Title: Dying Speeches & Bloody Murders: Crime Broadsides Collected by the Harvard Law School Library

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Harvard Law School. Library

URL: http://broadsides.law.harvard.edu/

Date Checked: 1/9/2008      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 1/9/2008

Topics: Criminal Law; Legal History

Other keywords: Broadsides

Contents: The Harvard Law School Library has digitized its collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British crime broadsides, covering the years 1707 to 1891. Broadsides were a form of street literature printed on one side of the page and were sold to the crowds that gathered for public executions. Intended for the lower classes, broadsides recounted the crime, the trial of the accused, and included a purported confession. Broadsides were often styled “Last Dying Speeches” or “Bloody Murders.” Harvard’s collection of 500-plus broadsides is “one of the largest recorded and the first to be digitized in its entirety.” The collection may be browsed by title or searched. Keyword searching is available by title, name, date, site of publication, and subject. The category search allows users to select one or more items from any of six categories: crimes, year of publication, site of publication, printers, condemned, and victims. In addition to the Harvard collection, the site links out to other digitized broadside collections.

Author of Annotation: M. Morrison