The general election is less than one month away and candidates are making the final push for votes. Over the past 2,000 years, advances in technology have drastically changed the method of campaigning though, according to an ancient Roman text of campaign advice given to Marcus Cicero, Rome’s greatest orator, advice given then is just as applicable now.
This gold bug pin comes from the 1896 presidential campaign by Republican presidential candidate William McKinley, who supported the gold standard. At one time the wings would actually flap.
Credit (Courtesy St. Louis Mercantile Library)
A campaign button for Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, who ran against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. Dunn-Morton says Willkie’s strategy was to flood the country with his campaign buttons in an effort to gain name recognition.
Credit (Courtesy St. Louis Mercantile Library)
The peanut was an instantly recognizable representation of Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer from Georgia.
Credit (Courtesy St. Louis Mercantile Library)
The Dr. Allen B. & Helen S. Shopmaker Political Collection includes more than 4,000 items and is now held by the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis.
This Sunday an exhibition called “Presidents and Politics” opens at the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis.
The campaign buttons, posters and cartoons on display seem quaint compared to this year’s high-tech presidential race, but they also show American politics has always been spirited.
The memorabilia is part of the Dr. Allen B. and Helen S. Shopmaker Political Collection, a gift to the Mercantile Library.