In a few short months, campaign posters will be everywhere. The gamut of Republican White House candidates will roll out the commercial artwork they’ve chosen to augment their presidential ambitions. Iowa and New Hampshire will be festooned. The modern campaign poster is a slick thing, with message-tested taglines and occasionally trendsetting design. But it's nothing like its early forebears. As an element of political culture, the campaign poster has taken a long road to its present form.
John Quincy Adams became the first presidential candidate to widely use posters in 1824, according to the University of Virginia's Miller Center, but the...
