Tennessean Jere Cooper used red and white in many campaign signs, including this one from the mid-point of his congressional career. What makes this artifact unusual is its material: cloth. The letters were painted directly onto the textile, making it a one-of-a-kind object rather than a mass-produced one. Cooper ordered it from a Memphis paint shop, which included its local union number and painter’s palette logo in the corner. Mass-produced campaign materials like buttons and posters often included printers’ union logos, and this banner shows a rare instance of painters’ unions being part of the campaign action, too.
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