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Front page of The Pennsylvania Gazette, December 12, 1747.
flipFlip to Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris. . . for . . . 1748 (Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin,[1747]).
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Photograph of front page

Credit: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

First published by Benjamin Franklin in 1729, The Pennsylvania Gazette soon became the most successful newspaper in the Britain’s North American colonies. Although primarily a commercial paper, Franklin also used it as a vehicle for his own interests and causes. This issue included the "Proclamation for a General Fast" that Franklin wrote for the Pennsylvania Assembly and publicized a "Scheme of the Philadelphia Lottery" to raise money for the defense of Philadelphia.

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