ABSTRACT
Hundreds more broadsides, as well as several thousand books and pamphlets, many thousand issues of newspapers and magazines, and assorted ephemera, issued from local print-shops. Broadsides can be studied for the light they shed on the city's social, cultural, commercial and political history, as well as on the broader history of printing and publishing. By 1764, broadsides had enjoyed a long European tradition, Since ancient times, the posting of official announcements in conspicuous locations had been the most expedient means of informing the populace. So ubiquitous were broadsides in the New World that the very word broadside had long since evolved into the common term in North America for this form of public announcement. Considering that government supervised the earliest broadsides printed in New Orleans, it is hardly surprising that they chiefly comprised proclamations of the governor and new legislation. Private organisations stage parades through New Orleans streets, presenting floats which highlight the theme.
