Advertising in The Dawn – Everybody Astonished

For seventeen years Louisa Lawson wrote, edited, printed and published one of Australia’s first journals for women, called The Dawn (1888-1905).

It’s a fascinating journal full or articles advocating for, and of interest to, women. But just as importantly, a study of advertisements in The Dawn provides important clues about daily life in 1890s Sydney, and about women’s purchases and aspirations.

Shopping catalogue

Published monthly, fully one-third of every edition was dedicated to advertisements. In this way The Dawn also served as a shopping catalogue, especially for women in the bush.

The Dawn offered ladies’ wire dress stands. Caber & Dillon’s “Glove House of the Colony”. Pianos and organs, from Messrs Bruce and Massey. An agency, run by Mrs Mead, for families seeking governesses and tutors. Jewellers. Importers of books and stationery. A dental surgeon and, separately, a photographer. David Jones & Co placed a half-page advertisement in the first edition for real and imitation furs: coats, collars and muffs. They would remain an important advertiser for years. Dr Waugh’s Baking Powder also advertised in almost every edition, often with full page spreads, for the life of the journal.

No quacks!

From the very first edition, though, Louisa steadfastly refused to accept advertisements from wine and spirit merchants, tobacconists or from those she considered quacks, male or female.

This latter group advertised widely in other journals, including The Bulletin, euphemistically selling pills and potions to remedy male impotence (“MANHOOD. Health, strength and vigour restored”) or to induce abortions (“For females of all ages these Pills are invaluable as a few doses of them carry off all humours and bring about all that is required. No female should be without them. There is no medicine to be found equal to BEECHAM’s PILLS for removing any obstruction or irregularity of the system”).

Louisa’s boycott was a bold, principled policy. The owner of one of the largest papers in Sydney told Louisa he could not afford to take such a moral stand, but The Dawn was profitable from the first issue.

Women at work

As well as depicting what women liked to buy, The Dawn also offers fascinating insights into the working lives of women. Advertisements were included for organisations like The Ladies Typewriting Association, managed by a Mrs Armitage, which provided legal, medical and literary copying. The ‘copyists’ could be hired by day or the hour and the Association also taught typewriting and shorthand.

In the same February 1890 edition – and in a commentary item, rather than a paid advertisement – Louisa listed some of the ‘Institutions in Sydney for the benefit of Working Women’. These included The Governess’ Institute, at 108 Bathurst Street, which assisted women to find employment, particularly those who were newly arrived in the colony and friendless.

Another was a Nurses’ Home at 135 Darlington Road, where the matron provided ‘a charming home for her sister nurses in the intervals of employment’. While the women were ‘in a situation’ – that is, working in a private home to take care of a patient – they paid the matron of the Nurses’ Home a retainer of five shillings per week, but then only paid ten shillings per week while residing at the home, between jobs. Here then, is an early version of today’s gig economy with nurses (today we might call them carers) living precariously, moving from employment in one home to the next, and requiring inexpensive short-term accommodation during the gaps between ‘situations’.

New findings

A copy of The Dawn cost three pence, and an annual subscription was a modest three shillings, and so a substantial component of The Dawn’s profitability was drawn from external advertisers.

However I’ve discovered something rarely mentioned by other Louisa scholars:  in almost every edition, a selection of advertisements were placed by Louisa herself. Through them, Louisa sold by mail-order a wide range of household goods.

Paper dressmaking patterns were a regular offering, often for children’s clothes. Given Louisa’s access to a printing press, these were a sensible choice that cost her almost nothing to reproduce. The other Louisa Lawson scholars do sometimes mention these.

But she also sold packets of a dozen ‘white muslin, hemstitched Handkerchiefs, good quality’. Bonnets trimmed with ‘the finest quality velveteen’. A school kit for boys, including a writing case, blotting paper, pens and pencils and other related items, very suitable for gifts, could be ‘sent post free’ for two shillings. Christmas cards; dolly’s wardrobe; a set of collar and cuffs; ‘flounced zephyr underskirts, well made, any length, half a crown each’; a dozen lace remnants for a shilling. (All offered in The Dawn, November 1897 except the bonnet, which was offered in The Dawn, June 1894.)

‘Mother also started a ready-made clothing department,’ writes Louisa’s daughter Gertrude, ‘which was kept very busy by the bush customers. I think we sold some thousands of a certain house maids’ dress famous for its make and durability.’  As to who was actually making up these dresses and packets? Gertrude never says and I suspect much of the work fell to her. ‘Thousands’ of house maids’ dresses seems unlikely but perhaps it felt that way to the person having to make them. It’s equally possible, though, that some or all of the dressmaking was outsourced – to local women, or to Louisa’s sisters (she was one of twelve siblings).

Everybody astonished

The handkerchiefs also proved surprisingly popular. ‘EVERYBODY ASTONISHED’ ran the outsized headline, ‘at the Six Choice Coloured Border Linen School Handkerchiefs sent post free for One Shilling in stamps. 635 Packets sold during the past month. We have just secured another shipment of 500 dozen. Send for a packet at once. Address all orders to M. Wynn, 26 Jamieson Street, Sydney.’ (The Dawn, Oct 1890, page 3)

As advertising copy, it’s marketing genius. Who could resist sending for a packet ‘at once’?

The contact address for these tempting morsels was always the same as for The Dawn office and while the name of the contact person changed from time to time, she usually had the last name of Wynn – which was Louisa’s mother’s maiden name. Given that Louisa had no Wynn cousins, the most likely contender for the role of Miss Wynn was the then teenaged Gertrude (who was variously L. Wynn, Millie Wynn, Miss M. Wynn and at least once, tellingly, Gertrude Wynn).

Louisa Lawson, it seems, was more than trail-blazing advocate and journalist. She was also an entrepreneurial businesswoman always on the look out for new and better ways to make money. Honestly, the more I discover, the more the fact that she was also Henry Lawson’s mother seems one of the least interesting things about her!

For further information

• Copies of The Dawn can be viewed online via Trove.
• For more information about Louisa Lawson, including links to more posts like this one, click here.