Campaigning for the Presidency, 1960-1972: Selections from the Museum of Democracy at New-York Historical Society, through November 27, 2016

“Voting: a citizen’s responsibility, a right that previous generations fought to claim, a pointless exercise, or the only way to effect change? Regardless of one’s viewpoint, every four years Americans go to the polls to choose their next leader and, by extension, a vision for the nation’s future.

Although partisan campaign rhetoric remains remarkably unchanged since the nation’s earliest campaigns, communication strategy and campaign materials have shifted dramatically as campaigns respond to new technologies and new forms of media.

American political ephemera changed in the 1960s as television and scripted media events took precedence over local grassroots campaigning. Fresh graphic design enlivened traditional campaign buttons and posters, and novelty objects grew in popularity. Yet within a decade, campaigns abandoned campaign objects as a tool to introduce candidates to voters, instead reserving them for party conventions and as keepsakes. Displayed here are objects from four presidential elections that follow the shifting aesthetics from 1960 to 1972. Together these items encompass the idealistic to the humorous to the scathingly critical, revealing what New York City mayor Ed Koch called “the sparkle and glitter of which our campaigns are made.” — Introductory Wall Text