NEW YORK.- Coinciding with the 2008 election and providing insight into New York ’s often pivotal role in American electoral politics, Campaigning for President: New York and the American Election will be on view at the Museum of the City of New York from June 24 through November 4, 2008. The exhibition—covering presidential politics from the inauguration of George Washington on lower Manhattan ’s Wall Street, to the current volatile and unpredictable campaign—will feature selections from the nation's largest and most comprehensive collection of campaign artifacts alongside objects from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition will examine shifts and continuities in political campaigning and illuminate the very public and participatory nature of American democracy.

Commented Susan Henshaw Jones, President and Director of the Museum: “The exhibition will charm visitors: it is a rare look into the politics of the country, state, and city through the lens of campaign memorabilia. It reminds us that politics is and has always been raw—and very entertaining.”

Campaigning for President will highlight New York ’s strong impact on presidential elections in terms of the popular vote, the electoral college vote, and the selection of candidates. From 1820 to the 1960s, New York was the most populous state in the country, and for 160 years, from 1812 until 1972, it wielded more electoral votes than any other state. New York sent forth eight presidents, more than twenty-five major-party pr esidential and vice-presidential nominees, and countless hopefuls. From 1900 to 1948, there was a New Yorker on every national ticket, and from 1868 until 1892, with the sole exception of 1880, every Democratic nominee for president was a New Yorker. The exhibition will also examine how the New York vote has reflected the city’s own complex political alignments, as well as its hallmark diversity.

Campaigning for President reveals a fascinating—and often zany—political history of America, starting with commemorative buttons from George Washington’s 1789 inauguration and culminating with objects from today’s Clinton, McCain, and Obama campaigns. This first-time exhibition of selections from a monumental, 1.25 million artifact collection amassed by the late Jordan Wright, a media entrepreneur and devotee of American politics, will reveal not only the key platforms of particular candidates, but also the subtle and not-so-subtle strategies employed by vote-seekers. The collection forms the basis of the Museum of Democracy and is richly portrayed in a book titled Campaigning for President (available in the Museum’s shop ). Highly expressive buttons, banners, posters, hats, dresses, and other campaign materials on view highlight the role of visual propaganda in the electoral process (especially from times when many voters were illiterate). Collectively they reveal the underpinnings of today’s mass-media campaigns, demonstrating that U. S. politics has for centuries been characterized by sloganeering, promissory mantra-making, and abundant, often gleefully vicious mud-slinging, which prevails from the 19th century through today.

On view will be examples of alternately inspiring, thought-provoking, scandalous, hilarious, and plain-old corny campaign huckstering, including (among many others):

-a poster lampooning “King Andrew” that asks the question: shall Andrew Jackson “reign over us, or shall the people rule?”

-a translation of Abraham Lincoln and Aesop’s Fables into the Santee Sioux language mechanical “nose-thumbers” produced for James Garfield’s campaign

-a one-of-a-kind porcelain and cloth doll depicting, when held upright, William McKinley, and when turned upside-down, an African-American baby, in vicious response to accusations that the candidate had fathered an illegitimate black child

-a cloth rose lapel pin bearing the likeness of Theodore Roosevelt
an anti-Republican Party door hanger in the shape of a teapot, referencing President Warren Harding and the infamous Teapot Dome scandal

-a campaign button with Socialist candidate Eugene Debs identified as “convict no. 9653” Al Smith pins in the shape of his signature derby hat

-a “negative-campaigning” poster for Thomas Dewey associating vice-presidential candidate Harry Truman with the Ku Klux Klan “I Like Ike” socks

-a paper mini-dress promoting Robert Kennedy Good Humor Ice Cream wrappers promoting Richard M. Nixon (and John F. Kennedy)

-a yarmulke promoting Al Gore and a Time magazine cover picturing him as President-elect.

The exhibition will feature a special installation of presidential campaign commercials dating from 1952 through 2004, drawn from “The Living Room Candidate,” an on-line exhibition of the Museum of the Moving Image. They include a 1952 “Ike for President” cartoon ad made by the Disney studio, the famous 1964 “Daisy Girl” ad made for Lyndon Johnson’s campaign by Tony Schwartz, which juxtaposed a girl picking petals off a flower with a nuclear explosion, and the 2004 George Bush ad “Windsurfing,” which humorously portrayed John Kerry as a flip-flopper.

Campaigning for President: New York and the American Election is organized by Museum of the City of New York deputy director and chief curator Dr. Sarah Henry , and by the Museum’s curator of special exhibitions, Thomas Mellins . The late Jordan Wright served as the guest curator. Elizabeth Compa is the curatorial assistant. The exhibition and graphic design is by Pure + Applied.