Broadside and Poster Collection
Printers and bibliographers use a bevy of terms to refer to works printed on one side (or sometimes both sides) of a single sheet, classified primarily by size. From large to small, posters, broadsides, and fliers refer to works used to convey a more or less focused message to an audience, often using illustrations or inventive typography to grab the attention.
Posters from Communist world, with an emphasis on the political and cultural transformations of the late 1980s through mid-1990s. The majority of posters originated in the Soviet Union, although there are examples from East Germany, China, and elsewhere.
Background
Printers and bibliographers use a bevy of terms to refer to works printed on one side (or sometimes both sides) of a single sheet. Smaller imprints are typically called fliers or handbills, and in most cases, are intended for distribution by being handed out directly to readers. Broadsides and broadsheets (the terms are sometimes used interchangeably) are somewhat larger and are often intended for posting in a public place, as are the still larger posters and billboards, which more often than their smaller equivalents feature graphics as the center of design. As rife as the terms are, the substrate for printing can be just as variable, ranging from paper to vellum and parchment, silk or other fabrics, to a variety of other media. All of these forms are considered “ephemera” in that they were historically intended to be printed, distributed, and discarded.
Historically, broadsides and posters were most often printed using moveable type on a letterpress, though lithography or other technologies are not uncommon. Intended to catch the attention of passers-by, broadsides often feature a line or more of large text, and may be graced with typographical borders, woodcuts, or other illustrations. Historically, they were used to communicate focused information such as political proclamations, social messages, local events, or screeds of various types, and they became a primary tool for commercial advertisement. Some verge off into more or less purely artistic or literary expression.
Contents of Collection
This growing collection contains a range of broadsides and posters that come from a variety of sources, and that are not part of other manuscript collections. The collection has been organized into four series to reflect its primary strengths: Communist and Post-Communist; Cultural, artistic, and literary broadsides; the lon-1960s; and political posters and broadsides. We expect that the collection will continue to grow.
Posters from Communist world, with an emphasis on the political and cultural transformations of the late 1980s through mid-1990s. The majority of posters originated in the Soviet Union, although there are examples from East Germany, China, and elsewhere.
The series includes five brocade posters of Communist heroes printed at the East is Red Silk Weaving Factory in Hangzhou in 1969 or 1970. The posters include portraits of Mao Zedong (two sizes), Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and Engels.
This series includes an eclectic, miscellaneous mix of broadsides and posters, including poetical broadsides, advertisements for an traveling daguerreotypist and bee hive maker, and local cultural events.
This series contains posters originating in the long-1960s, the period from roughly 1964-1975. Most reflect the political, cultural, and countercultural expressions of the era, and particularly the civil rights and antiwar movements. Of special note are a handful of posters from SNCC, a complete set of the Street Wall Journal, issued by the Committee to Defend the Panther 21 in 1970 (and including a variant of vol. 1, no. 1)
Politics are an historical focal point for mass communication using broadsides, with intentions, depending on the political system, ranging from issuing decrees to encouraging obedient citizenry or soliciting support from the electorate. Many of the posters in this series relate to causes including reproductive rights, gay rights, antiwar activism, and opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America.
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Reprint of Russian poster for the Eisenstein film
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Engels, part of series of Communist heros
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Lenin part of series of Communist heros
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Mao
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Mao, part of series of Communist heros
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Marx, part of series of Communist heros
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Reprint of Soviet Revolutionary poster
Poster in Russian for Louis Bunuel film
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Cotton brocade portrait of Stalin, part of series of Communist heros
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Poetical broadside on death, containing 7 quatrains, with cut of urn at top and serpentine border along the sides decorated with row of skulls and crossbones at bottom and hourglasses at top; top of border broken by phrase ‘My glass is run.’ Not in Imprints, Wegelin, WorldCat.
Poster for opening of film by Bruce Geisler on the Brotherhood of the Spirit commune, Academy of Music Theatre, Northampton
Broadside advertisement for Waterbury-based daguerreotypist printed with blanks, apparently for use as he worked as an itinerant in other towns.
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Advertisement for Grand Canyon photographers
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Broadside with decorative typographical border and cuts of beehives.
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Broadside poem in to columns and 24 quatrains, with typographical line between, on death of six women and a boy by drowning. Evans no. 4874; Wegelin 820.
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Post-Attica activism
Unused
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Poster from the School Busing Crisis in Boston
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
March in Boston and Teach-in at MIT for the 85th birthdYA OF Ho Chi Minh
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Features Ben Shahn drawing of Gandhi and Mark Morris design
Provenance:
Gift of Joe and Mary Lou Kearns
Image of Huey Newton with gun and inset of AK47
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Opposing Governor Peter Wilson and Prop. 187
Puerto Rican independence
Poster protesting sentence of Ella Ellison, framed for two murders. A retrial was ordered for Ellison in 1978 and she was not retried.
Inscribed by artist Charles Keller to Jim Fraser 2-9-95
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Printed ballot for 12th District, Indiana, for election of 1898; James M. Robinson represented the 12th district in Indiana 1897-1905; this appears to be the election of 1898.
Provenance:
Gift of James and Sibylle Fraser
Administrative information
Access
The collection is open for research.
Language:
English
Provenance
Acquired from various sources.
Processing Information
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, June 2018.
Digitized content
Some of the items in this collection have been digitized and may be viewed online through SCUA’s digital repository, Credo.
Copyright and Use (More information
)
Cite as: Broadside and Poster Collection (RB 034). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.