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.
This collection is part of Brown University Library, hosted by Brown University.

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Items in this collection

The booklover

The booklover

Brown University

1 broadsheet. In advertisement for Old Corner Book Shop, Providence, R.I.

The book shd. be a ball of light in one's hand

Ezra Pound. Printed in black and blue on heavy pale blue paper with deckled right and bottom edges. No other text except colophon. Colophon: Handset in Michelangelo and Weiss, and printed for Friends of Coffee House Press. Suggested publication date from online cataloging for a variant with colophon: Designed, handset, and printed for Friends of Coffee House Press during the winter of 1990.

The bonds

The bonds

Brown University

Poem imitating Poe's The bells, followed by prose attack on the banking system. Poem imitating Poe's The bells, followed by prose attack on the banking system. Poetry and prose. At head of text: Dedicated to Grover Cleveland, John Sherman, Amos J. Cummings and Secretary Carlisle, and with humble apologies to the shade of Edgar A. Poe. Printed in one and two columns. At end of text: From Bayonne Budget, April 21, 1894. Wm. Bradford DuBois.

The bold engineer

The bold engineer

Brown University

Tune: Young Lockinvar. Poetry in nine six-line stanzas printed in black within double line border. At head of title cut of booted elephant carrying banner bearing legend: Oh dear! Oh dear! What have we here! At end of text: O. H. S. Baltimore, Oct. 14th, 1861. According to Ellinger, p. 28, O.H.S. is one of N.G. Ridgely's pseudonyms.

The bold Bowery boy

The bold Bowery boy

Brown University

by Wm. Shepherd. Within border of type ornaments printed in two columns divided by rule. Woodcut engraving of man and woman at head of text in first column. "9" in upper right corner. Tune - "The bowld soldier boy." At end of text below border: Elton, 90 Nassau & 18 Division Street, New York. Elton is listed on 18 DIvision Street in 1841.

The boast of the lawless, or, The Neroite club

First, longer poem is boast of town militia or hunting club members, protected by town government, whose gunshots disturb Miss Smith; second poem calls for God's punishment on them. First, longer poem is boast of town militia or hunting club members, protected by town government, whose gunshots disturb Miss Smith; second poem calls for God's punishment on them. By Miss Caroline Smith. Printed in three columns divided by single lines. At end of text: Note--A petition was presented to the Selectmen .... Suggested range of publication dates from internal evidence.5RPB.

The blue Juniata

The blue Juniata

Brown University

Poetry. Printed in two columns within border of type ornaments. At head of text wood-engraving of Indians and white men fighting, captioned: 'Wild roved an Indian girl.' At head of title: Price two cents. At end of text: Published by I.H. Welton, No. 4 Walnut Street, Lowell. Poem in four stanzas. Author's name not on item. Probable range of dates from internal evidence; song first published in 1844.

The blue coat

The blue coat

Brown University

By Bishop Burgess, of Maine. Poem, in fifteen verses. Name of author at head of text. At end of text: Published by A.D.F. Randolph, No. 770, Broadway, New-York. Later collected in his Poems (Hartford, 1868) under title: The old blue coat. Printed area: 22.8 x 15.2 cm. Printed in two columns separated by a vertical line, within double line border. Above author's name, ills. of a soldier wearing a greatcoat and a contemporary national flag. First line: You asked me, little one, why I bowed. First line of chorus: The blue great-coat, the sky-blue coat.

The blue coat

The blue coat

Brown University

Poem, in 15 verses. At head of text: The blue coat of the soldier. Below title: The following ballad is from the pen of Bishop Burgess of Maine, and was contributed by him to the book published and sold at the Sanitary Fair held in Baltimore. Later collected in his Poems (Hartford, 1868) under title: The old blue coat. Printed area: 25.6 x 5.7 cm. Double rule below text. First line: You asked me, little one, why I bowed. First line of chorus: The old great coat, the sky-blue coat.

The blue coat

The blue coat

Brown University

Poem, in 15 verses. At head of text: The blue coat of the soldier. Below title: The following ballad is from the pen of Bishop Burgess, of Maine, and was contributed by him to the book published and sold at the late Sanitary Fair in Baltimore, under the sanction of the State Fair Association of the Women of Maryland. Later collected in his Poems (Hartford, 1868) under title : The old blue coat. Printed area: 26.4 x 9.6 cm. Within border of type ornaments. First line: You ask me, little one, why I bowed. First line of chorus: The blue great-coat, the sky-blue coat.

The blue and gray

The blue and gray

Brown University

Dedicated to those brothers of the North and South who met here that this nation might be eternal.

The bloody shirt

The bloody shirt

Brown University

Printed in two columns divided by single line. Within double-line border. At head of title: No. 1. Issued by the Short Tract Committee of New York.

The bliss of the redeemed

1 broadsheet. Poetry in 5 nine-line stanzas printed on ivory paper. At end "L. Howard, Toronto"; below illustration of dove with laurel wreath.

The blindman's appeal = Appel de l'aveugle

Within double-line border printed in two columns divided by double rule; one poem in each column. English poem with French translation beginning: Enseveli d'obscurité. Type-signed at end of each poem: B.F. Whipple. Suggested publication date from internal evidence.

The blind boy, by Wm. R. Dempster

Author's name not on item. Gould wrote the words of the poem, Dempster the music. Publication date approximation from internal evidence.

The blessed hand

The blessed hand

Brown University

Poem in nine eight-line stanzas. Type-signed at end: S.T. Wallis. Baltimore, April 8th, 1866.

The black bird and You Parliament of England

Printed in two columns divided by line of type ornaments. At end of text, below rule: Printed and sold wholesale and retail by J. M'Cleland, 285 Water-St. M'Cleland is listed at above address between 1824 and 1829.

The birthday

The birthday

Brown University

Pages [2] and [4] blank. Printed in red on white paper. May Sarton; address imprint on page [3]: 139 Oxford St., Cambridge, Mass., Christmas, 1946.