Decision 1920
A Return to “Normalcy” By Paul Durica and Alex Teller Decision 1920: A Return to “Normalcy” runs September 15 – November 25
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n 1920, American voters (including women for the f irst time) went to the polls amid profound change and turmoil. The aftershocks of World War I and the 1918 inf luenza pandemic were still being felt, prohibition was raising questions about the government’s right to restrict individual behavior for the common good, and racial violence had erupted across the country during the “Red Summer” of 1919. Decision 1920, on view at the Newberry through November 25, puts visitors in the shoes of the voter faced with a monumental question 100 years ago: embrace change and move forward or go back to how things were at the beginning of the century? “The 1920 presidential election is notable for how it echoes in the present but also for how it differs from 2020,” says Paul Durica, Director of Exhibitions at the Newberry. “In 1920, as in 2020, the candidates offered starkly different visions for how America should respond to cataclysmic events. But race went largely unacknowledged by both parties—a silence that speaks volumes as we look back on this moment today.”
Promotional material for the Democratic ticket, James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“The G.O.P. Looks Good to Me.” Boston: Suffolk Music Publishing, 1920.
Harding conducted much of his campaign from the front porch of his home in Marion, Ohio. Postcard by Curt Teich and Company, ca. 1923.
The Newberry Magazine
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