaper that circulated in the colonies in late April 1776.

Published on Mondays

  • Boston-Gazette (Watertown, Massachusetts)
  • Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Connecticut)
  • Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Newport Mercury (Newport, Rhode Island)
  • New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (New York, New York)
  • Norwich Packet (Norwich, Connecticut)

Published on Tuesdays

  • Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Published on Wednesdays

  • Connecticut Journal (New Haven, Connecticut)
  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Maryland Journal (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Thursdays

  • Maryland Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland)
  • New-England Chronicle (final issue in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 4; first issue in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 25)
  • New-York Journal (New York, New York)
  • New York Packet (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Fridays

  • Connecticut Gazette (New London, Connecticut)
  • Essex Gazette (Newburyport, Massachusetts)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts)
  • Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Published on Saturdays

  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)
  • Providence Gazette (Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

These American newspapers published in late April 1776 either have not survived or have not been digitized for greater accessibility.

  • Germantowner Zeitung (Germantown, Pennsylvania; few numbers known)
  • North-Carolina Gazette (New Bern, North Carolina; possibly suspended)

February 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (February 5, 1776).

“The Paper-Mill which he has been concerned in erecting … is perhaps the best of the Kind in New-England.”

Ebenezer Watson, the printer of the Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer, briefly suspended publication of that newspaper due to a lack of paper in late December 1775 and early January 1776.  The issue for December 11, “NUMBER 572,” was the last for over a month.  The next known issue had neither a date nor a number in the masthead, but the news from Hartford on the final page bore the date January 15.  The issue for January 22, “NUMB. 574,” had both a date and number in the masthead.  A handwritten note at the bottom of the first page of the December 11 edition digitized for the America’s Historical Newspapers database states, “There appears to be an interruption of four weeks,” consistent with the issue numbering.

Watson inserted a notice about the suspension in the January 22 edition and the next two issues.  “THE Printer of this Paper, after the greatest Fatigue, and meeting with Disappointment upon Disappointment,” he explained, “now presented his Customers with the Connecticut Courant, &c. (printed on Paper manufactured in this Place).”  That made the Connecticut Courant yet another newspaper that experienced difficulties due to lack of paper during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Watson expressed appreciation “for the Patience [his subscribers] have exercised toward him since it has been discontinued” while simultaneously “assur[ing] them, that nothing but absolute Necessity has stopped is so long.”  During the newspaper’s hiatus, Watson had been “concerned in erecting” a paper mill.  Perhaps it produced the paper that allowed him to resume publishing the Connecticut Courant.  He anticipated that “in a short Time” the mill, “perhaps the best of the Kind in New-England, would “be able to supply the Public, in this Part of the Colony, with all Kinds of Writing Paper.”  For that to happen, he recruited the assistance of “the Ladies, to be very careful of their Rags without which this important Manufacture must fail.”  In other words, the paper mill needed clean linen rags to recycle into paper to use in writing letters and publishing newspapers.  In addition to rags, Watson needed to cover “the very great Expence in erecting the above Mill,” so he called on “ALL those indebted to him, on any Account, to make immediate Payment.”  Watson aimed to continue disseminating news about the momentous events occurring in the colonies, but he needed the cooperation of both women saving rags and customers paying off accounts to make that possible.

January 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (January 29, 1776).

“CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags.”

Nathaniel Patten’s advertisement in the January 29, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet was neither as lengthy nor as visually stimulating as some of his previous advertisements, but that may have been because he had a different purpose in running it.  The “BOOKBINDER and STATIONER, at the East End of the Green,” did not provide a list of titles that he sold in this notice.  Instead, he announced, “CASH GIVEN FOR Clean Linen Rags, Of any Kind, Old Sail Cloth,” and other remnants of textiles that could be recycled into paper.  Similar calls for rags appeared frequently in early American newspapers, most often placed by the printers of those newspapers.  Such advertisements often consisted of only one or two lines.  Printers offered cash for rags without further explanation because readers knew exactly why they wanted the rags and how they would be used.

The proprietors of paper mills sometimes ran more elaborate advertisements requesting rags.  Especially when colonizers enacted nonimportation agreements that disrupted the supply of paper coming from England, those advertisements depicted saving rags to produce paper as a patriotic duty and a means for all colonizers, including women, to support the American cause.  Patten did not go into as much detail as John Keating did when promoting ‘THE FIRST Paper Manufactory Established in the city of New-York,” but he did say more than most printers.  “As Paper is one of the most necessary Articles now wanted,” the bookbinder and stationer asserted, “it is hoped that all true Friends to America, will exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage such Manufactory” in Connecticut.  A lack of paper had indeed caused some printers to sometimes reduce the size of their weekly newspapers to half sheets (two pages) instead of full sheets (four pages) or miss publishing for a week or two.  That was the situation in New England and beyond.  Two days before Patten issued his call for rags in the Norwich Packet, for instance, John Pinkney, the printer of one Virginia Gazette, ran a notice in another Virginia Gazette to explain that he could not print his newspaper that week because he could not acquire paper.

July 28

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

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

Essex Journal (July 28, 1775).

“Encourage their children and servants to save the old Rags … and send them to the Printing-office.”

John Mycall and Henry-Walter Tinges, the printers of the Essex Journal in Newburyport, Massachusetts, concluded the July 28, 1775, edition of their newspaper with an advertisement that presented colonizers an opportunity to aid the American cause.  “We hope our kind Readers and others, who desire to encourage American Manufacture,” Mycall and Tinges declared, “will please to encourage their children and servants to save the old Rags that are often swept out of doors, and send them to the Printing-office.”  The printers offered cash for the rags, explaining that without them “we cannot long be supplied with that necessary article, Paper.”  Mycall and Tinges oversaw a recycling venture imperative in producing an essential article for continuing to publish their newspaper and anything else.  They were not the only printers in the region who experienced a disruption in acquiring paper in the months after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette, had a similar experience.

Throughout the imperial crisis, collecting rags to recycle into paper had been imbued with political significance.  Producing paper in the colonies meant that printers did not need to import as much paper from England.  As nonimportation agreements went into effect in 1768, Christopher Leffingwell of Norwich, Connecticut, described collecting rags as “an entire Saving to the COUNTRY” and encouraged “every Friend and lover thereof [to] save every Scrap” of discarded linen.  For years, John Keating regularly promoted his “Paper Manufactory” in New York’s newspapers, arguing that economic resistance during the “present alarming situation of the colonies” was the “safest and most efficacious method of convincing the Ministry of Great-Britain of their error.”  He suggested that each household designate a “certain place” for collecting rags and cultivate a habit that would “establish this valuable manufactory upon a permanent foundation.”  Who undertook such work?  John Dunlap, the printer of the Pennsylvania Packet, hoped “to prevail upon our LADIES to grant us a little of their industry and assistance,” believing that “the welfare of their country will influence them” to do their part in collecting rags to recycle into paper.  Mycall and Tinges extended the call to include “children and servants.”  As men mustered to defend their liberties, women, children, and servants had their own role to play.  They could contribute to the American cause by supporting “American Manufacture,” including collecting rags to transform into the newspapers and pamphlets that disseminated the rhetoric of the Revolution.

October 23

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

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

Supplement to the New-York Journal (October 20, 1774).

“This being the safest and most efficacious method of convincing the Ministry of Great-Britain of their errour.”

John Keating frequently advertised the “FIRST Paper Manufactory Established in the city of New-York” in the late 1760s and early 1770s.  He often updated his advertisement, yet he incorporated familiar themes about patriotism and supporting the local economy.  He also encouraged readers to save linen rags to make into paper, underscoring that they could play an important role in the production of paper made in the colonies as well as its consumption.

Such was the case in an advertisement in the supplement that accompanied the October 20, 1774, edition of the New-York Journal.  Keating opened with an announcement that his enterprise “is in great want of a large quantity of fine and coarse LINEN RAGS.”  He encouraged “the public in general, to be careful in saving every species of materials that are requisite to support such a useful and necessary branch of business.”  In previous advertisements, he offered instructions for collecting and saving rags as part of the rituals of household management, entrusting women in particular with supplying the resources necessary for the operation of the local paper mill and, in the process, lauding the patriotic spirit of those who heeded his call.  In this instance, he did not distinguish men and women, instead stating that when it came to choosing which paper to consume “that most of his fellow citizens will give the preference to a mill in the province … when it is considered that such a conduct will be a certain means of preventing large sums of money going out of the province.”  In addition to supporting the local economy, Keating asserted that the “present alarming situation of the colonies renders it entirely needless to point out the utility of establishing this and every other kind of manufactory among us, as soon as possible.”  Such a plan, he declared, was “the safest and most efficacious method of convincing the Ministry of Great-Britain of their error, and securing opulence to ourselves.”  Keating effortlessly connected politics, commerce, and the livelihoods and good fortune of colonizers who benefited from domestic manufactures as alternatives to imported goods.  He did so once again with a plea “that more attention will be paid to this affair in the future, both from a principle of patriotism, and frugality.”  In so doing, Keating presented a multitude of reasons for readers to support American industry and buy American products as the imperial crisis intensified.

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.

March 24

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

GUEST CURATOR:  Madison Kenney

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

New-York Journal (March 24, 1774).

“The best Price given for ALL SORTS OF LINEN RAGS.”

John Keating, the owner of a “PAPER MANUFACTORY” in New York, uses politics as an advertising strategy. In 1774, “The demand for paper in America, is of late so greatly increased, that very large sums are continually sent abroad, for the purchase of it.” Keating attempted to take advantage of the political tension with Britain by connecting the donation of spare rags to make into paper with patriotism. He argued, “All those who really wish to promote the interest of America … will contribute their aid to the success of the paper manufactory in this place.”

Advertisements asking families to save linen rags to support American printing were not uncommon during the era of the American Revolution. An advertisement printed on the back of Thomas’s Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, and Connecticut Almanack for the Year of our Lord Christ 1779 claims “ fair daughters of Liberty…would not neglect to serve their country, by saving for the paper mill in Sutton, all linen and cotton and linen rags.” Again, entrepreneurs who made paper or printed on it used patriotism to pressure households to support American industry by donating rags. Kayla Haveles argues that printing was “as vital to revolution as guns and gunpowder” because the colonists used it to spread ideology and attack the British.

Thomas’s Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New-Hampshire Almanack for the Year of Our Lord Christ 1779 (Worcester: Isaiah Thomas, 1778).

Additionally, the frequency of these advertisements highlights the contributions of women in the Revolution. Both advertisements focus on saving rags in the home. Keating’s advertisement asked every family to save spare rags in their household. Women were responsible for the housework so Keating’s call to action targeted women. The advertisement on the back of the almanac asked “daughters of Liberty” to save rags. Both advertisements are examples of how women contributed to the Revolution by supporting the American economy.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

John Keating had been placing similar advertisements for the “NEW-YORK Paper MANUFACTORY” for years by the time this advertisement appeared in the March 24, 1774, edition of the New-York Journal.  The Adverts 250 Project first featured one of his advertisements that offered “Ready Money for clean Rags” that ran in that newspaper on February 18, 1768.  During the six years in between, Keating maintained an almost constant presence in the public prints, encouraging colonizers, especially women, to collect rags for paper production and explaining the patriotic benefits of their efforts.  He advertised at times when relationships with Parliament deteriorated, including when nonimportation agreements went into effect to protest various legislation, as well as when the situation cooled and most merchants, shopkeepers, and consumers returned to business as usual.  Keating remained a steady voice in favor of “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies.

In this instance, Keating ran his advertisement at a time of crisis.  Throughout the colonies, the destruction of the tea in Boston the previous December remained a topic of conversation, including in New York.  The Sons of Liberty anticipated the arrival of the Nancy with a cargo of tea that they did not want landed in their city.  Keating’s advertisement, which had been running since before the Boston Tea Party, appeared on the last page of the March 24 issue, interspersed among other advertisements.  A notice that the Sons of Liberty would meet every Thursday evening “till the Arrival and Departure of the TEA SHIP,” on the other hand, made its second appearance, this time in the first column on the first page.  Only tables showing prices current and sunrise, sunset, and high tide preceded the announcement.  Its placement made it more likely that readers would see it, while also framing how they read other advertisements in the issue.  Most readers likely did not need that notice from the Sons of Liberty to influence their reaction to Keating’s advertisement calling on “all those who really wish to promote the interest of America” to do their part, considering how widely colonizers discussed the politics of tea at the time.  Still, the combination of print culture and public discourse occurring everywhere from the town common to taverns made Keating’s appeals to patriotism even more urgent.