When I began collecting political items in the late sixties, I lived in Montana which was insulated from the organized political collecting world. Without a senior mentor, my only source of information on collecting was initially Dick Bristow’s, Illustrated Political Button Book and later Tom French’s periodical, The Political...
APIC American Political Items Conservators/Collectors
The APIC is an organization dedicated to the collection, conservation and study of political campaign items. Members benefit from a monthly newspaper, The Bandwagon, and a full color quarterly magazine ,The Keynoter, which contains scholarly articles on collecting topics. Its website offers information about identifying reproductions and upcoming regional...
“Unique” and Near “Unique” Presidential campaign pins
In hobbies like stamp and coin collecting “never before seen items” virtually never come into their respective hobbies. They are invariably print or strike errors and are “priceless” ie. above the pocket book of all but the wealthy. In political collecting, items from earlier elections that have never been...
“Beat ’em to a Frazzle” A New Teddy Roosevelt Pin Comes to the Hobby
A remote Eastern Washington auction house posted a number of political button lots to eBay’s live auction site. One of the lots contained a 1 3/4″ Theodore Roosevelt pin I had not seen before. The photograph posted did not allow a zoom option and glare precluded discerning its text....
Montana Silver Dollar Club
The “Montana Silver Dollar Club” pin is a classic in the hobby. I obtained my first at an antique show in my childhood. When I brought it to my first APIC show it created quite a stir; unfortunately, I was naive and traded it away far below its...
Top 10 Montana Locals
Obviously, any list of top ten items, events, games or venues is subjective by nature. If the major collectors of Montana local items were polled each would likely have a different list and each would have criticisms about my inclusions and order but since this is my blog I...
Battle for Montana; the Copper Kings’ Influence on Montana’s History
Politics in early Montana was shaped a great deal by a personal and professional conflict between two powerful and wealthy individuals, William Clark and Marcus Daly the “Copper Kings.” Both played prominent roles in the development of the copper resources on Butte Hill the largest copper producer in the...
Progressives versus Stalwarts; the 1912 Election in Montana
As the election of 1912 approached, the Republicans faced a significant ideological division within their party. When Teddy Roosevelt left the White House in March of 1909, the progressive wing of the party looked to be in good position. They had achieved legislative success, passing a number of bills...
Gubernatorial Election Results
Montana Governor Democrat Republican 1889 Joseph Toole Thomas Power 1892 Timothy Collins John Rickards 1896 Robert Smith Alexander Botkin 1900 Joseph Toole David Folsom 1904 Joseph Toole William Lindsay 1908 Edwin Norris Edward Donlan 1912 Sam Stewart Harry Wilson 1916 Sam Stewart Frank Edwards 1920 Burton Wheeler Joseph Dixon...
Senate Election Results
Montana Senators Elected by state legislators 1889 Wilbur Saunders(rep) T C Powers(rep) 1893 legislature did not fill 1895 Lee Mantle(rep) appointed to fill vacant post Thomas Carter(rep) 1899 Wm Clark(dem) wasn’t seated due to scandal and resigned 1901 Paris Gibson(dem) elected to fill Clark’s vacant seat ...