Collection of Broadside Ballads from England, Ireland, and the United States, 1798-1899

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Abstract:
Broadside ballads provided lyrics to popular songs, and were sold cheaply on individual sheets of paper. This collection contains approximately 2,000 English, Irish, and American broadsides from the nineteenth century.
Extent:
5.0 linear feet (10 boxes and 1 flat box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Collection of Broadside Ballads from England, Ireland, and the United States (Collection Number 605). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains approximately 2,000 English, Irish, and American broadsides from the nineteenth century, including a large number of broadsides from the Catnach Press as well as some from women printers (especially Anne Ryle and Elizabeth Hodges, with a few by Ann Birt). Many of the ballads in this collection deal with common issues in family life, including courtship and marriage, domestic disputes, and the departure and return of young sailors. The collection includes examples of drinking songs, love songs, and patriotic songs. It offers many variants of traditional favorites, such as "Lannigan's Ball" and "John Barleycorn". The collection also represents ballads as sources of information and commentary on current events of local, national and international significance. Of the holdings in English ballads, many report on wars, economic conditions, and the activities of the monarchy. Land tenure, the Fenians, and other protests of English rule feature prominently in the collection's Irish ballads. A major theme of the American ballads is the Civil War (1861-1865).

Biographical / historical:

Broadside ballads provided lyrics to popular songs, and were sold cheaply on individual sheets of paper. While the lyrics were often new, the tunes would have been familiar to all. As a widely circulating form of popular literature, ballads can be a useful resource for the study of the history of literacy and can also be of interest to those studying the history of printing. Ballads traditionally addressed themes from everyday experience in both urban and rural communities. They thus provide important source material for social history and the history of popular culture.

Processing information:

Originally processed at the series level. Reprocessed by Andrea Jones, Helen McManus, and Melissa Sodeman with assistance from Laurel McPhee in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), 2005-2007. The country of publication was used as the series level. English and Irish ballads were then itemized; American ballads were described primarily at the folder level.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. England, 1750-ca. 1899 (6 boxes)
  2. Ireland, ca. 1828-1869 (2 boxes)
  3. United States, ca. 1824-1887 (2 boxes).

Physical / technical requirements:

PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. See the Existence and Location of Copies note for the link to the digitized materials.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Collection of Broadside Ballads from England, Ireland, and the United States (Collection Number 605). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website