Notes from the Library of Congress:
MILLARD FILLMORE, AMERICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
1856.SUMMARY
A large woodcut proof for a campaign banner or poster for the Native American party’s 1856 presidential candidate. A bust portrait of Millard Fillmore appears in a roundel, flanked by allegorical figures of Justice (left) and Liberty (right). Both figures wear classical gowns and tiaras. Justice holds a large sword and scales, Liberty a staff and Phrygian cap and the Constitution. Atop the roundel perches an eagle, with American flags on either side. Below are a document “The Union” (left) and bundled fasces (right).NOTES
Entered . . . 1856, by Baker & Godwin . . . New York.The Library’s proof was deposited for copyright on July 10, 1856.
Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1856-6.
Notice the striking resemblance to this 1860 campaign poster:
Poster for campaign of Abraham Lincoln for President, 1860 - Baker & Godwin, publisher; Library of Congress
The Library of Congress notes:
SUMMARY: A print for a large campaign banner or poster for Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. It features a central roundel with a bust portrait of the candidate, flanked by standing deities Justice and Liberty. Justice (left) holds scales and a sword, while Liberty (right) holds the Constitution and a staff with Phrygian cap. An eagle with wings spread perches atop the roundel, behind which are several American flags on pointed staffs. Below the roundel a document “The Union” and a fasces lie on the ground. The image appears to have been printed from the same blocks (or a stereotype of them) as Baker & Godwin’s 1856 banner for Millard Fillmore (no. 1856-6). Only the central portrait has changed.
MEDIUM: 1 print on calendered paper : woodcut with letterpress ; image 39.3 x 55 cm.
CREATED/PUBLISHED: [New York] : Published and for sale by Baker & Godwin, Tribune Buildings, N.Y., c1860.
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I love the all-American symbolism the Natives used. Like, the classical gowns, the Phrygian cap (that Phrygia, Mississippi, right?), the Roman fasces…
Teabaggers didn’t have any more humor or self-awareness or literacy then than now, surprise.
[signed]
Proud citizen of a country whose sacred places include an Egyptian obelisk, a Greek temple, and a Franco-Italian allegorical statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.
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