Broadside (printing)

The historical type of broadsides, designed to be plastered onto walls, were ephemera, i.e., temporary documents created for a specific purpose and intended to be thrown away. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America. They were often advertisements, but could also be used for news information or proclamations.

Broadsides were a very popular medium for printing topical ballads starting in the 16th century. Broadside ballads were printed on thin sheets of paper and sold in the Victorian era London for a penny or half-penny. Broadsides were generally folded twice to make small pamphlets or chapbooks. Collections of songs in chapbooks were known as garlands. Broadside ballads lasted longer in Ireland, and although never produced in such huge numbers in North America, they were significant in the eighteenth century and provided an important medium of propaganda, on both sides, in the American War of Independence.[2]

Broadsides were commonly sold at public executions in the United Kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries. These were often produced by printers who specialised in them. They were typically illustrated by a crude picture of the crime, a portrait of the criminal, or a generic woodcut of a hanging taking place. There would be a written account of the crime and of the trial and often the criminal's confession of guilt. A doggerel verse warning others to not follow the executed person's example, to avoid their fate, was another common feature.[3]

By the mid-19th century, the advent of newspapers and inexpensive novels resulted in the demise of the street literature broadside.

One classic example of a broadside used for proclamations is the Dunlap broadside, which was the first publication of the United States Declaration of Independence, printed on the night of July 4, 1776 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia in an estimated 200 copies.[4] An example of a broadside used for news information is the first published account of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, printed on December 30, 1776 by unknown.[5]

Today, broadside printing is done by many smaller printers and publishers as a fine art variant, with poems often being available as broadsides, intended to be framed and hung on the wall. Broadsides pasted on walls are still used as a form of mass communication in Haredi Jewish communities, where they are known by the Yiddish term "pashkevil" (pasquil), even if they are not attacks or lampoons.[6]

• Broadsheet
• Poster
• Dunlap broadside
• Broadside ballad
• Phoenix Broadsheets

• A Book of Broadsheets; with an introduction by Geoffrey Dawson. London: Methuen, 1928 ("a reproduction ... of the pocket literature provided by The Times for the men in the trenches during the early days of the War ... every item in it was printed in the autumn of the year 1915 in the form of a broadsheet ..."—p. xi)

• English Broadside Ballad Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Modern American Poetry Collection at Ball State University Archives and Special Collections Research Center
• Broadsided Contemporary, original broadsides published monthly online and posted around the US and abroad
• Poetry Center of Chicago Broadsides – fine letter press broadsides
• Green Linden Press Poetry Broadsides

Historical broadsides

• Library of Congress – Three Centuries of Broadsides and other Printed Ephemera
• University of Georgia – Historical broadsides from 1849–1989
• Wake Forest University – Confederate Broadside Poetry Collection
• 1,800 Scottish broadsides from 1650–1910 at National Library of Scotland
• Broadsides at the Boston Athenaeum

Crime broadsides

• Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library; a digitized collection of 500 crime and execution broadsides, from 1707 to 1891.