Monday, October 31, 2016

US Political Memorabilia On Show In NYC

When you think of political memorabilia, you might imagine posters, badges and signs - but an exhibition at the New York Historical Society, timed to coincide with the US election, shows it goes way beyond that. 

Board games, JFK dresses and Richard Nixon toilet paper from the 60s and 70s are among the items on show, loaned by the Museum of Democracy, one of the world's largest collections of American campaign items. 

Lorna Shaddick went along to have a look.

IN: Jordan Wright was...
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Script:

Jordan Wright was just ten years old when his mania for political collecting began, as his son Austin explains:

SOT - Austin Wright,
He grew up here in New York and at 10, he was getting off the bus one day here in Manhattan and walked into Bobby Kennedy's presidential headquarters. // They handed him a button, and once he was handed a button, he immediately caught the political fever, this bug. And he couldn't stop collecting.

Jordan ended up amassing one of the world's most comprehensive collections of political memorabilia, before his untimely death in 2008. Now his son Austin's continuing his legacy:

SOT - Austin Wright
The collection is about 1.25 million items. This ranges from George Washington - we have a flag from his inauguration - all the way to our current presidential race, Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. // I've been to both presidential campaign headquarters, I've collected both Trump memorabilia and Hillary memorabilia. People have created some great folk art around Trump's candidacy.

And with that election fever currently gripping America, the New York Historical Society decided to put some of Jordan's collection on show - over 120 of some of the most colourful and exciting items from the 1960s and 1970s are now on display.

Live rec in room
Well this room is jam packed full of a whole of array of red, white and blue memorabilia from 1960 until 1972 - everything from posters and badges to toilet seat covers and license plates. And there's some more unusual stuff too - including signed LPs of George Wallace's campaign speeches, even a fake two dollar note with Nixon's face on saying 'The Inflated States of America'. And of course the roll of toilet paper, also with Nixon on it, reminds me of the Trump loo roll I've seen being sold outside Trump Tower here in New York!


Mary Taylor, a visitor who's come all the way from Minneapolis, says she doesn't think people these days are so keen on visible signs of their party loyalties:

SOT - Mary Taylor
With this election, there's a lack of outward display of memorabilia because both of these candidates are so undesirable, people are scared to put yard signs up, they're scared to wear buttons. // Most of the allegiances seem to show up on social media. Facebook or Twitter, different posts like that, so it's not necessarily as tangible as in the past.

But Terry Browne, visiting from England, says some things are the same:

SOT - Terry Browne
Very interesting. // In fact, There are so many parallels we can draw from history. As the JFK one says, it was the early days of television and having a good television persona produced good results at the polls.

And Austin shows me how even in the 1960s, politicians were looking to engage with Asian American voters:

SOT
These 2 campaign signs were used to attract the Asian american vote. So 1964 was the first race where the constituency of Chinese Americans mattered. Both of them use different strategies - one, Johnson, says, to guarantee peace and prosperity vote Johnson. The Goldwater - we Chinese Americans must never forget who sold out the mainland of China to the communists.

So - a unique collection of little pieces of history - that might just make you look at today's election in a new way.  Lorna Shaddick, New York.