Winthrop and Roswell Saltonstall

January 27

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

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

New-London Gazette (January 27, 1769).

“At the Shop in Beach-Street, (lately improved by Winthrop and Roswell Saltonstall.)”

Like many other merchants and shopkeepers throughout the colonies, Winthrop Saltonstall made an appeal to consumer choice when he composed an advertisement for a “General Assortment of Ship Chandlery and Iron Monger’s Ware.” He did not merely state that he had an extensive inventory, but instead supplied a list that enumerated dozens of items. Among his wares, customers could purchase “Nails of all Sizes,” “Carpenter’s and Cooper’s Compasses,” and “long and short handled Frying Pans and Iron Tea Kettles.” For some categories of merchandise, he further underscored the range of choice: “Variety of Time and other Glasses,” “Augers various Sizes,” and “Variety Chest, Door, Cupboards and Padlocks.” He concluded with both “&c. &c. &c.” (the eighteenth-century rendition of “etc. etc. etc.) and “With a Variety of Goods,” combining two standard turns of phrase that customarily appeared separately in newspaper advertisements. Saltonstall encouraged prospective customers to image a vast array of goods available ay his shop; in so doing, he suggested that he could cater to their specific needs and tastes.

Yet consumer choice was not the only marketing strategy that Saltonstall deployed. He also made appeals to price and location, though more briefly. He asserted that he sold his wares “on the most reasonable Terms.” He also informed readers of the New-London Gazette that his “Shop in Beach-Street” had been “lately improved by Winthrop and Roswell Saltonstall.” He did not elaborate on what kinds of upgrades he and a partner had undertaken, but merely mentioning that they had made changes to the venue served multiple purposes. It alerted prospective customers that Saltonstall attended to their comfort and convenience while shopping. It also enticed readers, especially former customers, to visit the store out of curiosity, to see the improvements even if they did not intend to make any purchases. Such excursions could yield unanticipated sales or prime future purchases. Although Saltonstall’s comments about his venue were brief, they demonstrated a rudimentary understanding of shopping as an experience rather than a chore and the significance customers placed on location.

September 11

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

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

Sep 11 - 9:11:1767 New-London Gazette
New-London Gazette (September 11, 1767).

“Choice MADEIRA, TENERIFE, and FAYAL WINES.”

Some newspaper advertisements presented consumers with lengthy lists of manufactured goods imported from England, but others promoted foods and beverages that originated in places outside Britain’s global empire. In the September 11, 1767, edition of the New-London Gazette, for instance, Winthrop and Roswell Saltonstall announced that they sold “Choice … WINES” imported from islands in the eastern Atlantic. Madeira and Fayal wines came from Portuguese outposts. Madeira, a fortified wine, derived its name from the main island in the Madeira archipelago. Fayal (an English variation of Faial) wines came from one of the islands in the central group of the Azores, an archipelago consisting of nine islands. Tenerife wines came from the largest of the seven Canary Islands, conquered and colonized by Spain. In consuming wines from Madeira, Tenerife, and Fayal, colonists participated in vibrant networks of exchange that crisscrossed the Atlantic. Such networks often crossed imperial boundaries, even as nation-states attempted to enforce mercantilist policies.

Given that the Saltonstalls advertised these wines in the public prints, they most likely had imported them legally. Yet a variety of commodities – sugar, molasses, rum, foodstuffs, and wine – found their way to colonial markets via smuggling. “The case of wine is a good example,” according to David Hancock. “Not just in war but also in peace, the varieties and amounts of wine available in British America were greater than those allowed by law and recorded at the customs house.”[1] As the Saltonstalls’ advertisement suggests, colonists could identify many types of wine and made associations with their places of origin. Just as they were accustomed to extensive choices when it came to textiles and housewares, they expected wine merchants to present an assortment so they could make their own selections. Without going into elaborate detail, the Saltonstalls listed three different wines to signal the diversity of their stock to prospective customers.

[1] David Hancock, “Rethinking The Economy of British America,” in The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspectives and New Directions, ed. Cathy Matson (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 81.

March 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

“Genuine Medeira, Tenerif, and Fayal Wines, per Pipe or lesser Quantity.”

Mar 27 - 3:27:1767 Connecticut Gazette
New-London Gazette (March 27, 1767)

Winthrop and Roswell Saltonstall’s advertisement for imported wines and other commodities stood out in the March 27, 1767, issue of the New-London Gazette. It was one of only three advertisements promoting consumer goods and services. One of them advertised ferry service – “A Passage-Boat” – that Ebenezer Webb operated between Long Island and New London. The other, placed by the printer, announced the publication of “An excellent Treatise, entituled Heaven upon Earth.” Very few other paid notices appeared in that issue.

Such was usually the case when it came to advertising in the New-London Gazette. Of the more than twenty newspapers published in the colonies in 1767, the New-London Gazette and Hartford’s Connecticut Courant carried the least advertising, often half a dozen or fewer total notices. Even the Providence Gazette, which experienced a dearth of advertising in the winter of 1766 and 1767, usually filled a page or more with advertisements repeated from earlier issues, but the printers of the New-London Gazette and the Connecticut Courant did not adopt that strategy. Visually, both newspapers from Connecticut stood in stark contrast to their counterparts published in other colonies. Other eighteenth-century newspapers overflowed with advertising, often to the extent that printers distributed supplements devoted exclusively to paid notices of all sorts.

In general, advertisements for consumer goods and services manifested dual purposes in early America. They did more than merely announce the availability of various wares. Instead, advertisers sought to incite demand among potential customers, fueling a consumer revolution that did not emerge from incipient demand alone. In the process of generating demand, advertisers also engaged in competition with others in the same occupation. At least this is the story the Adverts 250 Project tells almost every day. It is a story that flows naturally from the Pennsylvania Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, from the Boston Post-Boy and the New-York Mercury, each of them filled with advertisements, but not from the New-London Gazette or the Connecticut Courant.

What explains the differences? Was advertising primarily an urban phenomenon in the decade prior to the American Revolution? Do other factors explain the relative scarcity of advertising in some, but not all, newspapers published outside the largest cities? This project grew out of a dissertation that examined advertising in eighteenth-century Philadelphia. Consulting as many newspapers from as many places as possible raises new questions and suggests that previous conclusions merit moderation.