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The Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the United States’ most prominent newspapers from before the American Revolution all the way through to 1815.

The paper was first published by Samuel Keimer under the name The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette, reflecting Keimer’s plans to print out a page of Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in each and every edition of the paper.

Franklin the Printer

In 1729, Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith bought the paper and shortened its name to simply The Pennsylvania Gazette and dropped Keimer’s plan to print out the Cyclopaedia. Franklin not only printed the paper but also often contributed pieces to the paper under various aliases. The Gazette rapidly grew to be the most popular newspaper in the colonies.

The Pennsylvania Gazette articles available to Accessible Archives subscribers are divided into four separate folios. The periods covered by these folios include:

• Folio I – (1728 – 1750) “Benjamin Franklin`s Newspaper”
• Folio II – (1751 – 1765) “The French & Indian War”
• Folio III – (1766 – 1783) “The American Revolution”
• Folio IV – (1784 – 1800) “The New Republic”

In 1752, Franklin published a third-person account of his pioneering kite experiment in the The Pennsylvania Gazette, without mentioning that he himself had performed it.

Franklin and Meredith took the work of keeping the colonies informed about what was going on in the East Coast colonies seriously as you can see in this report from Boston from 1763.

News from Boston – August 25, 1763

Thursday last the Province Sloop Massachusetts, Captain Saunders, arrived here from the Eastward, in which came Meserwanderomet, Ectambuit, and Sawro Woraromogasa, Indians of Penobscot. And on Monday and Tuesday last his Excellency the Governor, in Council, had a Conference with them at the Council Chamber.

The Conference related chiefly to the proper Methods of Trade to be carried on between the English and the Indians. (more…)

The weight of evidence, official and unofficial, direct and collateral, goes to substantiate the claim of Philadelphia to be the mother-city of Masonry in America.

We do not know the date or the circumstances of the formation of the first lodge, but it is reasonably inferred that some of the brethren, who had been initiated in England or elsewhere, met together more than a century and a half ago in this city, and resolved to establish an organization.

Tun Tavern

It is, however, positive that, on June 5, 1730, the Duke of Norfolk, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, issued a deputation to Daniel Cox (sometimes spelled Daniel Coxe), of New Jersey, as Provincial Grand Master of the provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

This document speaks of application having been made by residents in the provinces, which proves that prior to 1730 there were Masons in Philadelphia. Moreover, Benjamin Franklin, in his Pennsylvania Gazette, of Dec. 8, 1730, said there were then several lodges of Freemasons erected in the provinces. (more…)

The Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the United States’ most prominent newspapers from 1728—before the time period of the American Revolution—until 1800.

Published in Philadelphia from 1728 through 1800, The Pennsylvania Gazette is considered The New York Times of the 18th century.

This newspaper, among other firsts, would print the first political cartoon in America, Join, or Die, authored by Franklin himself.

Ben Franklin's Join or Die Cartoon - May 9, 1754

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE COLLECTION

The Pennsylvania Gazette Collection, while almost completely composed of articles from The Pennsylvania Gazette, also contains approximately 2900 articles from the publication the Pennsylvania Packet and a dozen or so articles from the Maryland Gazette.

Fools Die for Want of Wisdom

On Wednesday last was shot by a centinel of the guards at Prospect Hill, Lieutenant Brown, of the 21st regiment, British.

He was riding in a chaise between two women of (easy) virtue, belonging to this town, and it being contrary to general orders that women should pass the lines, it was therefore the centry’s’ duty to stop him.

The unfortunate officer treated the centry with contempt, insisted on passing without giving any reasons for so doing; upon which the centry, after repeated orders to the officer to stop, shot him through the head.

“Fools die for want of wisdom.”

Collection: The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728–1800)
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet 1778-07-04
Title: Boston, June 22 (Fools Die for Want of Wisdom)

I was reading some newspaper articles from my old stomping grounds, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the Pennsylvania Gazette when I came across this advertisement from February 5th, 1761.

One of the things that caught my attention is that more than twice as many words were used to describe the runaway’s clothes and horse than the servant himself. Also note that the ten pound reward is only for the recovery of both the twenty-seven year old Irish Servant Man and the horse he rode during his escape.

Although, you could have still gotten eight pounds for James Hamilton (or Donning) alone or forty schillings for the horse.

TEN POUNDS Reward

RUN away, last Night, from John Hill, of Bucks County, an Irish Servant Man, named James Hamilton, but goes sometimes by the Name of James Donning, about 5 Feet 7 Inches high; aged about 27 Years, of a brown Complexion, a little Pockfretten, speaks with the Brogue, talks fast, and is very complaisant; wore his own Hair, but may cut it off: Had on when he went away, an old light coloured Thickset Coat, with a small Cape, faced with Velvet; a new red Everlasting Jacket, old Leather Breeches, check Shirt, light grey Worsted Stockings, Calfskin Shoes, plain Buckles, and an old Hat. He also carried off with him, a dark coloured cut Wig, and a new Thirty Shilling Hat, which it is probable he will wear; also a dark coloured Bearskin Great coat, with broad white Metal Buttons, a Pair of Calfskin Boots, a white Shirt, a Pair of grey Worsted Gloves, a light Fowling piece, and a white English Blanket. He took with him also a bay Mare, fourteen Hands high, paces a Travel, hand gallops and trots, carries lofty, branded on the near fore Shoulder with T P, one hind Foot white, with a Leather Hunting saddle, and a new Biddle [Bridle], with slip Reins. Whoever takes up and secures said man and Mare, &c. so that the Owners may have them again, shall have the above Reward of Ten Pounds, or Eight Pounds for the Man, and Forty Shillings for the Mare, paid by me JOHN HILL.

N.B. He was seen at the White Horse, in the Valley, and pretended to be going to Carlisle with Goods.

In Philadelphia, in 1830, Louis Antoine Godey (1804-1878) began publishing Godey’s Lady’s Book which he designed specifically to attract the growing audience of American women.

The magazine was intended to entertain, inform and educate the women of America. Gradually the periodical matured into an important literary magazine containing extensive book reviews and works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and many other celebrated 19th century authors who regularly furnished the magazine with essays, poetry and short stories.

Godey’s Lady’s Book also was a vast reservoir of handsome illustrations which included hand-colored fashion plates, mezzotints, engravings, woodcuts and, ultimately, chromolithographs.  Today Godey’s Lady’s Book is considered to be among the most important resources of 19th century American life and culture. This Accessible Archives collection provides the complete run of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and is the only one containing the color plates as they originally appeared.

The Liberator was a weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison in Boston, Massachusetts.  On January 1, 1831 the first issue of The Liberator appeared with the motto: “Our country is the world—our countrymen are mankind.” Garrison was a journalistic crusader who advocated the immediate emancipation of all slaves and gained a national reputation for being one of the most radical of American abolitionists. The Liberator denounced the Compromise of 1850, condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, damned the Dred Scott decision and hailed John Brown’s raid as “God’s method of dealing retribution upon the head of the tyrant.” The slaveholders in the South demanded the end of the incendiary paper and the state of Georgia offered a $5,000 reward for Garrison’s capture. The Liberator was a mighty force from the beginning and became the most influential newspaper in the antebellum antislavery crusade.

After the end of the Civil War in December, 1865, Garrison published his last issue of The Liberator, announcing “my vocation as an abolitionist is ended.” After thirty-five years and 1,820 issues, Garrison had not failed to publish a single issue.

The Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the United States’ most prominent newspapers from 1728—before the time period of the American Revolution—until 1800. Published in Philadelphia from 1728 through 1800, The Pennsylvania Gazette is considered The New York Times of the 18th century.  The Pennsylvania Gazette provides the reader with a first-hand view of colonial America, the American Revolution and the New Republic, and offers important social, political and cultural perspectives of each of the periods. Thousands of articles, editorials, letters, news items and advertisements cover the Western Hemisphere, from the Canadian Maritime Provinces through the West Indies and North and South America, presenting a detailed glimpse of issues and lifestyles of the times. Also included is the full-text of such important writings as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Letters from a Farmer, Thomas Payne’s Common Sense, The Federalist Papers and much more. It is claimed that the publication later reemerged as The Saturday Evening Post.