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NEWS RELEASE
Faces of a Nation: The American Political Textile Collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman
Largest, Rarest, Most Important Collection of U.S. Presidential Campaign Flags Comes to the Midwest for the First Time with a New Exhibition Opening Sept. 28 at Peoria Riverfront Museum
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Abraham Lincoln campaign flag, 1860. Collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman. For about 100 years of early American history, 1815 to 1912, almost every candidate for president of the United States had specially designed American flags made to support their candidacy. The rarest and largest of these presidential campaign flags (1815-1912), from the collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman, will be displayed in Peoria this September 2024.
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PEORIA, Ill., September 9, 2024—The largest, rarest, and most important collection of U.S. presidential campaign flags, prints, and artifacts is coming to the Midwest for the first time and will soon be exhibited in Peoria. The exhibition Faces of a Nation: The American Political Textile Collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman opens at Peoria Riverfront Museum on September 28, 2024.
“We are so proud to be the first Midwest presentation of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman’s collection of historic Presidential campaign flags,” said John Morris, president and CEO of the Peoria Riverfront Museum. “People who visit this exhibition will never look at American political campaigns the same again.”
The extraordinary exhibition features more than 100 rare flags, banners, prints, and artifacts produced between 1840 and 1912 to promote presidential candidates. The collection will include campaigns from Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt and candidates like Henry Clay and James K. Polk.
Though the stars and stripes of the American flag have been used in some form since Betsy Ross, the flag design was not standardized until 1912.
For nearly 100 years of early American history, from 1840 to 1912, almost every candidate for President of the United States had specially designed American flags made to support their candidacy.
Campaign supporters would redesign the Stars and Stripes into promotional campaign flags. The specific design of the American flag was left up to each maker’s interpretation and imagination. It was accepted practice for candidates to place their names, faces, and slogans on the symbol of our nation.
These early American folk art textiles are revered for their contextual history and beauty as decorative textiles.
Today, surviving flags are scarce and especially hard to find for the losing candidates. As relics of America's political and cultural past, they are both aesthetically interesting and informative about contemporary politics.
Faces of a Nation examines and exhibits these historic treasures to celebrate America’s past and study the evolution of American politics.
Faces of a Nation: The American Political Textile Collection of Mark and Rosalind Shenkman opens September 28 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum with major support from Mark and Rosalind Shenkman and sponsored by Prairie Home Alliance, Visionary Society, and Friends of History.
Visit www.peoriariverfrontmuseum.org for more information.
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The Peoria Riverfront Museum is the only multidisciplinary institution of its kind in the nation combining art, science, history and achievement. The museum is dedicated to using its collections, exhibitions, film planetarium and programming to tell the stories that build confidence; create a culture of lifelong learning; and unleash the full talent and genius of every individual.
Contact Melody Konrad, Peoria Riverfront Museum assistant director of marketing and communications at MKonrad@peoriariverfrontmuseum.org.
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