Research Guides: HIST 301: Historian's Craft (Homza, Spring 2025): Broadsides

Databases

America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
American history, literature, culture, and daily life. Choose this database to search the following as one file: American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, 1760-1900; Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) 1670-1800; Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) 1652-1800. Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) 1801-1819; Supplement from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) 1801-1819. Coverage: Varies.
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable facsimile images that capture daily life in America. Wide variety of items, including clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, theater and music programs, stock certificates, advertisements, menus, and social invitations. Coverage: 1760-1900.
Everyday Life & Women in America This link opens in a new window
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. Documents include legal materials and court cases, broadsides, court records, maps, pamphlets, lists of enslaved peoples, ship's logs, registers, and reports. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.

Finding Broadsides in the Catalog and Worldcat

Use Broadside* as a keyword term, limit to the period of interest, and add extra keywords as needed.

Example: In the catalog, Broadside* AND children limited 1850-1865
Note that a majority of materials are from the database American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1749-1900. In this case, it's best to search there directly so you can make use of their extra filters.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Materials held by thousands of libraries in the US and abroad. Books, websites, computer programs, films, slides, journals, magazines, papers, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, newspapers, sound recordings, videotapes, etc. Coverage: Before 1000BC-present.

In worldcat, because there is so much material, search Broadsides as a subject and limit by publication date, adding extra keyword and subjects.

Example. A search for broadsides (subject) and education (keyword) limited to 1850-1870 yields over 300 results, include an 1851 broadside for "equal school rights" in Massachusetts
Not all these broadsides will be accessible.

If you find a broadside of interest in WorldCat, search online to see if it is digitalized. If not, go to the website of the library that holds the item and see if ILL is an option.

Example: This broadside is not digitized but can be ordered via ILL
This broadside advertising Wesleyan university in 1858 has not been scanned but a scan can be requested from Yale Libraries

Web Resources (Examples)

Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera (Library of Congress)
There are more than 28,000 items in the collection with 10,172 available online.
Duke University, Broadsides and Ephemera Collection
The Broadsides and Ephemera Collection contains broadsides, pamphlets, form letters, posters, newspapers, tickets, and other short printed items dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth century (with the majority dating from the nineteenth century). Truly an interdisciplinary collection, the Broadsides and Ephemera Collection includes materials related to political campaigns, politics, theater, dance, popular entertainments, immigration and emigration, advertising, travel, expositions, military recruitment and campaigns, as well as issues related to race, class, gender, and religion. Over 5,000 materials
American Broadsides & Ephemera
American Antiquarian: Offers 30,000 searchable images of printed items never intended to last. The remarkably diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports.
Brown University -- Harris Broadsides
Broadsides are single-sheet publications, often issued as ephemera or announcements. The Harris Broadsides Collection is a comprehensive collection of American poetry published in broadside format from colonial times to the present. The collection offers materials covering a broad spectrum of American life, and includes poetry of every description: 18th and 19th century ballads, verse describing newsworthy events, poetic effusions of sentimentality and patriotism, comic verse, and much more. When completed, this digital project will include over 20,000 titles.
Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project
American Antiquarian Society's project to provide digital facsimiles of 18th and 19th century broadsides with ballads. Essays discussing material and content available.