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| Andrew Jackson Political Cartoon. Found on Google Image Search |
Lenox Library Collection Begins with Jackson in 1824.
Some of the most interesting and bitter campaign literature in New York just now has nothing nothing whatever to do with this election. Some of the most caustic cartoons have no reference whatever to Roosevelt, Parker, Herrick, or Higgins. A visit to the Lenox Library is necessary to see them, and for students of political history the time is profitably spent.
No such collection of campaign documents has ever before been seen in New York as Frank Weitenkampf, curator of the print department of the Lenox Library, has collected from the various libraries of the city, and which will be on exhibition until the middle of November.
The exhibit begins with the Jackson campaign 1824, and ends with the last McKinley campaign. Every party has ever put a Presidential candidate in the field is impartially represented. The Prohibitionists and the Socialists have just as fair treatment as anybody else. Even Joesph Smith, the Mormon leader, when he ran for the Presidency with Gen. James A. Bennet of New York as a running mate, is given a good place in the exhibition.
Many cartoons that would be likely to give offense have been omitted, although Mr. Weitenkampf has copies of them in his print room. One of them is Gillam's famous cartoon of Blaine hiding his face in shame when his nakedness is exposed as the tattooed man. The nearest approach to this is Blaine's tattooed back as he sits on the plank with Logan in the familiar cartoon. "Me and Jack." The cartoon of Thomas Nast, showing Greeley and Wilkes Booth shaking hands over the grave of Lincoln, is omitted also.
There are broadsides, posters, campaign periodicals, party text books, song books, medals, badges, envelopes, caricatures, portraits, and pictoral material drawn from every campaign since Jackson's time that has aroused the enthusiasim of the American people. Colors do not appear in prints until 1872, but the black and white efforts in pervious campaigns lack nothing in paint or partisanship. Horace Greeley seems to have been the particular butt of the pen and ink men for several years. There is one cartoon of him in a trapeze act, when he was after the nomination for Governor of New York, that is irresistibly comic. There is only one exhibit from "Matt" Morgan, the English designer of theatrical posters, who was brought over here to offset the fierce pen of Nast, and that is very poor. Campaign literature was evidently not in his line.
A writer in THE NEW YORK TIMES the other day said that campaign buttons began with Lincoln. In this collection there is a Fremont button of '56 --a rather crude affair, fastened like a woman's brooch in the back, with an excellent portrait of the "Pathfinder" candidate. One of the oddest Lincoln buttons is said to have been devised by Lincoln himself, when he was running with Hamlin. The name Abraham Lincoln is run together as one word, in a semi-circle, over the portraits of the two candidates. In this way the last syllable of Lincoln's first name and the first syllable of his surname furnish the name of his running mate.
Campaign literature was not always so lavishly distributed free as it is now. Even so late as the Greely-Grant campaign, persons who wanted it, except as furnished in the daily newspapers, had to buy it on the bookstalls. Books were issued then where pamphlets are published now. In the Greeley-Grant campaign there is a thick octavo volume illustrated and bound. In this campaign, also, hundreds of merchants expressed their partisanship with portraits of their candidates on their business letter-heads and envelopes--a form of campaign advertising that seems to have gone of date. The campaign catalogs of the "Coin" type, which were so conspicuous during the two Bryan campaigns began apparently, in New York City during Lincoln's second campaign. Here is an extract from one them on exhibition"
Who was Mr. Lincoln? A successful contractor to supply the Government with mules. Who is Bob Lincoln a Lucky boy, yet in his teens, who has been happy to obtain shares in Government contracts by which he has realized $300,000.
There is a comphrensive campaign sketch of Franklin Pierce, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had a Custom House job during Pierce's Administration. There is a campaign speech Daniel Webster on free trade. The "Clay Tribune" was a special newspaper issued for the Clay campaign, and another called the "Log Cabin" during the "Hurrah" campaign of Harrison in 1840. The Tippecanoe Textbook is as full of partisan bitterness as anything of the sort published today.
In the old times campaign medals seem to have been a favorite method of political expression. None issued since is a finer piece of workmanship than the bronze Clay medal of 1844, although there are some very good ones in Lincoln's campaigns. Silk badges, such as delegates to political conventions wear nowadays, were used in place of campaign buttons during the Log Cabin campaign, and continued until the first Lincoln campaign, when they seem to have dropped out of sight.
Originally Published in The New York Times, October 23, 1904
Has anyone ever been to the Lenox Library to see if they still have this amazing collection? The items they had sound amazing for the time in which the article was published. Could you imagine the value to an institution of such a collection in 2013? I hope, if it is still out there in the hands of the library it has been well kept and maintained.
So many times items find their way to such institutions and they placed in a box and not seen for years until a concerned collector or curious historian seeks out the items for a display. It is good to know that even as far back as 1904 there were folks interested in persevering the legacy of American Democracy.
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