Narrative

8. It was not uncommon for people to use a ballad- or story-sheet adorned with a woodcut image to decorate the interior of their homes.

Everyday print helped people to get on in life. The artifacts available at Popular Romanticism and elsewhere should help researchers to better understand the structure of modernity and the practices of everyday life in the Romantic period. All the forms represented here, and many others that are not, had a purpose and deserve more attention. At the very least, this narrative is intended to draw attention to everyday print with the hope that others will take up the challenge of improving our understanding of it.

David Buchanan, University of Alberta, 2013