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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

[Campaign ribbon on silk: "Old buck is coming"]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05877 Author/Creator: Place Written: s.l. Type: Object Date: 1856 Pagination: 1 ribbon Height: 20.6 cm, Width: 7.9 cm Order a Copy

Faded pink silk ribbon with black ink images and text. Begins with an image of a buck (male dear), and the statement "Old Buck is Coming," referring to 1856 presidential candidate James Buchanan. Below the buck, the ribbon depicts blacks with knapsacks and a bear, apparently fleeing westward, with the exclamation "Fremont! Free Niggers! Off for the Rocky Mountains" (Buchanan's opponent, Senator John C. Fremont, argued that the government should prevent the spread of slavery into the new western territories). The next image on the ribbon portrays a pistol, and the exclamation "'National Candidate Carries One Little State!" Finally, includes a depiction of a ship on a dark sea, accompanied by the statement "The Long, Low, Black and Rakish Craft 'Know-Nothing,' will leave Baltimore for Salt River at 12 M., on the Fourth of March, 1857, Commander Millard Fillmore..." Subsequent text is obscured in the fray of ribbon.

Fremont, John Charles, 1813-1890
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
Fillmore, Millard, 1800-1874

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