A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches later this month, we’re displaying an edition of the Old Colony Memorial and Plymouth County Advertiser in our Collection Spotlight case. Printed on October 26, 1822, this newspaper includes a proclamation for an upcoming Day of Thanksgiving that was issued by Governor John Brooks on October 18, 1822. The proclamation establishes Thursday, December 5 as a day of “Public Thanksgiving and Praise” throughout the Commonwealth.

The proclamation is printed on the far-left column of text

Our broadside collection includes a number of proclamations issued by Massachusetts Governors dating from 1779 to 1902, as well as a few more recent proclamations issued by Governor Baker. Broadsides are large single sheet publications, with writing printed only on the front. They were ephemeral in nature, with the purpose of spreading news or advertisements, and were commonly found in use through the 1800s. Thanksgiving Day proclamations would have been printed as broadsides and then sent to town government or religious officials to share with their constituents and parishioners. We’ve previously written about and displayed the 1783 Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by John Hancock, but we’ve not previously shared a Thanksgiving Day proclamation that was printed in the newspaper. The publishing of the proclamation in local newspapers would have helped to ensure that word of the Day of Thanksgiving would spread throughout the Commonwealth. The version we’ve displayed is from the Old Colony Memorial, a newspaper which began publication the same year as this proclamation, in 1822, and continues today. And it is timely for the season that the newspaper we are sharing is one that was published in Plymouth County.

As stated in the proclamation, this state-issued Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer establishes that, “The people of every religious denomination are requested to assemble in their respective places of public worship on that day, unitedly to express to Almighty God a deep and grateful sense of the manifold favors and blessings, which He has been graciously pleased to vouchsafe to us.” Those who celebrate Thanksgiving today tend to focus on gathering and giving thanks over a large meal, while the purpose of Days of Thanksgiving and Prayer described in 19th-century proclamations like this one focused on parishioners joining together in religious services. Though there are differences in how we celebrate Thanksgiving today verses what is described here (notably, the proclamation ends with the line, "the people are requested to abstain from all labor and recreation incompatible with the religious services of the day" so those of you planning Thanksgiving football games would have been out of luck), the sentiment of expressing gratitude is the same today is it was in 1822, whether it happens in a religious sanctuary, your dining room, or elsewhere. 

The Old Colony Memorial version of the Thanksgiving Day proclamation will be on display in our reading room through December 3, so be sure to visit us to take a look. The proclamation comprises just a few columns of the displayed newspaper pages, so you’ll also get to see other news and advertisements from 1822. Our Special Collections holdings also includes the 1822 broadside version of this proclamation, which can be found here. On your computer or mobile device, it would be easier to read the full text of the proclamation in the broadside version rather than the newspaper version. And while you're there, you can explore the full collection of proclamations in our digital repository. If you'd like to see just the Thanksgiving proclamations, use the search feature (indicated with a magnifying glass) and type in “Thanksgiving” and “Proclamations.”

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian