Photo Gallery- See How They Ran

Americans have always wanted a president who was one of the people, yet also above the people. George Washington epitomized the traditonal republican ideal of a candidate who stood apart from the masses. His dignified silence during the first two presidential campaigns set unrealistic standards for all subsequent nominees. Rembrandt Peale's portrait (above) shows the common perception of this ordinary-looking Virginian as a republican demi-god.(Library of Congress)

Nominees in the 1840s functioned as icons, political symbols to be bent to the party's will. Above, the Democrats' Polk-Dallas poster from 1844 exemplifies the not-quite human portrayal of these icons(Library of Congress)

Although he had clashed with Douglas in the famous debates two years earlier, when nominated in 1860 Abraham Lincoln retreated into republican silence, maintaining a dignified contrast with his active rival. In this Lincoln-Hamlin poster from the Republicans' 1860 campaign, the candidates appear more life-like than their predecessors in the 1840s, but still seem somewhat remote. (Library of Congress)

Although the republican taboo was violated half a dozen times from 1840 to 1896, only after William Jennings Bryan's three election campaigns would traditionalists stop condemning stumping as "unprecedented." As seen above, in 1908, during his third campaign as the Democratic nominee, Bryan campaigned actively, as did his rival William Howard Taft. This marked the first time that both major party nominees took to the stump. (Library of Congress)

With the "rear-platform" campaign, candidates finally caught up to the transportation and communication revolutions that had transformed nineteenth-century America. Theodore Roosevelt emerged as the paradigmatic twentieth-century president, charming the people with his energy and his personality. Still, it was considered undignified to campaign from the White House. Aware that silence would be expected of him during his 1904 effort, President Roosevelt made lengthy speaking tours in 1902 and 1903. (above) (Smithsonian Institution).

Traditional tactics retained their appeal long after they became anachronistic, as the Democrat Harry S. Truman demonstrated in his 1948 "whistlestop" campaign. This "all-American" tradition remained popular because it thrust the candidate toward the people, as seen above, wherein the crowd envelops President Truman, who is speaking from the rear-platform on the right. In the future, security concerns would discourage such intimate scenes. (Library of Congress)

The televised debates of 1960 between the Republican Richard Nixon (above, left) and the Democrat John F. Kennedy (above, right) were supposed to purify the campaign and bring the candidates home to 60 million Americans. Yet the controversy about the candidates' make-up and image upstaged the more substantive discussion about issues. Still, as these two photographs from the first debate on September 26, 1960 reveal, Nixon was not quite the sallow-cheeked, three-day-bearded apparition of subsequent mythology. (Library of Congress)

Ronald Reagan's two presidential campaigns showcased the candidate as icon, actor and image. Campaign pamphlets like this one from the 1984 campaign inspired millions of Americans. These carefully-tailored mass appeals showed that democracy had triumphed, the candidate now had to pursue the people. But the age-old tensions between dignity and candor, between the president as king and the president as prime minister, between liberal democracy and traditional republicanism, persisted. Many wondered: did concentrating on ever-more sophisticated tactics to woo the voters imperil the candidates's individual virtue? (Max and Elaine Mandis Collection of Political Memorabilia)

Photo Gallery - See How They Ran