Broadside entitled 'Dreadful Accident at Edinburgh'

Commentary

This report begins: 'Account of the dreadful accident which took place on Saturday at Picardy Place Edinburgh, at the sale of Lord Eldin's splendid collection of pictures, when the floor of the Auction Room gave way, and 150 Persons were buried in the ruins.'

Despite the dramatic headline and sensationalist tone of this broadside, fortunately, only one life was lost during the collapse of the auction room building. In fact, much of the broadside is dedicated to the memory of the one man who was killed, and it often reads like an obituary column from a newspaper. Its text-heavy nature suggests that it may have been aimed at the upper classes, a point supported by the list of honourable ladies and gentlemen who were injured.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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