Printed Ephemera: Introduction -- Page 1

Introduction to Printed Ephemera Collection

Historic printed ephemera tells us much about the issues, events, and ordinary people that have shaped our past. Produced in a variety of formats including broadsides, broadsheets, leaflets, pamphlets, and programs, printed ephemera is created to meet an array of immediate needs, usually transitory in nature, and is not intended to be saved. Indeed, part of the delight of working with these elusive scraps of yesterday's "stuff" is due to the irony that it has survived to speak to us of the concerns and conditions of everyday living experienced by past generations of average people.

An American Time Capsule includes 17,000 items that represent some of the subject strengths and amazing diversity of the entire collection. This collection, highlighting some dominant themes and items of special interest, offers a fascinating array of ephemera with something of interest for everyone, and will encourage further exploration of the Rare Book Division's entire collection.

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Broadsides—by far the most popular ephemeral format used throughout printed history—are single sheets of paper, printed on one side only. Often quickly and crudely produced in large numbers and distributed free in town squares, taverns, and churches or sold by chapmen for a nominal charge, broadsides are intended to have an immediate popular impact and then to be thrown away. Historically, broadsides have been used to inform the public about current news events, publicize official proclamations and government decisions, announce and record public meetings and entertainment events, advocate political and social causes, advertise products and services, and celebrate popular literary and musical efforts. Rich in detail and variety, and sometimes with striking illustrations, broadsides offer vivid insights into the daily activities and attitudes of individuals and communities that created America's yesterdays.

Of course, broadside printing has flourished since the dawn of printing itself, the oldest dated example being a letter of indulgence printed by Gutenberg in 1454, before he printed his famous Bible. Unfortunately, there is no known extant copy of the first American broadside, "The Oath of the Free-Man" printed by Stephen Daye in Cambridge in 1639, which remains the elusive black tulip of American printing history.

Colonial printers of newspapers and almanacs often printed broadsides as a source of extra income, in addition to other jobbing work, and some printers sold books and stationery supplies as well. Essential late-breaking news was transmitted as broadside "Postscripts" or "Extras" to the weekly newspapers. Official government business and notices of meetings were disseminated by broadsides; they were used to preach morality and to demonstrate the consequences of wrongdoing; but ballads and verse were also popular and plentiful. Illustrations were difficult to design and time-consuming to cut from wood, so most printers accumulated a supply of "stock" woodcuts for repeated use. Copperplate engravings were rare until after 1800.

New vitality and visual interest were infused into the typography of early nineteenth-century ephemeral printing by Robert Thorne's invention of Fat Face type in 1803, the first real display typeface. The introduction of steel engravings in the 1820s expanded the use of fine engraving processes in mass production. Evidence of further technological advances in printing may be traced through the collection, notably the riot of color that chromolithography brought to ephemeral printing in the last third of the nineteenth century.

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"The Gerry-mander : a new species of monster..."
Published Salem, 1812.

The breadth of the collection makes it possible to follow political activities at the local, state, and national levels over many decades and to compare strategies and issues in different geographic areas. Executive proclamations, citizen petitions, and campaign literature are all well represented.

Revolutionary leaders used widely-circulated newspaper extras to publicize colonial solidarity and encourage future concerted efforts against British measures. "No Stamped Paper to be had" reports a variety of colonial efforts intended to force the repeal of the hated Stamp Act of 1765, including Boston printers vowing to continue printing papers without stamps, New York and Philadelphia merchants resolving not to import British goods, New Jersey freemen declaring that they would ignore the act and all who support it, and public hangings of the effigy of the stampman in Halifax and the effigy of the Lt. Governor in New York.

Major national policy changes are documented and sometimes influenced by broadside polemics. "National Utility, in Opposition to Political Controversy" marks Thomas Jefferson's conversion from a strict agrarian philosophy by publishing his famous January 1816 letter in which he states "We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist. . . manufacturers are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort." Jefferson's testimony was influential in the passage of the Tariff Act of 1816, which formed the basis of American protectionism for the next thirty years. In "No Annexation of Texas" New York leaders, including Albert Gallatin and Theodore Sedgwick, encourage citizens to oppose the ratification of a treaty that would make Texas a state.

One rare broadside is even responsible for introducing a new word to our political vocabulary. In 1812 the Jeffersonian Republicans forced through the Massachusetts legislature a bill rearranging district lines to assure them an advantage in the upcoming state senatorial elections. To dramatize the extraordinary division of Essex County for partisan gain, Federal polemicists drew the map of the South District in the form of a salamander, a mythological monster shaped like a lizard. The South District was formed from a single line of towns along the outside of the county and Chelsea from Suffolk County. Although Governor Elbridge Gerry had only reluctantly signed the redistricting law spawned by zealous Republican colleagues, this caricature, "The Gerry-mander. A New Species of Monster" has forever connected his name to gerrymandering, a word that has come to describe any arbitrary redistricting for political advantage.

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