Government, Politics, and Reform

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln are all represented in the Museum's collections—by a surveying compass, a lap desk, and a top hat, among other artifacts. But the roughly 100,000 objects in this collection reach beyond the possessions of statesmen to touch the broader political life of the nation—in election campaigns, the women's suffrage movement, labor activity, civil rights, and many other areas. Campaign objects make up much of the collection, including posters, novelties, ballots, voting machines, and many others. A second group includes general political history artifacts, such as first ladies' clothing and accessories, diplomatic materials, ceremonial objects, national symbols, and paintings and sculptures of political figures. The third main area focuses on artifacts related to political reform movements, from labor unions to antiwar groups.

White House staff, protocol placement for indoor State Arrival Ceremony, February 5, 1998.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
White House staff, protocol placement for indoor State Arrival Ceremony, February 5, 1998.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1998-02-05
maker
Walker, Diana
ID Number
2003.0250.080
catalog number
2003.0250.080
accession number
2003.0250
During the Great Depression, government photographer Dorothea Lange took this picture at a migrant farmworkers' camp near Nipomo, California. Lange's brief caption recorded her impressions of the family's plight: "Destitute pea pickers ...
Description
During the Great Depression, government photographer Dorothea Lange took this picture at a migrant farmworkers' camp near Nipomo, California. Lange's brief caption recorded her impressions of the family's plight: "Destitute pea pickers ... a 32-year-old mother of seven children."
First published in a San Francisco newspaper, this poignant image became one of the most famous photographs of the Depression era, emblematic of the hardships suffered by poor migrant families. The "migrant mother," anonymous for many years, was later identified as Oklahoma native Florence Thompson.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1936
maker
Lange, Dorothea
ID Number
1983.0069.07
accession number
1983.0069
catalog number
83.69.7
associated person
Adams, John Quincy
ID Number
PL.277275.35
catalog number
277275.35
accession number
277275
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943-09-30
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0818
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0818
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
2000-04-11
depicted (sitter)
Thurmond, Strom
maker
Kennerly, David Hume
ID Number
2003.0005.089
accession number
2003.0005
catalog number
2003.0005.089
A Lewis Hine silver print from about 1906–1918, this image of a young boy working at a loom in a cotton mill in Rhode Island is one in a series of photographs made by Hine for the National Child Labor Committee.
Description
A Lewis Hine silver print from about 1906–1918, this image of a young boy working at a loom in a cotton mill in Rhode Island is one in a series of photographs made by Hine for the National Child Labor Committee. The photographs document child labor throughout America in the early 20th century. As a "sociological photographer" and one of the earliest practitioners of what has come to be known as photojournalism, Hine used his photography to raise public consciousness about the inhumane and dangerous working conditions to which children were being exposed every day. His work was instrumental in bringing about child labor laws and raising safety standards in the American workplace, a social movement that would secure the promise of childhood for future generations.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1906-1918
maker
Hine, Lewis
ID Number
PG.72.78.10
accession number
302041
catalog number
72.78.10
A Nickolas Muray 3-color carbro head and shoulders portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ca. 1932. Roosevelt was governor of New York when the photograph was taken, he wears a blue tie and gray wool jacket.Photo Recto: Signed by artisit in lower right corner (white pencil).
Description (Brief)
A Nickolas Muray 3-color carbro head and shoulders portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ca. 1932. Roosevelt was governor of New York when the photograph was taken, he wears a blue tie and gray wool jacket.
Photo Recto: Signed by artisit in lower right corner (white pencil). Mount Recto: "F.D.R." in lower left side (white pencil). "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt" in lower left corner (label). Verso: Muray label. "President F. D. Roosevelt (then governor) for Chicago Tribune" (black marker). "F.D.R. 1932" (pencil). "#8" (pencil).
Description
Nickolas Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary on February 15, 1892. Twelve years after his birth, Muray left his native town and enrolled in a graphic arts school in Budapest. Enrolling in art school was the first step on a road that would eventually lead him to study a photographic printing process called three-color carbro. In the course of his accomplished career, Muray would become an expert in this process and play a key role in bringing color photography to America.
While attending art school in Budapest, Muray studied lithography and photoengraving, earning an International Engraver's Certificate. Muray was also introduced to photography during this time period. His combined interest in photography and printmaking led him to Berlin, Germany to participate in a three-year color-photoengraving course. In Berlin, Muray learned how to make color filters, a first step in the craft that would one day become his trademark. Immediately after the completion of the course, Muray found a good job with a publishing company in Ullstein, Germany. However, the threat of war in Europe forced Muray to flee for America in 1913. Soon after his arrival in New York, Muray was working as a photoengraver for Condé Nast. His specialty was color separations and half-tone negatives.
By 1920, Muray had established a home for himself in the up-and-coming artists' haven of Greenwich Village. He opened a portrait studio out of his apartment and continued to work part time at his engraving job. Harper's Bazaar magazine gave Muray his first big assignment in 1921. The project was to photograph Broadway star Florence Reed. The magazine was so impressed with his photographs that they began to publish his work monthly. This allowed him to give up his part time job and work solely as a photographer. It did not take long for Muray to become one of the most renowned portrait photographers in Manhattan. Muray spent much of the early 1920s photographing the most famous and important personalities in New York at the time.
In his spare time Muray enjoyed fencing. In 1927, he won the National Sabre Championship and in 1928 and 1932, he was on the United States Olympic Team. During World War II, Muray was a flight lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1932
depicted (sitter)
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
maker
Muray, Nickolas
ID Number
PG.69.247.20
catalog number
69.247.20
accession number
287542
A Nickolas Muray 3-color carbro head and shoulders portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower ca. 1952. One in a series of inagural photographs of Eisenhower, he is seated in front of an American flag.Recto: Signed and dated by artist in lower left (pencil). Verso: Muray label.
Description (Brief)
A Nickolas Muray 3-color carbro head and shoulders portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower ca. 1952. One in a series of inagural photographs of Eisenhower, he is seated in front of an American flag.
Recto: Signed and dated by artist in lower left (pencil). Verso: Muray label. "D.D.Eisenhower" (pencil).
Description
Nickolas Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary on February 15, 1892. Twelve years after his birth, Muray left his native town and enrolled in a graphic arts school in Budapest. Enrolling in art school was the first step on a road that would eventually lead him to study a photographic printing process called three-color carbro. In the course of his accomplished career, Muray would become an expert in this process and play a key role in bringing color photography to America.
While attending art school in Budapest, Muray studied lithography and photoengraving, earning an International Engraver's Certificate. Muray was also introduced to photography during this time period. His combined interest in photography and printmaking led him to Berlin, Germany to participate in a three-year color-photoengraving course. In Berlin, Muray learned how to make color filters, a first step in the craft that would one day become his trademark. Immediately after the completion of the course, Muray found a good job with a publishing company in Ullstein, Germany. However, the threat of war in Europe forced Muray to flee for America in 1913. Soon after his arrival in New York, Muray was working as a photoengraver for Condé Nast. His specialty was color separations and half-tone negatives.
By 1920, Muray had established a home for himself in the up-and-coming artists' haven of Greenwich Village. He opened a portrait studio out of his apartment and continued to work part time at his engraving job. Harper's Bazaar magazine gave Muray his first big assignment in 1921. The project was to photograph Broadway star Florence Reed. The magazine was so impressed with his photographs that they began to publish his work monthly. This allowed him to give up his part time job and work solely as a photographer. It did not take long for Muray to become one of the most renowned portrait photographers in Manhattan. Muray spent much of the early 1920s photographing the most famous and important personalities in New York at the time.
In his spare time Muray enjoyed fencing. In 1927, he won the National Sabre Championship and in 1928 and 1932, he was on the United States Olympic Team. During World War II, Muray was a flight lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1952
depicted
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
maker
Muray, Nickolas
ID Number
PG.69.247.21
catalog number
69.247.21
accession number
287542
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1901
Associated Date
1901-09-06
depicted (sitter)
McKinley, William
ID Number
PL.284222.01
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took the presidential oath of office. No president, before or after, entered the office with the nation in such peril. Seven Southern states rejected the results of the presidential election and formed the Confederate States of America.
Description
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took the presidential oath of office. No president, before or after, entered the office with the nation in such peril. Seven Southern states rejected the results of the presidential election and formed the Confederate States of America. Four more states soon joined them.
Fear of violence hung in the air. Just two weeks earlier Jefferson Davis had taken the oath of office as president of the Confederate States of America. Soldiers blocked off the cross streets and sharpshooters manned the roofs along Pennsylvania Avenue.
The unfinished Capitol dome loomed in the background as if to symbolize the uncertain state of the nation.
Lincoln began his inaugural address by appealing to Southern secessionists. He promised to defend states rights and protect slavery where it existed. But he made it clear that he would defend the Constitution and the Union. He ended his speech with a plea to find common ground. To some Northerners, his remarks seemed to be too conciliatory, but to many people in the South, they sounded like a declaration of war.
Gift of Capt. Montgomery Meigs, 1892
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
associated date
1861 03
associated person
Lincoln, Abraham
ID Number
1996.0090.0135
accession number
1996.0090
catalog number
1996.0090.135
This photograph shows Lucy Branham with a banner protesting the treatment of suffrage leader Alice Paul.In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party NWP) posted pickets at t
Description
This photograph shows Lucy Branham with a banner protesting the treatment of suffrage leader Alice Paul.
In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party NWP) posted pickets at the White House gates—the first people to ever picket the White House. These "silent sentinels" stayed on duty in all weather and in the face of threats, taunts, and physical violence. Using their banners and their quiet courage they asked,"“Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for their Liberty?" and "Mr. President What Will you do for Woman Suffrage?" Hoping to provoke a response, the language on the banners became more inflammatory. They used the president’s own words against him and pointed out the hypocrisy of his leading the country into the First World War to defend freedom while denying it to the women of his own country. Crowds who believed the pickets’ activities were disloyal in a time of war attacked the suffragists and destroyed their banners. In July the police began arresting the pickets for "obstruction of traffic." When they refused to pay fines they were imprisoned. When they went on hunger strikes to demand the rights of political prisoners they were forcibly fed—a painful and invasive procedure. The pickets continued despite the risk. Paul had endured such treatment while she was in England. Although she knew what lay ahead and that she, as the organizer of the picketing, would receive a harsher sentence, she insisted on taking her place on the picket line. She was arrested in October. While in jail she was forcibly fed and threatened with commitment to an insane asylum. Reports of the long sentences, abuse, and the courage of the suffragists became public and all prisoners were released in November.
Lucy Branham, a leader of the National Woman’s Party, was arrested while picketing the White House in September 1917 and served two months in the Occoquan Workhouse and District of Columbia Jail.
Location
Currently not on view
associated institution
National Woman's Party
depicted
Branham, Lucy
photographer
Edmonston
ID Number
1991.3016.110
catalog number
1991.3016.110
nonaccession number
1991.3016
This photograph shows Lucy Branham with a banner protesting the treatment of suffrage leader Alice Paul.In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party NWP) posted pickets at t
Description
This photograph shows Lucy Branham with a banner protesting the treatment of suffrage leader Alice Paul.
In January 1917, discouraged by President Wilson’s continued opposition to the suffrage amendment, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party NWP) posted pickets at the White House gates—the first people to ever picket the White House. These "silent sentinels" stayed on duty in all weather and in the face of threats, taunts, and physical violence. Using their banners and their quiet courage they asked, "Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for their Liberty?" and "Mr. President What Will you do for Woman Suffrage?" Hoping to provoke a response, the language on the banners became more inflammatory. They used the president’s own words against him and pointed out the hypocrisy of his leading the country into the First World War to defend freedom while denying it to the women of his own country. Crowds who believed the pickets’ activities were disloyal in a time of war attacked the suffragists and destroyed their banners. In July the police began arresting the pickets for "obstruction of traffic." When they refused to pay fines they were imprisoned. When they went on hunger strikes to demand the rights of political prisoners they were forcibly fed—a painful and invasive procedure. The pickets continued despite the risk. Paul had endured such treatment while she was in England. Although she knew what lay ahead and that she, as the organizer of the picketing, would receive a harsher sentence, she insisted on taking her place on the picket line. She was arrested in October. While in jail she was forcibly fed and threatened with commitment to an insane asylum. Reports of the long sentences, abuse, and the courage of the suffragists became public and all prisoners were released in November.
Lucy Branham, a leader of the National Woman’s Party, was arrested while picketing the White House in September 1917 and served two months in the Occoquan Workhouse and District of Columbia Jail.
Location
Currently not on view
associated institution
National Woman's Party
associated person
Paul, Alice
depicted
Branham, Lucy
photographer
Harris and Ewing
ID Number
1991.3016.111
catalog number
1991.3016.111
nonaccession number
1991.3016
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896
associated date
1896
depicted (sitter)
McKinley, William
McKinley, Ida Saxton
ID Number
PL.315264.0006
accession number
315264
catalog number
315264.0006
Press print; four women standing in a group facing photographer; Left to right-- Sally Hovey, Portsmouth N.H.; Mary Kelly McCarty, Portsmouth N.H.; Hazel MacKaye, Sherley Center Mass.; Elsie Hill, Norwalk Conn.Suffragists, one wearing a sash, all in hats and coats; voting rights;
Description (Brief)
Press print; four women standing in a group facing photographer; Left to right-- Sally Hovey, Portsmouth N.H.; Mary Kelly McCarty, Portsmouth N.H.; Hazel MacKaye, Sherley Center Mass.; Elsie Hill, Norwalk Conn.
Suffragists, one wearing a sash, all in hats and coats; voting rights; suffrage
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1924-02-20
ID Number
2016.0293.0002
accession number
2016.0293
catalog number
2016.0293.0002
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
depicted
Castro, Rafaela
maker
Kodak Corp.
ID Number
2016.0166.04
accession number
2016.0166
catalog number
2016.0166.04
mounted black and white photograph; image of Martin Luther King, Jr. standing behind a podium with multiple microphones on podium in front of him. American flag in backgroundCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
mounted black and white photograph; image of Martin Luther King, Jr. standing behind a podium with multiple microphones on podium in front of him. American flag in background
Location
Currently not on view
depicted (sitter)
King, Jr., Martin Luther
maker
Zalesky, Roy Joseph
ID Number
2017.0306.0155
catalog number
2017.0306.0155
accession number
2017.0306
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2009-01
maker
Kittner, Sam
ID Number
2010.0177.01
catalog number
2010.0177.01
accession number
2010.0177
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2000-08-20
depicted (sitter)
Castro, Rafaela
manufacturer
Kodak Corp.
ID Number
2016.0166.03
accession number
2016.0166
catalog number
2016.0166.03
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
user
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader
ID Number
2022.0031.16
accession number
2022.0031
catalog number
2022.0031.16
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2010-01-20
2009-01-20
depicted (sitter)
Obama, Barack H.
Obama, Michelle
maker
Kennerly, David Hume
ID Number
2010.0176.09
catalog number
2010.0176.09
accession number
2010.0176
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2009-01
depicted
Obama, Barack H.
maker
Souza, Pete
ID Number
2010.0169.01
catalog number
2010.0169.01
accession number
2010.0169
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2009-01-20
depicted (sitter)
Obama, Barack H.
maker
Souza, Pete
ID Number
2010.0169.06
catalog number
2010.0169.06
accession number
2010.0169
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
depicted (sitter)
Wallace, Henry
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0836
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0836
Press print; Fred M. Vinson, standing and speaking; wearing a pinstripe suit, gesturing with right hand and holding glasses in left hand; Frederick Moore Vinson was an American Democratic politician.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Press print; Fred M. Vinson, standing and speaking; wearing a pinstripe suit, gesturing with right hand and holding glasses in left hand; Frederick Moore Vinson was an American Democratic politician.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
depicted (sitter)
Vinson, Frederick Moore
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0806
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0806

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