{"id":4341,"date":"2019-08-31T22:02:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T02:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=4341"},"modified":"2019-09-08T14:02:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T18:02:31","slug":"buy-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/buy-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"Buy! Buy!!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The first Willistonian editors, 1881. (Click all images to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surely “cater to your customers” must be the most fundamental principle of marketing.\u00a0 When Williston Seminary’s campus newspaper, The Willistonian, <\/em>made its first appearance in March of 1881 (making it, 118 years later, the oldest continuously published secondary school paper in the United States), its student editors sought to finance their enterprise by selling advertising.\u00a0\u00a0 With a couple hundred teenage boys occupying the campus, local merchants sought to appeal to their wallets.\u00a0 Logically then, we can open a window into an 1880s adolescent’s mind by examining how, away from home and parental supervision, he wanted to spend his (or his father’s) money \u2014 or how local merchants wanted him to spend it.<\/p>\n

Early issues of The Willistonian<\/em> came in an advertising wrapper.\u00a0 The “front page” was actually inside.\u00a0 Because the paper was also sold by local merchants, a portion of the advertising was aimed at the general public.\u00a0 And industries like Glendale Elastic Fabrics \u2014 one of the late Samuel Williston’s enterprises \u2014 may have purchased space out of a sense of obligation to Samuel’s widow Emily, if not to the school.<\/p>\n

The advertisements below are selected from the first three years of The Willistonian, 1881-1884.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The front cover of the April 16, 1881 Willistonian — actually an advertising wrapper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Opposite Williston Seminary” meant Shop Row, on Main Street.\u00a0 C. S. Rust appealed to young men’s fashion sensibilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
May 7, 1881<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Shop Row, directly across from the campus, with the Methodist Church and Town Hall. Most of these buildings remain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

F. H. Putnam was also in Shop Row.\u00a0 But just as it is unlikely that dormitory residents were buying much wallpaper, it seems unlikely that kangaroos wore shoes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
April 16, 1881<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a somewhat idealized image of the campus as it looked in the early 1880s.\u00a0 North, Middle, and South Halls are in the foreground, left to right, with the gymnasium and tower in the background.\u00a0 These buildings stood opposite Shop Row and the Town Hall, in the photograph above.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Williston Seminary, lithograph, 1879.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the 1870s on, photography was all the rage.\u00a0 Students had formal portraits taken for class publications and far less formal photos taken whenever the occasion warranted.\u00a0 Richardson’s stamp appears on the back of many images from the period.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
May 28, 1881<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More photography, and opportunity for students to learn dancing and swordplay.\u00a0 There were all kinds of ways to impress young ladies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
May 7, 1881<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More essential services.\u00a0 Modern plumbing had not yet arrived in some of the Seminary buildings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
January 26, 1884<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 1884, the Seminary had contracted with a Northampton merchant to operate a school store on the premises.\u00a0 One wonders how nearby merchants reacted, the more so since the proprietor was offering incentives for Williston students to spend there.\u00a0 (This is, by the way, the earliest known mention of Shakespeare in any Williston document.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
January 26, 1884<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

High-wheeled bicycles were all the rage among young men.\u00a0 The modern bike, close to the ground, with wheels of equal size and gear-and-chain drive, would not catch on for another decade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
May 7, 1881<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cyclists from the 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
April 16, 1884<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your questions and comments are always welcome.\u00a0 Please use the form at bottom!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surely “cater to your customers” must be the most fundamental principle of marketing.\u00a0 When Williston Seminary’s campus newspaper, The Willistonian, made its first appearance in March of 1881 (making it, 118 years later, the oldest continuously published secondary school paper in the United States), its student editors sought to finance their enterprise by selling advertising.\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading Buy! Buy!!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[125,453,25],"tags":[523,26,203,156,51],"class_list":["post-4341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easthampton-history-2","category-student-life","category-williston-seminary","tag-advertising","tag-easthampton","tag-marketing","tag-shop-row","tag-willistonian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4374,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions\/4374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}