Topic summary
Classified ads
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Classified advertising.
History
Handwritten classified ads, written by scribes and nailed to posts, began appearing in England in the 1600s. They were called si quis—meaning "if anybody knows of"—similar to notices posted in ancient Rome. In America, a 1704 ad in the first issue of The Boston News-Letter was written by the publisher: "To all persons who have any houses, lands, tenements, farms, ships, vessels, goods, wares or merchandises to be sold or let, may have the same inserted at a reasonable rate." The very earliest ads in the News-Letter were for lost anvils, stolen clothing, and Oyster Bay, NY real estate. "Lost and found" sections soon became common. By 1765, 11 of 13 colonies hosted 23 weekly newspapers whose back pages carried classified ads.