Sunday Edition

July 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal Extraordinary (July 9, 1775).

“SOAP and CANDLES as usual.”

It was an exceptionally rare Sunday edition that carried John Benfield’s advertisement for “RUM of all Sorts” and “SOAP and CANDLES as usual,” Ann Durffey’s advertisement offering an enslaved man for sale, and a handful of other advertisements.  Charles Crouch usually published the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal on Tuesdays, but news of recent events merited a broadside extraordinary edition on Sunday, July 9.

Throughout the colonies, printers produced issues of their weekly newspapers on every day from Monday through Saturday, many of them choosing which day according to when postriders arrived with weekly newspapers from other towns.  They allowed just enough time to select and reprint news updates, editorials, and letters about current events.  None, however, published their weekly newspaper on Sundays.  Some occasionally distributed supplements or postscripts at some point during the week, but not on Sundays.  That made Crouch’s South-Carolina Gazette Extraordinary for “SUNDAY EVENING, June 9, 1775” truly extraordinary.  The Adverts 250 Project has so far examined advertising from January 1, 1766, through July 9, 1775.  I believe this is the first advertisement from a newspaper published on a Sunday included in the project in nearly a decade.

What prompted Crouch to rush to press with a broadside edition printed on only one side of the sheet?  The Extraordinary included news of the Battle of Bunker Hill, including articles and letters that originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Newport, Rhode Island; and Philadelphia.   The news filled two entire columns and spilled over into a second.  A short update with borders composed of ornamental type to draw attention, ran just above the advertisements that accounted for half of the final column.  Although the dateline, “CHARLES-TOWN, JULY 9,” suggested local news, it carried a grave update about recent events in Massachusetts.  “LETTERS from Rhode-Island mention,” Crouch reported, “That there were only 1200 Provincials in the Engagement mentioned under the Cambridge Head, and near 5000 of the King’s Troops; and that the celebrated Dr. Jospeh Warren, was among the Slain of our Brethren” at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  When Crouch decided to deliver that news as soon as he could after receiving it, he also disseminated advertisements that would not otherwise have circulated on a Sunday.  Benfield advertised “SOAP and CANDLES as usual,” yet there was nothing usual about the Extraordinary that carried his advertisement.

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal Extraordinary (July 9, 1775).

February 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (February 13, 1772).

“Subscribers in the distant Provinces will be supplied as soon as possible.”

Robert Bell invested a lot of effort in promoting an “American Edition of BLACKSTONE’s COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND” in the early 1770s.  He inserted subscription notices in newspapers from New England to South Carolina, encouraging colonizers to support the development of a distinctly American market for literature.  He inserted an update in the February 13, 1772, edition of the New-York Journal, alerting the public that the second volume “will be ready for Delivery to the Subscribers of Philadelphia and New-York, on the 28th of February.”  In addition, “Subscribers in the distant Provinces shall be supplied as soon as possible.”

Bell’s notice in the February 13 edition of the New-York Journal ran on a Thursday, the only day that John Holt, the printer, distributed that newspaper.  Most American newspapers published prior to the American Revolution were weeklies, though a few printers did experiment with producing and disseminating two or three issues per week.  Daily newspapers did not emerge until after the Revolution.  That meant that printers strategically chose which days to publish their newspapers.  Most selected Mondays and Thursdays.  Holt’s competitor, Hugh Gaine, published the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury on Mondays, thus allowing readers in New York two opportunities to peruse “the freshest ADVICES, both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC” throughout the week.  Some newspapers published in smaller towns in New England appeared on Tuesdays or Fridays or Wednesdays or Saturdays, one or two days after newspapers in Boston and New York.  That allowed printers to acquire the newest editions and reprint items of interest.

Sundays were the only day that printers did not distribute their latest issues anywhere in the colonies.  In the twentieth century, the Sunday newspaper became the most coveted edition, the one that contained the most sections of specialized content as well as advertising supplements.  Today, the Sunday edition remains a distinct entity, the only issue that many readers acquire and read.  That represents an evolution in publication and reading habits.  Once a week, the Adverts 250 Project examines a newspaper advertisement published 250 years ago that week instead of 250 years ago that day because printers did not produce Sunday editions in the eighteenth century.  That remained the case even for the dailies published in the largest cities after the Revolution.