Coffee was mentioned in shop-keepers' announcements appearing in the
_Boston News Letter_ as early as 1714, and in other newspapers of the
colonies during the eighteenth century, usually being offered for sale
at retail with strange companions. In 1748 "tea, coffee, indigo,
nutmegs, sugar, etc.," were advertised for sale at a shop in Dock
Square, Boston. The following advertisement from the _Columbian
Centinel_, Boston, April 26, 1794, is typical:

GROCERIES AT NO. 44 _CORNHILL_ Norton and Holyoke Respectfully
inform their friends and the publick, that they have for sale, at
their Shop, No. 44 _Cornhill_, formerly the Post-Office.

A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF GROCERIES among which are the following
articles: Teas, Spices, Coffee, Cotton, Indigo, Starch, Chocolate,
Raisins, Figs, Almonds, and Olives; West India Rum, best French
Brandy, excellent Cherry Wine, pure as imported, etc., etc., all
which they will sell as low as any store in Boston.

_Any article not liked will be taken again, and the money
returned._

It appears that the first advertisement dealing with coffee alone was
published in the _New York Daily Advertiser_ for February 9, 1790; and
this was primarily an advertisement of a wholesale coffee roasting
factory rather than an advertisement of coffee per se.

This advertisement, and a later one published in Loudon's _New York
Packet_ for January 1, 1791, also of a coffee manufactory, are
reproduced herewith.

Not until package coffee began to come into vogue in the sixties was
there any change in the stereotyped business-card form followed by all
dealers in coffee. And even then the monotony was varied only by
inserting the brand name, such as "Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java
Coffee. Put up only by Lewis A. Osborn"; "Government coffee in tin foil
pound papers put out by Taber & Place's Rubia Mills."

_Evolution of Coffee Advertising_

Real progress in coffee advertising, as in publicity for other lines of
trade and industry, began in the United States. Here too, it has been
brought to its lowest degradation and to its highest efficiency. The
entire process has taken something less than fifty years.

[Illustration: EARLY COFFEE ADVERTISING IN UNITED STATES

Printed in the _New York Packet_, January 1, 1791]

The first step forward was the picture handbill. The handbill, or
dodger, had been common enough in England and on the Continent, where,
for