Symbols & Mascots
The language of politics is full of references to dark horses, lame ducks, pork, and other animals. The bald eagle, of course, is one of the most recognizable of American political symbols. Throughout American history, campaigns have used animal emblems and other symbols to stress the merits of individual candidates and to build party solidarity. The candidate’s totem and the party’s mascot have been potent rallying points for supporters, as William Henry Harrison’s 1840 campaign first demonstrated with its log cabins and barrels of cider. Other candidates have likened themselves to raccoons (Henry Clay), possums (William Howard Taft), and axe-wielding rail-splitters (Abraham Lincoln). Likewise, donkeys, roosters, tigers, elephants, and moose have all served as party mascots, each with its own set of virtues.
Abe Axe
Reviving Harrison-style rustic imagery, supporters of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 began calling him the "rail splitter." Emphasizing their candidate's humble origins on the Kentucky frontier, they firmly associated him with the honest, hard working, and independent-minded woodsman. At the same time, "Wide-Awake" parades were becoming wildly popular. The "Wide-Awake" movement was an organization of military-style marching clubs. Participants wore military regalia (sometimes even featuring the letter "A" for Abe), and marched at night in precise ranks. Some parades included tens of thousands of marchers. An offshoot of the "Wide-Awake" movement, the "Rail Splitters" marched in similar fashion, carrying wooden axes like this one, to rally support for "Honest Abe."
Henry Clay Raccoon
Henry Clay, one of the most dominant politicians of the mid-nineteenth century, was nominated for President in 1824 and 1844. His nickname, "the old coon," was a reference to his rural Kentucky roots. Taking a cue from William Henry Harrison and his popular log cabins, Clay sought rustic appeal by adopting the raccoon as his political mascot.
Blaine Fog
This iron doorstop in the shape of a frog was almost certainly meant as a novelty item. It reads, "I croak for Blaine & Logan." James G. Blaine, a stalwart of the Republican Party, was Secretary of State to James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison, and the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 1884.
Landon Sunflower
Alf Landon was Franklin D. Roosevelt's Republican opponent during the 1936 election. Landon came from Kansas, the Sunflower State. He adopted the sunflower as his campaign symbol, as did Robert Dole, Republican candidate for President in 1996.
Elephant & Donkey
It was Thomas Nast, the celebrated Harper’s Weekly cartoonist, who popularized both the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey. An ardent Republican, he criticized his party in 1874 by depicting its vote as a marauding elephant—aimless and confused. Nast subsequently used the animal to depict the party itself. The GOP elephant quickly caught on, and by the late nineteenth-century Republicans had embraced the pachyderm as their own mascot.
Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party has been symbolized by a variety of animals, including the tiger and the rooster. The donkey (or “jackass”) had appeared in 1830s anti-Jackson cartoons, but Thomas Nast drew the first cartoon that jointly depicted both the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey. As other illustrators emulated Nast’s choice, the donkey emerged as the party’s symbol. The Democratic Party itself preferred the rooster, and used it into the early 1900s. By 1932, however, the donkey had become the party’s sole national symbol.
Elephant and Donkey Soaps, 1956.
Elephant and Donkey Mechanical Toys, 1956.
Martin Advertising Products. Political Book Matches, Newark, New Jersey, 1956.
This non-partisan pamphlet advertises "political book matches" made to order for particular candidates, featuring the familiar donkeys and elephants of the two major political parties.
Roosters
The Grover Cleveland-Allen Thurman “Campaign Egg” refers to the (then) Democratic Party mascot, the rooster. A brass silhouette of a rooster pops in and out of the egg to declare its support for the successful Democratic Party candidates in 1888.
This campaign handkerchief identifies the candidates with the Democratic Party through the rooster, which was then the party mascot.