The Pennsylvania Gazette
Number 1513
December 27, 1757
Looking at newspapers that were read back in the 1700s is so fascinating to me. It is so interesting to see what people were worrying about in those days, what they were interested in, and what scientific advancements they had made. I still find it interesting that colleges in the United States were founded long before the Revolution. That people were going to schools that are renowned today, since the late 1600s, early 1700s. One of the excerpts in the paper summarizes a lecture that was given at the University of Pennsylvania. It is introduced with the amusing title, “For the Entertainment of the Curious.” It discusses the known aspects of electricity that, once harnessed, could be extremely useful to humans. It’s weird to think that the importance of education and progress was stressed even back then. I also find it strange that the article speaks of the basic fundamental properties of electricity in general, and it is with the use of electricity that I am able to find this newspaper and read it and discuss matters pertaining to the different parts. The paper opens with a piece about the basic layout of a new magazine that will be published starting in January 1758. The first half of the new magazine will discuss the history pertaining to the establishment of the colonies as well as other historical events that occurred leading up to the “present.” Once again the importance of education is highlighted as the author of the piece attempts to convince people to subscribe to his magazine: “to satisfy the public that even this New World is not destitute of Learning and Learned Men…and our Youth…will be naturally allured to improve themselves in Knowledge and polite Literature.” The importance of truth and character is often repeated in the description of this upcoming magazine. This is a nice change to much of the trash and garbage that is printed by popular magazines today which are filled with assumptions and speculations of the rich and famous. Much like the newspapers we see today, there is a lot of information in the Gazette pertaining to other parts of the world, particularly to London. There are speeches and explanations of laws and letters from other important people, not living in the colonies. I think it would be extremely difficult to get word about the happenings occurring overseas and thus, the reporting must have been way after the actual occurrence that took place. This is a strange thought as we live in a world where it takes only a split second for an event to occur before it goes viral. There is also an absurd amount of poetry published within the Gazette. I don’t mind, I like poetry, but I don’t think that the everyday person views poetry as a sense of entertainment, unless they really like English or are English majors. The last page of the Gazette is filled with advertisements, which is not unlike the papers we see today. I sincerely enjoyed reading this paper from the past. Some parts were really difficult to read due to ink smudges, differences in spelling, and formal and eloquent diction. The “s” also looked like an “f” which stumped me a few times as well.
