February 22, 1776

If you dropped something while walking around Philadelphia in 1776, one of your options to try to find it was to put an advertisement in the newspaper. In February 1776, a family offered a $1 reward for the recovery of a necklace, lost “on Sunday last, between Vine-street and the Drawbridge.” The lost necklace was “a CHILD’S GOLD LOCKET,” marked with the child’s initials as well as the initials of the maker, on strands of “corral beads mixt with garnet.” It seems that the necklace fell off of the child’s neck.

Coral necklaces worn by children were believed to have protective qualities. Some children were even captured in family portraits wearing such necklaces. 

Charles Willson Peale, The Edward Lloyd Family, 1771, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

The Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne

ONE DOLLAR Reward.

WAS LOST, on Sunday last, between Vine-street and the Drawbridge, a CHILD’S GOLD LOCKET (marked M.W. maker’s name T.S.) with a necklace of corral beads mixt with garnet. Whoever has found the same, and will bring it to the printer, shall have the above reward.

Philadelphia, Feb. 20, 1776.