Election Day is here! This print from an unfinished plate by Philadelphia engraver Alexander Lawson depicts a chaotic scene in front of the State House on Chestnut Street during a city election. The scene depicts voters arriving, completing and switching ballots, and blocking the polls as politicians and campaigners, including former mayor John Barker, lobby for votes and engage in debate. 

Alexander Lawson after a painting by John Lewis Krimmel, The election day in Philadelphia, ca. 1894. Engraving.

This year’s election certainly is not the first in American history to be rife with tension. This lithograph from 1864 depicts an incident at a polling place in Philadelphia. The caption of the print describes a confrontation between a member of the Democratic Party and an elderly man. The man, whose son was a Union soldier killed during the Civil War, angrily berates the Democrat for encouraging him to vote for the party affiliated with the Confederacy. 

A Thrilling Incident During Voting, 18th Ward, Philadelphia, Oct. 11 (Philadelphia: 1864). Lithograph.

Today is Election Day in the United States – Remember to VOTE!

Pictured here are fragments from the Star-Spangled Banner, the famous flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem that would later become the national anthem of the United States of America.  

Commissioned by Major George Armistead, and stitched by Mary Young Pickersgill in 1813, the Star-Spangled Banner flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812.

Pickersgill, Mary. Fragment of the American flag, “Star Spangled Banner.” 1813

In honor of Election Day in the United States, we #Flashback to 1860 with this political cartoon titled The National Game, Three “Outs” and One “Run”, which compares the results of the 1860 presidential election with a completed baseball game influenced by the candidates’ position on the extension of slavery. 

The winner, Lincoln, representing the “Wide Awake Club,” holds a rail-shaped bat labeled “Equal Rights and Free Territory,”  and stands on “Home Base,” giving pointers to his competitors: Constitutional Unionist John Bell of the “Union Club” with his “Fusion” bat; Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas of the “Little Giant Club” with his “Non-Intervention” bat; and Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge of the “Disunion Club”, holding his “Slavery Extension” bat, plugs his nose as a skunk sprays at him. 

Speaking in baseball terms, Lincoln declares “you must have ‘a good bat’ and strike a ‘fair ball’ to make a ‘clean score’ & a ‘home run’”. The other players respond with Bell crying “foul”; Douglas pondering his “fusion” not putting a “short stop” to the president-elect’s career; and Breckenridge whining that he shall leave for Kentucky as they have all been “skunk’d.”

The national game. Three “outs” and one “run” [graphic] : Abraham winning the ball. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St. c1860. 1 print: lithograph; 33 x 44 cm.(13 x 17.75 in.)

It’s Election Day in Pennsylvania! #ivoted

Voting was a big deal even before Independence, as illustrated in this pro-Franklin political cartoon from 1764 depicting a crowd gathered to vote at the Philadelphia courthouse during the Pennsylvania Assembly election of October 1764. The print advocates Franklin’s appointment as provincial agent to Britain despite his election loss.

You can see the full version of the cartoon here.

The election a medley, humbly inscribed, to Squire Lilliput Professor of Scurrillity. [graphic] [Philadelphia: s.n., 1764] Political Cartoons - [1764] Ele [959.F.74]