Newspaper, "The Log Cabin", 1840
date: label: Date made
content: 1840
name: label: associated person
content: Greeley, Horace
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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 objects with designs of log cabins, such as this newspaper from July 18, 1840, soon followed.
topic: label: general subject association
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ralph E. Becker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.227739.1840.A11
label: catalog number
content: 227739.1840.A11
label: accession number
content: 227739
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Newspaper
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white, black (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 20 1/2 in x 14 3/4 in; 52.07 cm x 37.465 cm