Take an audio tour with enhanced content about our Pathway to the Presidency exhibit in Cline Library through July 31, 2025.

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Cline Library Path to the Presidency

GLOBAL

Becky

After walking past a modern, colorful depiction of George Washington with an assortment of stripes and stars to enter the exhibit, you are greeted by three mannequins wearing Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan campaign dresses. Ten informative panels cover the wall to the left. The first panel provides a brief introduction to the exhibit, while the rest tell a chronological story of American presidential campaigning. Portraits of all 46 American presidents decorate the bottoms of the panels with select quotes in a variety of colors, including the red and blue which dominate the exhibit. As you travel forward in time, take a moment to peek into the four glass display cases nearby, which present a variety of real artifacts and reproductions.

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// After walking past a modern, colorful depiction of George Washington with an assortment of stripes and stars to enter the exhibit, you are greeted by three mannequins wearing Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan campaign dresses. Ten informative panels cover the wall to the left. The first panel provides a brief introduction to the exhibit, while the rest tell a chronological story of American presidential campaigning. Portraits of all 46 American presidents decorate the bottoms of the panels with select quotes in a variety of colors, including the red and blue which dominate the exhibit. As you travel forward in time, take a moment to peek into the four glass display cases nearby, which present a variety of real artifacts and reproductions.

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Tour Item

English

Overview 1A.mp3

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// 	Jordan M. Wright, a lawyer and publisher, founded the Museum of Democracy as a way to make sense of his private collection of American political and campaign memorabilia, which includes both rare and recognizable objects. In other words, Wright viewed the Museum of Democracy as a way to stimulate a conversation about what American democracy historically has been, currently is, and can be in the future. Through the traveling display of the Wright Family Collection, the Museum of Democracy seeks to provide a thought-provoking material record of America’s past and democratic tradition, telling the stories of both winning and losing candidates in presidential elections, and how they have chosen to characterize themselves and pursue strategies of voter support or mudslinging toward their opposition. 

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About the Museum of Democracy

Overview 1B.mp3

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// After walking past a modern, colorful depiction of George Washington with an assortment of stripes and stars to enter the exhibit, you are greeted by three mannequins wearing Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan campaign dresses. Ten informative panels cover the wall to the left. The first panel provides a brief introduction to the exhibit, while the rest tell a chronological story of American presidential campaigning. Portraits of all 46 American presidents decorate the bottoms of the panels with select quotes in a variety of colors, including the red and blue which dominate the exhibit. As you travel forward in time, take a moment to peek into the four glass display cases nearby, which present a variety of real artifacts and reproductions. 

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Introduction

Overview 2 edited mp3.mp3

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President Washington's Inauguration Button

Object 1.mp3

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// You might find your eye drawn to an object associated with our 7th president, Andrew Jackson before you move on to the next section of the exhibit. In an era of expanding male suffrage, Andrew Jackson gained popularity by appealing more to the common man than the traditional political elite. Although he was known to reciprocate the sentiment, mudslinging against Jackson was brutal, consisting of spoken defamation, print broadsides, and publicly-circulated political cartoons. The 1832 “King Andrew the First” cartoon displayed on the third panel is an example of the latter, as it portrays him as a tyrant by comparing him to the king of England. Throughout the exhibit, assorted buttons, banners, printed materials, ribbons, trinkets, lanterns, clothing, caricatures, and posters in between tell survive from over 250 years of mudslinging, struggles for suffrage, and consumerism, proving that problems and quirks often associated with modern elections really are not so modern after all. The 60 campaigns and elections of U.S. history are presented in this exhibit via 9 categorized eras across the panels.

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President Andrew Jackson

overview3edited.mp3

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The Mudslinging Begins

Object 2.mp3

The Early Years

The Early Years.mp3

Another object embodying the first century of American presidential campaigning was the parade lantern, which typically included supportive imagery or words relating to a candidate and were carried by hundreds or sometimes thousands of marchers in political torchlight parades across the nation. Although there are examples of lanterns made for campaign parades in support of John Adams and William Henry Harrison in this exhibit, the practice of political torchlight parades was most popular during Abraham Lincoln’s campaigns in 1860 and 1864. Two of these lanterns are displayed next to each other on the “Civil War Reconstruction” wall panel. The lantern on the right, from 1864, shows a pink and green color scheme, and supports Lincoln and Johnson, while the lantern on the left, from 1872, emphasizes blue and pink in contrast, and supports Horace Greeley and Benjamin Brown. Lanterns from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras were often hand-painted and made of paper, and because of this, surviving examples are rare as they were typically burned up after one use because candles lit them from the inside. The two examples of parade lanterns in the Wright Family Collection survived because they were extras that were not used. Although it was not the most common, campaign lanterns also included patriotic symbols and candidate slogans. Campaign slogans debuted in the mid-19th century, with catchphrases like “Don’t swap horses in the middle of the stream,” used by the 16th President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Echoing the sentiments of past presidential administrations, these catchphrases were occasionally recycled decades later to express circumstances held in common and associate oneself with past campaigns and candidates. Lincoln’s famous quote was reused by Franklin D. Roosevelt for his 1944 campaign. 

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// Another object embodying the first century of American presidential campaigning was the parade lantern, which typically included supportive imagery or words relating to a candidate and were carried by hundreds or sometimes thousands of marchers in political torchlight parades across the nation. Although there are examples of lanterns made for campaign parades in support of John Adams and William Henry Harrison in this exhibit, the practice of political torchlight parades was most popular during Abraham Lincoln’s campaigns in 1860 and 1864. Two of these lanterns are displayed next to each other on the “Civil War Reconstruction” wall panel. The lantern on the right, from 1864, shows a pink and green color scheme, and supports Lincoln and Johnson, while the lantern on the left, from 1872, emphasizes blue and pink in contrast, and supports Horace Greeley and Benjamin Brown. Lanterns from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras were often hand-painted and made of paper, and because of this, surviving examples are rare as they were typically burned up after one use because candles lit them from the inside. The two examples of parade lanterns in the Wright Family Collection survived because they were extras that were not used. Although it was not the most common, campaign lanterns also included patriotic symbols and candidate slogans. Campaign slogans debuted in the mid-19th century, with catchphrases like “Don’t swap horses in the middle of the stream,” used by the 16th President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Echoing the sentiments of past presidential administrations, these catchphrases were occasionally recycled decades later to express circumstances held in common and associate oneself with past campaigns and candidates. Lincoln’s famous quote was reused by Franklin D. Roosevelt for his 1944 campaign.

A Parade Lantern

Overview 5.mp3

The mid-19th century also witnessed the establishment of the Republican Party. The latter half of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century was an era of grassroots campaigning, or the strategy of mobilizing individuals to advocate for a certain election outcome, and with larger numbers of Americans desiring reform during the so-called Gilded Age, this was a natural development. After the tumultuous Civil War and Reconstruction era, however, the American public also sought escapism, and the solution was to make politics entertaining, especially through campaign objects. This ultimately revolutionized campaign paraphernalia with the production of all sorts of trinkets, including humorous novelties or everyday household items never-before associated with the presidency, like pens, cigars, coin purses, and the James Garfield metal oil lamp from 1880 pictured on the wall panel. This oil lamp includes a light blue lampshade with a gilded rim and Garfield’s portrait in the center nearly encircled by daisies. On display as well are pinback buttons familiar to us today but invented and patented in 1894 by a woman from Boston, Amanda M. Lougee. The buttons consist of a printed paper disk covered by a layer of a transparent plastic known as celluloid, with both layers over a metal base. 

1001 Knoles Drive \|||// The mid-19th century also witnessed the establishment of the Republican Party. The latter half of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century was an era of grassroots campaigning, or the strategy of mobilizing individuals to advocate for a certain election outcome, and with larger numbers of Americans desiring reform during the so-called Gilded Age, this was a natural development. After the tumultuous Civil War and Reconstruction era, however, the American public also sought escapism, and the solution was to make politics entertaining, especially through campaign objects. This ultimately revolutionized campaign paraphernalia with the production of all sorts of trinkets, including humorous novelties or everyday household items never-before associated with the presidency, like pens, cigars, coin purses, and the James Garfield metal oil lamp from 1880 pictured on the wall panel. This oil lamp includes a light blue lampshade with a gilded rim and Garfield’s portrait in the center nearly encircled by daisies. On display as well are pinback buttons familiar to us today but invented and patented in 1894 by a woman from Boston, Amanda M. Lougee. The buttons consist of a printed paper disk covered by a layer of a transparent plastic known as celluloid, with both layers over a metal base.

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Everyday Objects

Overview 6.mp3

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The 19th Amendment

Overview 7.mp3

Womens Suffrage Ribbon

Object 3.mp3

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1952-1976

8 correct file.mp3

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1980-present

correct 9.mp3

Untitled

Hear an Audio Sample

BECKY

Cline Library Path to the Presidency

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