BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: American Democracy: The Great Leap of Faith

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: American Democracy: The Great Leap of Faith:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHA1_170629_015.JPG: Organizing Against Slavery Quakers, evangelical Christians, and Enlightenment thinkers criticized the slave trade and slaveholding. Two dozen men founded an anti-slavery society in Philadelphia in 1775. The group grew and adopted this constitution in 1787. They worried that the U.S. Constitution's fugitive slave clause already endangered free people of color.
2. SIAHA1_170629_024.JPG: Slavery or Freedom? Forced labor of Africans had long been an accepted part of European colonizing. The Revolutionary ideals of equality and rights threw such received practices into doubt, and some people on both sides of the Atlantic organized to combat slavery and the slave trade. The actions of enslaved Americans also had a deep impact. Many African Americans claimed liberty by enlisting in the British or Continental Armies during the war, running away, petitioning and negotiating for freedom, or rebelling. Their actions challenged the idea that enslavement was natural or acceptable to them. A growing community of free Africans demonstrated their capacities as citizens.
3. SIAHA1_170629_034.JPG: Great Debates The Revolution was over and the Constitution was ratified. But debates about the meaning of government by the people were just beginning. Would the new, representative form of government truly represent the interests and views of common men and women? How should those people participate to make their voices heard? What would limit the political influence of families of inherited wealth and social standing?
4. SIAHA1_170629_041.JPG: A Free Press? Could the same free press that unsettled American loyalty to George III now undermine loyalty to the new constitutional government? Newspapers free from government control seemed essential for citizens to be well informed about public affairs. But newspapers changed dramatically in the 1790s, when America became deeply divided over both foreign and domestic issues. Colonial papers had declared themselves to be above party politics. Now many newspapers became frankly partisan, presenting only one side of every issue, denouncing anyone who disagreed, sometimes printing rumors about the personal lives of the political opposition. What if privately controlled media misinformed the public about issues that voters needed to understand?
5. SIAHA1_170629_048.JPG: "Franklin" common press, about 1720 Benjamin Franklin identified this printing press as the one that he had used while learning his trade in England in the 1720s. The press became a historical icon through its association with the famous revolutionary. Franklin symbolized the powerful influence of patriot printers in spreading enlightened ideas and mobilizing American colonists toward revolution. Yet his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, faced indictment for printing criticisms of the John Adams Administration in the 1790s.
6. SIAHA1_170629_060.JPG: The Place of Women How would American women participate in public life? Active in both the American and French Revolutions, many women saw themselves capable of a vital political role. During the 1790s, women attended speeches and parades, took sides in partisan disputes, and sometimes published opinions in the press. In New Jersey, women with property could even vote. Revolutionary ideals of universal rights led to challenges against women's subordinate status within marriage.
7. SIAHA1_170629_065.JPG: Ink drawing, "Image of the World," by M. A. S. Fornead
8. SIAHA1_170629_068.JPG: Female Education Women persisted in seeking access to education as a route toward richer lives and fuller participation as citizens of their society. They founded schools throughout the country, but especially in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, to teach girls many of the same disciplines taught to boys.
9. SIAHA1_170629_072.JPG: Nothing But a Newspaper can put the same thought at the same time before a thousand readers. -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1848
10. SIAHA1_170629_076.JPG: Native American Rights Some Native groups continued to live within the bounds of the United States, but they did not enjoy equal political rights. In this pamphlet William Apess, a Pequot and Methodist preacher, championed the cause of the Mashpee Indians of Massachusetts, who petitioned for self-government. Apess argued that state laws were "unconstitutional" when applied to the Mashpee, since they were not represented in the legislature.
11. SIAHA1_170629_083.JPG: Native American Rights Some Native groups continued to live within the bounds of the United States, but they did not enjoy equal political rights. In this pamphlet William Apess, a Pequot and Methodist preacher, championed the cause of the Mashpee Indians of Massachusetts, who petitioned for self-government. Apess argued that state laws were "unconstitutional" when applied to the Mashpee, since they were not represented in the legislature.
12. SIAHA1_170629_086.JPG: Native American Nations How would the U.S. deal with other free nations on the continent? The new government assumed much the same position as European empires in the Americas. It viewed Indian nations as potential allies and buffers against Spanish, French, and British powers on the continent, but it also presumed the right to displace Native peoples when possible. America's reliance on extensive land use for economic growth and social stability created powerful pressure on the Native peoples who populated most of North America.
13. SIAHA1_170629_091.JPG: Actions Revolutions
14. SIAHA1_170629_103.JPG: Toussaint L'Ouverture's cane This cane belonged to Toussaint L'Ouverture, a military and political leader in the Haitian Revolution. The revolution began as a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 and ended with emancipation and the founding of the free nation of Haiti in 1804. Nearly half a million enslaved people gained freedom. These events terrified U.S. slaveholders and other whites while they heartened African Americans. The United States did not recognize the independence of Haiti from France until 1862. A U.S. Department of State official acquired this cane there later in the 19th century.
15. SIAHA1_170629_111.JPG: Toussaint L'Ouverture's cane This cane belonged to Toussaint L'Ouverture, a military and political leader in the Haitian Revolution. The revolution began as a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 and ended with emancipation and the founding of the free nation of Haiti in 1804. Nearly half a million enslaved people gained freedom. These events terrified U.S. slaveholders and other whites while they heartened African Americans. The United States did not recognize the independence of Haiti from France until 1862. A U.S. Department of State official acquired this cane there later in the 19th century.
16. SIAHA1_170629_114.JPG: A Revolutionary World How should Americans respond to aspirations for equality and rights around the Atlantic world? The American Revolution had a powerful impact on people and events outside the borders of the new United States. International events of the 1790s and 1800s also inspired and challenged Americans to think about the commitments and meaning of their own nation. 1789–1799: French Revolution 1791–1804: Haitian Revolution 1792: Freetown, Sierra Leone, founded by African American loyalists 1798: Irish Rebellion 1800: Gabriel's Slave Revolt, Richmond, Virginia 1808–1813: Tecumseh's Confederacy, Northwest Territory 1811: German Coast Slave Revolt, Louisiana 1811–1821: War for Venezuelan Independence
17. SIAHA1_170629_129.JPG: Manumission and Methodism This much-used Bible belonged to Delaware farmer Stokely Sturgis, who converted to the growing Methodist movement through the influence of an enslaved man named Richard Allen. Moved by Methodism's indictment of slaveholding, Sturgis agreed to sell Allen his freedom. Allen became a preacher and moved to Philadelphia. He founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church there in 1794.
18. SIAHA1_170629_133.JPG: Manumission and Methodism This much-used Bible belonged to Delaware farmer Stokely Sturgis, who converted to the growing Methodist movement through the influence of an enslaved man named Richard Allen. Moved by Methodism's indictment of slaveholding, Sturgis agreed to sell Allen his freedom. Allen became a preacher and moved to Philadelphia. He founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church there in 1794.
19. SIAHA1_170629_137.JPG: Free African American Communities The disruptions of wartime, the initiatives of enslaved people, gradual emancipation in the northern states, and voluntary manumissions in the South all contributed to the growth of free black communities. Freed people moved to urban centers for economic opportunity and to build their own supportive communities. By 1800 they had created African churches and mutual aid societies in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and Boston.
20. SIAHA1_170629_144.JPG: Privilege Rights of Man Slavery
21. SIAHA1_170629_149.JPG: Political Parties? The Revolutionary generation opposed organized political parties that promoted the interests of only one part of "the people." True patriots, they believed, should put aside self-interest and narrow views to promote the good of the whole society. But Federalists and Republicans found themselves bitterly divided in the 1790s. When working men, small and middling farmers, slaveholders, and petty dealers formed Democratic-Republican Societies, Federalists attacked them as dangerously radical. President George Washington denounced them as unrepresentative groups.
22. SIAHA1_170629_153.JPG: Democratic-Republican Societies Newly elected President Thomas Jefferson sought to heal the bitter feelings resulting from divisions of the past decade in his inaugural address of 1801. This pitcher paraphrased his effort to bring the two parties together: "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." A lampoon of one Democratic-Republican Society illustrates the era's partisan hostility. It showed some recognizable figures and types of the day: Jefferson orating, David Rittenhouse looking through a telescope, an African American addressed as "Citizen Mungo," and the Devil enjoying the scene.
23. SIAHA1_170629_157.JPG: Democratic-Republican Societies Newly elected President Thomas Jefferson sought to heal the bitter feelings resulting from divisions of the past decade in his inaugural address of 1801. This pitcher paraphrased his effort to bring the two parties together: "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." A lampoon of one Democratic-Republican Society illustrates the era's partisan hostility. It showed some recognizable figures and types of the day: Jefferson orating, David Rittenhouse looking through a telescope, an African American addressed as "Citizen Mungo," and the Devil enjoying the scene.
24. SIAHA1_170629_162.JPG: Insurrection
25. SIAHA1_170629_165.JPG: Membership certificate, Society of Cincinnati, 1787
26. SIAHA1_170629_170.JPG: Military Elites Officers from the Continental Army and Navy formed the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783. It was to be an honorific and hereditary society to support patriotic fellowship. Americans who prized social equality worried that the group was creating a new, hereditary privileged elite. Public controversy caused the society to temporarily abandon the requirement that membership be limited to descendants of original members in 1784. George Washington, president of the society, signed this certificate of membership for William Clark of Virginia.
27. SIAHA1_170629_175.JPG: Print, "Bank of the United States," 1800
28. SIAHA1_170629_177.JPG: Financial Elites The powers and policies of banks quickly became a divisive issue in the United States. Bank advocates noted that banks would support economic growth. Bank critics complained that they channeled capital largely to merchants and manufacturers rather than farmers or small producers. Some objected that privileges of incorporation given to banks generated large profits for private investors. If government policy increased the social and economic gaps among citizens, could Americans sustain a democratic or republican government?
29. SIAHA1_170629_180.JPG: Membership certificate, General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 1822
30. SIAHA1_170629_190.JPG: Common Men Free working people were essential political and military actors in the Revolution. Many accordingly sought a greater voice in political life. Skilled craftsmen formed general societies for charitable and educational purposes, as seen in this certificate of New York's General Society, founded in 1785. By 1800 journeymen mechanics, who worked for masters for a wage, began organizing "combinations" to negotiate to improve their work lives. In later decades, as they gained the right to vote, tradesmen would form workingmen's parties to promote their interests, views, and candidates in elections.
31. SIAHA1_170629_194.JPG: A New Aristocracy? Without kings and hereditary aristocrats, there still seemed to remain two different sorts of free people in the United States: the wealthy elite and the untutored ordinary people. Would American elites accept and support the new government created by the U.S. Constitution? Would they expect to rule the nation? How far would they exert their social and economic power to shape government policies? What was the role of the common people and their common sense?
32. SIAHA1_170629_201.JPG: Braintree School plan
33. SIAHA1_170629_205.JPG: Common Schools To broaden their political community, Americans worked to make formal education, once the province of elite families, available to a wider population. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proposed a statewide system of public schooling to make sure that talented children of poor parents might contribute as citizens of the Commonwealth. In other states, proponents of a participating citizenry also promoted public schooling as essential to the nation. This plan for a school to serve the families of Braintree, Massachusetts, was drawn up in 1810.
34. SIAHA1_170629_208.JPG: Pitcher, "Ascending to Glory" Bust of George Washington
35. SIAHA1_170629_214.JPG: Washington in Glory Made in England for the American market, these ceramic wares reflected many Americans' regard for George Washington. After Washington's death in 1799, images of the great man "ascending to glory" or in "apotheosis" became popular. Ralph Wood's factory in Staffordshire produced this relatively affordable bust of Washington primarily for the American market.
36. SIAHA1_170629_219.JPG: Liberty banner, 1790s This rare silk banner was probably carried in a public parade in Philadelphia in the mid to late 1790s. Its elaborate design suggests the importance of such festivals, which provided a place for many Americans, voters and non-voters, to express patriotic sentiments or partisan views on current events. The banner, mostly likely made by women, is embroidered on both sides, so that it could be viewed as it was carried down the street or hung from a prominent building. The Liberty figure here wears a Grecian garment, carries a pole with a "liberty cap" on it, and nourishes the American eagle -- all while standing triumphant over the fallen crown and broken chains of monarchy.
37. SIAHA1_170629_224.JPG: Liberty on Fabric Liberty banner, 1790s This rare silk banner was probably carried in a public parade in Philadelphia in the mid to late 1790s. Its elaborate design suggests the importance of such festivals, which provided a place for many Americans, voters and non-voters, to express patriotic sentiments or partisan views on current events. The banner, mostly likely made by women, is embroidered on both sides, so that it could be viewed as it was carried down the street or hung from a prominent building. The Liberty figure here wears a Grecian garment, carries a pole with a "liberty cap" on it, and nourishes the American eagle -- all while standing triumphant over the fallen crown and broken chains of monarchy.
38. SIAHA1_170629_229.JPG: Revolution and the National Story How should Americans remember their Revolution and the founding of the nation? Was it a complete, perfect, sacred event led by a great patriot who, as American children would learn, never told a lie? Or was it part of a wider, unfinished movement for liberty -- deeply imperfect but with sacred aspirations open to all people? Americans disputed the issue within decades of the Revolution itself.
39. SIAHA1_170629_233.JPG: Citizen Fire Company parade hat
40. SIAHA1_170629_237.JPG: Pitcher, "Liberty," 1790s
41. SIAHA1_170629_241.JPG: The Ideal of Liberty Pitchers made for American buyers celebrated notions of liberty associated with both the American and French republics in the 1790s. Decades later, this fire hat from the Citizen Fire Company, founded in 1836 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, continued the Revolutionary era's fondness for the figure of Liberty. Yet Liberty became less popular in prints, lithographs, and other arts of the 19th century. The staff and liberty cap she carried and the broken chains she had once stood above became controversial and uncomfortable symbols of an end to slavery, an institution that many Americans were coming to defend and promote as necessary and good.
42. SIAHA1_170629_254.JPG: Voting and Electioneering, 1789–1899 Because the Constitution gives states the job of running elections, ways of voting in the United States vary. Americans have developed a patchwork of manual, mechanical, and electronic balloting. Many methods once common in the past are still used in some places today. The earliest elections were conducted by voice vote or with paper ballots put into ballot boxes. These paper ballots, called "party tickets," listed names from just one party, and they were counted under the watchful eye of local party and election officials. As the United States grew and the electorate expanded in the decades following the Civil War, improvements appeared in the form of the Australian or blanket ballots that listed the names of all candidates, ballot boxes with mechanical security features, and mechanical ballot counters.
43. SIAHA1_170629_265.JPG: Wooden ballot with clay marbles The term "ballot" is derived from the Italian ballotta, meaning "little ball." This ballot box was not used in a U.S. election. It was used by members of a Washington, D.C., social club.
44. SIAHA1_170629_279.JPG: Promoting the Candidates The Constitution made the presidency and the positions of senator and representative elective offices. By the early 19th century, rivalries among political factions in the new government led to the creation of a competitive party system. The promotion of candidates among an expanding electorate placed increasing importance on the success of popular political campaigns.
45. SIAHA1_170629_294.JPG: Paper Ballots Voting in the 19th century usually involved casting a printed paper ballot. State election laws typically specified the dimensions and thickness of the paper, and the size of type to be used. The rest was left to the issuing parties, local party operatives, and candidates, resulting in various ballot forms and styles -- and a potential for voter confusion and fraud.
46. SIAHA1_170629_299.JPG: Paper ballot, "Free Soil Electoral Ticket," 1836
47. SIAHA1_170629_304.JPG: Ballot sheet, Union Ticket, Maryland, 1860
48. SIAHA1_170629_307.JPG: Virginia Union ticket, 1860
49. SIAHA1_170629_310.JPG: Republican ballot, 1878
50. SIAHA1_170629_313.JPG: Republican and Independent ballot, 1884
51. SIAHA1_170629_318.JPG: Paper Ballots, 1860-1884 More so than the distinguishing marks of party symbols or candidate portraits, color helped observers identify party ballots as they were cast -- and who cast them. Voting was still not entirely secret. The parties printed and distributed paper ballots cut from sheets. Virginia's Union Party issued a pink paper ticket in 1860. The introduction of a complex color scheme distinguished the official ballot of the 1878 Regular Republican ticket in Massachusetts.
52. SIAHA1_170629_321.JPG: Glass ballot jar with a lockable wooden housing, 1884 The glass ballot jar became a symbol of democratic self-government. This 1884 glass ballot jar is typical of the transparent devices used to secure paper ballots.
53. SIAHA1_170629_332.JPG: "American Invention for Blowing Up Bosses," Puck, November 16, 1881
54. SIAHA1_170629_338.JPG: Promoting the Candidates The Constitution made the presidency and the positions of senator and representative elective offices. By the early 19th century, rivalries among political factions in the new government led to the creation of a competitive party system. The promotion of candidates among an expanding electorate placed increasing importance on the success of popular political campaigns.
55. SIAHA1_170629_353.JPG: Ballot markers, 1908 These crayons were made to be tied to the writing surface of a booth where voters could mark their ballots in private.
56. SIAHA1_170629_362.JPG: Australian or blanket ballot, 1896 Developed in South Australia in the 1850s, the blanket ballot -- listing all candidates for office regardless of party -- was gradually adopted in the United States after 1888. The printing and distribution of such all-inclusive ballots became a function of government rather than competing parties. The voter typically marked the ballot in the privacy of a voting booth, sometimes guided by party symbols -- like the eagle guarding a glass jar ballot box representing the Republican ticket of William McKinley and Garret A. Hobart, top left.
57. SIAHA1_170629_370.JPG: Wooden Ballot Box Political manipulation and election fraud was often compared to a well-oiled machine. Reformers determined to fight political machines with ballot reform and voting machines. The addition of an internal cylinder "roller" to this late 19th-century ballot box ensured that once a ballot was rolled into the box it could not be tampered with or seen. This box was probably used in New England.
58. SIAHA1_170629_412.JPG: The Machinery of Democracy Informal institutions and activities not actually spelled out in the Constitution help make America's participatory political system possible. State and national parties, nomination and ratification conventions, and intense and elaborate campaigns are examples of the informal processes Americans have adopted that give life and form to the ideas in the Constitution.
59. SIAHA1_170629_417.JPG: A Vote, A Voice When it was established, the United States of America boasted more eligible voters than ever before. But it was still just a fraction of the new country's population. The nation's founders never envisioned the numbers, classes, sexes, and races of Americans that cast ballots each Election Day. They envisioned a world in which propertied men rose above self-interest and voted on behalf of the rest of "the people." Many of "the people," however, showed a stubborn desire to vote directly to choose their leaders and laws. The result has been reluctant adjustments, contentious struggles, and ongoing negotiations as groups tried to persuade lawmakers, the courts, and their fellow citizens to let them share the power of the polls.
60. SIAHA1_170629_429.JPG: Getting the Vote Voting rights expanded, contracted, and expanded again as Americans dealt with shifting issues of politics, race, class, and wealth. Each addition to the electorate brought a change to the balance of power and led to collisions between practical politics and America's democratic ideal of government "by the people." While some established voters believed that extending the vote to more Americans would strengthen the nation, others questioned including people who might not share their concerns, or who could threaten their control of the country's political, social, and economic structures.
61. SIAHA1_170629_437.JPG: Woman suffrage wagon, 1870s–1920 Tradition says that early suffragists used this delivery wagon at speaking engagements and to distribute the suffrage magazine Woman's Journal. Later suffragists painted the wagon with slogans and continued to use it for rallies and publicity, as well as magazine sales.
62. SIAHA1_170629_442.JPG: Voting Rights The Constitution leaves the states to determine which of their residents can vote and how elections will take place. It gives the federal government authority to make laws concerning federal elections and an obligation to guarantee to every state a republican form of government. Constitutional amendments and some federal laws have attempted to protect voting rights from discrimination based on race, color, or sex, and to make voting easier. 1870: The Fifteenth Amendment stipulates that the rights of citizens, including the right to vote, cannot be denied because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 1875: The Supreme Court rules in Minor v. Happersett that the Constitution does not guarantee all citizens the right to vote. 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment stipulates that the rights of citizens to vote cannot be denied because of sex. 1942: The Soldier Voting Act guarantees the right of soldiers to vote in presidential and congressional elections during wartime. 1944: The Supreme Court rules in Smith v. Allwright that all-white primary elections are unconstitutional. 1961: The Twenty-Third Amendment gives residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections. 1964: The Twenty-Fourth Amendment prohibits the use of poll taxes for federal elections. 1965: The Voting Rights Act requires preclearance before changing election procedures in designated areas where racial discrimination had prevented African Americans from voting and sends federal examiners to the South to register voters. The Act would be amended in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006. 1966: The Supreme Court rules in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that conditioning the right to vote in state elections on payment of poll taxes is unconstitutional. 1971: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowers the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. 1974: The Supreme Court rules in Richardson v. Ramirez that states may deny the vote to convicted felons. 1975: The Voting Rights Act is amended to include protections for four "language minorities" -- American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Spanish-heritage citizens. 1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires reasonable modifications to make polling places accessible to persons with disabilities. 1993: The National Voter Registration Act allows voters to register by mail, while renewing or applying for a driver's license, or at other public agencies. 2002: The Help America Vote Act provides federal funds for states to replace voting machines, improve access for the disabled, and improve voter registration and education.
63. SIAHA1_170629_460.JPG: Votes for Women Three generations of women fought to overcome objections and convince the male voters who would decide the issue that women had the right to vote. Opponents claimed that woman suffrage would lead to neglected children, masculine women, confused gender roles, and prohibition. Suffragists and supporters countered with images of strong but feminine voters with years of experience and contributions as mothers, homemakers, breadwinners, and community activists.
64. SIAHA1_170629_464.JPG: Woman suffrage postcard
65. SIAHA1_170629_467.JPG: Anti-woman suffrage figurine
66. SIAHA1_170629_477.JPG: Woman suffrage postcard
67. SIAHA1_170629_479.JPG: Anti-Woman suffrage postcard
68. SIAHA1_170629_483.JPG: Woman suffrage postcard
69. SIAHA1_170629_487.JPG: Anti-Woman suffrage postcard
70. SIAHA1_170629_490.JPG: Woman suffrage bluebird sign
71. SIAHA1_170629_492.JPG: Woman suffrage buttons
72. SIAHA1_170629_497.JPG: State by State Members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association organized statewide "Votes for Women" campaigns. They used buttons, signs, and gimmicks like the ring parade spinner to promote their cause and tracked their progress with maps and stars representing their victories. The western states were the first to accept women as voters.
73. SIAHA1_170629_505.JPG: Picketing the White House To pressure President Woodrow Wilson to support a constitutional amendment giving women the vote, suffragists from the National Woman's Party became the first people to picket the White House. When they began in the winter of 1917, the public tolerated, even admired, the pickets for their dignity and tenacity. When America entered World War I, the picketing seemed unpatriotic and embarrassing to the government. The suffragists were arrested and jailed for obstructing traffic. Reports of abuse and force-feeding and the courage of the imprisoned women generated public sympathy and the pickets were released.
74. SIAHA1_170629_516.JPG: Jailed for Freedom Pins, 1917 The freed prisoners were honored with silver pins in the shape of prison doors. All of the pickets received silver banner brooches.
75. SIAHA2_170629_001.JPG: Getting the Vote Voting rights expanded, contracted, and expanded again as Americans dealt with shifting issues of politics, race, class, and wealth. Each addition to the electorate brought a change to the balance of power and led to collisions between practical politics and America's democratic ideal of government "by the people." While some established voters believed that extending the vote to more Americans would strengthen the nation, others questioned including people who might not share their concerns, or who could threaten their control of the country's political, social, and economic structures.
76. SIAHA2_170629_011.JPG: Woman suffrage banner Banners proclaiming the "Great Demand" for woman suffrage were used in demonstrations and rallies from 1913 until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Marie Gilmer Louthan carried this one in suffrage parades.
77. SIAHA2_170629_017.JPG: Suffragists often used humor to point out the absurdity of some of the common objections to women voting. Woman suffrage "Objection" banner Woman suffrage "Answer" banner
78. SIAHA2_170629_027.JPG: "Move On," Harper's Weekly, April 22, 1871 Thomas Nast's cartoon pointed out the hypocrisy of enfranchising naturalized immigrants and not the country's original inhabitants. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most Native Americans were classified as members of sovereign nations or dependents under guardianship of the U.S. government. Neither were citizens and neither could vote. Even those who were U.S. citizens could not vote in all states. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 made all Native Americans citizens but many states still found ways to keep them from voting.
79. SIAHA2_170629_035.JPG: Bumper sticker, around 1983
80. SIAHA2_170629_038.JPG: Elect an Indian Some Native Americans preferred their traditional cultures and tribal governments and had no interest in U.S. citizenship or ballots. Others desired to combine citizenship with tribal culture. In the 1960s and 1970s Indian empowerment movements began to encourage Native Americans to use voting as a way to help improve conditions and keep tribal autonomy.
81. SIAHA2_170629_042.JPG: Chickasaw woman suffrage handbill, 1910 Though part of a matrilineal tribal society, Chickasaw women could not vote in Oklahoma. This handbill encouraged Chickasaw women and men to support woman suffrage.
82. SIAHA2_170629_047.JPG: Out in the Cold Although women were eventually enfranchised in 1920, Chinese immigrants were still barred from citizenship, and the vote, until 1943. Their American-born children had been accepted as citizens and eligible voters since 1898.
83. SIAHA2_170629_055.JPG: The Responsibilities of Citizenship In 1919 and 1920 "get out the vote" campaigns in Grand Rapids, Michigan, aimed to register the state's newly enfranchised women, promote voting, and encourage immigrants to become naturalized citizens so that they too could vote.
84. SIAHA2_170629_059.JPG: English/Spanish/Chinese poll sign, 2014 Since 1975, voting districts with significant populations of Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Asian Americans, and Latinos have been required to provide ballots and instructions in applicable languages. Signs like these were used in San Francisco polling places.
85. SIAHA2_170629_067.JPG: Hyphenated Americans Americans are proud to be part of a nation of immigrants, but some were reluctant to share the ballot box with more recent arrivals. Worried that they might compete with them for political power, they questioned the loyalty, political philosophies, religions, and self-interest of each new group. Tying voting to citizenship, combined with stringent voter eligibility requirements, lessened the gains and electoral impact of late 19th- and early 20th-century immigrant groups. New waves of immigrants furthered concern over identity politics based on race, ethnicity, and class long after individuals became American citizens.
86. SIAHA2_170629_072.JPG: Photograph of a 1977 voter registration drive in San Francisco In the 1970s members of Chinese for Affirmative Action ran registration campaigns and demanded bilingual ballots for San Francisco voters.
87. SIAHA2_170629_075.JPG: Photograph of a 1950s California voter registration drive Founded in 1947, the Community Service Organization (CSO) led voter registration drives in Los Angeles and throughout California.
88. SIAHA2_170629_077.JPG: Voting Rights and Civil Rights Drawing on the successes of the African American civil rights movement and federal legislation, Latino and Asian American community activists formed organizations to fight for civil, social, and voting rights.
89. SIAHA2_170629_081.JPG: Voting rights manual, 1966
90. SIAHA2_170629_085.JPG: New Opportunity The Voting Rights Act of 1965 sent federal examiners to the South to enroll voters and supervise registration and voting in areas with a history of abuse. The act struck down restrictive state laws that created racial barriers to voting. In 1975 the act was amended to include four "language minorities" -- American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Spanish-heritage citizens.
91. SIAHA2_170629_088.JPG: Selma March Flag
92. SIAHA2_170629_094.JPG: The right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. -- Lyndon Baines Johnson, August 6, 1965
93. SIAHA2_170629_096.JPG: One Man/One Vote Almost one hundred years after the Fifteenth Amendment gave them the right to vote, African Americans were still blocked from the polls in many states. In the South poll taxes, literacy tests, complicated voter registration rules, intimidation, and violence made it impossible for blacks to vote. Voting rights demonstrations were viewed as a threat to the entrenched white power structure and culture of racial segregation.
94. SIAHA2_170629_100.JPG: Button, One Man One Vote Bumper sticker, One Man One Vote In 1962 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began conducting voter education and registration drives in Mississippi using the slogan, "One Man, One Vote."
95. SIAHA2_170629_103.JPG: Voting rights demonstration in McComb, Mississippi, 1962
96. SIAHA2_170629_109.JPG: Voting Rights Act Four months after the public outcry over the brutality in Selma, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.
97. SIAHA2_170629_112.JPG: Voting Rights Act of 1965 signing pen
98. SIAHA2_170629_117.JPG: Bloody Sunday Millions of Americans were horrified by images of the peaceful marchers led by the Reverend Hosea Williams and John Lewis being beaten by police while white onlookers cheered. From across the nation volunteers came to join the march. Others sent letters and telegrams to Washington demanding reform.
99. SIAHA2_170629_129.JPG: Life magazine, March 19, 1965
100. SIAHA2_170629_132.JPG: "Selma: Beatings Start the Savage Season," Life magazine, March 19, 1965
101. SIAHA2_170629_137.JPG: Juanita Williams's Shoes
102. SIAHA2_170629_140.JPG: The Selma March In 1965, after a demonstration in Alabama erupted in violence and death, African American residents planned a march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. The Reverend Hosea Williams, a leader of the march, had his overcoat torn when Alabama state troopers attacked the marchers. His wife, Juanita, wore down her shoes on the fifty-four-mile walk.
103. SIAHA2_170629_149.JPG: Hosea Williams's overcoat
104. SIAHA2_170629_153.JPG: Woman suffrage picket, 1917
105. SIAHA2_170629_157.JPG: American Democracy? World Wars I and II focused American attention on the gap between the nation's assertions of democracy and the discrimination faced by women, African Americans, and other minorities. Voting rights became civil rights. In 1917 suffragists compared President Woodrow Wilson to the German Kaiser and point out the hypocrisy of his pro-democracy rhetoric when American women could not vote.
106. SIAHA2_170629_162.JPG: Free Suffrage Cane, 1830s Throughout the first half of the 19th century, "free suffrage" was the goal of men who believed that they did not need to own property to have an interest in the fortunes of their country or to exercise sound judgment on its behalf. They agitated to change state constitutions and abolish property requirements for voting. This cane bearing their slogan was likely carried in parades. Some men in power shared their philosophy. Others found the growing power of the "common man," the shifting American economy, and the need for new voters to support their own new political parties were compelling reasons to support free suffrage.
107. SIAHA2_170629_168.JPG: Woman Suffrage Parasol
108. SIAHA2_170629_176.JPG: Demanding the Vote In the 19th and 20th centuries Americans of different races, sexes, ancestries, religions, educations, and levels of prosperity demanded the ballot and full participation in America's political life. They worked to convince their fellow citizens that justice and true democracy required the votes of all Americans. In the face of sometimes violent opposition, they rallied, lobbied, and marched their way to the voting booth. Along the way they found allies and opponents in the government and in their communities.
109. SIAHA2_170629_179.JPG: Suffrage Cane, 1830s
110. SIAHA2_170629_184.JPG: Land grant to Nicholas Hilton Owning property of a certain size or value was the earliest qualification for voters in the new United States. In some states women and free African Americans were among those voters.
111. SIAHA2_170629_192.JPG: Fremont Campaign Ribbon, 1856 Buchanan Campaign Ribbon, 1856 Fillmore campaign ribbon, 1856
112. SIAHA2_170629_197.JPG: White Manhood Suffrage Nearly all white men could vote for president in the 1856 election. Free African American men could only vote in six northern states and women could not vote at all.
113. SIAHA2_170629_202.JPG: The Declaration of Sentiments table In the early 1800s women were culturally and legally subordinated to men. While more men were gaining the right to vote, women were still barred from the ballot box. In 1848 a group led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton called a convention on women's rights. On this table they drafted a Declaration of Sentiments. Based on the Declaration of Independence, it demanded reforms to women's legal status. The most daring was the right to vote. It took decades of fighting for rights to their children, property, money, education, and employment and successfully leading national reform movements before they convinced a majority of American men that women also had a right to the ballot. The table on which Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments became an icon for woman suffragists and was displayed at national meetings. In 1919, as state legislatures voted on the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association brought the table to the Smithsonian Institution to claim their place in the official history of the nation. The table has become a three-dimensional evocation of the struggle, achievement, and pride of the early woman's movement and ranks as one of the treasures of the Smithsonian.
114. SIAHA2_170629_207.JPG: The Declaration of Sentiments table on display in the 1920s
115. SIAHA2_170629_215.JPG: Lithograph created to celebrate passage of the Fifteenth Amendment
116. SIAHA2_170629_220.JPG: The Fifteenth Amendment, 1870 Five years after the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery, former abolitionists who believed in equality for freedmen and practical politicians who saw their votes as a way to retain Republican control of the conquered Confederate states worked together to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, giving African American men the right to vote. African Americans celebrated the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment as another step toward equality, but the celebration was short-lived. Within ten years former Confederates had regained control of southern state governments and began to use intimidation, violence, and restrictive voter qualifications to keep African Americans from the polls.
117. SIAHA2_170629_222.JPG: No Negro Equality As this ballot from Ohio's 1867 governor's race attests, not all Americans wholeheartedly embraced equality for African Americans.
118. SIAHA2_170629_238.JPG: Proclaiming Suffrage Pen used by President Ulysses S. Grant to sign the presidential proclamation of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment enfranchising African American men
119. SIAHA2_170629_241.JPG: Sometimes It Takes an Amendment By the time the U.S. Constitution was written, states had established their own qualifications for voting and office holding. Rather than attempt to force a compromise among the differing standards, the framers of the Constitution left the states to determine who among their residents was eligible to vote. This created a country of citizens with unequal representation, rights, and responsibilities. Four times Congress has approved and states have ratified constitutional amendments addressing this imbalance and giving voting rights to specific groups of Americans throughout the United States.
120. SIAHA2_170629_247.JPG: Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman's Party, unfurls a banner, stitched with a star for each state that ratified the Nineteenth Amendment
121. SIAHA2_170629_252.JPG: You Can't Escape the Ballot Box Determined to be responsible voters, former suffrage activists took a leading role in voter education for newly enfranchised women.
122. SIAHA2_170629_260.JPG: 19th Amendment pen Pennsylvania Governor William Cameron Sproul used a pen in the woman suffrage movement's signature yellow hue to sign his state's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
123. SIAHA2_170629_263.JPG: The Nineteenth Amendment, 1920 The woman suffrage amendment was first introduced in 1878 and languished for decades in a congress that felt no need for women's votes. Forty years later suffragists had won full or partial voting rights in eighteen states and were sending sympathetic legislators to the capital. Their work for the World War I war effort, combined with persistent lobbying and demonstrations, finally won President Woodrow Wilson's endorsement. After a year's delay, congressmen, mainly Republican, worked quickly to pass the woman suffrage amendment hoping it would be ratified in time for new voters to show their gratitude in the 1920 election.
124. SIAHA2_170629_272.JPG: I Cast My First Vote A first-time voter's badge proudly proclaimed her support for the party that passed the woman suffrage amendment.
125. SIAHA2_170629_280.JPG: D.C. Board of Elections ballot box
126. SIAHA2_170629_282.JPG: 1964 presidential election ballot
127. SIAHA2_170629_285.JPG: Campaign buttons from the 1964 presidential election
128. SIAHA2_170629_288.JPG: Bumper sticker supporting full voting rights for Washington, D.C Washington, D.C., since 1973, has been governed by an elected mayor and city council, but residents still cannot elect voting members of the House of Representatives or Senate.
129. SIAHA2_170629_299.JPG: Certification, 1971 The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified in one hundred days, the fastest approval of any constitutional amendment. In an attempt to be the first state to ratify, Delaware's legislature voted on the amendment an hour after it was approved by Congress.
130. SIAHA2_170629_303.JPG: Buttons supporting the Twenty-Sixth Amendment
131. SIAHA2_170629_307.JPG: The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, 1971 "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote" was the rallying cry for lowering the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. A first attempt during World War II, when the draft age was lowered to eighteen, was unsuccessful but during the war in Vietnam the issue gained momentum again, led by young people themselves. In 1970 congressional supporters changed the voting age in an amendment to the extension of the Voting Rights Act. When the Supreme Court ruled it applied only to federal elections, a constitutional amendment became the inevitable next step as states confronted the alternative of administering two sets of rules for state and federal elections. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment establishing eighteen as the legal voting age was ratified in 1971.
132. SIAHA2_170629_310.JPG: Buttons from the 1972 presidential campaign
133. SIAHA2_170629_314.JPG: Newsweek magazine, October 25, 1971
134. SIAHA2_170629_322.JPG: How Will Youth Vote? Political parties and independent groups organized campaigns designed to encourage registration and capture the votes of the newly enfranchised "youths."
135. SIAHA2_170629_325.JPG: The Twenty-Third Amendment, 1961 The U.S. Constitution did not grant the District of Columbia representation in Congress or the Electoral College, because it is not a state, and placed its governance in the hands of Congress. Since the 19th century, residents of the city have petitioned for voting rights. In 1961 the Twenty-Third amendment gave residents of Washington a vote in presidential elections but a 1978 attempt to ratify a constitutional amendment giving them voting representation in Congress failed. Although it is the nation's capital, the issue of D.C. voting rights has remained a mostly local issue.
136. SIAHA2_170629_328.JPG: Bumper sticker, D.C. voting rights
137. SIAHA2_170629_335.JPG: D.C. voting rights button
138. SIAHA2_170629_341.JPG: Automatic voting machine, 1898 We stand in line with friends, neighbors, allies, and rivals. Sometimes silent, sometimes chatting, maybe even discussing the candidates we're waiting to decide between. But our final vote, whether it's behind a curtain or a cardboard screen, is a private moment. By the 1890s voting had moved from a public declaration to a secret ballot. This machine's gear mechanism and curtain were designed to ensure accuracy, security, and privacy.
139. SIAHA2_170629_349.JPG: You Want to Vote? Voters' motivations are as varied as their circumstances and experiences. Some vote to support or change their laws and leaders. Others are motivated by a sense of duty. Many see their first vote as a rite of passage or the final mark of adulthood and American citizenship. Whatever their reasons, Americans who stand in line at the polls make a personal decision to participate in hopes of bettering their lives and their country.
140. SIAHA2_170629_355.JPG: A Sign of Citizenship, 1952 Irene Lourdes, a Chinese American preparing to vote in New York City.
141. SIAHA2_170629_358.JPG: An Expression of Power, 2006 Participants in an immigration rights demonstration plan to back their beliefs with their ballots in an Arizona election.
142. SIAHA2_170629_363.JPG: A Community Event, 2012 Voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, traditionally gather together to cast the first ballots in the New Hampshire primary shortly after midnight on Election Day.
143. SIAHA2_170629_371.JPG: VOTE! The 1972 presidential election was the first held after the Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to eighteen. The Student Vote Project encouraged newly eligible voters to participate with an enthusiastic voter registration campaign that included public service spots on popular radio stations and an array of clothing and other products designed to inspire first-time voters to proudly come out to the polls.
144. SIAHA2_170629_389.JPG: Let Us Help You Vote Advocacy groups and public service organizations, as well as state and local election offices, work to register, educate, and assist voters.
145. SIAHA2_170629_403.JPG: Strength in Numbers Advocates for a wide variety of constituencies and causes work to build a sense of community among like-minded voters and encourage them to turn out on Election Day. High voter participation can make a group a force to be reckoned with and can pressure politicians to pay attention to their concerns.
146. SIAHA2_170629_410.JPG: I Voted, Did You? Each election year a wealth of buttons and stickers are worn by Americans celebrating their vote and urging others to go to the polls.
147. SIAHA3_170629_012.JPG: Dog vest, 1950s Even dogs were dressed to get out the vote in the 1950s
148. SIAHA3_170629_020.JPG: Vote as You Please, but Please Vote Earnest pleas, lighthearted jokes, and the occasional touch of guilt all play a part in encouraging Americans to vote. Behind the seemingly innocuous reminders is a serious concern. More Americans than ever before are eligible to vote but many do not go to the polls. Some who do question whether their vote really matters. Get out the vote campaigns declare that a vote not cast can never be counted. They remind citizens of their responsibility to exercise the often hard-won right to vote and encourage all who can to be enthusiastic participants in the communal experience of voting.
149. SIAHA3_170629_032.JPG: Grow Up to Vote A coloring book encourages young Floridians to vote when they grow up.
150. SIAHA3_170629_043.JPG: Presidential pardon granted to John Walden, 1865
151. SIAHA3_170629_048.JPG: Loyal Voters After the Civil War, former Confederate officers were stripped of their political rights, including the rights to vote and to hold office, and required to take oaths of loyalty to the United States to regain them. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment made loyalty to the United States a requirement for voting when it specified only two reasons for disenfranchising a citizen: participation in rebellion or other unspecified crime.
152. SIAHA3_170629_055.JPG: Restoring Rights Before the Civil War the majority of states barred men convicted of serious crimes from voting. By 1920 only three states had no form of felon disenfranchisement. Depending on the state, applicable crimes included murder, voter fraud, burglary, vagrancy, or any crime resulting in imprisonment. In theory, disenfranchisement guaranteed a moral voter pool. In practice, it legally reduced the voting population of minorities and immigrants. Today millions of otherwise eligible voters, many of them minorities, cannot vote because of felony convictions.
153. SIAHA3_170629_057.JPG: Info card, "Every Vote and Voice Counts", 2014
154. SIAHA3_170629_063.JPG: Button, "Restore the Vote MN"
155. SIAHA3_170629_065.JPG: Info card, "Voting in Minnesota with a Criminal Conviction", 2012
156. SIAHA3_170629_073.JPG: Restore Felon Voting Rights, 2014 Supporters rallied at the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee to urge changes in state laws that would restore voting rights to convicted felons.
157. SIAHA3_170629_082.JPG: Poll tax notice from Amarillo, Texas, 1960s In 1964 the Twenty-Fourth amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes for federal elections. Five states enforced payment of poll taxes for state elections until 1966, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional.
158. SIAHA3_170629_086.JPG: A 1935 poll tax receipt from St. Francis County, Arkansas, noted the taxpayer's race. Voters had to pay their poll tax a year in advance.
159. SIAHA3_170629_091.JPG: Anti-poll tax button, 1940s
160. SIAHA3_170629_095.JPG: Poll Taxes Begun in the 1890s as a legal way to keep African Americans from voting in southern states, poll taxes were essentially a voting fee. Eligible voters were required to pay their poll tax before they could cast a ballot. A "grandfather clause" excused some poor whites from payment if they had an ancestor who voted before the Civil War, but there were no exemptions for African Americans.
161. SIAHA3_170629_103.JPG: Mississippi voter registration form, 1955–1965
162. SIAHA3_170629_111.JPG: Literacy Tests Proponents of tests to prove an applicant's ability to read and understand English claimed that the exams ensured an educated and informed electorate. In practice they were used to disqualify immigrants and the poor, who had less education. In the South they were used to prevent African Americans from registering to vote. The Voting Rights Act ended the use of literacy tests in the South in 1965 and the rest of the country in 1970. In Mississippi, applicants were required to transcribe and interpret a section of the state constitution and write an essay on the responsibilities of citizenship. Registration officials selected the questions and interpreted the answers, effectively choosing which applicants to pass and which to fail.
163. SIAHA3_170629_113.JPG: Voter Education During the summer of 1964 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent volunteers into Mississippi's African American communities. They registered voters and taught civics, voting rights, and reading to children and adults.
164. SIAHA3_170629_117.JPG: Dr. Staughton Lynd, director of Mississippi Freedom Schools, training volunteer teachers
165. SIAHA3_170629_124.JPG: Voter Privacy Screen, 2016
166. SIAHA3_170629_128.JPG: Vote While You're Still Around Signs reminded soldiers in Korea to be mindful of enemy surveillance and to vote in the 1952 election.
167. SIAHA3_170629_155.JPG: ID Required After the 2000 presidential election, many states proposed or adopted new voter requirements. Some aimed to ease voter registration, extend voting times, and ensure absentee voting. Others created more stringent requirements for voter identification and residency and cut back on early voting. Supporters claimed that the new regulations would help eliminate voter fraud. Opponents countered that there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud and that these laws disenfranchised poor and minority voters.
168. SIAHA3_170629_162.JPG: Voting Absentee States issue absentee ballots so voters who will be away from home during an election can cast their ballot by mail. Return envelope for a Maryland absentee ballot, 2000.
169. SIAHA3_170629_164.JPG: Poster, Voter Bill of Rights Voter Bill of Rights The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires states to display a Voter's Bill of Rights in all polling places. California posted copies in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.
170. SIAHA3_170629_169.JPG: Book of New Mexico election laws, 1967
171. SIAHA3_170629_174.JPG: State Rules, Federal Rules Legislators in each state create its election laws and requirements for voting, which are administered through state and local election boards. The federal government may challenge state laws that it believes violate citizens' constitutionally protected voting rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and federal voting laws passed by Congress. Congress can only pass laws regarding federal elections but, unless states want to administer two different sets of voting regulations, the laws that they pass affect state and local elections as well.
172. SIAHA3_170629_179.JPG: Voter Accessibility Activists have brought public attention to the needs of voters with physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities. Their efforts have resulted in legislation to make polling places and ballots accessible to all Americans and recommendations to end centuries of disenfranchisement.
173. SIAHA3_170629_182.JPG: Counting the Vote, 1876 Concerns over whether or not votes are being accurately recorded are not new. The results of the 1876 presidential election between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes were close enough to require recounts of ballots in Louisiana. President Ulysses S. Grant sent this telegram requesting observers to monitor the recount to prevent the election being "stolen" by the Democrats.
174. SIAHA3_170629_185.JPG: Telegram, 1876
175. SIAHA3_170629_187.JPG: The Electoral Commission The election was eventually settled in Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes's favor by a special commission of congressmen and Supreme Court justices. Tickets and tally sheets allowed spectators to follow the deliberations of the Electoral Commission.
176. SIAHA3_170629_189.JPG: Ticket to the House of Representatives, 1877
177. SIAHA3_170629_209.JPG: Photo, Bostonians protest Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
178. SIAHA3_170629_214.JPG: Money and Free Speech Bostonians protested the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The court ruled that the First Amendment protected the right of corporations, associations, and labor unions to pay for advertisements supporting or opposing political candidates. This and subsequent rulings have spurred heated debate over the role and amount of private and corporate contributions in election campaigns.
179. SIAHA3_170629_216.JPG: Photo, Anniversary March on Washington
180. SIAHA3_170629_220.JPG: Protect Our Voting Rights Participants commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington carried posters that voiced concern over the possible erosion of gains made by the civil rights movement after the Supreme Court's decision that rolled back part of the Voting Rights Act.
181. SIAHA3_170629_221.JPG: Lining Up to Vote, 2012
182. SIAHA3_170629_224.JPG: Keeping the Vote As new and diverse groups of Americans won the right to vote, local and national concerns shifted from whether or not they could vote to whether or not they would vote. Some advocates and officials encouraged voters to come out to the polls and looked for ways to make voting easier. Others changed voter registration requirements and Election Day rules in attempts to minimize the political power of newly enfranchised groups. Whether it is about voter qualifications, ballot language, or physical access to the polls, Americans continue to debate whose votes and voices should be counted in our representative democracy.
183. SIAHA3_170629_227.JPG: Frontier Democracy The expansion of white male suffrage in the 1830s led to an expansive strategy of political imagery that co-opted hatchets, axes, and log cabins as empathetic symbols that could be understood by anyone. The exclusive use of such symbols masked the difficult and contentious positions of rival candidates and partisans who, with a wink and a nod, universally embraced the rough-hewn values of the American frontier.
184. SIAHA3_170629_231.JPG: The Log Cabin Detail from the Whig Party newspaper, July 18, 1840
185. SIAHA3_170629_234.JPG: The Log Cabin
186. SIAHA3_170629_238.JPG: The Log Cabin Campaign The Whig campaign of 1840 against incumbent President Martin Van Buren established a pattern of predetermined imagery, from which later campaigns have seldom deviated. The Whigs adopted the symbols of the log cabin and hard cider to promote the candidacy of General William Henry Harrison. An outpouring of everyday ceramics with designs of log cabins and canes with miniature hard cider barrels for heads soon followed. Whig glassware, spoons, covered dishes, and children's tea sets all declared for log cabins.
187. SIAHA3_170629_239.JPG: Blue log cabin patterned dish set
188. SIAHA3_170629_243.JPG: Davy Crockett ceremonial hatchet, 1835 Use of the axe as a political symbol dates to the era of Congressman Davy Crockett (1786–1836). Like his fellow Whigs, Crockett recognized the political value of assuming a self-effacing personality. His partisans played along. The Young Men's Whig Association of Philadelphia, for example, presented Crockett with this ceremonial silver, mahogany, and ivory-tipped hatchet in 1835. One side of its head is engraved, "Crockett." The other side is engraved with his motto, "Go Ahead."
189. SIAHA3_170629_248.JPG: Lincoln parade axe, 1860 The closely contested election of 1860 generated mass entertainments such as "Wide Awake" torchlight parades staged on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. Banners, badges, and ribbons proclaimed allegiance to the Constitution and the Union.
190. SIAHA3_170629_253.JPG: Thornwood cane with hard cider barrel head, 1840 A critical remark made by a Democratic newspaperman gave birth to the log cabin and the hard cider barrel as Whig symbols to promote the candidacy of William Henry Harrison. The newspaperman wrote that Harrison's rivals could easily "get rid of" the old general with "a barrel of hard cider, and settle a pension of two thousand a year on him, and my word for it, he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin by the side of a ‘sea coal' fire and study moral philosophy." Though the Democratic press reprinted the suggestion as a cutting remark, Harrison's Whig friends embraced the everyday attributes of log cabins and hard cider.
191. SIAHA3_170629_258.JPG: Letter, 1840
192. SIAHA3_170629_261.JPG: Tippecanoe Almanac, 1841
193. SIAHA3_170629_263.JPG: Ribbon, William Henry Harrison
194. SIAHA3_170629_266.JPG: The Log Cabin Song Book, 1840 Log cabin lamp, 1876
195. SIAHA3_170629_268.JPG: Sheet music, "The Hard Cider Quick Step"
196. SIAHA3_170629_274.JPG: Lincoln fence rail This fence-rail piece is one of many made for the friends of Abraham Lincoln. This piece from 1830 is attributed to Lincoln's cousin and rail-splitting partner, John Hanks. Dennis F. Hanks (another cousin) sold it at the Northwest Soldiers' Home Fair in Chicago in May 1865, a little more than a month after Lincoln's assassination. Dennis Hanks wrote the label for each fence rail for his illiterate cousin John Hanks, who added his X as an affidavit. John Hanks was one of two men who had carried fence rails into the Illinois State Republican Convention that made Lincoln its presidential candidate in 1860. The imagery reversed Lincoln's public persona, from the attorney he had become to the rail-mauling day laborer he had been.
197. SIAHA3_170629_279.JPG: Carrie A. Nation pin, 1905 Postcard, "Carrie Nation Day at the Fair," 1901 By her own account, temperance reformer Carry A. Nation used rocks, a sledgehammer borrowed from a blacksmith, and a bar room billiard ball to destroy five Kansas saloons -- before she took up a hatchet to destroy a Wichita, Kansas, saloon on December 27, 1900. Saloons were illegal under Kansas state law, but tolerated by officials. Explaining her choice of weapon, Nation recalled that the state's "liquor interests" had nothing to fear from the usual temperance advocates, "but they were not prepared for a furious woman and a hatchet." Her saloon smashings became known as "hatchetations" -- a play on words coined by the publicity-savvy Nation.
198. SIAHA3_170629_282.JPG: Glass hatchet, "Carrie Nation Wyer," 1913
199. SIAHA3_170629_289.JPG: Wooden hatchet with doves and box turtle emblems, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, around 1910 Unexcitable Endurance Though distancing themselves from Carry A. Nation's "hatchetations," the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and other organizations could hardly ignore the hatchet as a symbol of teetotaling activism and popular engagement. Somewhat at odds with this message, the hatchet's head is decorated with the emblem of a box turtle, an icon of dryly unexcitable endurance.
200. SIAHA3_170629_305.JPG: Democratic Outfitting Political campaigns of the 19th century reflected popular traditions of commemoration and celebration -- such as Fourth of July parades -- that became familiar to many Americans in the early Republic. The mechanisms of popular politics not specifically called for in the Constitution -- parties, nominating conventions, and electoral campaigns -- drew freely on the evocative imagery of such festivities in promoting candidates and building the momentum of the campaign. Mass campaign spectacles arose as a way of demonstrating partisan strength and of mobilizing indifferent and easily distracted voters.
201. SIAHA3_170629_309.JPG: Campaign torch, 1860
202. SIAHA3_170629_314.JPG: Grand Procession of Wide-Awakes Torchlight parade for Abraham Lincoln, New York City, October 3, 1860, published in Harper's Weekly Democratic Outfitting: The Torchlight Parade, 1860 The successful presidential campaign of Republican Abraham Lincoln perfected the nighttime torchlight parade as an entertainment of unprecedented scale that attracted the attention of men, women, and children. The concept originated in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1858, and was revived for Lincoln's campaign by the city's young Republicans. Tailored oil-resistant enameled cloth capes distinguished the marchers, some of whom were too young to vote. Their example spread from Hartford to cities in the northeastern United States, which contributed traveling companies totaling some ten thousand uniformed men with torches to a Grand Procession in New York City on October 3, 1860. The martial spectacle -- including fireworks, Lincoln "Wide Awake" transparencies, and floats -- created envy among the city's Democrats, and panic among southern sympathizers who regarded the torch-lit parade as a provocation.
203. SIAHA3_170629_319.JPG: Quilt of political ribbons Some partisans were content to wear a ribbon. Quilter Abigail Ann Lane and her husband, William Bagley Lane, a Philadelphia engraver, acquired enough Whig and William Henry Harrison ribbons to sleep in. The quilt is composed of three different ribbon designs. The most prevalent ribbon commemorates Harrison's inauguration as president in March 1841 and his death about a month later, a date printed near the bottom of the ribbon that was not part of the original engraving. The quilt is made of 432 ribbons stitched together and backed with plain white linen. According to family tradition, the Lanes acquired -- or were left with -- enough overstock ribbons for Mrs. Lane to assemble the quilt.
204. SIAHA3_170629_332.JPG: We the Printers The rise of printing and engraving led to the production of ribbons for political campaigns and commemorative events. Simple and straightforward, graphic appeal of the ribbon neatly fit the politics of personal association reflected by all manner of knick-knacks, household items, and specialty merchandise imprinted with a symbol or emblem.
205. SIAHA3_170629_333.JPG: Ribbon, William Henry Harrison
206. SIAHA3_170629_351.JPG: Your Home, the Seat of Personal Meaning By the late 19th century, symbols of home and family life had become mainstays of American political life and culture. The home became a setting in which the policies of the major parties and their presidential candidates played out.
207. SIAHA3_170629_355.JPG: "If You Are Satisfied" This flier presents pictures of personal well-being and improvement that turned electoral politics into social drama.
208. SIAHA3_170629_359.JPG: Clock, 1934 This clock's face features a small mechanical figure of President Franklin D. Roosevelt mixing a cocktail, a reference to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. He is supported by figures of National Recovery Administration Chairman Hugh Johnson (left) and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (right).
209. SIAHA3_170629_366.JPG: Pamphlet, "What Will Daddy Bring for Dinner?" 1936 Republican National Committee pamphlets on behalf of presidential candidate Alfred Landon used advertising techniques to depict incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal as a failed social policy.
210. SIAHA3_170629_370.JPG: Campaign pamphlet, 1952
211. SIAHA3_170629_374.JPG: Campaign leaflet, 1952
212. SIAHA3_170629_381.JPG: Napkins, 1960
213. SIAHA3_170629_386.JPG: Dewey campaign button, 1948
214. SIAHA3_170629_389.JPG: Socialist Workers Party pamphlet, 1956
215. SIAHA3_170629_393.JPG: Campaign broom pins, 1888
216. SIAHA3_170629_394.JPG: Campaign pamphlet, 1952
217. SIAHA4_170629_006.JPG: Campaign shopping bag, 1960
218. SIAHA4_170629_019.JPG: Goldwater campaign door hanger, 1964
219. SIAHA4_170629_020.JPG: Door to Door Going door to door to canvass undecided, indifferent, and lazy voters is a time-honored tradition. To be effective, canvassing requires feet on the ground, a business-like organization of campaign staff and volunteers. Canvassing has persisted well into the television and Internet age, guided by predictive models to determine how to turn out the vote and win elections.
220. SIAHA4_170629_035.JPG: "Checkers" postcard, 1952
221. SIAHA4_170629_036.JPG: On Television By the early 1950s political parties acquainted candidates with the importance of their television appearances and how to conduct themselves on the new medium. Democratic campaign button
222. SIAHA4_170629_038.JPG: Checkers Speech Postcards Many viewers believed that they could judge an individual from a television appearance. Fallacious or not, this conviction had political significance. In 1952 Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon went on the airwaves to defend his character and record in public life. An avalanche of supportive mail followed and, in turn, a grateful campaign mass-mailed a personal thank-you note in the form of a postcard to each respondent.
223. SIAHA4_170629_049.JPG: "Coffee with Kennedy" Cup Campaign objects helped to ease television's entry into the home and into the heart of American political culture. During the 1960 presidential campaign the Democratic National Committee distributed paper cups encouraging voters to watch the new morning television program, Coffee with Senator and Mrs. Kennedy.
224. SIAHA4_170629_056.JPG: Kennedy Debate Chair, 1960 Face-to-face debates between the presidential candidates of the two major political parties are a recent development in American political campaigning. The first series of televised debates took place in 1960 with Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon.
225. SIAHA4_170629_061.JPG: Nielsen Audiometer, Cartridge, and Viewing Diary This device -- the "black box" of the television ratings system -- gathered information from households about media listening and viewing habits from 1949 until the early 1970s. Connected to a radio or television, it registered set use and station tuning by exposing 16-mm film to a pinpoint of light. When changed by the homeowner weekly, the film cartridge ejected a quarter to ensure timely mailings to the Nielsen Company for analysis. The data gleaned from sample homes enabled campaign pollsters to track viewing patterns during candidates' television appearances and to refine schedules of paid political advertising.
226. SIAHA4_170629_065.JPG: Nielsen TV Viewing Diary, 1977
227. SIAHA4_170629_077.JPG: In Focus In an ongoing attempt to establish models that predicted communications' effects, specialists used television ratings, exit polls, and focus groups to track viewing patterns, to test paid political advertising, and to shape the conduct of government itself. Increasingly, campaign planners focused their efforts and funds on television, rather than on more traditional promotional materials such as household goods, bumper stickers, pin-back buttons, and fliers.
228. SIAHA4_170629_080.JPG: Talk to Me Toy football used to stimulate focus-group discussions of political issues, 1994
229. SIAHA4_170629_083.JPG: TV Guide with "Contract with America" advertisement signed by Newt Gingrich, 1994 Focus groups helped to test the language of the National Republican Congressional Committee's 1994 "Contract with America." Republican promotion of the contract included purchasing a prominent advertisement in TV Guide. This copy was displayed by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich during and after the 1994 congressional election campaign at televised press events. Informal activities and strategies continue to have tremendous influence on politics, notably in public opinion surveys and the ways candidates present themselves to the voters through campaign advertising, news coverage, press conferences, debates, and the Internet. TV Guide, 1994
230. SIAHA4_170629_090.JPG: Campaign Headquarters Sign Post, 2004 (New Hampshire Primary Swamp Sign) Gearing up for the 2004 New Hampshire primary, campaign volunteers for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry made this sign for the Manchester, New Hampshire, headquarters. The sign's arrows give the distances in miles to eight New Hampshire cities the campaign would regularly visit, as well as the distance to the White House. Kerry's sign was modeled after the "swamp sign" seen in the M*A*S*H television series set during the Korean War, and it evoked signs posted by American forces in Vietnam -- where Kerry had seen combat. Kerry won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire and went on to become the party's presidential nominee. Kerry lost the general election to incumbent President George W. Bush.
231. SIAHA4_170629_097.JPG: Campaign Clothing Even though children and adolescents could not vote, they participated in the presidential campaign by attending the public events that their parents and other adults did, often wearing clothing and hats made especially for them.
232. SIAHA4_170629_102.JPG: Trade catalog, Unexcelled Fireworks Company, New York, 1884 New York City's Unexcelled Fireworks was one of several companies that developed a robust trade in oilcloth parade clothing, hats, and torches made for political clubs and their marching units throughout the northeastern United States in the late 19th century.
233. SIAHA4_170629_112.JPG: Torchlight stickpin, 1888
234. SIAHA4_170629_115.JPG: Ferrotype medalette collection, 1860 Thirteen-year-old Goodwin Palmer documented the election of 1860 with a collection of four ferrotype medalettes picturing that year's presidential candidates, each attached by thread to a piece of card stock. Abraham Lincoln won a plurality of the popular vote in the four-way race, followed by Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell.
235. SIAHA4_170629_120.JPG: Trade catalog, Unexcelled Fireworks Company, 1888
236. SIAHA4_170629_123.JPG: Street Banners Political street banners could be ordered from a catalog or from a visiting salesman with a miniature model.
237. SIAHA4_170629_135.JPG: Pin-Back Democracy The colorful pin-back buttons that we think of today appeared for the first time in the campaign of 1896. Coated with "celluloid," a new plastic material, the pin-back button was a stylish departure from the metal clothing buttons that celebrated George Washington's first inauguration, the metal tokens that lampooned Andrew Jackson's attack on the Bank of the United States, and even the stickpins that acquainted voters with the likeness of Abraham Lincoln. The celluloid button -- made with a patented process that sealed a paper disc under a shiny layer of clear plastic on a metal shell -- presented colorful graphic possibilities. The celluloid button became a collectible in its own right on the way to commercial success as a wildly popular advertising medium.
238. SIAHA4_170629_137.JPG: Campaign trade literature, 1868 Dressing the Part New York City's W. R. Scofield distributed Unexcelled Fireworks flags, lanterns, balloons, torches, and caps to "jobbers," who sold campaign supplies directly to street-wise political groups and organizations.
239. SIAHA4_170629_144.JPG: Pin-back button catalog, 1896
240. SIAHA4_170629_147.JPG: Cover, pin-back button catalog, 1896 The Whitehead & Hoag Company of Newark, New Jersey, acquired the rights to produce celluloid pin-backs after purchasing a series of patents in the 1890s. The firm produced buttons under the trade name of Whitehead & Hoag until it was sold in 1953. Whitehead & Hoag sold to consumers through "jobbers" throughout the United States, who solicited orders for custom-made ribbon badges from lodges, societies, conventions, parades, and political organizations. Each ribbon came packaged with a piece of card stock in a reusable envelope. Whitehead & Hoag published testimonials of its timely service, including praise from the badge committee for the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland, which ordered over $1,600 in badges like this one for the ceremony.
241. SIAHA4_170629_156.JPG: Whitehead & Hoag badge with envelope, 1896
242. SIAHA4_170629_158.JPG: Whitehead & Hoag badge with envelope, 1896
243. SIAHA4_170629_163.JPG: Celluloid pin-back buttons and button studs, 1896–1908
244. SIAHA4_170629_169.JPG: Cleveland inaugural badge, 1893 Whitehead & Hoag published testimonials of its timely service, including praise from the badge committee for the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland, which ordered over $1,600 in badges like this one for the ceremony.
245. SIAHA4_170629_174.JPG: Sample card with pin-back buttons The celluloid process held up well into the 20th century, but it was undercut by the relatively inexpensive process of metal lithography developed by rival firms such as the Green Duck Company, which created this sample card around 1956.
246. SIAHA4_170629_182.JPG: Campaign trade literature, 1956 The process of printing a metal lithograph button started with stamping dies. Each die is displayed below next to an example of its finished button, ready to wear.
247. SIAHA4_170629_209.JPG: Attraction... Impression... Action! Well into the late 1950s, political parties, candidates, and campaign managers believed in the pin-back button and other novelties as vital and vibrant advertising media. Given away for free to be displayed as emblems of political activism and engagement, such novelties stimulated partisanship, sustained constituencies, and won elections.
248. SIAHA4_170629_217.JPG: Beyond the Ballot The First Amendment of the Constitution established that Congress shall make no law restricting "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Not limiting their participation to electoral politics, individuals and groups with very different resources -- on the streets, in back rooms, and through the media of their times -- have brought their interests and concerns before the nation. Through early 18th-century petitioning and mass demonstrations, formal and informal lobbying of government officials, and electronic letter writing campaigns, Americans have exercised this very basic democratic right to shape their country beyond the ballot box.
249. SIAHA4_170629_225.JPG: The Deadly Upas Tree of Wall Street The face of Jay Gould, financier and railroad developer, is formed by the limbs and branches at the center of this poisonous tree blooming with bribes, Puck, August 30, 1882.
250. SIAHA4_170629_237.JPG: "The Bosses of the Senate," Puck, January 23, 1889 Deceit and Corruption At times money, scandals, and politics just seem to go together. While many people hope dishonesty is the exception, the more cynical believe it is just the norm.
251. SIAHA4_170629_238.JPG: Campaign Contributions Newspaper cartoonist Clifford Berryman lampooned presidential candidate William Taft for using the issue of tariff reform to fill his wallet in this 1908 drawing.
252. SIAHA4_170629_247.JPG: Washington Confidential The cover says it all in this expos� of the capital's underside, published in 1951.
253. SIAHA4_170629_249.JPG: Jack Abramoff Scandal In one of the most publicized political scandals in modern times, lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion. The case, which centered on an Indian casino, uncovered a world of bribes, money laundering, and double-dealing that even surprised the capital's establishment.
254. SIAHA4_170629_268.JPG: Lobbying Like other forms of petitioning, lobbying involves direct actions intended to influence governmental policy. From the days in which politicians were regularly confronted in Washington, D.C., hotel lobbies, it has been a significant way that some people have affected and participated in their government. Lobbying has been carried out by individuals and informal groups advocating their causes and by well-funded professionals who represent large corporations and established organizations with significant sums of money at their disposal. And where money and power meet, there is always the possibility that in this representative democracy not everyone is listened to equally.
255. SIAHA4_170629_271.JPG: Susan B. Anthony's shawl
256. SIAHA4_170629_272.JPG: Lobbying for Women's Rights In the 1890s it was said that you would know that spring had arrived in Washington when Susan B. Anthony in her red shawl was seen in the Capitol advocating for women's rights.
257. SIAHA4_170629_288.JPG: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, February 4, 1888 Female Lobbyists at Washington "The Marble Room in the Senate wing of the Capitol at Washington is peculiarly the haunt of the professional female lobbyist. … These female lobbyists are for the most part accomplished, versatile and fair to look upon, and the raw and inexperienced Senator falls an easy prey to their blandishments."
258. SIAHA4_170629_293.JPG: Keep Out The role of professional lobbyists has always been controversial. Congressman Alfred N. Phillips in 1937 posted a sign on his office door welcoming everyone, "except professional lobbyists."
259. SIAHA4_170629_297.JPG: Lobby: A Capital Game In this 1949 Milton Bradley board game, players assume the roles of senators and representatives navigating their bills through Congress with the help and hindrance of special interests.
260. SIAHA4_170629_319.JPG: Petitioning with Your Feet From local protests to massive marches in Washington, demonstrators have forced officials to confront issues that they have often wished to avoid. By any imaginable means, people have come before the government and demanded to be heard. Carrying signs, singing songs, and shouting from a podium, whether beautiful and moving or disrespectful and offensive, these demonstrations are an exercise in the American democratic process.
261. SIAHA4_170629_322.JPG: Student protest T-shirt Made during the Harvard University student anti-war protest and sit-in of the administration building, 1968–1969 T-shirt, "Feminist and Proud" Obtained at the National Organization for Women (NOW) national convention, Detroit, Michigan, April 1977 T-shirt, "Justice for Janitors" Produced for Service Employees International Union organizing campaign, and collected at the Democratic National Convention, Atlanta, 1988 T-shirt, "Todos Somos Imigrantes" Worn during immigrants' rights demonstration, Chicago, May 1, 2006
262. SIAHA4_170629_344.JPG: Rolled Petition Petition of commissioned officers of the US Army requesting an increase in compensation, January 21, 1870
263. SIAHA4_170629_350.JPG: Electronic Petition Added to the traditional paper petitions is a steady stream of petitions that are sent digitally. Boys and Girls Clubs of America posted this electronic petition on the Care2 website in 2017.
264. SIAHA4_170629_353.JPG: Memorial from the ladies of Steubenville, Ohio, protesting Indian removal, February 15, 1830
265. SIAHA4_170629_356.JPG: Petitions to Congress One of the first nationally organized petitioning drive was a protest against the federal government removing Cherokee Indians from their eastern native lands. Since then petition drives have focused on topics as diverse as can be imagined.
266. SIAHA4_170629_357.JPG: Continuing the Tradition Petition from citizens of East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, against Sunday mail, January 18, 1830
267. SIAHA4_170629_367.JPG: Postcards sent to Congressman William Fuller requesting support for the labeling of imitation butter and cheese, 1886
268. SIAHA4_170629_371.JPG: Petitioning Congress Congress receiving petition for reduction of federal tax on earned income, December 1929
269. SIAHA4_170629_376.JPG: Petitioning The simple act of adding your name, along with others, to an official appeal asserts your political identity and rights. While petitioning has been open for everyone, it was especially important for those barred from voting. In the early Republic, mass petitioning provided poor white men, women, free blacks, and other minorities a means to voice grievances and to claim a role in determining the direction of the country. Petitioning has maintained a role in the democratic process. Whether they are traditional paper forms or electronic mailings, petitions continue to offer a means for individuals to shape political discourse.
270. SIAHA4_170629_378.JPG: Right to Petition cane
271. SIAHA4_170629_389.JPG: Right to Petition Cane Julius Pratt and Company presented John Quincy Adams with this ivory cane made from a single elephant tusk in recognition of his leadership against the Gag Rule. The cane was decorated with a gold-inlaid eagle holding a petition. On the band below the knob is inscribed "justum et tenacem propositi virum" (a man just and firm of purpose). When the rule was defeated on December 3, 1844, the date was added to the eagle's wings.
272. SIAHA4_170629_393.JPG: Daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams taken in the 1840s
273. SIAHA4_170629_396.JPG: The Gag Rule In the 1830s abolitionist groups, often organized by women, conducted massive petitioning drives calling for an end to slavery. Southern delegations and their northern supporters feared that any attention heightened regional tensions and promoted slave rebellions. On May 26, 1836, the House of Representatives adopted a "Gag Rule" stating that all petitions regarding slavery would be tabled without being read, referred, or printed. Former President John Quincy Adams, who had returned to Congress, took up the petitioners' cause. Slowly support for Adams's campaign grew, and on December 3, 1844, the House abolished the rule. The vote was a major defeat to the supporters of slavery, who recognized that their power to maintain federal support was at risk.
274. SIAHA4_170629_398.JPG: Anti-Slavery Petitions The enactment of the Gag Rule, rather than discouraging petitioners, energized the anti-slavery movement to flood the Capitol with written demands. Activists held up the suppression of debate as an example of the slaveholding South's infringement of the rights of all Americans.
275. SIAHA4_170629_400.JPG: Petition sent to Congress during the 1830s
276. SIAHA4_170629_405.JPG: Petition sent to Congress during the 1830s
277. SIAHA5_170629_006.JPG: Harry Rubenstein, curator, being interviewed for a video clip
278. SIAHA5_170629_084.JPG: The Great Historical Clock of America A curious and short-lived phenomenon of the late 19th century was the creation of monumental clocks. The Clock of America was made by C. Chase of Boston, about whom little is known. Elaborate in design and featuring an array of mechanical devices, this spectacular clock was made to animate American history. Bridging the distinctions of entertainment and education, the exuberant folk motifs include the arrival of Columbus, a procession of U.S. presidents from George Washington through Benjamin Harrison, and other patriotic images. Like many monumental clocks, it features astronomical symbols, the zodiac, the phases of the moon, and seven deities of ancient mythology representing the days of the week.
279. SIAHA5_170629_112.JPG: Emancipation Proclamation inkstand In the summer of 1862 President Abraham Lincoln sat at a desk in the War Department telegraph office and began to draft a presidential order to free the enslaved people held in the Confederacy. While the act was limited in scope, it was revolutionary in impact. With emancipation and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery in 1865, over four million Americans were no longer legally defined as someone's property and, although their rights would be brutally contested, they became United States citizens.
280. SIAHA5_170629_123.JPG: Creating Citizens Fulfilling the ideals of American democracy required defining "the people" and determining the meaning of citizenship. Not clearly articulated in the founding documents, these unsettled issues were left for future generations. Some basic questions have long been debated by Americans. How diverse should the citizenry be? Do we need to share a common national story? What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens?
281. SIAHA5_170629_126.JPG: Do We Need a Shared National Identity? Following independence, citizens of the new nation sought to forge their own identity and create a unique history. They established holidays such as the Fourth of July and later Thanksgiving Day and chronicled the story of America from the landing at Plymouth Rock through the Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War. In part Americans did so not only for themselves, but also to instill in future generations a shared ideal of citizenship. An ongoing debate resulted: if there were to be common beliefs and a national narrative that expressed the values of the nation, what should be included?
282. SIAHA5_170629_130.JPG: "America Forever! March" Sheet music cover, 1898
283. SIAHA5_170629_133.JPG: Abraham Lincoln in the Classroom The historic images that hung in classrooms across America were intended to instill patriotic values and reinforce the idea of a shared national heritage. While George Washington was a perennial favorite, fellow president Abraham Lincoln tended to be only regionally displayed.
284. SIAHA5_170629_137.JPG: Ribbon from the Columbian Exposition opening ceremony
285. SIAHA5_170629_140.JPG: Creating the Father of Our Country Mason Locke Weems's biography of George Washington became the most widely read 19th century book about the Revolutionary War and its celebrated hero. Weems recounted many familiar anecdotes about Washington, including the famous story of the cherry tree, and helped to establish a national narrative that cemented Founding Fathers in our national consciousness. Washington's stature as Father of our Country is borne out by the dozens of pageants and plays that celebrated the bicentennial of his birth and continue today.
286. SIAHA5_170629_148.JPG: Mason Locke Weems, The Life of George Washington; with Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen, 1813 edition
287. SIAHA5_170629_151.JPG: Washington sesquicentennial program, 1932
288. SIAHA5_170629_154.JPG: Holiday banner, 1860s
289. SIAHA5_170629_157.JPG: The Pledge of Allegiance Francis Bellamy wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance. It was first published in The Youth's Companion to coincide with the dedication of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago on October 21, 1892, as a way to instill American nationalism through flag ceremonies. The pledge was quickly adopted across the country.
290. SIAHA5_170629_162.JPG: Photograph by Jacob Riis of students in Mott Street Industrial School saluting the flag, New York City, around 1892
291. SIAHA5_170629_166.JPG: Independence Day Creating celebrations helped to establish national identity. The Fourth of July, widely observed during the American Revolution, was the first national holiday. It quickly became a day of patriotic symbolism and a tribute to the founding principles of equality and liberty and revolutionary ideals of democracy. For Americans still fighting for those freedoms, the holiday became a day to remind the country of the promise yet to be fulfilled.
292. SIAHA5_170629_174.JPG: Model of Washington's Mount Vernon home used at the Michigan School for the Blind to teach students with visual disabilities, 1930s
293. SIAHA5_170629_176.JPG: Uncle Sam costume, 1956 Wilburt E. Leppien wore this costume and handed out these printed cards. Leppien first appeared as Uncle Sam in 1956 and took part in numerous ceremonies and parades across the country, including five presidential inaugurations.
294. SIAHA5_170629_180.JPG: Uncle Sam By the mid-19th century Uncle Sam became the most recognizable personification of the U.S. government. Rather than an authority figure, he most often was portrayed with affection and used as an emblem of national kinship to instill patriotism. Wilburt E. Leppien wore this costume and handed out these printed cards. Leppien first appeared as Uncle Sam in 1956 and took part in numerous ceremonies and parades across the country, including five presidential inaugurations.
295. SIAHA5_170629_181.JPG: Photo card, W. E. Leppien as Uncle Sam
296. SIAHA5_170629_206.JPG: Defining Citizenship Americans have prided themselves on being a nation of immigrants who helped to build the country and enriched its society and culture. Yet there has been an ongoing tension between welcoming newcomers and being concerned that the character of the nation might be changed. From the earliest years of the Republic, laws, representing various points of view, have been passed and guidelines have been developed to instruct prospective citizens on American history, values, rights, and responsibilities.
297. SIAHA5_170629_213.JPG: How to Become a Citizen of the United States, 1926 Though a key requirement of citizenship is learning English, many guides are still available in the native languages of new immigrants. The Foreign Language Information Service provided translations in thirteen European languages.
298. SIAHA5_170629_216.JPG: Gateway to Citizenship: A Manual of Principles and Procedures, 1948 This guide includes President Franklin D. Roosevelt's January 1941 "Four Freedoms" message to Congress, along with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, the historic founding documents new immigrants are required to study. A section of "Statements by Foreign-Born Americans" was added and included such notables as Albert Einstein.
299. SIAHA5_170629_221.JPG: A Vision for American Citizenship "In a composite nation like ours, as before the Law, there should be no rich no poor, no high, no low, no white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights, and a common destiny." Frederick Douglass Abolitionist leader and civil rights champion Frederick Douglass in 1882 sent this quotation from his historic 1852 speech on the nature of American pluralism to Pennsylvania businessman and manuscript collector William F. Gable.
300. SIAHA5_170629_226.JPG: Thirteenth Amendment print Artist and engraver Walter Shirlaw produced this commemorative print in 1868, which reproduced the signatures of the amendment's congressional supporters.
301. SIAHA5_170629_242.JPG: How Diverse Should the Citizenry Be? In a nation created by immigrants, nothing has been more debated than what should be the ideal character of its citizenry. One view is that "multiculturalism," the preservation of diverse cultural heritage, enriches the country. Some have called for a common citizenry -- a "melting pot" where immigrants are assimilated and their traditions are transformed into a homogeneous American culture. Still others challenged diversity by seeking to restrict immigration and exclude certain racial and ethnic groups. These very different positions have greatly impacted the nation's political debates on economic, foreign, and immigration policy, and education and social welfare programs.
302. SIAHA5_170629_247.JPG: Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner Thomas Nast cartoon published in Harper's Weekly, November 20, 1869
303. SIAHA5_170629_253.JPG: Teaching American History Since the 1990s there have been many attempts to establish national standards for teaching American history. These efforts have sparked contentious debates over how much schools should focus on teaching patriotic values and the history of the nation through the Founding Fathers and aspirational figures, or teaching historical understanding and the stories of less famous and diverse people and groups. Schools throughout the nation have struggled to find the right balance appropriate for their communities.
304. SIAHA5_170629_255.JPG: Student Demonstration Colorado students protesting a proposal by the Jefferson County School Board to emphasize patriotism and downplay civil unrest in school curriculum, October 2, 2014
305. SIAHA5_170629_262.JPG: A National Martyr Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, transformed the civil rights leader into an icon of the struggle to fulfill the American promise of equality for all. This panel is from the 1968 Poor People's Campaign, a demonstration in Washington, D.C., which King helped to organize but did not live to see.
306. SIAHA5_170629_269.JPG: A New National Holiday On April 8, 1968, four days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to establish a federal holiday in his honor. For advocates of the legislation it was an effort to place Dr. King and the civil rights movement into the national narrative. It took years of organizing to overcome strong resistance. In 1983 the King Holiday bill was signed into law. Initially only twenty-seven states officially acknowledged the holiday. Not until 2000 did all fifty states recognize the day.
307. SIAHA5_170629_273.JPG: Citizenship 1776: Declaration of Independence protests England's limiting naturalization of foreigners in the colonies. 1789: U.S. Constitution, under Article I, Congress is "to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization," eventually giving the federal government the sole authority over immigration. 1789: Bill of Rights outlines basic rights under the new government. 1790: Naturalization Act of 1790 provides the first rules to be followed by the United States in granting national citizenship to "free white people." 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo extends citizenship to all inhabitants living in the territory annexed to the United States following the Mexican War. 1865: Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery, although it did not grant formerly enslaved persons the full rights of citizenship. 1868: Fourteenth Amendment grants that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens and are guaranteed "equal protection of the laws." 1870: Naturalization Act of 1870 extends naturalization rights to former African slaves not born in the United States; Asian immigrants remain excluded from citizenship. 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is the first U.S. law to ban immigration based on race or nationality; it would be repealed in 1943. 1898: U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that any child born in the United States, regardless of race or parents' citizenship status, is an American citizen. 1917: Jones-Shafroth Act grants U.S. citizenship to residents of Puerto Rico. 1921: First quota law is passed limiting the annual number of immigrants based on country of origin. 1924: Indian Citizenship Act extends U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans. 1940: Alien Registration Act requires all non-citizen adults to register with the government and empowers the president to deport foreigners suspected of espionage or being a security risk. 1952: Immigration and Nationality Act eliminates race as a bar to immigration or citizenship. 1965: Hart-Celler Act abolishes the national origins quota system, replacing it with a preference system that focuses on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. 1986: Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 grants amnesty to millions of individuals living in the United States who entered the country before January 1, 1982. 2001: USA Patriot Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportation to include terrorist activities.
308. SIAHA5_170629_299.JPG: The Four Freedoms In defense of democracies around the world, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his annual message to Congress on January 6, 1941, articulated the aims of the nation facing the threat of a world at war. "We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms," he stated. Two of these freedoms were specifically included in the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Two were freedoms deeply desired by a generation confronted by economic depression and the threat of dictatorships, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Artist Norman Rockwell dramatized those aims in a series of paintings that appeared as covers for the Saturday Evening Post and as posters produced by the Office of War Information for its war bond campaign in 1943.
309. SIAHA5_170629_305.JPG: Rally for health care reform, New York City, September 22, 2009
310. SIAHA5_170629_307.JPG: Right to Health Care Citizens have turned to the government to advance public health, whether combating yellow fever epidemics in the 1790s or funding cancer research in the 21st century. In the 2000s the long-debated subject of national health care became a hotly contested political issue. The central question was: should all citizens have the right to medical care, and if so, how should it be made available? Still a divisive issue, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2013.
311. SIAHA5_170629_309.JPG: Poster produced by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1970
312. SIAHA5_170629_312.JPG: Right to an Education Though not guaranteed by the Constitution, Americans have largely agreed that an educated citizenry is a requirement for a healthy democracy. The more controversial question was: should it and can it be equal and open to all? On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that public schools segregated by race were unconstitutional, stating "in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal' has no place." Through their decision, the Court entered into the ongoing debate of whether education should be a right of every citizen.
313. SIAHA5_170629_314.JPG: Printed copy of Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court opinion
314. SIAHA5_170629_320.JPG: Protest poster from Poor People's Campaign, Washington, D.C., 1968
315. SIAHA5_170629_321.JPG: The Right to Bear Arms The Second Amendment of the Constitution granted that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The debate over what this right actually means is highly contested. Bumper Sticker, Bumper sticker, 2014
316. SIAHA5_170629_326.JPG: A Meaningful Job Is freedom from want the right of all Americans? What responsibility does the nation have to provide employment to its citizens? In response to economic crisis, at times the government has enacted massive employment programs. One such program, the Works Progress Administration, employed as many as eight million people during the depression of the 1930s. Federal legislation enacted in 1964 led to the establishment of the Office of Economic Opportunity as part of the "War on Poverty."
317. SIAHA5_170629_335.JPG: Passport, 1869
318. SIAHA5_170629_340.JPG: Your Country's Representation One of the assumed rights of citizenship is that your government will represent you. Originally serving as a letter of introduction to foreign governments on behalf of Americans traveling abroad, the very earliest passport was designed by Benjamin Franklin during the War of Independence when he served as minister to France. While regulations have changed over the years, passports are official documents issued by the U.S. Department of State that identify the holder as a citizen.
319. SIAHA5_170629_344.JPG: Equal Rights for All The most basic right of citizenship has been equal access and protection under the law. The fight to extend this right to all began before the Declaration of Independence proclaimed "all men are created equal," and continues today.
320. SIAHA5_170629_345.JPG: Passport, 1999
321. SIAHA5_170629_348.JPG: Equal rights buttons
322. SIAHA5_170629_351.JPG: Freedom of Speech San Francisco poet, artist, and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was an influential figure of the 1950s Beat Generation and the social revolution of the 1960s. In 1956 he was arrested and tried on obscenity charges for publishing and selling Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl. This landmark case established a key legal precedent for the publication of controversial literary pieces. His victory expanded the right to free speech and opened the way for an explosion of new works that tested the boundaries of literary expression.
323. SIAHA5_170629_356.JPG: Lawrence Ferlinghetti's typewriter from his San Francisco bookstore
324. SIAHA5_170629_362.JPG: Public service poster, 1971
325. SIAHA5_170629_371.JPG: The Virtuous Citizen Of the many core responsibilities of citizenship, the most basic has been being a "good citizen." The founding generation believed that liberty and freedom could only survive if the Republic and its people were virtuous. For them, and still today, this means respecting the country's institutions, fulfilling civic duties, contributing to the community, and generally being a good neighbor.
326. SIAHA5_170629_372.JPG: A Citizen's Jury In a nation based on the sovereignty of the people, the jury system is one of the cornerstones of American democracy. Established under the Constitution is the right to an impartial jury of one's peers. This right also implies an obligation of citizens to serve as members of a jury.
327. SIAHA5_170629_374.JPG: Jury notice, 2014
328. SIAHA5_170629_377.JPG: Taxes The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1913, granted Congress the power to impose a federal income tax on individuals. The concept of contributing your fair share is widely held, but agreeing on what that is all depends on who is paying the bill.
329. SIAHA5_170629_385.JPG: Freedom of Speech San Francisco poet, artist, and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was an influential figure of the 1950s Beat Generation and the social revolution of the 1960s. In 1956 he was arrested and tried on obscenity charges for publishing and selling Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl. This landmark case established a key legal precedent for the publication of controversial literary pieces. His victory expanded the right to free speech and opened the way for an explosion of new works that tested the boundaries of literary expression.
330. SIAHA5_170629_386.JPG: Income tax return, 1921
331. SIAHA5_170629_391.JPG: Civil War draft notice, April 7, 1864
332. SIAHA5_170629_394.JPG: World War II-era Selective Service registration card, April 27, 1942
333. SIAHA5_170629_399.JPG: Military Service The scope and brutality of the Civil War quickly challenged the military resources of the North and South. The Confederacy and the Union established general compulsory military service. Many considered the draft an infringement on their individual liberty. Critics charged class discrimination, as the North and South draft laws provided financial ways to avoid service. The debate over a military draft has continued ever since. Today all men are required to register for Selective Service at eighteen years of age.
334. SIAHA5_170629_401.JPG: The United States Census The U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government take a census every ten years. Citizens are required by law to be counted and to participate in this fundamental aspect of the democratic process. The primary purpose of the census is to allocate seats in the House of Representatives to the states according to their population.
335. SIAHA5_170629_404.JPG: Census enumerator badge, 1960
336. SIAHA5_170629_412.JPG: Census badge, 1900 Census enumerator badge, 1960
337. SIAHA5_170629_416.JPG: Pamphlet, "Let's Talk Census", 1960
338. SIAHA5_170629_425.JPG: Census Bureau questionnaire, 1960
339. SIAHA5_170629_426.JPG: What are the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens? The founding generation of American political leaders asserted that the independent nation would be based on the ideal that its citizens had the right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," and that the government under the Constitution was designed to "promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty." With these rights, they believed, came responsibilities that citizens needed to assume in order to fulfill the promise of the new nation. These lofty goals and principles never had a singular interpretation and over time have led to differing ideas and heated debates.
340. SIAHA5_170629_431.JPG: All for One World War I poster produced for the Bureau of Education
341. SIAHA5_170629_435.JPG: Armenian American bicentennial banner Zaven Seraidian, an immigrant from Armenia, created this banner in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial. According to Seraidian: the Armenian letter for A symbolizes "the beginning" and the letter for B expresses "continuity"; the Armenian cross is a symbol of Christianity brought from the old world to the new; the two American eagles are for strength and victory; and the flag represents independence and liberty from tyrannical oppression.
342. SIAHA5_170629_445.JPG: Statue of Liberty Hanukkah menorah Many immigrants sought to preserve their cultural heritage while at the same time embracing their new identity as Americans. Manfred Anson did so in designing this Hanukkah lamp to mark the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. Anson, who escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager, later reunited with family who had immigrated to the United States. For this lamp, Anson combined a traditional Polish menorah and figurines cast from a 19th century Statue of Liberty souvenir.
343. SIAHA5_170629_453.JPG: "Ethnic Vote" Buttons
344. SIAHA5_170629_458.JPG: Courting the "Ethnic Vote" Reflected in the long history of American politics is a recognition, and sometimes a celebration, of the diversity of the nation's electorate.
345. SIAHA5_170629_459.JPG: Presentation Indian moccasins A delegation of Plains Indians gave these beaded moccasins to President Ulysses S. Grant during an 1870s peace conference in Washington, D.C. The design unites motifs and forms from both cultures as a powerful statement of hopeful coexistence.
346. SIAHA5_170629_463.JPG: School pageant with the teacher dressed as the Statue of Liberty surrounded by students from the Lower East Side of New York wearing traditional costumes, around 1910
347. SIAHA5_170629_467.JPG: Graduation ceremony, 1916 The Ford Motor Company dramatized the ideals of Americanization in its elaborate English school graduation pageants. Workers in foreign dress entered into a giant pot stirred by the school's teachers and emerged in their best "American" clothes waving United States flags.
348. SIAHA5_170629_474.JPG: Ku Klux Klan marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, August 8, 1925 A Nation Only for Some Out of belief or fear, many Americans sought to limit diversity in the United States. At the height of their political power the Ku Klux Klan, in 1925, brought to the nation's capital over 40,000 members in full regalia to promote their ideals of white Christian supremacy before the public.
349. SIAHA5_170629_479.JPG: Poster, "Many Peoples One Nation" This poster, issued by the private National Americanization Committee and distributed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Education, represents the ideals of the Americanization movement through the use of the flag and its symbolic message expressed in verse.
350. SIAHA5_170629_482.JPG: Americanize America From 1880 to 1920 over 20 million people, largely from eastern and southern Europe, came to the United States. In response, the government and industries developed Americanization programs to turn the foreign-born into patriotic citizens by teaching "real American" values and English. This poster, issued by the private National Americanization Committee and distributed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Education, represents the ideals of the Americanization movement through the use of the flag and its symbolic message expressed in verse. Although the ideal of Americanization was to welcome all foreigners, some groups were viewed as too disruptive for the rest of the pot. In this example, Irish radicals were seen as too unruly to mix in.
351. SIAHA5_170629_484.JPG: "The Mortar of Assimilation," Puck, June 26, 1889 Although the ideal of Americanization was to welcome all foreigners, some groups were viewed as too disruptive for the rest of the pot. In this example, Irish radicals were seen as too unruly to mix in.
352. SIAHA5_170629_487.JPG: Ku Klux Klan hood, 1920s
353. SIAHA5_170629_490.JPG: Advertising broadside for The Dollar Weekly Times, an American Party-affiliated newspaper, 1850s
354. SIAHA5_170629_497.JPG: Know-Nothing Party The American Party, also called the Know-Nothings, was a major national political force in the 1850s. It saw immigrants and Catholics as the greatest threat to self-government and to the nation. Arguing for rule by native-born Protestants, the Know-Nothings ran former President Millard Fillmore as their presidential candidate in the 1856 election. Though James Buchanan won the presidency, Fillmore received over 21 percent of the vote. During the Civil War the movement fractured and largely disappeared, but fear and distrust of new immigrants remained within the core beliefs of many future political movements.
355. SIAHA5_170629_502.JPG: Ku Klux Klan Founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan combated post-Civil War reforms and terrorized freed African Americans in the former Confederacy. Dormant for decades, by the mid-1920s a reconstructed Klan was again a powerful political force in both the South and the North, spreading hatred against African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. Klan membership plummeted after a series of scandals involving its leadership. Although never as powerful as it was in the 1920s, Klan organizations rose to oppose the growing civil rights movements of the 1950s and '60s.
356. SIAHA5_170629_504.JPG: Bumper sticker, 1970s
357. SIAHA5_170629_506.JPG: Love It or Leave It This 1970s bumper sticker was directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters and the counter-culture they represented, but the calls for exclusion of certain groups span the history of the nation. Americans desiring a more homogeneous citizenry did not limit their restrictions to certain ethnic and racial groups, but also sought to exclude those of differing political, social, and economic philosophies, religious beliefs, or sexual orientations.
358. SIAHA5_170629_508.JPG: Anti-Chinese cap pistol In the 19th century, agitation against Asian Americans spread across the country and led to some of the nation's most restrictive immigration laws.
359. SIAHAD_170628_024.JPG: The Great Leap The world the British colonists inherited was ruled by kings, hereditary aristocrats, and wealthy gentlemen. Then, in the year 1776, Americans decided to change that world. They would do without a king or aristocrats. They would create a new government based solely on "the people." But who would really count as "the people," and how would it all work? Should wealthy and educated gentlemen still dominate the government? Could a new, representative form of government truly represent the interests and views of common men and women? How should those people participate to make their voices heard? Ever since the Revolution, Americans have debated these questions.
360. SIAHAD_170628_030.JPG: The World They Inherited Britons on both sides of the Atlantic believed that governing was the role of aristocrats and wealthy gentlemen. Political power came with economic power, with birth into the right social circles, and with influential connections. Common people also had a limited role. Most common men who owned property could vote for a member of the lower house of their legislature. Voters could also serve on juries that enforced the law. Most did not qualify to participate in those ways, but free British subjects could petition their rulers with grievances in writing or with mass demonstrations or riots. They could seek justice in courts of common law, with juries of their peers.
361. SIAHAD_170628_033.JPG: The Authority of Gentlemen Only wealthy gentlemen sat in the House of Commons, which represented "the people" of England. In the colonies, representatives elected to colonial legislatures were less wealthy, but most came from the upper ranks of their society. "Men should dress suitable to their various ranks in life, whether as a magistrate, statesman, warrior, man of pleasure, &c. for the hair, either natural or artificial, may be dressed to produce in us different ideas in the qualities of men." (D. Ritchie, A Treatise on the Hair, London, 1770)
362. SIAHAD_170628_038.JPG: Teapot, 1752 Silver Teapot made for Abigail Robinson of Newport, RI The Authority of Distinguished Families This teapot engraved with the Robinson family crest was made for Abigail Robinson of Newport, Rhode Island, around 1752. That year Robinson married John Wanton, son of the governor of Rhode Island. Silversmith Samuel Casey may have consulted a guide to family crests such as John Guillim's standard book, A Display of Heraldry. The book explained, "Esquires and Gentlemen, all [have] Ensigns of Coats of Arms and thereby are distinguished from the meaner people."
363. SIAHAD_170628_041.JPG: Book, "A Display of Heraldry," 1660 The Authority of Distinguished Families This teapot engraved with the Robinson family crest was made for Abigail Robinson of Newport, Rhode Island, around 1752. That year Robinson married John Wanton, son of the governor of Rhode Island. Silversmith Samuel Casey may have consulted a guide to family crests such as John Guillim's standard book, A Display of Heraldry. The book explained, "Esquires and Gentlemen, all [have] Ensigns of Coats of Arms and thereby are distinguished from the meaner people."
364. SIAHAD_170628_046.JPG: Gentleman's wig The Authority of Gentlemen Only wealthy gentlemen sat in the House of Commons, which represented "the people" of England. In the colonies, representatives elected to colonial legislatures were less wealthy, but most came from the upper ranks. "Men should dress suitable to their various ranks in life, whether as a magistrate, statesman, warrior, man of pleasure, &c. for the hair, either natural or artificial, may be dressed to produce in us different ideas in the qualities of men." (D. Ritchie, A Treatise on the Hair, London, 1770)
365. SIAHAD_170628_047.JPG: Plaster bust by L. Gahagan, 1809 King George III George III became king of Great Britain and its colonies in 1760. American colonists saw themselves as his loyal subjects. They celebrated his birthday, drank toasts to his health, and fought in his American wars.
366. SIAHAD_170628_054.JPG: Portrait of Thomas Hutchinson by an unknown artist, after Edward Truman portrait, 1741 The Authority of Governors Thomas Hutchinson, portrayed here as a young man, served as governor of Massachusetts from 1771 to 1774. Appointed by the King, royal governors pursued policies favored by the British ministry. They enjoyed power to appoint officials to execute the law, as seen in this appointment of a justice of the peace. Yet many governors saw colonial governments as dangerously out of balance, with no hereditary aristocracy to support executive authority and too much power concentrated in the hands of the elected assembly. Hutchinson worried that popular power, or "the rule of the multitude," would bring anarchy and dictatorship to the colonies.
367. SIAHAD_170628_062.JPG: Justice of the peace appointment, 1764
368. SIAHAD_170628_064.JPG: The Authority of Bishops Men appointed as bishops of the established church sat in the British House of Lords alongside the great aristocrats of the realm, joining the authority of church and state.
369. SIAHAD_170628_070.JPG: Land grant from Penn family, 1733 The Role of the Middling People This land grant signed by Governor Thomas Penn deeded a large farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Alexander McCammont. Landowners and successful artisans made up the "middling sort" in colonial societies. There were also "the better sort" and "the poorer sort," but the colonies had a higher percentage of "middling men" than Britain did. Since property owning bestowed political rights, those men became accustomed to a voice in colonial politics.
370. SIAHAD_170628_072.JPG: The Authority of the People The House of Commons represented "the people" of England. By 1750, however, only about 17 percent of adult males in England were eligible to vote. In the colonies, more men owned enough property to qualify as voters than in England -- an estimated 50 to 70 percent of adult free males in different colonies. Thanks to the availability of land, and more by circumstance than planning, colonial politics allowed broader participation.
371. SIAHAD_170628_076.JPG: Engraving of Sir William Penn, by Alexander Lawson, 1797
372. SIAHAD_170628_078.JPG: Land grant from Penn family, 1733 The Role of the Middling People This land grant signed by Governor Thomas Penn deeded a large farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Alexander McCammont. Landowners and successful artisans made up the "middling sort" in colonial societies. There were also "the better sort" and "the poorer sort," but the colonies had a higher percentage of "middling men" than Britain did. Since property owning bestowed political rights, those men became accustomed to a voice in colonial politics.
373. SIAHAD_170628_082.JPG: Town meeting record, Beverly, Massachusetts, recording the election of a representative to the legislature
374. SIAHAD_170628_090.JPG: "It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country . . . to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." Alexander Hamilton, "The Federalist No. 1," 1787
375. SIAHAD_170628_093.JPG: The Great Leap
376. SIAHAD_170628_094.JPG: Declaring Independence In 1776 many colonists made a great leap of faith: they united around the ideals that "all men are created equal" and entitled to the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They declared that all government arose from the people and depended on popular consent. These ideals would shape American politics and society in the centuries that followed. Yet it was an unequal world. Americans also inherited a belief in social hierarchy and institutions that perpetuated inequality. Through the generations, Americans inspired by the Declaration of Independence would contend with these conflicting ideas and commitments.
377. SIAHAD_170628_097.JPG: Declaration of Independence desk Thomas Jefferson's Desk On this desk Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in June 1776. Jefferson himself had designed the desk, including a hinged writing board and a locking drawer for papers, pens, and inkwell. The desk was Jefferson's companion as a Revolutionary patriot, American diplomat, and president of the United States. Late in his life, Jefferson attached a note to the bottom, saying that the desk would likely become a treasured relic, "for its great association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence."
378. SIAHAD_170628_106.JPG: Print, Declaration of Independence, 1823 The Declaration of Independence Congressmen voted for independence on July 2, 1776, then spent two days editing Thomas Jefferson's draft of the text. They officially declared independence on July 4. In August they signed a carefully lettered parchment copy that today is housed in the National Archives. Years later, worried that the original signed Declaration of Independence was fading, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned engraver William Stone to create a copper plate to produce facsimiles of the text. This facsimile was printed from Stone's 1823 plate.
379. SIAHAD_170628_121.JPG: George Washington's document box George Washington, who presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, used this small box to preserve papers produced by the convention.
380. SIAHAD_170628_124.JPG: Copy of U.S. Constitution In September 1787 Americans had their first chance to see the new constitution proposed by a convention in Philadelphia. Over the summer, the convention had met in private, allowing no press coverage of their debates or decisions. The Providence Gazette and Country Journal was among the newspapers that first published the plan. What followed was a broad debate that Alexander Hamilton called a "Great National Discussion." Should the states ratify, reject, or amend the document that became the U.S. Constitution?
381. SIAHAD_170628_128.JPG: Proposal for a Constitution In September 1787 Americans had their first chance to see the new constitution proposed by a convention in Philadelphia. Over the summer, the convention had met in private, allowing no press coverage of their debates or decisions. The Providence Gazette and Country Journal was among the newspapers that first published the plan. What followed was a broad debate that Alexander Hamilton called a "Great National Discussion." Should the states ratify, reject, or amend the document that became the U.S. Constitution?
382. SIAHAD_170628_131.JPG: Adopting the Constitution, 1787–1788 Adopting a new frame of government also required Americans to make a leap of faith. After a long war and many disputes, supporters of the U.S. Constitution declared the need for a stable, central government to "secure the blessings of liberty" to Americans. But could the growing nation pull together? The states had not always cooperated with one another. Congress had been too weak to counter European and Native American powers or to settle conflicts within or between states. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed to shift power to the central government. At the same time, they provided that federal government officials be elected, either directly or indirectly, so as to represent the people as a whole.
383. SIAHAD_170628_139.JPG: The Great Leap
384. SIAHAD_170628_144.JPG: Grievances When Parliament directly taxed the colonists, it bypassed the legislative assemblies elected by voters in each colony. Americans objected that Parliament lacked legislative authority over them. They insisted that those who enacted colonial laws and taxes needed to be chosen by colonial voters and to share basic interests with their constituents and neighbors. Government was legitimate only when it actually represented the people being governed. "The only Representatives of the People of these Colonies, are Persons chosen therein by themselves, and . . . no Taxes ever have been, or can be Constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective Legislature." The Stamp Act Congress, 1765
385. SIAHAD_170628_156.JPG: "The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering," London, 1774 Tar and Feather This British image criticized American patriots' practice of inflicting pain and humiliation on those who supported Parliamentary authority. It shows the tar-and-feathering of appointed customs commissioner John Malcolm in Boston in 1774. Similar acts by crowds punished a relative few but intimidated many more into compliance with patriot programs that resisted Parliamentary laws. No property-owning requirements limited participation in street crowds.
386. SIAHAD_170628_167.JPG: Print, "The Bloody Massacre," 1832 Massacre in King Street Events in Boston in 1770 confirmed many patriots' worst fears about the dangers of putting policing power in the hands of an armed military. British troops in Boston were supposed to see Parliament's laws peacefully enforced. But military occupation of the city created bitter disputes between soldiers and civilians. Five colonists died when soldiers fired on a crowd. Silversmith Paul Revere, a fervent patriot activist, created prints of the event to fan the flames of public outrage. This copy from Revere's plate was made in 1832.
387. SIAHAD_170628_177.JPG: Townshend Revenue Act, 1767 Relief at repeal of the Stamp Act evaporated when Parliament passed new duties on goods imported into the colonies. The new legislation also made law enforcement more independent of colonists' own ideas of what was just and fair. It appointed officials to enforce the law, provided them with broad authority to search private stores, and established courts without colonial juries to try disputed cases. Parliament rejected colonial claims that law enforcement, like lawmaking, needed to be accountable to colonial opinion.
388. SIAHAD_170628_194.JPG: The Power of the Press Widespread literacy made possible the effective circulation of ideas through published pamphlets, newspapers, and other print products. These publications circulated news and opinion to a growing number of subscribers and to patrons of taverns, which often provided papers for common reading. Even illiterate people could listen and debate current events when someone read aloud to the group.
389. SIAHAD_170628_201.JPG: "Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes," by Daniel Dulany, 1766 The Power of the Press Widespread literacy made possible the effective circulation of ideas through published pamphlets, newspapers, and other print products. These publications circulated news and opinion to a growing number of subscribers and to patrons of taverns, which often provided papers for common reading. Even illiterate people could listen and debate current events when someone read aloud to the group.
390. SIAHAD_170628_211.JPG: The Great Leap The colonists' grievances against British authority led them to organize together across the colonies. In turn, that organization gradually built a sense of connection to others who shared common ideas and demonstrated common commitments. As the dispute intensified, patriots slowly disconnected from British authorities and their own Loyalist neighbors. In 1776 their experience of shared resistance led them to embrace a new political identity.
391. SIAHAD_170628_215.JPG: Massachusetts Judge Appointment Certificate The Power of the People Massachusetts officials used this preprinted form to appoint William Silvester a justice of the peace in 1776. They crossed out the authority of George III and replaced it with the authority of "the Government and People of Massachusetts-Bay."
392. SIAHAD_170628_222.JPG: Pamphlet, "Common Sense," 1776 Common Sense Thomas Paine's argument against monarchy and hereditary privilege -- and for American independence -- first appeared anonymously in Philadelphia in January 1776. It was so popular that twenty-five print editions appeared within a year.
393. SIAHAD_170628_230.JPG: Thomas Paine Engraving by William Sharp, 1794
394. SIAHAD_170628_240.JPG: "Premiere Assembl�e du Congr�s" (First Meeting of the Continental Congress), 1782
395. SIAHAD_170628_243.JPG: Fire bucket, "Saml. A. Otis / 1775" Social Networks Sons of Liberty organized around existing social networks and organizations, such as firefighting companies. The movement relied on ideas and practices of common participation learned in such community groups. This leather bucket belonged to Samuel Allyne Otis, a merchant and patriot from Barnstable, Massachusetts. The Latin motto on the bucket translates to "Friendship in Times of Distress."
396. SIAHAD_170628_251.JPG: Richard Wilson Brown Bess musket, 1761 British musket left after in the colonies from the French and Indian War and later used by patriot forces Powder horn made and used by minuteman Daniel Higbe, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1775 Militias Colonial laws required free men of all classes to serve in local militias. Militias were critical in times of armed conflict but often lapsed during peacetime. In the long term -- eight years of Revolutionary War -- Americans would depend on a professional Continental Army. In the short term, militia service helped defend the colonies and also create a sense of common sacrifice.
397. SIAHAD_170628_263.JPG: Organizing as Patriots When colonial legislatures opposed British policies, many governors simply dissolved those assemblies. Unofficial groups such as local committees, county-wide conventions, and congresses quickly became central to patriot organizing. They relied on economic networks that included "middling" farmers, traders, artisans, working men, and free women to create a new political movement. The inclusive nature of the movement seemed to show that ordinary free people were capable of having a stronger voice in politics.
398. SIAHAD_170628_268.JPG: "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor," New York, around 1846 Facing Down a Great Corporation The East India Company was the wealthiest private corporation of the day. Parliament gave its stockholders a bailout by giving the company a monopoly on the colonial tea trade in 1773. They also kept a tax on the tea. Patriots in nearly every colony blocked sale of the tea, either reshipping it back to England or forcibly storing it in locked warehouses. Boston was the first city to destroy East India Company tea, in December 1773. This creamer reminded tea drinkers not to indulge. Its inscription reads "Britons take back your baneful tea/You N'er shall make a slave of me."
399. SIAHAD_170628_273.JPG: Tea Boycott Silver Creamer
400. SIAHAD_170628_285.JPG: Flax wheel, Rhode Island, 18th century Boycotts and Home Manufacturing Patriots created new economic networks by forming agreements not to use imported British commodities, such as fine fabrics, furnishings, or tea. They hoped to influence British merchants and manufacturers and also to bridge social divisions among Americans. Free people of nearly any class could join and enforce an association. To join, the wealthy put aside imported styles to buy plainer products from their neighbors -- linen spun by colonial women and woven by colonial weavers; gloves made by colonial glovers, tanners, and farmers; and herbal brews sold by country people to replace tea.
401. SIAHAD_170628_313.JPG: Painting, Thomas Nast, 1884 Thomas Nast Born in Germany, Thomas Nast (1840–1902) immigrated to New York in 1846. Nast's gifts for illustration and social observation found ready use in national mass-circulation news magazines that did not yet have the means to publish photographs. Nast published more than three thousand drawings, primarily in Harper's Weekly between 1862 and 1885. Editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast continued the tradition of using animals as symbols in party politics and sharpened it as an art form. In this satirical cartoon, Nast depicts New York City's corrupt Tammany Society as a fierce tiger, being whitewashed by Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley. Nast favored Union-affirming policies and enjoyed the relative autonomy to express his political views. Nast's early cartoons skewered the corrupt regime of New York City's William Marcy "Boss" Tweed. Nast went on to popularize the elephant and donkey as symbols of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. Nast may have painted this self-portrait around 1884, when he lost his fortune in a Wall Street Ponzi scheme. It is perhaps a self-caricature. Nast renders himself with a furrowed brow, collapsed into a chair. An open drape reveals New York's Trinity Church, at the foot of Wall Street. Out of favor with his editor, Nast left Harper's Weekly in 1887. He later joined the Democratic National Committee as a contract cartoonist but never recovered a national audience or financial position.
402. SIAHAD_170628_333.JPG: "Stranger Things Have Happened," Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, December 27, 1879 View object record The Elephant and Donkey Harper's Weekly featured Thomas Nast's Democratic donkey for the first time in 1870. Nast had often used the symbol to represent ignorance. Nast featured an elephant for the first time in 1874 to represent the Republican vote. He rendered the animal, unsure of its own weight, plodding through planks representing its own party platform. Nast's elephant and donkey appeared together in a cartoon for the first time in 1879.
403. SIAHAD_170628_335.JPG: "The Third-Term Panic," Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, November 7, 1874
404. SIAHAD_170628_341.JPG: Enduring Popular Images and Party Symbols The most enduring images in American political life are those drawn from the natural world -- rivers and springs reflect the ever-changing course of politics, monsters suggest the carefully apportioned boundaries of congressional districts, and animals have come to represent the major political parties.
405. SIAHAD_170628_348.JPG: "Essex South District Formed into a Monster!" Salem Gazette, April 2, 1813 The Gerry-Mander This "Gerry-Mander" cartoon first appeared in the Boston Gazette, March 26, 1812, and was quickly reprinted in Federalist newspapers in Salem and Boston. The cartoon expressed opposition to state election districts newly redrawn by Massachusetts' Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party, led by Governor Elbridge Gerry. Fearing that the Federalist Party would gain power in the 1812 election, Gerry consolidated Federalist voting strength in a salamander-shaped voting district. The practice -- though not invented by Gerry -- became known as a "gerrymandering."
406. SIAHAD_170628_361.JPG: Party Symbols Party symbols drawn from the natural world helped to dramatize political issues to reach 19th century Americans, including those who could not read. The donkey (also known as a jackass) as a Democratic symbol dates back to the late 1820s, when Whig attacks against Andrew Jackson rendered his name as "A. Jack-ass." Medals illustrated with donkeys and pigs bore slogans criticizing Jackson for removing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.
407. SIAHAD_170628_390.JPG: "Diagram of the Rise and Fall of American Political Parties, from 1789 to 1880, inclusive," from Conspectus of the History of Political Parties and the Federal Government, by Walter R. Houghton, 1880 The Rise and Fall of American Political Parties This ambitious chart presents U.S. political history on a single page. Moving from left to right, a timeline of parties, policies, persons, and events courses like a river through graphic space marked in four-year intervals. The analogy between politics and springs and rivulets (that jump and rejoin their banks) is the most conspicuous feature of the timeline. The parties appear in different colors. The ascendance of a party is gauged as its stream rises above the centerline, and above the streams of other parties. The thickness of a stream indicates the party's strength. The diagram is meant to dramatize U.S. political history in a more accessible shape for educators and to offer a ready reference for scholars, statisticians, and statesmen.
408. SIAHAD_170628_417.JPG: "‘What Are You Going to Do About It' If ‘Old Honesty' Lets Him Loose Again?" Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, August 31, 1872 Animals as Symbols Editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast continued the tradition of using animals as symbols in party politics and sharpened it as an art form. In this satirical cartoon, Nast depicts New York City's corrupt Tammany Society as a fierce tiger, being whitewashed by Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley.
409. SIAHAD_170628_423.JPG: Campaign gimmick, rooster
410. SIAHAD_170628_429.JPG: Campaign gimmick, 1889
411. SIAHAD_170628_436.JPG: Bryan and Taft campaign figurines, 1908 Party Animals Democratic and Republican Party leaders would never have chosen the animals that Thomas Nast did to popularize their policies and ideas. The parties typically adopted national symbols, such as the eagle and the flag. After 1840 the Democratic Party often represented itself as a rooster. Such symbols contended, unsuccessfully, with the popularity of donkeys and elephants into the 20th century.
412. SIAHAD_170628_439.JPG: Tag, "Bound for the Democratic Convention" Flyer, GOP Jumbo Jamboree, 1960
413. SIAHAD_170628_444.JPG: Log cabin parade prop, 1840 Model log cabin hoisted on a pole and carried in parades by supporters of William Henry Harrison during the 1840 presidential campaign
414. SIAHAD_170628_450.JPG: The Machinery of Democracy Informal institutions and activities not actually spelled out in the Constitution help make America's participatory political system possible. State and national parties, nomination and ratification conventions, and intense and elaborate campaigns are examples of the informal processes Americans have adopted that give life and form to the ideas in the Constitution.
415. SIAHAD_170628_486.JPG: The Cloud Television promised to extend the participatory premise of American democratic institutions to every home. Political specialists believed that verbatim telecasts of conventions, rallies, and speeches would allow a new home-based audience to experience the spectacle of a presidential campaign. By the 1960s specialists capitalized on television techniques that emphasized performance and stagecraft, including the candidate debate (or joint candidate appearance) and the spot advertisement. Those campaigns join today's political performances and advertisements in a cloud of competing images and cross talk on the Internet. Individual video loops with sound may be viewed at americanhistory.si.edu/democracy/cloud
416. SIAHAD_170628_506.JPG: Punch card vote recorder with butterfly ballot, 2000 The Butterfly Ballot The close presidential contest between Al Gore and George W. Bush came down to a struggle over the Florida vote. In Florida Bush led Gore by 930 votes out of six million votes cast. Gore asked for a recount by hand of ballots from four counties in which his support was believed to be strong. To conduct the recount in Palm Beach County, citizens organized into teams of two Republican and two Democratic Party counters and observers. A magenta-colored card is used to help identify the holes in the ballots.
417. SIAHAD_170628_514.JPG: Judge Robert Rosenberg examining ballot with magnifying glass, Broward County, Florida, November 2000
418. SIAHAD_170628_518.JPG: Magnifying glass, 2000 Gift of Robert Rosenberg Hanging Chad In the 2000 presidential election, incompletely punched ballots that could not be counted by machine were considered voter errors. Judge Robert Rosenberg used this magnifying glass to examine ballots in an effort to determine voter intent during the hand recount in Broward County, Florida, in November 2000.
419. SIAHAD_170628_524.JPG: Gear-and-lever voting machine model, 1944 Gear-and-Lever This facsimile gear-and-lever voting machine was last used in the 1944 presidential election between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas E. Dewey. Small models like this acquainted voters with the workings of the actual machine; the row-and-column ballot of parties and candidates was based upon the graphic design of the blanket or Australian ballot these machines began to displace after the turn of the 20th century. From 1900 through the early 1960s, the gear-and-lever voting machine was promoted as an ideal technology.
420. SIAHAD_170628_534.JPG: Creating Citizens Fulfilling the ideals of American democracy required defining "the people" and determining the meaning of citizenship. Not clearly articulated in the founding documents, these unsettled issues were left for future generations. Some basic questions have long been debated by Americans. How diverse should the citizenry be? Do we need to share a common national story? What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens?
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Description of Subject Matter: American Democracy: The Great Leap of Faith
June 28, 2017 – Permanent
From the American Revolution to the present, trace the unfolding of America's experiment with government “of, by, and for the people” and examine the founding political principles of the nation: citizenship in a pluralistic society; inclusion and exclusion; and political participation and engagement.
Highlights include:
* the writing desk on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence
* the lamp George Washington used while writing his farewell address
* the inkstand Lincoln used to draft the Emancipation Proclamation
* the table on which Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments
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