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.

Telegraph message, printed in Morse code, transcribed and signed by Samuel F. B. Morse.
Description
Telegraph message, printed in Morse code, transcribed and signed by Samuel F. B. Morse. This message was transmitted from Baltimore, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., over the nation's first long-distance telegraph line.
In 1843, Congress allocated $30,000 for Morse (1791-1872) to build an electric telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. Morse and his partner, Alfred Vail (1807-1859), completed the forty-mile line in May 1844. For the first transmissions, they used a quotation from the Bible, Numbers 23:23: "What hath God wrought," suggested by Annie G. Ellsworth (1826-1900), daughter of Patent Commissioner Henry L. Ellsworth (1791-1858) who was present at the event on 24 May. Morse, in the Capitol, sent the message to Vail at the B&O Railroad's Pratt Street Station in Baltimore. Vail then sent a return message confirming the message he had received.
The original message transmitted by Morse from Washington to Baltimore, dated 24 May 1844, is in the collections of the Library of Congress. The original confirmation message from Vail to Morse is in the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society.
This tape, dated 25 May, is a personal souvenir transmitted by Vail in Baltimore to Morse in Washington the day following the inaugural transmissions. The handwriting on the tape is that of Morse himself. Found in Morse’s papers after his death the tape was donated to the Smithsonian in 1900 by his son Edward, where it has been displayed in many exhibitions.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1844-05-25
1844-05-24
associated date
1844-05-24
donated
1900-04-18
associated person
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
maker
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
ID Number
EM.001028
catalog number
001028
accession number
65555
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Fruit of the Loom
ID Number
1999.0352.02
ID Number
1991.0034.01
accession number
1991.0034
catalog number
1991.0034.01
Paul Robeson. side 1: The Purest Kind of a Guy; side 2: Joe Hil (Columbia 17357-D), from the album. Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942. This album was released in 1943.The cover art for this album was made by Alex Steinweiss.
Description (Brief)

Paul Robeson. side 1: The Purest Kind of a Guy; side 2: Joe Hil (Columbia 17357-D), from the album. Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).
78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942. This album was released in 1943.

The cover art for this album was made by Alex Steinweiss. Alexander “Alex” Steinweiss (1917-2011) was an American artist and graphic designer. He was the first art director of Columbia Records, expanding the use of album covers and cover art. Steinweiss created album cover art from 1938 to 1973.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1942
release date
1943
recording artist
Robeson, Paul
manufacturer
Columbia
ID Number
1988.0824.25
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
M-534
catalog number
1988.0824.25
maker number
17357-D
This hand-modeled and molded, unglazed red earthenware pitcher honors Frederick Douglass, "Slave Orator/ United States Marshall, Recorder of Deeds D.C./ Diplomat."Although the maker is unknown, we do know that the design for the pitcher was copyrighted by a J. E.
Description
This hand-modeled and molded, unglazed red earthenware pitcher honors Frederick Douglass, "Slave Orator/ United States Marshall, Recorder of Deeds D.C./ Diplomat."
Although the maker is unknown, we do know that the design for the pitcher was copyrighted by a J. E. Bruce of Albany, New York, in 1896, one year after Douglass's death.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1895
designer
Bruce, J. E.
maker
unknown
ID Number
1981.0353.1
accession number
1981.0353
catalog number
1981.0353.01
side 1: Tom Glazer and Josh White. Citizen C.I.O.; side 2: Josh White. No More Blues (Asch 349-1), from the album, Songs of C.I.O. (Asch 349).78 rpm.This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] War Relief Committee.Currently not on view
Description

side 1: Tom Glazer and Josh White. Citizen C.I.O.; side 2: Josh White. No More Blues (Asch 349-1), from the album, Songs of C.I.O. (Asch 349).
78 rpm.

This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] War Relief Committee.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1944
recording artist
White, Josh
Glazer, Tom
manufacturer
Asch
ID Number
1988.0824.01
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
349-1
catalog number
1988.0824.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1860
associated date
1860 11 06
associated person
Lincoln, Abraham
ID Number
PL.227739.1860.G028
catalog number
227739.1860.G028
Tom Glazer. side 1: We've Got a Plan (G.I. Joe and the C.I.O.); side 2: Social Workers Talking Blues (Asch 349-2), from the album, Songs Of C.I.O. (Asch 349).78 rpm.This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O.
Description (Brief)

Tom Glazer. side 1: We've Got a Plan (G.I. Joe and the C.I.O.); side 2: Social Workers Talking Blues (Asch 349-2), from the album, Songs Of C.I.O. (Asch 349).
78 rpm.

This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] War Relief Committee.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1944
recording artist
Glazer, Tom
manufacturer
Asch
ID Number
1988.0824.02
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
349-2
catalog number
1988.0824.02
This poster was used at the April 1, 2003, rally at the Supreme Court supporting affirmative action. Brown v. Board of Education was the 1954 landmark case ordering the desegregation of public schools.
Description
This poster was used at the April 1, 2003, rally at the Supreme Court supporting affirmative action. Brown v. Board of Education was the 1954 landmark case ordering the desegregation of public schools.
Date made
2003
ID Number
2003.0154.02
accession number
2003.0154
catalog number
2003.0154.02
This flyswatter decorated with the symbol of the Republican Party was donated to the museum by the Republican National Committee following the 1960 presidential election.
Description
This flyswatter decorated with the symbol of the Republican Party was donated to the museum by the Republican National Committee following the 1960 presidential election. In that contest, Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, lost to his Democratic opponent, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
date made
1960
associated institution
Republican National Party
associated
Republican National Committee
ID Number
PL.235650.155
catalog number
235650.55
accession number
235650
Date made
2000
ID Number
2001.0306.01
accession number
2001.0306
catalog number
2001.0306.01
Law enforcement personnel joined with many other groups to save lives in the wake of Katrina's passage through the Gulf Coast in August 2005.
Description
Law enforcement personnel joined with many other groups to save lives in the wake of Katrina's passage through the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Skills used to apprehend criminals were supplemented by heroic attempts to rescue victims caught up in the swirling waters of the hurricane.
On the night of the hurricane Officer David Waite of the New Orleans Police Department was wearing this bullet-proof vest when he jumped into deep water in a city housing project to save a five-day-old girl. That girl and her family were escaping their housing in an overloaded boat that had just capsized. A nearby police boat witnessed the scene. The girl's mother attempted to lift the baby out of the water, but the infant seat in which she was strapped was too heavy and sank. Waite swam down to it and pulled the seat and baby into his craft. Another officer, Lejon Roberts, administered CPR to the infant as their boat sped to a nearby hospital. The child and her family survived.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
August - September 2005
user
Waite, David J.
referenced
Roberts, LeJon
New Orleans Police Department
ID Number
2006.0066.01
catalog number
2006.0066.01
accession number
2006.0066
This small jug is unusual due to its completely hand painted designs. Painted on the front of the jug is the Great Seal of the United States. On the opposite side is the word “Liberty” in front of crossed flags and a liberty cap and pole.
Description
This small jug is unusual due to its completely hand painted designs. Painted on the front of the jug is the Great Seal of the United States. On the opposite side is the word “Liberty” in front of crossed flags and a liberty cap and pole. Remnants of hand painting also exist on the lip and spout of this jug. Painted flowers decorate the sides. The amount of hand painting on this jug makes it rare even though the subject matter is rather generic. Glued to the inside of the jug is a paper label as well as a newspaper clipping. Handwritten on the label is, “Presented to Helen A V Blanchard As a gift of remembrance from her grandmother in her 87th yr 1862 Died July 25th 1866.” The newspaper clipping includes the death notice of Blanchard’s grandmother: “In Cumberland Centre, July 25, Mrs Abigail, widow of David Buxton, aged 91 years 1 month 22 days.” It is unclear which newspaper this is from because it is just a clipping.Robert H. McCauley purchased this jug from Richard H. Wood of Baltimore, MD on September 3, 1946 for $65.00.
This pitcher is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark on the pitcher to tell us who made it, but it is characteristic of wares made in large volume for the American market in both Staffordshire and Liverpool between 1790 and 1820. Pitchers of this shape, with a cream colored glaze over a pale earthenware clay, known as Liverpool type, were the most common vessels to feature transfer prints with subjects commemorating events and significant figures in the early decades of United States’ history. This pitcher is atypical in its lack of transfer print design. Notwithstanding the tense relationship between Britain and America, Liverpool and Staffordshire printers and potters seized the commercial opportunity offered them in the production of transfer printed earthenwares celebrating the heroes, the military victories, and the virtues of the young republic, and frequently all of these things at once.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.63.131
catalog number
63.131
accession number
248619
collector/donor number
46.367
Paul Robeson. side 1: The Peet-Bog Soldiers; side 2: The Four Insurgent Generals (Columbia 17358-D), from the album, Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942.
Description

Paul Robeson. side 1: The Peet-Bog Soldiers; side 2: The Four Insurgent Generals (Columbia 17358-D), from the album, Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).
78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942. This album was released in 1943.

The cover art for this album was made by Alex Steinweiss. Alexander “Alex” Steinweiss (1917-2011) was an American artist and graphic designer. He was the first art director of Columbia Records, expanding the use of album covers and cover art. Steinweiss created album cover art from 1938 to 1973.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1942
release date
1943
recording artist
Robeson, Paul
manufacturer
Columbia
ID Number
1988.0824.24
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
M-534
catalog number
1988.0824.24
maker number
17358-D
As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.Currently not on view
Description
As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
2005
fabricator
New Orleans Department of Public Works
ID Number
2005.0284.01
accession number
2005.0284
catalog number
2005.0284.01
This pen-and-ink comic art drawing by Rube Goldberg from 1924 features the concept of using “windy” political speeches as free energy.Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was an engineer before he was a comic artist.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink comic art drawing by Rube Goldberg from 1924 features the concept of using “windy” political speeches as free energy.
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was an engineer before he was a comic artist. After receiving an engineering degree, he started his career designing sewers for the City of San Francisco, but then followed his other interest and took a job as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. After moving to New York in 1907 Goldberg worked for several newspapers, producing a number of short-lived strips and panels—many of which were inspired by his engineering background, including his renowned invention cartoons. In the late 1930s and 1940s he switched his focus to editorial and political cartoons and in 1945 founded the National Cartoonists Society. The Reuben, comic art’s most prestigious award, is named after him.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1924-10-31
original artist
Goldberg, Rube
ID Number
GA.23492
catalog number
23492
accession number
299186
Paul Robeson. side 1: Songs of the Plains; side 2: Native Land (Columbia 17359-D), from the album, Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942. This album was released in 1943.The cover art for this album was made by Alex Steinweiss.
Description (Brief)

Paul Robeson. side 1: Songs of the Plains; side 2: Native Land (Columbia 17359-D), from the album, Songs of Free Men (Columbia M-534).
78 rpm. Both tracks were recorded in 1942. This album was released in 1943.

The cover art for this album was made by Alex Steinweiss. Alexander “Alex” Steinweiss (1917-2011) was an American artist and graphic designer. He was the first art director of Columbia Records, expanding the use of album covers and cover art. Steinweiss created album cover art from 1938 to 1973.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1942
release date
1943
recording artist
Robeson, Paul
manufacturer
Columbia
ID Number
1988.0824.27
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
M-534
catalog number
1988.0824.27
maker number
17359-D
John Varden began to collect these locks of hair in 1850.
Description
John Varden began to collect these locks of hair in 1850. At the time, he was working as keeper of collections for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science at the US Patent Office, but he considered the hair collection to be his personal property.
Varden presented his first hair display at the Patent Office in 1853, assembled from donations that he personally solicited, purchased, or may have repurposed from existing collections. The presidential locks are now missing from the 1853 collection; Varden moved them to a separate display in 1855. The remaining “Persons of Distinction” include Samuel F. B. Morse, sculptor Clark Mills, Generals Winfield Scott and Sam Houston, Senators Henry Clay and Jefferson Davis, and other luminaries. Varden’s inscription makes a public appeal: “Those having hair of Distinguished Persons, will confere [sic] a Favor by adding to this Collection.”
The 1855 display features the hair of presidents from George Washington to Franklin Pierce.
Transfer from the United States Patent Office, 1883
date made
1853
ID Number
PL.016157.a
accession number
13152
catalog number
016157.a
The Emperor Napoleon gave this table napkin to William Bayard on February 26, 1815, the morning Napoleon escaped exile on the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy.
Description
The Emperor Napoleon gave this table napkin to William Bayard on February 26, 1815, the morning Napoleon escaped exile on the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. The napkin is embroidered in one corner with a small green crown above the letter N and in the opposite corner with the red initials W.B. William Bayard, a wealthy American who traveled widely among the courts of Europe, had called upon the exiled French emperor, who reportedly invited Bayard to join his party returning to France. Instead, Bayard came home with his story and two of the emperor’s napkins.
Bayard gave the two napkins to Lucy Hunter Churchill, the wife of US Army Inspector General Sylvester Churchill. Mrs. Churchill, the future mother-in-law of Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird, was said to be a keen admirer of Napoleon. The napkin displayed here was bequeathed to the museum by the Bairds’ daughter, Lucy Hunter Baird, in 1914.
Bequest of Lucy Hunter Baird, 1914
associated date
1815
associated person
Napoleon I Emperor of France
ID Number
PL.15037
catalog number
15037
accession number
55865
Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation.
Description
Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation. Dramatic changes in weather patterns have the potential to affect millions of people, as do warnings issued by the National Weather Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Robert Ricks, chief NWS forecaster on duty at the Slidell, Louisiana weather station the morning of August 28, studied the computer maps of Hurricane Katrina's movement across the Gulf of Mexico. At 10:11 that morning, he quickly composed an urgent and unambiguous weather alert, what became the most accurate prediction of Katrina's impact. "A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH . . ." it began. "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS . . . PERHAPS LONGER . . . ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL . . . ALL WOOD-FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED . . . WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS . . . NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED . . . LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED . . . "
To comfort him during his forecasting assignment that day, and in the chaotic days immediately after, Ricks carried this Catholic rosary given to him by his grandmother. He later donated it to the Smithsonian as a symbol of his own perilous journey through the arms of Hurricane Katrina.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
August - September 2005
user
Ricks, Robert
referenced
National Weather Service
ID Number
2006.0220.01
accession number
2006.0220
catalog number
2006.0220.01
This small creamware jug is decorated with a rare transfer print featuring a portrait of John Adams. The print is titled “John Adams President of the United States.” Above the portrait is a small Great Seal of the United States. Below is a cherub with quills and books.
Description
This small creamware jug is decorated with a rare transfer print featuring a portrait of John Adams. The print is titled “John Adams President of the United States.” Above the portrait is a small Great Seal of the United States. Below is a cherub with quills and books. Under the spout is the phrase “Success to America” printed within a medallion. The reverse side is printed with an image of a spread-winged eagle with U. S. Shield. The eagle is encircled by a chain of sixteen links, each with a state’s name. Two states are misspelled: “Tenassee” and “Masachusetts.” Robert H. McCauley purchased this from the Collector’s Clock Shop in New York, NY on March 22, 1939 for $25.00.
This pitcher is part of the McCauley collection of American themed transfer print pottery. There is no mark on the pitcher to tell us who made it, but it is characteristic of wares made in large volume for the American market in both Staffordshire and Liverpool between 1790 and 1820. Pitchers of this shape, with a cream colored glaze over a pale earthenware clay, known as Liverpool type, were the most common vessels to feature transfer prints with subjects commemorating events and significant figures in the early decades of United States’ history. Notwithstanding the tense relationship between Britain and America, Liverpool and Staffordshire printers and potters seized the commercial opportunity offered them in the production of transfer printed earthenwares celebrating the heroes, the military victories, and the virtues of the young republic, and frequently all of these things at once.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
CE.63.095
catalog number
63.095
accession number
248881
collector/donor number
345
This Juki industrial sewing machine was used in a suburban El Monte, California sweatshop.
Description
This Juki industrial sewing machine was used in a suburban El Monte, California sweatshop. Law enforcement officers seized the sewing machine during a well-publicized 1995 sweatshop raid and is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation. The El Monte sweatshop, like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 earlier, took on an iconic role as government and activists used media coverage to galvanize the American public into action.
On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
date made
1974 - 1995
ID Number
1996.0292.29a
accession number
1996.0292
catalog number
1996.0292.29a
side 1: Tom Glazer. I'm Gonna Put My Name Down; side 2: Josh White. Freedom Road (Asch 349-3), from the album, Songs of C.I.O. (Asch 349).78 rpm.This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] War Relief Committee.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)

side 1: Tom Glazer. I'm Gonna Put My Name Down; side 2: Josh White. Freedom Road (Asch 349-3), from the album, Songs of C.I.O. (Asch 349).
78 rpm.

This album was sponsored by the National C.I.O. [Congress of Industrial Organizations] War Relief Committee.

Location
Currently not on view
recording date
1944
recording artist
Glazer, Tom
White, Josh
manufacturer
Asch
ID Number
1988.0824.03
accession number
1988.0824
maker number
349-3
catalog number
1988.0824.03
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1860-05-19
associated institution
Republican National Party
ID Number
PL.227739.1860.G019
catalog number
227739.1860.G019

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