18C Georgia Shopkeeper Mary Hughes advertises to Women Customers

 October 1, 1766 This post is from The Adverts 250 Project which is conducted by Carl Robert Keyes, professor of history at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Students from Colonial America, Revolutionary America, Research Methods, & Public History courses at Assumption University serve as guest curators for the Adverts 250 Project. 

 18C Georgia Shopkeeper Mary Hughes advertises to Women Customers

GUEST CURATOR: Nicholas Commesso

Georgia Gazette (October 1, 1766).

“MARY HUGHES, Takes this Method to inform the Ladies.”

My final post as guest curator introduces the first advertisement by a female entrepreneur I saw in the newspapers I read through. In the Georgia Gazette, Mary Hughes “Takes this Method to inform the Ladies” that she offered an extensive list of goods specifically for women, notably wax and pearl earrings, garnet necklaces, ribbons, “stomachers” (which were “the early ancestors of the corset” and “essential part of a woman’s wardrobe”), and much more. Despite other advertisements catering primarily to men, with a few products aimed for women included, Mary Hughes’ advertisement was aimed solely at women.

This short advertisement ended with Hughes explaining that “she proposes to carry on the millenary business.” A milliner specialized in making women’s hats. Based on the goods listed in her advertisement, it seemed she had all the imported materials necessary to become a continued success! To make that happen, she needed customers. Hughes’ message went on to explain that she would be “very much obliged to those ladies who will grant her their favours.” To me, it seems that this last invitation had a sense of desperation. Perhaps that was not the case; perhaps it is just the formal language that makes it so much different from modern advertisements. Today, I believe this would sound more like a request for charity rather than generating business for her shop.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes

I’m both surprised and not surprised that this was the first advertisement for consumer goods and services that Nick encountered during his week as guest curator. I’m not surprised because such advertisements by female entrepreneurs were often rare. They certainly appeared in disproportionately low numbers compared to the number of women that historians know operated their own shops or provided other services in eighteenth-century America, especially in urban ports.

On the other hand, advertisements placed by women were present in colonial newspapers. That Nick did not encounter any others earlier in the week says something about what often comes down to serendipity in the research process. Women did place newspaper advertisements in the 1760s, but they were less likely to do so than their male counterparts. As a result, some issues occasionally featured greater numbers of advertisements by women, while others were completely devoid of marketing efforts conducted by women. Chance, as much as any other factor, explains why Nick did not encounter advertisements by women in any of the other newspapers he consulted this week.

Historians have to work with the sources available to us. We tell the stories that the documents allow us to tell, not always the stories that we would like to tell or that we wish the documents would allow us to tell. Uncovering the history of women in the colonial marketplace and, especially, the history of women in eighteenth-century advertising requires special attention and effort. As often as possible, I select advertisements placed by women to feature on the Adverts 250 Project, both as a matter of principle and as an informal part of my methodology. Women’s participation in the marketplace as producers and retailers was already underrepresented in the public prints in the eighteenth century. I do not wish to compound the problem by overlooking their commercial notices when they did appear.

As a result, I especially appreciate that Nick selected Mary Hughes’ advertisement to feature and analyze. He certainly had other choices for today, but by telling a story that he had not yet told he joined other historians in the endeavor to include women in our narratives of the past.

18C American Woman - Mrs Joseph Reade

1749-1752 John Wollaston 1733-1767 Mrs Joseph Reade Met

18C American Woman - Millicent Conway Gordon 1727-1748

1750 John Hesselius 1728-1778 Millicent Conway Gordon1727-1748 Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Milicent Agatha Conway (1727-1748) was born in Lancaster, Virginia, her father was Edwin Conway

(1681–1763) & her mother was Anne Ball (1686-1764). She married James Gordon III (1714-1768), who was born in Sheepbridge, Newry, Down, Ireland, on March 28, 1742, in Lancaster, Virginia. They had 4 children during their marriage. She died as a young mother on February 2, 1748, in Lancaster, Virginia, at the age of 21. Milicent Conway Gordon was the 1st wife of James Gordon III & the mother of Ann (Nancy) & Sarah (Sallie) Gordon & babies Agatha & a boy who both died as infants.. She died in 1748 indicating that this is a post-mortem portrait of her. Of the 5 Gordon family portraits painted by Hesselius, this is the only one signed & dated on the front of the canvas.

Here Milicent Agatha Conway is portrayed wearing a blue dress with a red underskirt. She has a gold tasseled cord around her waist & pearls at her elbows. Her right hand rests on a table. Her left hand points downwards. A red curtain is on her right & is wrapped around a column & over the top of the table. John Hesselius signed & dated the painting on the right side of the canvas next to her left elbow. See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters & Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 255-256.

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture tells us that the, "Gordon portraits depict the family of an Ulster merchant & planter of Scottish origin who emigrated to Lancaster County in 1738. Through trade with merchants in the British Islands & the West Indies, voracious land purchasing, & active public service, James Gordon quickly rose to prominence, which he celebrated in 1751 by commissioning a sizeable group of large, expensive portraits of himself, his successive wives, his 3 children, & his brother who had emigrated with him. Posed in contemporary clothing before grandiose, artificial settings of an outdated 17C portrait tradition, the sitters seem provincial. The commission for the Gordon portraits seems to have resulted simply from the sudden availability in Virginia in 1751 & 1752 of artists John Hesselius or Robert Feke. Both appeared in the colony at this time..."

Artist John Hesselius (1728-1778) was one of the major American-born artists working in the Middle Colonies & the South in the third quarter of the 18C. The son of Gustavus Hesselius (1682-1755), a Swedish portrait painter who came to America in 1711.  His father was Gustavus Hesselius painted mostly in Maryland & Pennsylvania. John was probably born in Philadelphia. His earliest signed work is dated 1750.  It seems likely that Gustavus Hesselius was John Hesselius’s first instructor. John Hesselius also studied with Robert Feke & his early portraits are stylistically more similar to Feke’s. Hesselius latest signed work dates to 1777.

During his career, Hesselius traveled extensively in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, & possibly in New Jersey. His work seems to have been confined to portraits. All known examples are in oil on canvas, & there is little reason to suspect that he deviated from this practice. He worked exclusively in the late English Baroque & English Rococo traditions of painting, & his style shows the influence of Robert Feke & John Wollaston more strongly than that of his father.

Hesselius married Mary Young Woodward, the widow of Henry Woodward, in 1763, & after that date his energies were divided between his art & the management of his plantation near Annapolis, Maryland. He was also active in the religious affairs of St. Anne’s Parish in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. His interests appear to have been many, & as an artist & landowner he associated with most of the leading citizens of the colony. Hesselius contributed to American painting, & he extended & modified the English tradition of painting in the Colonies.