A compilation of advertisements from eighteenth-century newspapers relating to the arts and crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland, and South Carolina, grouped by trade. Includes painters and miniaturists, engravers, silversmiths, pewterers, potters, glass makers, cabinet makers, clock and watch makers, builders and architects, house and sign painters, and stone cutters.

"Benjamin Franklin was not a gambling man. But at the end of his illustrious life, the Founder allowed himself a final wager on the survival of the United States: a gift of two thousand pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump-start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin's inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would...