Buttons From Campaigns Past Are a Resource for Students
Greg Lambert ’74 donated a large collection of political memorabilia, including more than 1,200 buttons from the 1940s to 2012, to Muhlenberg, providing valuable learning experiences for political science students.
In 2019, Greg Lambert ’74 reached out to Trexler Library and the Department of Political Science to ask whether Muhlenberg would be interested in his long-time collection of political memorabilia: pin-back buttons, posters, magazines, books and other items dating back to the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Most impressive is the collection of buttons: more than 1,200 individual pieces documenting campaigns from the 1940s through 2012. Lambert is a lifelong resident of New York City and many of the state and local campaigns represented are New York-related. Some of the more obscure names have provided challenges to the political science students who have cataloged these buttons as part of their internships in Special Collections over the past few years. The collection is yet another type of primary source that provides hands-on learning opportunities for students.
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