Pin, Vice-presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt, 1900
notes: label: Description
content: William McKinley’s 1896 presidential campaign offered many items featuring a “gold bug,” the nickname for supporters of the gold standard, a key tenet of the Republican platform. Financial policy continued to be a significant issue during McKinley’s re-election campaign as reflected in this large bug pin (more than three inches in height) promoting Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1900.
label: Description
content: McKinley needed a new running mate for his second term because his first vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in office. McKinley chose Roosevelt, governor of New York and hero of the Spanish-American War. The Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan who had lost to McKinley in 1896 also chose a new running mate in 1900, former vice president Adlai Stevenson. McKinley defeated both Bryan and third-party candidate Eugene V. Debs who ran on the Social Democratic Party ticket with vice-presidential nominee Job Harriman.
topic: label: used
content: Political Campaigns
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Campaign Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
label: Exhibition
content: American Democracy
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0200.087
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0200.087
label: accession number
content: 2015.0200
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gold bug
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 1 in; 8.89 cm x 8.89 cm x 2.54 cm