Object Details
- associated person
- McKinley, William
- Bryan, William Jennings
- Description
- Many factors, including changes in technology and the emotionally charged issues of the day, led to an explosion of campaign items in the 1896 presidential election. Of the more than 2000 varieties produced, none was more unusual than the soap baby. The campaigns of both the Republican candidate and eventual winner William McKinley and his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan featured individual infant-shaped soaps each of which rested in a cardboard box with a tag promoting the policies of the relevant party. Future politicians abandoned these items apparently because voters thought they looked too much like babies in coffins.
- Credit Line
- Ralph E. Becker Collection of Political Americana
- ID Number
- PL.227739.1896.X05
- catalog number
- 227739.1896.X05
- accession number
- 227739
- Object Name
- Soap
- soap
- Physical Description
- soap (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 4 3/4 in x 2 in x 1 1/4 in; 12.065 cm x 5.08 cm x 3.175 cm
- See more items in
- Political History: Political History, Campaign Collection
- Government, Politics, and Reform
- American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith
- Exhibition
- American Democracy
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- used
- Political Campaigns
- Record ID
- nmah_529357
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-651c-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
