Exhibitions

Coinciding with the 2016 presidential election, the New-York Historical Society showcased more than 120 objects from The Museum of Democracy/Wright Family Collection, considered one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of historical and political campaign memorabilia. Items on view included bold posters, paper dresses, foreign language ads, board games, t-shirts, paper and vinyl stickers, lapel pins, buttons, and other ephemera that spanned in tone from idealistic, to humorous, to scathingly critical. Featured objects from the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy v. Richard Nixon (1960), Lyndon B. Johnson v. Barry Goldwater (1964), Robert F. Kennedy’s nomination race (1968), Richard Nixon v. Hubert Humphrey v. George Wallace (1968), and Richard Nixon v. George McGovern (1972) followed the change in tone and aesthetics of 1960s material culture of elections and reflected contemporary developments in campaign strategy.