Main content
Nineteenth-century English broadside ballads
Notifications
Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Nineteenth-century London ballad printing was centered on and around Monmouth Street in the parish of St. Giles. In the early part of the century it was dominated by rivals James Catnach and John Pitts: "Together the two men established the Seven Dials [in St. Giles's parish] as the center of the broadside trade in the nineteenth century" (Hepburn, p. 34). The following generation saw Henry Parker Such take a leading role in the industry. These printers supplied their wares to "hawkers and the trade," as many ballad sheets advertise, as well as selling to customers in their own shops. Their stock comprised both traditional ballads and original compositions, including contemporary popular song -- according to Hepburn, a "large ... proportion of broadside ballads began life in concert room or book or on stage" (p. 75-76) -- parody, and occasional verse on events and subjects of topical interest (e.g. the royal family; crimes and executions; law and politics). Most of these compositions are anonymous, but some authors are named on the sheets or identifiable from other sources. They enjoyed a wide audience; as Hindley notes of Catnach, "His stock of songs was very like his customers, diversified. There were all kinds, to suit all classes" (p. 222). Broadside ballad sheets were cheap enough to be purchased by the poor, but sufficiently varied in subject and genre to act as an instrument of mass culture.
This collection consists of 49 broadside ballad sheets printed in London in the nineteenth century. The collection is arranged alphabetically by printer: Thomas Birt (and family), Henry Disley, John Marks, Neesom's (or Taylor's) Song Mart, Henry Paul, John Pitts (and Elizabeth Hodges), and Henry Parker Such. (A few items on which the printer's name is not given are listed under "Printer Unnamed.")
The British Book Trade Index. Ed. Maureen Bell. University of Birmingham. 9 February 2012 (http://www.bbti.bham.ac.uk/).
Curiosities of Street Literature. London: Reeves and Turner, 1871.
Hepburn, James. A Book of Scattered Leaves. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000.
Hindley, Charles D. The History of the Catnach Press at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnick and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in Northumberland, and Seven Dials, London. London: C. Hindley, 1886.
Hodson's Booksellers, Publishers and Stationers Directory 1855: A Facsimile of the Copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1972.
Neuburg, Victor E. "The Literature of the Streets." In The Victorian City: Images and Realities. Ed. H.J. Dyos and Michael Wolff. London: Routledge, 1999. 191-210.
Publisher's Introduction: Madden Ballads From Cambridge University Library. Gale Cengage Learning. 9 February 2012 (http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Introductions/30330FM.htm)
Shepard, Leslie. John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London, 1764-1844: With a Short Account of His Predecessors in the Ballad and Chapbook Trade. London: Private Libraries Association, 1969.
Todd, William B., comp. A Directory of Printers and Others in Allied Trades, London and Vicinity, 1800-1840. London: Printing Historical Society, 1972.
Yates, Mike. "Henry Parker Such: A Short Biographical Note." English Dance & Song 60.3 (1998): 17-18.
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- N.E. Broadwell
- Sponsor
- The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project.