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.
4,358
Page 1 of 218
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We Are Here to Stay
- Description
- A poster used in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) protest on March 5, 2018; the day DACA was supposed to have ended.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 2018
- Associated Name
- Loza, Mireya
- maker
- Here to Stay
- ID Number
- 2018.0073.07
- accession number
- 2018.0073
- catalog number
- 2018.0073.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Woman Suffrage Button
- Description
- Button worn by supporters of woman suffrage.
- The ten stars represent the number of states in which women had full suffrage at the time it was made -- Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Kansas, Oregon and Arizona (all 1912), and Montana (1914).
- “Votes for Women” was one of the most popular and recognizable slogans used by members of the woman’s suffrage movement.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- PL.242991.181
- catalog number
- 242991.181
- accession number
- 242991
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ted Kennedy
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1980
- depicted (sitter)
- Kennedy, Edward M.
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.538
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.538
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Media Filing Center Hours of Operation ......
- Description
- A poster related to Media Filing at a presidential debate in Hartford, Connecticut in 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1996
- ID Number
- 1997.0390.08
- accession number
- 1997.0390
- catalog number
- 1997.0390.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Needle Lace Certificate
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1909
- Associated Date
- 1909
- ID Number
- 2003.0186.02
- accession number
- 2003.0186
- catalog number
- 2003.0186.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Netanyahu
- Description (Brief)
- Chairman Arafat of Palestine and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel on a love seat in the White House, Red Room, October 2, 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1996-10-02
- maker
- Walker, Diana
- ID Number
- 2003.0250.060
- catalog number
- 2003.0250.060
- accession number
- 2003.0250
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros stand in a group at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.04.19
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.04.19
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros Waiting at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Viewed from a military barrack, braceros wait at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.04.36
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.04.36
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Toothpick holder, Theodore Roosevelt
- Description
- Ceramic figurine, Teddy & the Bear 1912
- associated person
- Roosevelt, Theodore
- ID Number
- PL.227739.1912.I03
- catalog number
- 227739.1912.I03
- accession number
- 227739
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
poster
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1963-1964
- associated date
- 1963?
- related
- Congress of Racial Equality
- ID Number
- PL.259949.13
- catalog number
- 259949.13
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bracero Getting a Shave
- Description
- Photograph: In front of a living quarter at a camp in California, a bracero sits on a step while another shaves him.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.21.28
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.21.28
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Photograph: Arrest of Picketing Suffragists, 1917
- Description
- In this photograph one can see a police paddy wagon amongst a gathered crowd as White House picketers are arrested.
- In January 1917, members of the National Woman's Party (NWP) became the first people to picket the White House. Protesting the government's failure to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising women, NWP members, led by Alice Paul, began picketing the White House. Their purple, white, and gold banners asked President Woodrow Wilson, "Mr. President what will you do for woman suffrage?" and "Mr. President how long must women wait for liberty?" Tolerated at first, the "silent sentinels" were increasingly seen as an embarrassment to the administration. As the United States entered the First World War, the NWP pickets' banners often pointed out the hypocrisy of fighting for democracy and freedom in Europe while denying it to women at home. In June 1917, the D.C. police began arresting picketers for obstructing sidewalk traffic. 90 women were sentenced to terms ranging from 60 days to six months in the Occoquan Workhouse. When their demands to be treated as political prisoners were ignored, they went on hunger strikes and were forcibly fed. The publicity surrounding their ordeal generated public sympathy for the suffragists and their cause.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1918
- associated dates
- August 8, 1918
- associated institution
- National Woman's Party
- photographer
- Clinedinst Studios
- ID Number
- 1991.3016.092
- catalog number
- 1991.3016.092
- nonaccession number
- 1991.3016
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pitcher, "George Washington"
- Description
- This large creamware pitcher features a transfer-print commemorating George Washington. One side of the pitcher features a memorial obelisk to Washington, with an image of a spread-winged eagle on the other. The obelisk is capped with an urn and features a profile image of Washington in his military regalia in the center of the obelisk. At the base of the monument is a female figure weeping and an eagle with its head down and wings extended. Banners around the print read “WASHINGTON IN GLORY / AMERICA IN TEARS.” Below the spout is a transfer print of a medallion with the phrase, “A MAN / without example / A PATRIOT / without reproach.” Below the handle is a print of the Great seal of the United States. The eagle on the opposite side of the jug is flanked by two allegorical figures representing Plenty and Peace with the phrase “PEACE, PLENTY, and INDEPENDENCE” in a cartouche.
- George Washington is the most common figure depicted on English creamware pitchers of this period. His death in 1799 led to an outpouring of commemorative products celebrating his life and mourning his death. The transfer-print on this pitcher is based on an engraving by Philadelphians James Akin and William Harrison Jr. titled “America lamenting her loss at the Tomb of GENERAL WASHINGTON.” The phrase, “A MAN / without example / A PATRIOT / without reproach” is drawn from Thomas Paine’s “An Eulogy on the Life of General George Washington” delivered on January 2, 1800. This particular Thomas Paine was not the man who wrote Common Sense, but was the son of Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Robert H. McCauley purchased this pitcher from A.T. Goodyear of Baltimore, MD for $55.00 on August 4, 1938.
- 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
- date made
- 1800
- ID Number
- CE.63.077
- accession number
- 248881
- catalog number
- 63.077
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros Picking Lettuce
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros pick heads of lettuce and place them in boxes in a field in the Salinas Valley, California.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.34.09
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.34.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
poster
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1967
- associated date
- 1967
- ID Number
- 1983.0583.01
- accession number
- 1983.0583
- catalog number
- 1983.0583.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros Boarding Truck
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros board a truck in Stockton, California.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.50.12
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.50.12
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros in Town
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros walk the streets of Watsonville, California.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.29.27
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.29.27
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Braceros Waiting to Board Buses
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros wait in line to board buses at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.09.25
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.09.25
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Villagers in San Mateo, Mexico
- Description
- Photograph: Two men ride a horse and a donkey down a street in San Mateo, Mexico.
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.08.14
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.08.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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The People are the Sovereign Power - We Will Have Our Rights
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- c. 1841-07-05
- Associated Date
- 1841-07-05
- relevant
- Dorr, Thomas Wilson
- ID Number
- 2017.0347.03
- accession number
- 2017.0347
- catalog number
- 2017.0347.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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- Work and Industry: Photographic History 368
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- Princeton Posters 268
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- Political and Military History: Political History, Reform Movements Collection 201
- Political and Military History: Political History, Women's History Collection 128
- Woman Suffrage 112
