A selection of materials from Carleton’s special collections, archives, and government documents celebrating the college community‘s rich history of civic involvement, especially with regard to presidential elections.
Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign speech in Laird stadium marked one of only two times the stadium has been filled to capacity (the other was the NCAA’s only sanctioned metric football game: The Litre Bowl, organized by Professor Jerry Mohrig in 1977*). Civil rights lawyer and professor Barack Obama delivered his convocation address, “Politics, Race, and the Common Good,” on a wintry day in February, 1999. Guest speaker and sitting president Bill Clinton delighted the crowd at Carleton’s commencement ceremony in June 2000 when he revealed the bust of Schiller during his speech, adding a presidential chapter to Schiller’s legendary history of campus pranksterism. On a more serious note, Fred Hagstrom, Emeritus Professor of Art created two artist’s books in the aftermath of the events of January 6th, 2020.
In 1971, the 26th amendment to The Constitution of the United States lowered the age of voting eligibility from 21 to 18, increasing the power of the student vote. Since then, students have taken this privilege seriously, raising awareness about issues at stake, increasing voter turnout, and exercising their individual rights to cast ballots. In the 2020 presidential election, Carleton had one of the highest student voter turnout rates on American college campuses.
Voting in this year’s election has begun, and it ends on the evening of Tuesday, November 5th. Carleton community members can find all of the information they need to know at the Center for Community and Civic Engagement’s online voting guide.
Join us at noon on October 31, 2024 for a brief talk (~20 minutes) with Government Documents Librarian Katie Lewis and Archivist Eric Hilleman, who will use the exhibit as a launch pad to talk about Carleton’s history of civic engagement with presidential politics, etc.
* “…..probably the dorkiest piece of football ever put together.” – Kyle Wagner, https://deadspin.com/the-liter-bowl-the-first-ncaa-football-game-to-use-the-1443414296/