MG-264. INTERNATIONAL UTILITIES POLITICAL MEMORABILIA COLLECTION, 1789-1972.
The International Utilities (I.U.) of Philadelphia is a business conglomerate with diversified services in distribution, agriculture, utilities, and other areas. The memorabilia relate to successful and unsuccessful United States presidential candidates, their vice-presidential running mates, and their election campaigns. Also included are materials pertaining to such national political issues as the tariff, sectionalism, slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, western expansion, progressivism, and civil rights.
Campaign Literature, 1861-1972.
George Wallace, 1964, 1968. Pamphlets, bumper stickers, and leaflets relating to George Wallace’s run for the presidency. Governor of state of Alabama, George Wallace actively opposed such legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1963, federal interference into state and local administration of public schools, and the activities of National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP).
Cartoons, 1860-1884, 1972.
Miscellaneous, 1860-1972. A small collection of political cartoons from various presidential campaigns. Items pertaining to African Americans from the Lincoln campaign are "The True Issue or 'That’s What’s The Matter,’" (quote from cartoon "No peace without abolition") and "The Rail Candidate" (quote from cartoon "Dis Nigger strong and willin but its awful hard work to carry Old Massa Abe on nothing but dis ere rail!"). Items from the Grant campaign are "The Irrepressible Conflict or The Republican Barge in Danger," "The Man of Words, the Man of Deeds, Which Do You Think the County Needs" (the cartoon shows a Negro man being lynched in front of a building titled "Colored Orphan Asylum"), "Re-Construction, or 'A White Man’s Government,’" "Freedom of Suffrage to the Blacks Means Freedom of Suffrage to the Whites."
Newspapers, 1836-1968.
Bedford Gazette, October 7, 1836, contains several articles regarding the "poll tax" that was implemented to prevent the poor, the uneducated, and non-land owners from voting. Also, this issue contains a brief piece entitled "Negroism."
Bedford Gazette, December 2, 1836, contains two advertisements for runaway slaves. The first advertisement offers six cents reward for an eight-year-old child and the other is a six hundred dollar reward for four Negroes who escaped from jail.
The Boston Evening Atlas, November 7, 1860, provides the results of Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in 1860. Also present is a brief excerpt entitled "The Negro Suffrage Movement."
Christian Science Monitor, November 25, 1963, contains a retrospective on President Kennedy’s political achievements, together with commentary from the African American and Asian American communities. Topics include:
• A chronology of Kennedy’s political achievements, 1961-1963.
• An article entitled "Chicago Ponders U.S. Directions" provides three different views on civil from an African American, a white veteran and a white business man.
• An article entitled "Afro-Asians: He Was First" provides an international perspective on Kennedy’s foreign policy.
• An article entitled "Assessment, Historic Imprint of a Brief Term" gives an overall assessment of Kennedy’s policies and in the process makes important references to the African American community.
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, July 18, 1940, contains a transcription and discussion of the July 17, 1940 address Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered at the Chicago convention that gives special attention to African Americans in the armed forces.
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, August 23, 1956, has a display advertisement for the May Company featuring blues singer Dinah Washington.
The Lost Angeles Herald Examiner, article entitled "Watts Safe for Festival Visit" that discusses recovery from the Watts riots.
The Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1968. An article entitled "Angered Negros Rampage in Miami" refers to a riot started by Negro youths who objected to the appearance of police at a black rally. The riot took place ten miles from Miami Beach, the site of the Republican National Convention. An article entitled "Negro Testifies He Saw Newton Fire at Officer" recounts the case of a Negro bus driver who testified that he saw Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton shoot an Oakland, California police officer. An article entitled "Chamberlain to Aid Nixon’s Slum Program" cites Los Angeles basketball star Wilt Chamberlain’s willingness to back President Nixon’s economic plan for inner city slums.
The New York Herald, November 13, 1864, contains an article entitled "The Next Congress-The Vote on the Constitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery," that predicted the downfall of the amendment and explains why it was unlikely to pass..
The New York Tribune, October 22, 1860, contains numerous articles that discuss the issue of slavery. They are: "The question of Slavery in the Territories," "Who opposed the Compromise and Why?" "What do we mean by the Slave Power?" and "The extinction of Popular Sovereignty."
The San Francisco Examiner, November 6, 1968, contains an article entitled "All Time High-Nine Negroes in the House" that lists the following African Americans as being members of the United States House of Representatives: Adam Clayton Powell, Shirley Chisholm, Louis Stokes, and William Clay. Other articles are "Brown Wins, Going Away" and "Black Student Strike in S.F. State."
The Washington Post, January 21, 1965, contains an article entitled "School Boycott Leader Arrested at New York," that describes the arrest of the Rev. Milton A. Galamison, who was protesting the inferiority of education available in those schools serving mostly Negro and Puerto Rican children.
The Washington Post, November 7, 1968 contains an article entitled "N.Y. School Crisis is Mayor’s Biggest" that discusses the dismissal of eighty three union teachers by the local school board of an experimental school district in Brooklyn’s largely black and Hispanic neighborhood.
Pamphlets, 1796-1912 and [ca. 1932]. Pamphlets from various presidential campaigns for both Democratic and Republican Parties. Topics covered include the Missouri Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, free labor, sectionalism, and slavery. Items are unarranged.
1856 Democratic Party
• The Democratic Party as It Was and as It Is!" A Speech of the Hon. Timothy C. Day, of Ohio, delivered in the House of Representatives on April 23, 1856.
• Hon. James Buchanan. Remarks of Hon. J. Glancy Jones, of Pennsylvania, delivered in the House of Representatives," May 13, 1856.
• A pamphlet comparing the positions of John C. Fremont and James Buchanan on issues of sectionalism and the Constitution in 1856
1856 Republican Party
• "Speech of Hon. John M. Read in favor of Free Kansas, Free White Labor, and of Fremont and Dayton, at the Eighth Ward Mass Meeting, Held in the Assembly Buildings, on Tuesday Evening, Sept. 30, 1865," Philadelphia, 1856.
• "The Dangers of Extending Slavery," and "The Content and the Crisis," two speeches delivered by William H. Seward, Washington, D.C., 1856.
• Immigrant White Free Labor, or Imported Black African Salve Labor," a speech delivered by William H. Seward, at Oswego, New York on November 3, 1856, Washington D.C., 1856.
• "Important Facts drawn From Authentic Sources, Proving Beyond a Doubt That The Approaching Presidential Election Is Forever To Decide The Question Between Freedom and Slavery," 1856.
• "Southern Slavery Reduces Northern Wages," 1856.
1860 Democratic Party
• "Union or Disunion, Speech of the Hon. John M. Botts, at Holcombe Hall in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Thursday Evening, October 18."
• Non-Interference by Congress with Slavery in the Territories. Speech of Hon. S. A. Douglas, in the Senate, May 15 and 16, 1860."
1860 Republican Party
• "Free Homes For Free Men," a speech delivered by the Hon. G. A. Grow of Pennsylvania. in the House of Representatives, February 29, 1860.
• "The Issues: The Dred Scott Decision: The parties," a speech delivered by the Hon. Israel Washburn Jr., of Maine, in the House of Representatives, May 19, 1860.
• "Freedom v. Slavery," a speech delivered by John Hutchins of Ohio in the United States. House of Representatives, May 2, 1860.
• "Political Record of Stephen A. Douglas on the Slavery Question," a tract issued by the Illinois Republican State Central Committee.