Halliwell-Phillipps Collection

James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps

A collection of 3,100 proclamations, broadsides, ballads, poems and other ephemera presented to Chetham's in 1852 by the Shakespeare scholar and antiquarian James Orchard Halliwell (later Halliwell-Phillipps). The proclamations date from the reign of Charles I but the majority are from the end of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. There are also many ballads and song sheets of the eighteenth century; indeed musical items account for about one third of the total collection. Many were probably sung in contemporary operas and plays, or composed to celebrate public events. Commercial and trading broadsides form a sizeable part of the collection, and include tradesmen's' bills, works on insurance, lotteries, the national debt and the East India Company. Social and religious broadsides include many examples of printing proposals, works on charities and charity schools, Quakers, non-conformists and dissenters.

  
Images from the Halliwell-Phillipps collection
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