You are invited to a special reception for Elections: Winning the Vote on Friday, November 11, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. with curator Elaine von Bruns.  Join us for wine and cheese and a silent auction!

The exhibition, Elections: Winning the Vote celebrates our right to vote, from colonial election festivities to the achievement of suffrage by Blacks, Women, and Native Americans. Campaign posters, buttons, and books from the Athenaeum’s collection round out this comprehensive tribute to American voting.

In Colonial America, Election Day was the largest holiday celebration, and had its own rituals akin to today’s Memorial Day parade or pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. The first order of business was always an Election Day sermon. The Salem Athenaeum’s collection has approximately 20 local Election Day sermon pamphlets. Several are on display in Elections.

The 19th- and 20th-century struggles for Black, Women and Native American suffrage are well documented in the Salem Athenaeum’s Historical Collections. Among the volumes on display are Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller, 1874; Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1893; and Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, 1901.

Salem election ephemera from the 1940s, including nomination papers and posters from the Salem Get Your Vote Out Committee, campaign buttons and presidential biographies through the present day, complete the exhibit.

When you visit, please participate in our 1768-style election for the new Salem Athenaeum mascot. All are welcome and encouraged to vote, but be sure to choose the ballot that reflects the level of voter requirements that you meet!

The exhibition will be on display through January 2017.