The Massachusetts Centinel. Wednesday, October 21, 1789.

$4,000.00

Item Number: 116337

Boston: Russell, Benjamin, October 21, 1789.

Number II, of Vol. XII of “the most influential and enterprising paper in Massachusetts after the Revolution”, Benjamin Russell’s Massachusetts Centinel, issued on Wednesday, October 21, 1789 (Hudson, 147). Folio, one page, folded. The issue includes front-page articles on recently enacted acts allowing compensation for Members of the Senate and House of Representatives and the temporary establishment of the Post-Office and appointment of a Post-Master General, both approved by Speaker of the House Frederick Augustus Muhlenburg, President George Washington and Vice President John Adams on September 22nd, 1789. The issue also includes sections on Foreign Intelligence, News From France, and advertisements for John & Thomas Armory & Co., Mr. Lewis Hayt’s Auction-Room, the Boston Book Store, Joshua Thomas’ Books and Stationary, lost and found ads, listings for ships and houses for rent, a daily almanac. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.

The Massachusetts Centinel was published in Boston on Wednesdays and Saturdays by Benjamin Russell between 1761 and 1845. Russell, a native of Boston, had been apprenticed to Isaiah Thomas, one of the most influential late eighteenth-century American printers and founder of the American Antiquarian Society. The paper was "the most influential and enterprising paper in Massachusetts after the Revolution" (Hudson, 147). In 1828, Russell sold the Centinel to Joseph T. Adams and Thomas Hudson and in 1840, the Centinel merged with a number of other Boston papers to form the Boston Semi-weekly Advertiser, which eventually became the Boston Herald.