Grants Re-Election :Reconstruction Era Visuals Project

For my visual for my project, I decided to create a campaign poster for President Grant during his re-election run in 1872. A big influence was the appearance, at an initial site I wanted the poster to look relatively antique, and include the word re-elect very large, so the viewer knew immediately what I was showing to them. I also decided to use the Special Elite font to mimic the typewriter letters that were used in that time.   

I wanted to include a picture of the President himself, which is why I included his portrait from the whitehouse.gov website. However I really wanted the main focus to be the things that he did during his first term to show the states why he should continue to lead. A really big note of the first time was the ratification of the 15th Amendment. President Grant really pushed for this Amendment to pass, and was indeed successful. Granting the newly freed slaves their right to vote gained him much attention, good and bad, and definitely was one of the biggest highlights of his presidency.

A vital key to my poster is the stress on Grant protecting both blacks and whites. During his presidency the fate of a stable country lied in his hands. During reconstruction the states where bonded with very weak glue, and the president had to make sure everyone was pleased. Being that typically whites viewed themselves as more than blacks, he needed to find a common ground where the two races could not necessarily agree, but co-exist. A few examples which are summarized in the phrase “Protecting and preserving the welfare of the people of this great nation, no matter their color.” Include Grant sending troops to protect the newly freed slaves from hate groups.

Ultimately expressing President Grants accomplishments and milestones his first few years in office was my goal, and to do so in a small, yet eye catching and unique campaign styled poster. This is my Artist statement for my interpretation for Presidents Grants’ Re-Election Campaign.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1x6WTywuJwnKU8_uyAFMCkHEZfalPvVvYyHY0Q3lV-yY/edit?usp=sharing link to Source Analysis document.