[FRENCH & INDIAN WAR]. Coverage of the Albany Congress featured in The Pennsylvania Gazette. No. 1326. Philadelphia, PA: [Benjamin Franklin], 22 May 1754.

4pp., folio, 14 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. This issue was originally produced as a 6-page newspaper with the last page (page 5/6) being solely an advertising supplement. Thus, this is a 4-page issue, lacking the Ben Franklin imprint colophon, which was located at the bottom of the advertising leaf.

With inside page news of the upcoming Albany Congress, a meeting of representatives sent by the legislatures of seven of the thirteen British North American Colonies to discuss better relations with the Native American tribes and common defensive measures against the French threat from Canada in the opening stages of the French and Indian War. Delegates did not have the goal of creating an American nation; rather, they were colonists with the more limited mission of pursuing a treaty with the Mohawk and other major Iroquois tribes.
This was the first time colonists had met together, which provided a model that came into use in setting up the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 as well as the First Continental Congress in 1774, which were preludes to the American Revolution.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.