Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter]

October 28

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

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 28, 1775).

“SKETCHLEY’s New Invented CONVERSATION CARDS.”

Like other newspaper printers, John Dixon and William Hunter provided a variety of goods and services to supplement the revenues from subscriptions and advertisements.  The masthead of the Virginia Gazette solicited customers for “Printing Work done at this Office in the neatest Manner, with Care and Expedition.”  In addition to job printing, they also published books, pamphlets, and almanacs and, according to their advertisement in the October 28, 1775, edition, they even sold patent medicines.  Many colonial printers kept a stock of similar “MAREDANT’S ANTISCORBUTIC DROPS” and “Dr. KEYSER’S celebrated PILLS” on hand, promoting them in their own newspapers.

Hawking yet another product accounted for nearly half of Dixon and Hunter’s advertisement in that issue of the Virginia Gazette: “SKETCHLEY’s New invented CONVERSATION CARDS, Ornamented with forty eight Copperplate Cuts.”  Today, conversation cards serve a variety of purposes.  They can be used for icebreakers at social gatherings, teambuilding exercises for businesses and organizations, or discussion starters among people seeking to explore topics of common interest and forge stronger personal connections.  While consumers may have used Sketchley’s conversation cards in a variety of ways, the advertisement stated that they were “calculated to amuse and improve the Mind, to learn those that play with them to speak with propriety, and tell a Story well.”  In that regard, these cards differed from playing cards for popular games of “Amusement and Diversion” and the “bad Effects of the common Cards” that “daily show us their pernicious Consequences.”  Card games did not have to devolve to the vices of too much luxury and leisure, too much gossip and idle chatter, and too much drinking and gambling.  Sketchley’s conversation cards, “on the contrary, … the more they are played with the more they improve and instruct; they will exercise the Imagination, enlarge the Understanding, and every One that plays with them are sure to be the Gainers.”  In the company of friends, those who used the cards would become more articulate in their speech, more refined in their comportment, and more enlightened in their understanding of the world.

What did consumers acquire when they purchased their own deck of Sketchley’s conversation cards?  Dominic Winter Auctioneers offer this description: “copper engraved playing cards,” measuring 3.75 inches by 2.5 inches, “each with a word [in the] upper margin and [the] associated illustration below.”  The partial set that the auctioneers offered for bids included seventeen cards, such as “Hope,” “Honour,” “Heart,” and “Ruin.”  According to the online auction catalog, those are the only cards from this set known to survive.  “The only other similar, but not identical, set we have been able to trace,” the catalog states, “is that held by the Osborne Collection …, which comprises 52 cards.”  It also features images of sixteen of the cards.  In addition, the catalog notes the advertisement in the Virginia Gazette.  Like most shop signs and many book catalogs, early American newspaper advertisements reveal details that otherwise have been lost because the artifacts do not survive.

By the time that James Sketchley first marketed his “New invented CONVERSATION CARDS” in 1770, he had been producing playing cards for about two decades.  With these cards, he offered an alternative to games of leisure that passed the time with little else to show for it, just as John Ryland had done with a set of “Geographical Cards” that Nichols Brooks advertised in the Pennsylvania Journal in March 1773.  Dixon and Hunter prompted genteel readers and those who aspired to gentility to consider these conversation cards a valuable resource to purchase when their bought they almanac for the coming year or a military manual that included “the Rules and Articles to be observed for the Government of the AMERICAN Army.”

“CHURCH,” “GENTLEMAN,” “HALL,” and “OLD WOMAN,” from Sketchley’s New Invented Conversation Cards (1770).  Courtesy Dominic Winter Auctioneers.

October 15

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

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 14, 1775).

“Will be sold a large BOW WINDOW, with Bars and Shutters, some SHOW GLASSES, and GLASS CASES.”

In the spring of 1775, Catherine Rathell, a milliner in Williamsburg, advertised her intention to “dispose of my Goods” and go to England “till Liberty of Importation is allowed.”  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress in protest of the Coercive Acts, disrupted trade for merchants, shopkeepers, and others who sold imported goods.  When she first placed her advertisement, Rathell and the rest of the residents of Williamsburg had not yet received word of the battles at Lexington and Concord.  The outbreak of hostilities may have prompted her to adjust her plans because she did not wait until she sold all her merchandise to depart.  Instead, she left her wares in the hands of Margaret Brodie, a mantuamaker who had worked with Rathell since 1771, to sell “At theMEETING of the MERCHANTS in OCTOBER.”  The milliner did not return to Williamsburg.  Unfortunately, she died when the ship taking her to England got caught in a hurricane and sank.

Brodie’s advertisement in the October 14, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette concerned more than just selling Rathell’s remaining merchandise.  It also called on those indebted to Rathell to settle accounts with Brodie.  A short note at the end of the notice, marked with a manicule to draw attention, noted that “a large BOW WINDOW, with Bars and Shutters, some SHOW GLASSES, and GLASS CASES” would be sold at the same time as “Mrs. Rathell’s STOCK in TRADE.”  That provides a glimpse of Rathell’s merchandising strategies.  By the early eighteenth century, bow windows became popular features of shops in London, so common that some critics complained about the way that they jutted into the street and made it more difficult for pedestrians to pass.  Yet that was one of the intended purposes, causing prospective customers to slow down and view the merchandise on display.  In addition, bow windows offered more space for displaying goods than windows flush with exterior walls.  Some American retailers, including Rathell, adopted this strategy for marketing their wares.  Rathell also invested in glass cases to showcase some of her merchandise for visitors to her shop.  She could protect valuable items from shoplifters while still making them visible to entice customers.  Similarly, the bars on shutters on the bow window protected goods from burglars when the shop was closed.  Without contemporary visual images of American shops, Rathell’s advertisement helps reconstruct their interiors and the experience of shopping in eighteenth-century America.

October 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 14, 1775).

“Several very valuable FAMILY SERVANTS.”

A notice concerning the “Estate of John Randolph, Esq; his Majesty’s Attorney General,” first appeared in the October 14, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  It was not Randolph’s death that occasioned the notice.  Instead, the Loyalist and his family departed for England at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, leaving trustees in charge of selling “his late DWELLING-HOUSE” in Williamsburg, “several very valuable FAMILY SERVANTS, and a Variety of FURNITURE.”

At a glance, modern readers might assume that those “FAMILY SERVANTS” consisted of indentured servants like the ones that had “JUST ARRIVED” in Virginia on the Saltspring.  According to an advertisement on the next page, those servants included “many Tradesmen,” such as carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, a cabinetmaker, and a wheelwright, as well as “FARMERS and other COUNTRY LABOURERS.”  Yet that almost certainly was not the case for the “FAMILY SERVANTS” in the notice about Randolph’s estate.  They did indeed possess a variety of skills like the indentured servants recently arrived in the colony, yet that phrase – “FAMILY SERVANTS” – referred to enslaved people who had been part of the Randolph household.

Virginia Gazette [Pinkney] (November 9, 1775).

A subsequent advertisement did not use the same turn of phrase.  After Peyton Randolph, one of the trustees, died suddenly on October 22, a new advertisement that first appeared in the November 9 edition of John Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette clarified that the “attorney general’s slaves and household furniture, which was advertised for sale at the next meeting of the merchants, will be sold the 25th day of this month, by JOHN BLAIR, [and] JAMES COCKE, surviving trustees.”  Of course, eighteenth-century readers understood the reference to “FAMILY SERVANTS” in the original advertisement.  They did not need a subsequent notice to clarify that it meant enslaved men and women.  They knew the lexicon of newspaper notices about enslaved people just as well as they knew the lexicon of consumer culture in advertisements that promoted all sorts of goods, especially textiles, with names that seem unfamiliar to today’s readers.

October 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 7, 1775).

“An ACADEMY … distinguished by the Name of HAMPDEN-SIDNEY.”

An advertisement for a new academy “distinguished by the Name of HAMPDEN-SIDNEY” ran for the first time in the October 7, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  It delivered an overview of the last American college founded before the Declaration of Independence, announcing that classes would begin on November 10.  As the “History of Hampden-Sydney College” posted on the institution’s website explains, “The first president, at the suggestion of Dr. John Witherspoon, the Scottish president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), chose the name Hampden-Sydney to symbolize devotion to the principles of representative government and full civil and religious freedom which John Hampden (1594-1643) and Algernon Sydney (1622-1683) had outspokenly supported, and for which they had given their lives, in England’s two great constitutional crises of the previous century.”

That first president of Hampden-Sydney College was Samuel Stanhope Smith, the valedictorian of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1769.  Six years later, his connections to that institution influenced more than just the name of the academy he founded in Virginia.  “The System of Education will resemble that which is adopted in the College of New Jersey,” he noted in the advertisement, “save, that a more particular Attention shall be paid to the Cultivation of the EnglishLanguage than is usually done in Places of public Education.”  Three “Masters and Professors” had already been hired, yet Smith anticipated that enrollments would justify engaging two more instructors “before the Expiration of the Year.”  The academy had also procured a “very valuable Library of the best Writers, both ancient and modern, on most Parts of Science and polite Literature.”  Construction of the “principal Building of the Academy” had begun but would not be complete before classes commenced on November 10.  Students would need to find lodging “in the Neighbourhood, during the Winter Season,” though Smith assured prospective pupils and their parents that there were “Houses sufficiently convenient” available “on very reasonable terms.”

For governance and oversight, the academy “will be subject to the Visitation of twelve Gentlemen of Character and Influence in their respective Counties.”  They included, according to the College’s “History,” James Madison, Patrick Henry, and “other less well-known but equally vigorous patriots.”  Smith mused that the “Number of Visitors and Trustees will probably be increased as soon as the Distractions of the Times shall so far cease as to enable its Patrons to enlarge its Foundation.”  He referred, as readers knew, to events in Massachusetts over the past six months, including the battles at Lexington and Concord, the siege of Boston, and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The imperial crisis that led to those events certainly played a role in naming the academy and formulating its mission.  Even though the first trustees were “chiefly of the Church of England,” Smith pledged that “the Whole shall be conducted on the most catholic” or universal “Plan.”  Inspired by Hampden and Sydney’s commitment to civil and religious freedom, the academy adopted a policy of toleration: “Parents, of every Denomination, may be at full Liberty to require their Children to attend on any Mode of Worship which either Custom or Conscience has rendered most agreeable to them.”  Smith also made a series of promises grounded in the academy’s “Character and Interest,” stating that the faculty and trustees “furnish a strong Security for our avoiding all Party Instigations; for our Care to form good men, and good Citizens, on the common and universal Principles of Morality, distinguished from the narrow Tenets which form the Complexion of any Sect; and for our Assiduity in the whole Circle of Education.”  From its inception during the era of the American Revolution, Smith’s academy, Hampden-Sydney College, emphasized civic virtue and religious freedom as hallmarks of the education it provided for young men.

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Hampden-Sydney College features an image and transcription of the advertisement on its website as well as a brief “History of Hampden-Sydney College.”

May 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 6, 1775).

“LADIES RIDING HABITS made in the newest Fashion.”

When James Davis, a tailor, opened a shop at a new location in Yorktown in the spring of 1775, he placed an advertisement in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  He opened by extending “his most grateful Acknowledgments to all those who have hitherto been his Customers,” incorporating an appeal in common use throughout the colonies.  Advertisers often thanked existing customers as a means of enhancing their reputations.  Yet that was not Davis’s only purpose; instead, he “takes this Opportunity to inform them, as well as the Public in general, that he has just opened Shop nearly opposite Swan Tavern.”  Any client could expect the tailor’s “close Application to his Business, and the utmost Endeavours to give Satisfaction,” prompting Davis to hope for “general Encouragement” from the residents of Yorktown.

The tailor concluded with a note that singled out one item in particular: “LADIES RIDING HABITS made in the newest Fashion.”  He may have benefited from where his advertisement appeared within the May 6 edition of the Virginia Gazette, immediately following the “POETS CORNER.”  That entry presented a new poem each week.  This time it featured “VERSES by a Lady, on gathering a SNOW-DROP in the garden of her lover.”  That was almost certainly by coincidence rather than by design.  After all, Davis’s advertisement ran at the bottom of the middle column on the fourth page of the supplement the previous week.  Still, the poem may have helped in directing more readers, especially “LADIES” interested in “the newest fashion,” to Davis’s notice.  Even if the verses did not, the decorative printing that called attention to the “POETS CORNER” also distinguished Davis’s advertisement from others on that page.  It was not the first time it had such a fortuitous place.  Two weeks earlier, it followed “AN ODE TO LIBERTY” in the “POETS CORNER.”  If the tailor perused the pages of the Virginia Gazette to confirm that it indeed carried his notice, he may have been more satisfied with where it happened to appear in some issues.  Its proximity to the “POETS CORNER” may have boosted engagement on those occasions that the one followed the other, though via happenstance rather than sophisticated and intentional marketing strategy.

April 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 29, 1775).

“RUN away … a Mulatto Boy named SAM … will endeavour to pass for a free Boy.”

As the imperial crisis intensified in 1774 and erupted into a war in 1775, Sam, an enslaved youth, had his own concerns and fought his own battle for independence.  Like so many other enslaved people, Sam did not author his own story; instead, it was recorded by an enslaver in a newspaper advertisement that offered a reward for the capture and return of the young man after he had liberated himself by running away.

John Bland’s efforts to recover Sam and return him to bondage stretched over many months.  His advertisement indicated that he composed it on November 10, 1774, three weeks before the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement enacted in response to the Coercive Acts, went into effect.  It ran regularly, including in the supplement that accompanied the April 29, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  That supplement included the first reports of the battles at Lexington and Concord that appeared in newspapers published in Virginia.  What did Sam think of those events?  Perhaps he welcomed the distraction they provided, shifting attention away from efforts to discover his whereabouts as he “endeavour[ed] to pass for a free Boy.”

Bland offered a brief biography of Sam, likely not emphasizing the details that the youth would have chosen had he written his own narrative.  The enslaver stated that Sam was a mulatto “born in Frederick Town, Maryland,” but did not say anything about his parents or other relations.  Bland considered Sam a “great Villain” with a “smooth artful Tongue,” but acknowledged that he was “a very good Barber,” a rare note of praise in an advertisement of that type.  Bland reported that in June 1774 Sam had been imprisoned in Yorktown “on Suspicion of having stolen some Money in Williamsburg,” but escaped and made his way to Norfolk.  He had been captured and jailed there before being sent back to Bland.  On September 20, Sam once again made a bid for freedom, escaping from Bland’s overseer and “has not since been heard of.”  Having lived in Fredericksburg, Norfolk, and Yorktown, Sam was “well acquainted with most Parts of Virginia,” a factor that likely aided in eluding Bland.  In addition, the enslaver considered it “probable” that Sam “will procure Clothes” to disguise himself.  Bland warned “Captains of Ships” and “Masters of Vessel” against employing Sam or transporting him out of the colony.

Where was Sam?  Did he manage to get aboard a ship?  What other strategies did he deploy to make good on his escape?  Did he have assistance from other enslaved people, free Black men and women, or even sympathetic white colonizers?  What kind of freedom had he experienced in the months since he fled from Bland?  Was he aware that Bland published an advertisement and offered a reward for him?  What was Sam thinking and feeling over those many months?  Bland’s advertisement does not answer those questions, but it does chronicle Sam’s courage and resilience as well as his commitment to seizing his own liberty during an era when colonizers claimed that Parliament and the king perpetrated acts of tyranny against them.  Like so many other fugitives seeking freedom advertised in newspapers from New England to Georgia, Sam made a declaration of independence.

April 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 22, 1775).

“I purpose going to England as soon as I dispose of my Goods (till Liberty of Importation is allowed).”

In the spring of 1775, Catherine Rathell advertised a “large and well chosen Assortment of GOODS” available at her store in Williamsburg in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  She demonstrated the choices available to consumers with a lengthy list that included “black, white, and other coloured Silk Petticoats,” “fine stamped Irish Muslims for Ladies Gowns, which are remarkable for their beautiful Colours,” “plain Gold and Paste Brooches and Lockets,” “a few Dozen of neat flowered Wine Glasses,” and “Dolls and other Toys.”

Rathell did not mention when she acquired her merchandise.  Taglines that proclaimed, “Just Imported,” or some variation of that sentiment no longer appeared in American newspapers as often as they had in recent years.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, had been in effect since December 1, 1774.  The shopkeeper did not state that her inventory arrived in the colony before that date, yet she suggested that was the case when she declared that she planned to go to England “as soon as I dispose of my Goods (till Liberty of Importation is allowed).”  In acknowledging the Continental Association, Rathell implied that she abided by it.

She also indicated the effect it had on her business.  She did not consider it viable to continue operating her store in Williamsburg.  She planned to close it as soon as she could liquidate her wares and visit England until regular trade resumed, not knowing when she composed her advertisement that a war for independence would disrupt commerce even more significantly.  For the moment, she insisted on cash sales instead of credit, “not parting with a single Shilling’s Worth” with payment in hand, and settling accounts with both those indebted to her and others “having demands against” her.  Except for “an exceeding good Silver Watch to be sold at 50 per Cent,” Rathell did not mention any discounts, but prospective customers may have recognized an opportunity to bargain with a shopkeeper determined to leave the colony.

April 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 8, 1775).

“JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND.”

John Carter once again advertised that “A few Copies of The Proceedings of the late Continental CONGRESS May be had at the Printing-Office” in the April 8, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette.  That same day, John Dixon and William Hunter advertised that they “have for SALE … the Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress held at Philadelphia” in the Virginia Gazette.  When the First Continental Congress concluded its meetings near the end of October 1774, printers in many towns rushed to publish local editions of the Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress.  Dixon and his partner at the time, Alexander Purdie, printed the Extracts.  So did Carter.  Advertisements for the Extracts quickly appeared in newspapers.  Not nearly as many printers published the Journal.  William and Thomas Bradford produced a Philadelphia edition about a month after they published the Extracts.  In New York, Hugh Gaine published the only other edition.  In contrast to marketing for the Extracts, advertisements for the Journal did not immediately pepper newspapers throughout the colonies.

Yet over time printers and booksellers acquired copies of the Journal from the Bradfords or from Gaine and informed prospective customers that they stocked that volume.  Dixon and Hunter did so when they advertised a publication that came off their own press, “A JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND ON THE 20th OF MARCH, 1775.”  Although listed first in the advertisement, the Journal for the First Continental Congress received secondary attention.  Dixon and Hunter used larger type for the title of their new publication and created greater visual interest by breaking the title into several lines and centering each line.  Dixon and Hunter did not diminish the significance of the Journal for the First Continental Congress; instead, they treated the Journal for the convention at Richmond as breaking news, an important local update, and a continuation of coverage of proceedings that commenced with delegates in Philadelphia and then moved to meetings held throughout the colonies.  They also had an interest in selling the volume that they produced, yet they recognized an opportunity to package it with the Journal for the First Continental Congress and increase revenue.  Both publications kept the public informed while simultaneously commodifying American responses to the imperial crisis that ultimately became a revolution.

April 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 2, 1775).

“Advertisements … will be ranged, without partiality as they come to Hand.”

Baltimore did not have its own newspaper until William Goddard commenced publication of the Maryland Journal on August 20, 1773.  Less than two years later, John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, proposed publishing a second newspaper in that growing port on the Chesapeake Bay.  He followed a model designed by Goddard, who had been publishing the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Philadelphia when he set about opening a second printing office and establishing another newspaper in a neighboring colony.

Dunlap disseminated subscription proposals widely, including inserting them in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  He announced a plan for an “OPEN AND UNBIASED NEWS-PAPER,” a claim made by many printers during the era of the American Revolution even though they often took an editorial stance that favored either Patriots or Loyalists.  He planned to call it the “MARYLAND GAZETTE, AND THE BALTIMORE ADVERTISER,” distinguishing it from the Maryland Gazette published in Annapolis since 1745, but he would not take it to press until he attracted “one thousand subscribers, which is the smallest number that can possibly support this undertaking.”  The proposed newspaper apparently drew that many subscribers (or at least enough that Dunlap considered it a viable enterprise) because he issued the “first number” of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; or the Baltimore General Advertiser on May 2, just two months after the date on the proposals.  Perhaps subscribers grew eager for an additional source of news as the imperial crisis intensified, or perhaps news of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April convinced Dunlap that the time was right to launch his newspaper, even if he did not yet have one thousand subscribers, because current events would guarantee its success.

His subscription proposal covered some of the usual nuts and bolts, what many printers called “conditions,” yet Dunlap referred to as “the QUINTESSENCE.”  He indicated that the newspaper “shall be printed with a new and well-founded type, and a paper in size and quality to the Pennsylvania Gazette,” curiously drawing comparison to another newspaper published in Philadelphia rather than his own.  He planned to publish a new issue “every Wednesday morning,” the same day that Goddard distributed copies of the Maryland Journal.  He promised delivery “on that morning to the subscribers in the city and liberties.”  Those in “the distant places on the continent,” such as readers of Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette, could expect “the earliest and most expeditious conveyance of land and water, post, or carriage.”  Subscriptions cost five shillings, due at the time of delivery of the first issues, and then another five shillings upon receiving fifty-two issues.  They continued at ten shillings each year.

While many subscription proposals for newspapers solicited advertisements, few specified how much they cost; instead, they declared that they charged the same fees as their competitors.  In the proposals for the Pennsylvania Ledger that also circulated in the first months of 1775, for instance, Jame Humphreys, Jr., stated, “Advertisements to be inserted on the same Terms as is usual with other Papers in this City.”  Similarly, Isaiah Thomas pronounced that advertisements in the Worcester Gazette would be “inserted in a neat and conspicuous [manner], at the same rates as they are in Boston.”  Dunlap, in contrast, gave a price: “advertisements of a moderate length shall be inserted for 5s.”  He did not, however, indicate how many times notices ran for that rate nor whether advertisers received discounts for subsequent insertions.  He did assert that they “will be ranged, without partiality, as they come to Hand.  The greatest correctness shall be adhered to.”  In other words, he would print notices in the order they arrived in the printing office; no advertisements would receive a privileged place based on their content, the printer’s relationship with the advertiser, or other factors.  All advertisers could depend on their notices appearing accurately in the Maryland Gazette.  The inaugural issue featured one advertisement.  The Adverts 250 Project will turn its attention to that advertisement and others in the coming months.

March 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Hunter and Dixon] (March 11, 1775).

“The American Pocket Dial.”

It was an unusual publication promoted in the March 11, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  Was it really a publication at all?  A subscription notice proclaimed that “The American Pocket Dial” was “Now ready for Publication.”  This handy device, according to “the Editor,” Robert Cockburn of Berkeley County, showed the “Hour of the Day and Night by the Sun and Stars” as well as the “Sun’s Place and Declination,” the “Sun’s Altitude,” the “Latitude of the Place of Observation,” and the “Height and Distance of any accessible or inaccessible Object.”  That it also showed the “Variation of the Compass” suggests that the pocket sundial had a magnetic compass embedded in it.  Each dial came with a “small Book of Directions” easily understood by “any Person of common Abilities, without any Knowledge of the Mathematicks.”  In “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories,” Sara H. Schechner notes that “tables of latitude, known as gazetteers” were sometimes “printed in a broadsheet, which was a sundial accessory.”[1]

Cockburn declared that the American Pocket Dials “are to be published by Subscription.”  With the Continental Association in effect, colonizers were not supposed to import or purchase finished goods from Great Britain.  Instead, that pact called on them to “encourage … Industry” and “promote … the Manufactures of this Country.”  Schechner notes that when Anthony Lamb advertised “large Pocket Compasses, with or without Dials” in the April 7, 1760, edition of the New-York Mercury that he likely sold imported items.[2]  Fifteen years later, the political turmoil of the imperial crisis presented an opportunity to market an American alternative, though Cockburn did not take the risk of producing or “publishing” the American Pocket Dial without first lining up buyers or “subscribers.”  He asserted that the sundials “will be engraved in the neatest Manner, on Copper, or Brass.”  Did he find “subscribers” for this project?  During the American Revolution, Schechner states, “American patriots favored compass sundials” while their French allies preferred inclining dials but does not indicate that American makers like Cockburn “published” and sold such products to officers and soldiers.[3]  Addressing that question falls beyond the scope of Schechner’s chapter on “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories.”  Having encountered Cockburn’s “subscription proposal,” I am curious to see if he published additional advertisements, especially any calling on “subscribers” to collect their pocket sundials once he “published” them.  I will also be looking for other work on early American scientific instruments to learn whether Cockburn and others established an industry during the American Revolution.

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[1] Sara J. Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories” in How Scientific Instruments Have Changed Hands, ed. A.D. Morrison-Low, Sara J. Schechner, and Paolo Brenni (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 125.

[2] Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials,” 148.

[3] Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials,” 147.