Collected Campaign Flare
Storied campaign button collection on display at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
By Andrew Bell | Fall 2024
An enduring and colorful platform for voter preferences, campaign buttons are also a popular collectible. Rice’s Baker Institute and Fondren Library’s Woodson Research Center recently received a donation of almost 900 buttons from Baker Roundtable member Carol Desenberg in honor of her late husband, Julius “Desey” Desenberg, an avid collector.
Desenberg’s love affair with political campaign buttons ignited on the bustling streets of New York in 1960. Fresh from two years of service as a Navy officer, Desenberg embarked on a 43-year journey with Merrill Lynch, where he ultimately became the company’s first vice president of investments. It was during this pivotal chapter of his life that a chance encounter — someone casually pinning a mayoral campaign button on his lapel — kindled a fascination that would evolve into a remarkable 60-year passion for collecting.
“He caught the bug for collecting buttons,” said Carol Desenberg, Desey’s wife. “Desey thought it was a fun pastime.
Once he got started, he just kept collecting more and more. Wherever he went, the two of us would look for interesting political buttons that could possibly be added.” This “bug” eventually turned into a collection of over 1,200 political campaign buttons that the Desenbergs collected through the past half-century — some witty and some rather straightforward, coming from all different political parties with messaging dating back to the mid-1800s and covering up to current day.
The buttons provide a succinct review of American history and the people who made it and represent the largest public collection of presidential election buttons in the country.
“This important addition to the Baker Institute will serve as a constant reminder of the role politics plays in our great nation as well as Americans’ enthusiasm for it,” said Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science and Rice’s Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies.
“The buttons provide a succinct review of American history and the people who made it and represent the largest public collection of presidential election buttons in the country.”
A curated portion of the buttons are now cased in the front of the Baker Institute’s Baker Hall for all who enter the building to see upon entrance.
Read more at news.rice.edu/campaignbuttons