Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum News


	For Immediate Release: July 8, 2008	Contact: David Blanchette (217) 558-0516
	A neat little package Lavishly illustrated "Packaging Presidents" catalog now available as companion to the Presidential Museum's popular exhibit Springfield, IL — A new publication is now available as a companion piece to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum’s popular exhibit about presidential campaigns. Packaging Presidents: 200 Years of Campaigns & Candidates, a 194-page, lavishly illustrated catalog, may now be purchased for $24.95 at the Presidential Museum’s Gift Shop or on-line at www.abelincolnmuseum.org. The publication is written by exhibit curator Frederick Voss with contributions from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Executive Director Rick Beard and Michael Cheney of the University of Illinois Institute for Government and Public Administration. The Packaging Presidents catalog features images of the buttons, banners and other items in the Museum exhibit, plus period photographs, illustrations and broadcast stills that bring each presidential election to life. Campaign results from each election are also featured, including electoral and popular votes received by each candidate. Detailed analyses of each campaign makes Packaging Presidents a valuable reference tool for those interested in political history. "Packaging Presidents" is an exhibit of more than 350 original presidential campaign artifacts from the early 1800s to the present. It opened in the Presidential Museum’s Illinois Gallery on "Super Tuesday," February 5 and will remain there until after the General Election in November. The exhibit features buttons, banners, and broadcasts that have promoted winning and losing candidates throughout U.S. history, including everything from buttons that backed Andrew Jackson for President in 1828 to the WBBM-TV Chicago camera that broadcast the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Debates. The exhibit is drawn largely from the collection of Merrill Berman of Scarsdale, New York, who owns one of the nation’s pre-eminent private political artifact collections. ###