Political Ephemera

"If you want a big man for sheriff, vote for Laury P. Sevis, the biggest man in York County (363 pounds). Thanks." A local political candidate card, probably dating to the 1930s.

Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew, running in the 1968 U.S. presidential election as the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates, used the popularity of cartoonist Charles Shultz's animated television special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (first broadcast in 1966), to suggest that even the Great Pumpkin --the Halloween equivalent of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny--would cast a vote for them. Campaign workers evidently canvassed neighborhoods and placed pumpkin doorknob hangers like this one on the front doors of potential voters. Since the election that year was on November 5, the pumpkins served as a holiday-themed message at the end of October to remind voters to go to the polls. The Great Pumpkin was looking out for Nixon and Agnew, and they won the election.

For this menu, see the front (above), inside , and back . "Jackson-Jefferson Day Dinner honoring U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, Abraham Lincoln Hotel, Reading, Pa., March 1, 1952." According to Wikipedia, " Jefferson-Jackson Day is the most common name given to the annual fundraising celebration (dinner) held by Democratic Party organizations in the United States. It is named for Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. During presidential election campaigns, certain dinners are considered important venues for candidates to attend." Estes Kefauver was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee who was seeking the Democratic nomination for president when this dinner was held in March 1952. He had adopted the coonskin cap as a campaign symbol after political opponents claimed that he was a "raccoon-like Communist puppet." The unique headgear became popular in the 1950s and 1960s as the result of television programs that featured Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone wearing coonskin caps. As Wikipedia explains, "In the 1952 presidential election , Kefauver decided to offer himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Campaigning in his coonskin cap, often by dogsled, Kefauver won in an electrifying victory in the New Hampshire primary, defeating President Harry S. Truman, the sitting President of the United States, prompting Truman to cease campaigning for renomination." Despite Kefauver's early success, the Democratic presidential nominee that year was Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson.

For this menu, see the front , inside (above), and back . Menu: "Half grapefruit maraschino, celery hearts, mixed olives, sliced roast tenderloin, parisienne potatoes, buttered lima beans, hearts of lettuce, Roquefort dressing, rolls, butter, coffee, blueberry tartlette." Program: "Address, Hon. Estes Kefauver, U.S. Senator, State of Tennessee. Music by Leo Brailer Trio."

For this menu, see the front , inside , and back (above). "Sponsored by Labor's League for Political Education."

"Will you help make November 6th, 1940, a day of thanksgiving, or will you make it a day of mourning? Save our Constitution! Uphold the precepts of our republic! No third term!" This small card was a protest against U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's run for an unheard-of third term in office during the 1940 presidential election . Although the U.S. Constitution did not specify how many four-year terms a president could serve, George Washington, the first president, informally set a precedent for a two-term limit when he refused to run for a third term. Roosevelt, however, disregarded precedent, won a third term in 1940, and then a fourth term in 1944 before he died in office in 1945. As a result, the U.S. Congress set a two-term limit in 1947 by passing the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified by the states in 1951.

Cover of a small booklet containing information about the set of miniature presidential figures that was issued by toy manufacturer Louis Marx and Company in the 1950s and 1960s.

Know Your Presidents. Note: The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. indicate order of succession. The abbreviation D for Democrat, R for Republican, Fed for Federalist. Swing to Ortlieb's, Philadelphia's famous beer. Henry F. Ortlieb Brewing Co., Phila., Pa.

A hidden name calling card with an illustration of U.S. President Grover Cleveland . Cleveland married Frances Clara Folsom in 1886 during his first term as president, and she was also the subject of a similar calling card :

Caption: "Mrs. Cleveland." Name hidden underneath the printed scrap: "Rue Crounover" (see Explanation of Hidden Name Calling Cards for an illustration showing how these cards work). Grover Cleveland , the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, began his first term in office (1885-1889) as a bachelor, but married Frances Clara Folsom in 1886. She served as First Lady during the remainder of Cleveland's first term and again during his second term (1893-1897). President Cleveland was also featured on a similar calling card :

Albert Charles Leonard also was the author and publisher of The Boys in Blue of 1861-1865: A Condensed History Worth Preserving (Lancaster, Pa.: A. C. Leonard, 1904). Compliments of Chaplain A. C. Leonard, Lancaster City Who as a candidate for Clerk of Orphans' Court in 1893 received almost 3,000 complimentary votes, and respectfully asks your kind consideration fot the same office at the Republican primary election in 1896. Four years a soldier and ten months a prisoner of war in Belle Isle and Andersonville prison pens where 14,000 of his companions died from privation and exposure. Andersonville prison pen.

"I wish to extend my warmest congratulations on the occasion of your birthday. Mrs. Nixon joins me in extending best wishes that health and happiness may always be yours. Richard Nixon." This birthday greeting from President Richard Nixon dates to his time in office (1969-1974), and his signature is, of course, a printed facsimile. As the White House's Request a Presidential Greeting page explains, U.S. citizens are still eligible to receive a similar greeting from the current president: "Birthday greetings are available for civilians celebrating their 80th (or greater) birthday and veterans celebrating their 70th (or greater) birthday. Please make your request at least 6 weeks in advance of the birthday."

"Pauline - The President's Cow. Mrs. T. W. Cochran." According to Wikipedia, " Pauline Wayne was a Holstein cow which belonged to William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States....From 1910 to 1913, Miss Wayne freely grazed the White House lawn. She was the last presidential cow to live at the White House and was considered as much a Taft family pet as she was livestock." I haven't been able to locate any information regarding Mrs. T. W. Cochran, who presumably was the photographer or postcard publisher.

This 1908 real photo tall-tale postcard by William H. Martin shows presidential candidate William Howard Taft (later president, 1909-1913) at a campaign whistle stop. Martin evidently intended the oversized vegetables that surround the railroad car and crowd to represent the prosperity that would result if voters elected Taft president.

This blotter, depicting a boisterous political character named the "Hon. I. Save-on Gas," was part of a Depression-era advertising campaign for Amoco's "Orange American Gas." With the approach of the 1932 U.S. presidentital election pitting Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover against New York Democratic governor Franklin D. Roosevelt., Amoco encouraged motorists to "Vote the Economy Ticket!" and buy its orange gasoline. The gasoline was actually dyed orange so that motorists could identify it by color through the clear glass cylinders that were part of the gas pumps of the time. I'm not sure how Amoco's Economy Ticket fared, but voters ended up choosing Roosevelt over Hoover as president.

"Lincoln-Lee Legion. Love, sacrifice, service. Abstinence Department of the the Anti-Saloon League. I hereby enroll with the Lincoln-Lee Legion and promise with God's help to keep the following pledge." "Whereas the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is productive of pauperism. degradation, and crime, and believing it is our duty to discourage that which produces more evil than good, we therefore pledge ourselves to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage." "A sober nation and a safe highway."

"Heed youth's call--vote as you think but vote! November 6, 1956. Use your freedom to vote. Boys Scouts of America. Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge." The printed text on the other side of this doorknob hanger includes the title "The American Way of Life," a list of "political and economic rights which protect the dignity and freedom of the individual," and another reminder to "Keep your freedom—vote!" According to "Boy Scouts to Leave Vote Pleas at 35,000,000 Homes," an article in the Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pa.), Oct. 25, 1956, p. 1, Scouts planned to distribute 35 million Liberty Bell hangers prior to the presidential election on November 6: "The nation's 4,175,134 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorers, and adult leaders will climax their nationwide Get-Out-the-Vote campaign beginning Saturday, November 3. On that day and on Monday, November 5, they will call on a total of 35,000,000 homes and leave on front doorknobs a Liberty Bell hanger urging citizens to vote. "They have been conducting a nonpartisan campaign, without reference to any candidate or party. It has been sponsored jointly with Freedom Foundations, Inc., of Valley Forge." After all the votes were tallied on November 6, it turned out that incumbent Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower had won re-election and defeated his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson.