Collectors Archive: Collector has over 3,000 Campaign Pins

This article appeared in The Victoria Advocate shortly after the 1952 presidential election. For some perspective; that was over 60 years ago. Even as far back as then, political collectors had thousands of items in their collections. Joe Fuld is the APIC member featured in this article. 

From Political Collectors dot com

HAILEY, Idaho, Dec 4. The "I like Ike" button or the "Stevenson for president" pin you sported durin the presidential campaign isn't worth a continental now--except to Joe Fuld and his fellow members of the American Political Item Collectors Association.

Fuld, who is president of the collectors association, has the den of his home lined with cases of political insignia. He has more than 3,000 campaign buttons, banners and pins, dating as far back as the 1840 election. One of his four items from that campaign carries William H. Harrisson's famed slogan "Tippercanoe and Tyler too."

The Universal Party's Oregon Connections

I was doing some reading of some old Keynoter magazines that I was able to find and found an article by Stephen K. Hauser in the Summer of 1998 issue. His article is about the several campaigns ran by the Universal Party of the 1960s and early 70s. The Universal Party was founded by various UFO enthusiasts and contactees (for those of you who have never seen the X-Files, this was a term popularized in the 50s and 60s for individuals who have supposedly have contact with extraterrestrials).

Harl Haas Remembered

HAAS for AG 1980 Pin

The Oregonian reported recently that retired Multnomah Co. Judge Harl Haas passed away at the age of 80. Earlier in his career he had been elected to the Oregon House and was later appointed to the Oregon Senate. For at time Haas served as District Attorney. He sought nominations for Congress, and Governor in 1974. Later, in 1980, he won the Democratic nomination for Attorney General. While he would end up losing that race, he eventually found a a seat as a Multnomah Co. Judge in 1985 where he served until his retirement in 2001.

Guess The Connection

So here's a fun little game. Can you guess what the connection is between all these pins are?

Don't click READ MORE or Scroll down further until you've made your guess.

Keynoter: The 'Holy Grails' of U.S. Senate and Governor Items

Photo Credit: All Americans Local Auction #58

In the Summer 2013 issue of The Keynoter, contributor David Quintin writes about what he calls the 'holy grails' of locals items for senate and gubernatorial candidates across the country. These items of difficult quest have sometimes only been spotted once out in the wilds of the hobby. This doesn't mean that it is the only known example, just the only known example that has risen to the surface. Like a Cox-Roosevelt jugate, someone could have a bag of them in their grandparents trunk that sits up in the family attic.

Tom McCall Dress from 1970

Dress Found on Ebay this week

Sometimes us Oregon political junkies have to wait and wait...and wait for an interesting Oregon item to find its way to ebay. If you are a regular searcher of Oregon related political figures then you have probably seen this item. It is a paper dress from his re-election campaign in 1970. Paper clothing items were cheap and very popular in the 1960s. It was seen as sort of a fashion novelty and lots of campaigns used them in an attempt to boost their vote getting abilities.

Tom McCall's Grandads Not Hughes Fans

From Tom Huston Collection

APIC Member Tom Huston recently posted a picture of this book by a Thomas W. Lawson. Oregonians may recognize that name, as Dorothy Lawson McCall's father. He was a rather wealthy man in the era of the Rockefellers and Astors at the start of the 20th Century. He used his wealth to buy a home for his daughter and her husband to raise their kids in Eastern Oregon. One of those kids was future Oregon Governor Tom McCall. Young Tom would travel often between Oregon and Massachusetts to spend time at Thomas Lawson's home and the family ranch in Eastern Oregon. His other grandfather, Samuel W. McCall, happened to be Governor of the Bay State in 1916.