Delve into the history of American printing, print shop culture and broadsides.

Before the advent of the newspaper, broadsides, or large, single printed sheets that could be displayed on the sides of buildings or shop windows or handed out in the streets, conveyed news and information within communities. In early America, these ephemeral printed materials included government proclamations, news stories, advertisements, wanted posters, and poetry and ballads. Broadsides offer an interesting lens through which to view early American printing and print shop culture, as well as life in the American colonies and early republic.

This talk will focus on both the production of broadsides in print shops and the forms and types of broadsides common to the era. We will look at some famous (and infamous) examples from this exciting print form.

Kristin R. Dorsey is an Assistant Professor in Humanities at Central Oregon Community College, where she teaches writing and literature courses as well as writing classes and workshops for COCC's Continuing Education program. Outside of the college, she runs writing workshops for teens and works with a variety of Central Oregon writing groups. In the very little leisure time she can scrounge up, she writes short form nonfiction and memoir and dabbles in the art of letterpress.



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