The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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the astronomical observations and weather predictions in an almanac favored
locally-produced versions. 8
The Philomath, or astronomical and astrological expert, calculated the signs
and meteorological information. In some cases, the same person also wrote the
accompanying verse and filler. In other almanacs, the printer himself added to the
basic calendar. Estimates on the correct time for planting and harvesting were
important for the farmer, but the almanac also functioned as an astrologer and
major source of entertainment for colonial Americans. Stowell suggested that for
most people, almanacs were the only secular information source, “The almanac was,
perforce, a miscellany: it was clock, calendar, weatherman, reporter, textbook,
preacher, guidebook, atlas, navigational aid, doctor, bulletin board, agricultural
advisor, and entertainer.” 9 Charles E. Clark suggested that in both England and
America, the almanacs were so popular that they “helped contribute to a fascination
with ‘time’ as an objective, measurable, uniformly flowing stream in which events
occurred.” 10 Useful information such as court dates and distances between cities was
included near the back of the small book. For many, “its margins served to
chronicle the first snow, the birth of a child, or an event of importance in the
community. Interleaved, it served many for diaries or account books.” Some were
bound together with extra blank pages for keeping notes or a diary at a time when
writing paper was scarce. Readers apparently often hung their almanacs by a peg
near the door, or by the fireplace, and almanacs may have been the main intellectual
exercise for farmers. For such a common little pamphlet, few have survived;
8 C. William Miller, Benjamin Franklin’s Printing, 1728-1766 (Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society, 1974), 12-139.
1977), ix.
culture.
9 Stowell, Early American Almanacs: The Colonial Weekday Bible (New York: Burt Franklin,
10 Clark, Public Prints, 217. This move towards linearity is an essential development of print