Louisiana Political Ephemera in the
Special Collections Vertical Files

Select the images below to learn more.

Our oldest election flyer, 1868

Address of the Grant Campaign Committee of Louisiana, 1880

Flyer offering free poll tax, 1938

Herve Racivitch, candidate for Mayor, 1942

Martha Gilmore Robinson, candidate for City Council, 1954

In addition to political ephemera, Special Collections is a major repository of Louisiana POLITICAL PAPERS.

Our vertical files preserve a wealth of information on all aspects of Louisiana. Prominent throughout the collection are flyers, brochures, sample ballots, campaign cards, and similar small printed items that describe or attempted to influence political events.

Our political ephemera collection is divided into two groups: election ephemera and general political ephemera.

• Election ephemera comprises by far the greatest portion of the collection. Printed specifically for the purpose of persuading the voter, these campaign publications recorded who ran for office and when. They also often included other valuable information, such as the candidates' party, their platform, their campaign slogan, with which political faction they were allied, the candidate's resume, and a photograph of the candidate.

Our election ephemera files are arranged by year. For example, to find pamphlets, campaign cards, and other ephemera for the 1942 New Orleans mayoral election, you would request the file for "Elections -- 1942."

• General political ephemera: For the purposes of this index, general political ephemera has been defined to include politicians, government agencies, legal authorities, and politically active private organizations (broadly defined as organizations that sought to influence the political process). These files are organized alphabetically by the name of the person, agency, or group.

The Louisiana Political Ephemera Index

Kenneth Owen has indexed the Louisiana Political Ephemera Collection and the Louisiana Vertical Files and the indices  are available in the Special Collections Division's Victor Schiro Reading Room. The Louisiana Political Ephemera Index has three parts:

1. election dates for which we preserve ephemera
    
2. candidates represented in our files
    
3. subject headings for persons, agencies, and organizations represented in our files.

The list of election dates is organized by month and day, then year. Many political flyers and handouts did not include the year, instead stating only, for example, "Vote January 17." This listing allows you to find every year in which an election was held on January 17 for which we have materials.

It also records whether the election was a primary, second primary, special primary, or general election, when known. For example, the index reveals that we have campaign materials for three elections held January 17, in 1928, 1956, and 1998, and they were all primary elections. To the best of our knowledge, this is a unique resource for tracing Louisiana election dates.

The list of political candidates includes the dates of elections for which they ran for office. For example, the entry for deLesseps S. Morrison is:

Morrison, deLesseps Storey (1946.1.22) (1950.1.24) (1954.1.26) (1956.1.17) (1958.2.4) (1959.12.5) (1960.1.9) (1963.12.7) (1964.1.11) (undated)

This means that we preserve political ephemera for Morrison for elections held January 22, 1946, January 24, 1950, January 26, 1954, etc. It also means that researchers can find ephemera about Morrison in the "Elections" files for 1946, 1950, 1954, etc. To the best of our knowledge, this is a unique resource for tracing in which Louisiana elections a candidate ran.

We need your help.

Our political ephemera collection is a rare and important resource for studying Louisiana politics. However, we rely on the support of persons willing to donate Louisiana campaign materials.  We need:

• campaign materials for any office or ballot initiative in the New Orleans metropolitan area. "Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas" are defined by the Census Bureau. For New Orleans, it includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, and St. John the Baptist Parishes.
  
  
• campaign materials for state wide offices or ballot initiatives, such as gubernatorial elections and state constitutional amendments
  
  
• campaign materials for United States Senate and House of Representatives races throughout Louisiana
  
  
• fund-raising and campaign brochures for national organizations printed specifically for Louisiana and distributed only the state.

To donate Louisiana political ephemera or to discuss other ways you can help us preserve Louisiana's unique heritage, please contact:

Bruce Raeburn
Interim Director
Special Collections, Jones Hall
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
Tulane University
New Orleans LA 70118

ph: 504-865-5685
fx: 504-865-5761
raeburn@tulane.edu

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
Tulane University

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 04:11 PM
We welcome your comments at Leon.Miller@tulane.edu.