About the Broadsides
A significant portion of the Music & Performing Arts Library's collection of broadside ballads is part of a binders collection that consists of over 300 pieces. These materials are housed in the MPAL Special Collections and can be found in the library catalog. The binders collection was rehoused by Preservation Services and digitized by the Internet Archive during the 2020-2021 academic year. All digitized broadsides can now be accessed online through the Internet Archive’s MPAL Illinois collection.
MPAL's collection of broadside ballads is believed to have been acquired as part of the Barnard and Morris Young Collection, which was purchased by the University of Illinois in 1985 with an additional donation in 1986. Pieces from the Young Collection in the Music and Performing Arts Library include reference materials, opera scores, American sheet music, LP records, manuscripts, ephemera, and broadsides among other materials.
Additional Broadside Resources Online
- UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive
- Broadside Ballads Online
- Broadside Ballads: New York State Library
- Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project
- Harvard: The Bute, Huth, and Percy Collections
- National Library of Scotland: Broadside and Other Single Sheet Items Collection
- Middle Tenesee State University: Broadsides
- University of Notre Dame: Irish Broadside Ballads
- Lubrano Collection of Broadside Ballads
- Word on the Street: Broadside Ballads
- Crime and Execution Broadsides
- The Warrior Women Project
- Broadside Ballads: Dutch Song Database
