What the Smithsonian curators will do on the Democratic National Convention

Three curators for political history from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History are on their approach to Chicago and the Democratic National Convention 2024 soon collect things – or because the professionals call it, ephemera: all the things from balloons to tickets to clothing. The Smithsonian's Political Campaign Collection accommodates items dating back to the time of George Washington.

Naomi Schalit, politics editor at Conversation, spoke with Claire Jerry, Jon Grinspan and Lisa Kathleen Graddy about what the curators found on the Republican National Convention in July and what they hope to snag in Chicago. All of these things will likely be added to the gathering to, as Grinspan describes it, “make sense of our moment for people who are wondering what we were all thinking.”

And in case you're wondering how a curator brings the balloons home from a conference, he uses the needle-point of a collected campaign button to poke a small hole near the knot, let the air out, after which pack it up. Conversation editors will seek advice from the Smithsonian curators again after they're on the conference.

Naomi Shalit: Claire Jerry and Jon Grinspan, once we last spoke, the Republican National Convention had just ended and also you were each in your way home, rushing to the airport, not necessarily knowing what to anticipate.

Claire Jerry: That's still true. We're now getting email responses to the business cards we've distributed, but nothing has come through yet.

Jon Grinspan: We began working with the convention staff themselves. They sent us plenty of material – signs, access badges, layout, all types of things from the convention, physical materials, things from logistics and planning. This form of stuff suits with things we’ve got in collections from previous conventions.

Shalit: So if you say it rhymes, is that a reference to the saying “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” I assume that these articles can provide you with an outline of how things change over time when organizing a congress, based on these points?

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Read more: How Smithsonian curators are mining political conventions to elucidate the current to the longer term and save all the things from hats to buttons and umbrellas to soap

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Jerry: Yes. Things like arena maps and things like which might be fairly recent, but we've at all times gotten tickets to different conventions, and they alter over time. Some of them are things that conventions have at all times used, and a few are logistical things which might be recent in every time period.

Shalit: What was different in regards to the tickets this yr?

Grinspan: The tickets for the convention this yr were very patriotic. There were plenty of flags, fighter jets and eagles. They really focused on that theme.

Jerry: And they're plastic too. Our oldest tickets are paper, in fact, and were designed to appear like tickets you'd get for anything. However, lots of these tickets are designed to be attached to a lanyard.

Shalit: I heard you were there at the normal balloon release at the top of the conference. How was that?

Jerry: It's amazing how quickly your vision blurs. I used to be on the ground of the convention on the time and had a really clear view of the stage from which I heard Donald Trump speaking. Suddenly you’ll be able to't see the stage anymore. You can't see the candidates with their families up there on the stage because there are such a lot of balloons.

And you then watch people – myself included – trying to select up balloons off the bottom, and you’re thinking that you have got one, but then it bounces off someone's foot, and you are feeling such as you're standing on someone's knee trying to select something up off the bottom. It felt a little bit strange, nevertheless it was incredibly festive and celebratory, and I feel the presence of youngsters, each on stage and within the audience, also gave it a very familial feel, which will not be something I might necessarily have said just in the course of the normal business a part of the convention.

Shalit: Have you thought, “I have a degree in history and I get on my hands and knees and pick up balloons from people’s feet” to take them to the Smithsonian?

Jerry: I literally was. I assumed I had certainly one of these in my hand, nevertheless it bounced away, and I used to be about to really grab someone's ankle. I used to be a little bit embarrassed by that. I didn't have an task in graduate school that said, “We're going to practice grabbing balloons from the balloon drop now.”

Grinspan: In 2016, in the course of the balloon release, I bumped right into a distinguished Republican politician who was attempting to get to the bottom. He was very polite. It's funny when you have got a sophisticated degree in history or research, you read the reports of 1860 meetings or whatever, after which sooner or later you are trying to climb up and grab the balloons or attempt to carry all of the objects you've collected home. There's a very physical, material aspect to this history, and it's our job to capture it.

Shalit: All three of you’re going to the Democratic National Convention in just a few days. Lisa Kathleen, what are you pondering as you propose this trip?

Lisa Kathleen Graddy: I'm really curious to see how the language that's been used on the rallies currently will present itself in material culture. Will or not it’s seen on signs? Will or not it’s seen on buttons? Will or not it’s seen on the chyron that may walk through the sector?

Will say something, “Mind your own shit”? Will say something: “We should not going back“?

Who knows in the event that they've already printed something that was planned from before and if it's going to be reused. And each parties at all times do something to honor the outgoing president. So suddenly they should invent the Joe stuff, the “Thanks, Joe” stuff. So is any of that going to be there that wasn't there before?

It will likely be interesting to see what Minnesota comes up with as a delegation.

Shalit: Hot dish Hats from Tim Walz's state?

Grady: Oh god, I might like to see a Hot Dish hat. Please let there be Hot Dish things.