About this blog A blog dedicated to the examination of
communications in election campaigns, with a focus on posters
Monday, August 3, 2009 In late June, Cowan's Auctions, Inc.
auctioned off an ambrotype of a "wide awake" marcher for Abraham
Lincoln during his 1860 campaign for president of the United
States. The ambrotype brought in a record $10,575. The "wide
awakes" were typically young men, who marched for the
Republicans in huge torch-lit parades, sometimes singing
political songs. Lincoln, himself, coined the term for these
supporters, according to The New York Times, saying in Hartford,
Connecticut: "The boys are wide awake. Suppose we call them the
'Wide-awakes'." These men wore oil-cloth covered caps and capes,
and swung torches during campaign rallies and marches in support
of the Republican ticket of Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. The
marcher pictured in the ambrotype also carried a campaign banner
(see a similar one to the right) for Lincoln and Hamlin. The
Republicans organized parades and rallies,