"…that the “Star-Spangled Banner,” composed by Francis Scott Key during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, did not become our national anthem until 1931?"
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Special Collections: Prints and Broadsides
Plan of Baltimore in 1729 containing 600 acres divided into 60 lots, ca 1823, MdHS, Hambleton Print Collection, H10.
How to Find Prints and Broadsides
The library has an extensive collection of prints, broadsides, and other works on paper. Inventories and finding aids for specific print collections are located below.
Peale/Baltimore City Life Museum Works on Paper Collection
The Peale/Baltimore City Life Museum (BCLM) maintained a significant collection of historical material on Baltimore. The collection includes prints, manuscripts, maps, posters, and ephemera.
The T. Edward Hambleton Collection (ca. 500 items) is one of the most extensive assemblages of Baltimore-related prints from nineteenth-century views and maps to twentieth-century printmakers such as Don Swann and Gabrielle de Vincent Clements.
The Small Prints collection consists over 3,000 advertisements, woodcuts, etchings, drawings, newspaper images, newspaper clippings, small booklets, and other items. Most date from the 18th and 19th century. The prints in this collection are less than 10 x 15 inches in size.
Prints and Broadsides can also be located through the resources below:
1. Consult the following publications:
Lois B. McCauley, Maryland Historical Prints, 1752-1889 (available in the Reference Collection at Ref. MNE505.M123 and also in Special Collections)
Laura Rice, Maryland History in Prints, 1743-1900 (available in the main reading room at F182.R53 2002 and also in special collections). To buy this book from the MdHS Press, go to the Publications catalog. Also see the related online exhibit: More Than Meets the Eye: The History of Maryland in Prints
2. A finding aid for the 500 prints from the Library’s Hambleton collection is available at: Hambleton Print Collection Finding Aid
3. The following card indexes are available in the card cabinet in the Microfilm Reading Area:
Prints by subject (13 drawers)
Broadsides by subject (5 drawers)
Broadsides by date (2 drawers)
Library staff is currently working on creating inventories for the print collection. Please click on the link below to explore what is currently available online.
