Scope and arrangement
Broadsides were an inexpensive format consisting of a single sheet of lyrics meant for mass publication. This collection consists of approximately 2600 broadsides published in the United States between 1850 and the early 1900s on a variety of topics. The broadside texts were intended to be sung to existing, widely-known melodies and do not contain musical notation.
Content warning: Folder titles were transcribed from the items themselves, many of which contain racist language and attitudes common in the United States in the nineteenth century.
The American broadsides collection is arranged in two series: