Democratic Party campaign banner
To Use This Document
With Your Students
Date
1912
Description
Reversible banner promoting the democratic ticket. Designed to be strung from building to building above the street. Colors used are white, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, black. To ensure that Long Island voters knew the names of all of the Democratic candidates who would appear on their ballot on election day, this enormous banner was hung across Islip’s busy Main Street (see photograph at left). According to the 1910 census, Islip was the largest town in Suffolk County with over 18,000 residents, making it an important place for campaigning. Woodrow Wilson, who would win the election to become 28th President of the United States, was a progressive reformer dedicated to anti-corruption who had endeared himself to the public as governor of New Jersey: “We are all familiar with the political status of the state before he became its Chief Executive. The public voice unheeded, a nest-place for corporation vultures,… corrupting influences everywhere assailing the rights of the people.” His opponents were President William Howard Taft on the Republican ticket, and former President Theodore Roosevelt on the third-party Progressive ticket (popularly called the Bull Moose party). The Democratic Party swept the 1912 election in Suffolk County, with all of the candidates listed on this banner winning their races.
Type
Artifact
Region
Long Island
Era
Turn of the Century and WWI
Topic
Communication, Elections
Repository
Identifier
1988.018
Source
Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY, Gift of the Atwood Family, 1988
Rights
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