Broadside entitled 'A New Way of Raising the Wind!'

Commentary

This report begins: 'An account of rather a New and Curious Circumstance that took place at Aberdeen a few days ago, between a respectable Lecturer on Anatomy in that City, and a party of Sailors from a Merchant Vessel, who touched there on her voyage from America. - Extracted from "the Fife Journal" of Thursday the 26th February, 1829.' Included at the top of the sheet are woodcut illustrations of three sailing vessels.

Woodcut illustrations generally added to a broadside's appeal and proved popular amongst the readership. In this instance, the image included relates to the subject of the broadside. In many cases, however, the illustration bore little or no relation to the topic at hand. For efficiency and cost-effectiveness, many broadside producers chose to reuse their, often limited, stock of woodcut images. 'A New Way of Raising the Wind' involves a group of sailors en route from America, who, during a stop in Aberdeen, become involved in a rather unusual adventure.

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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