Typography is one of the most vital keys to successful design—and Print’s Typography & Lettering Awards is here to celebrate it. Enter today.
Editor’s Note: In this recurring series, I’ll dig up intriguing artifacts from history and share them with you. This week, I found some interesting election posters from U.S. history—all from a variety of sources including the Library of Congress and Reddit’s /r/propagandaposters.
I’ve been feeling a little election-weary lately—and I know I’m not the only one. When current events grow too overwhelming, I tend to take solace in history and design. So what better way to divert myself from the current election than to take a look at election posters from the past? Here you’ll find an array posters from presidential elections. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the shameless mudslinging:
U.S. Political Propaganda: Presidential Election Posters from History
George McGovern & Richard Nixon, 1972
Ronald Reagan vs. Walter Mondale, 1984
Herbert Hoover vs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932
Thomas E. Dewey vs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Abraham Lincoln vs. George B. McClellan, 1864
Adlai Stevenson vs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952
Jimmy Carter vs. Gerald Ford, 1976
William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan, 1900
John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon, 1960
William Z. Foster (Frontrunners: Calvin Coolidge, John W. Davis and Robert M. La Follette Sr.), 1924
Bonus: This is actually a button (obviously) but I thought it was pretty interesting. Debs earned 3.4% of the popular vote—913,664 write-in votes—that year despite being imprisoned at the time for his draft non-compliance advocacy.
Eugene V. Debs, 1920 (Frontrunners: Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox)
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