Woodberry Poetry Room collection of broadsides
Overview
Poetry broadsides, predominantly in English, published in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1914-1991 and undated
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1960-1980
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Some oversize materials in the collection may require special handling. Please consult with Houghton Public Services staff.
Extent
4.7 linear feet (15 boxes)Includes poetry broadsides, predominantly in English, published in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Authors include Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Seamus Heaney, Langston Hughes, and Adrienne Rich, among many others.
The bulk of the broadsides are letterpress printed, with illustrations utilizing a variety of printmaking techniques, including screen printing, relief and intaglio processes, and lithography; some broadsides are entirely screen printed (notably those of Wild Hawthorn Press).
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by publisher, then by date of publication or (in the case of numbered series) in the order assigned by the publisher. Miscellaneous broadsides, for which no publisher could be determined at the time of processing, fall at the end of the series and are arranged alphabetically by author.
Processing Information
Processed by Mary Walker Graham, 2019 May.
Materials were rehoused in new folders and boxes during processing.
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2022 to address racist descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the description of a single item; the problematic term appears in a formal title and was used in a specific civil rights-related context in the mid-twentieth century. It thus was not removed, but a contextual historical note as well as a processing information note explaining the term's presence were added to the item's description. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
Source
- Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library) (Organization)
- Title
- Woodberry Poetry Room collection of broadsides, circa 1914-1991 and undated, bulk 1960-1980 (MS Am 3190): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 May
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02977
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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