![\"flag](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/flag-3-281x300.jpg\")
\u201cEnterprising businessmen looking to profit from the rallies and election, in general, churned them out,\u201d says Jeff Bridgman, an expert on antique American flags and textiles who curated the exhibit. \u201cSometimes one company manufactured flags for all the candidates in an election.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example of that is the 1860 election, says Bridgman, when the Howard Co. in Philadelphia produced the flags for the four candidates: Abraham Lincoln, Republican; John C. Breckinridge, Southern Democrat; Stephen A. Douglas, Northern Democrat; and John Bell, Constitutional Union.<\/p>\n
A flag from the 1860 election is featured among the rare and valuable items that are on display.<\/p>\n
Also on view is an official broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed in Massachusetts on July 20, 1776, before word reached the state government that the New York state delegates had adopted the Declaration. The copy shows New York as abstaining.<\/p>\n The flags collected by Shenkman ’65 (CLAS), ’07 (Honorary) reflect a creative freedom in their designs because they all date before 1912, when the country adopted an official flag design. Because of that, there is an abundance of differing shades of red and blue, star configurations, and proportions of stars to stripes.<\/p>\n \u201cUp until then, you had the liberty to design the flag as you liked,\u201d says Bridgman. \u201cWhat first triggered my interest in antique American flags was just how different the designs were.\u201d<\/p>\n An executive order by President William H. Taft spelled out the details of the official U.S. flag for the military, details that were broadly adopted over time, says Bridgman. Small changes have been made to the flag since then \u2013 the number of stars growing from 48 to 49 and 50, with the additions of Alaska and Hawaii.<\/p>\n Like campaign paraphernalia today, many of the pieces in the Shenkman collection were probably mass-produced, says Bridgman. Yet the few that survived over time became rare and collectable.<\/p>\n Bridgman notes there are many \u201cHoly Grails\u201d in the Benton Museum exhibit. The 1872 flag of Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate Henry Wilson, is one of those. \u201cSo little survived from that election,\u201d he says. \u201cThey just didn\u2019t make many, for reasons that aren\u2019t clear.\u201d<\/p>\n And to Bridgman, all of them are beautiful: \u201cThey really are some of the truest forms of American folk art,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n![\"Flag](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Flag-4-300x293.jpg\")