To tie in with the conference taking place at the RAI today, we have put out a display of some materials from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive in the library. This archive, donated to the VHL by Professor Philip Davies (Eccles Centre, British Library) contains campaign materials collected from US elections at all levels. Much of the material dates from the later 20th century, but there are many examples of older material, such as a glass plate dating from 1880 and campaign buttons from 1840 onwards. As well as buttons, posters, bumper stickers, flyers and leaflets, the collection contains many less-traditional examples of campaign ephemera, such as rain bonnets from 1964 and a bar of soap from 1952.

Professor Davies continues to add to the archive with each election, and we recently received a substantial amount of material relating to the 2008 elections, including an Obama doll.

We’ll be dismantling the exhibition tomorrow, so if you’re around today, do come in and take a look!