American Propaganda
Millard Fillmore campaign banner, 1856 US poster: Woodcut banner with Fillmore's portrait in a roundel crowned by an eagle

Millard Fillmore campaign banner (Baker & Godwin, 1856)

Millard Fillmore between Justice and Liberty, a Baker & Godwin banner of 1856

Baker & Godwin's 1856 woodcut banner names Millard Fillmore "American Candidate for President" and surrounds him with Justice, Liberty and the Union.

Techniques named on the archive record

Transfer
Date
July 1856
Made by
Baker & Godwin, New York (printer); American Party campaign
Medium
Poster
Country
United States
Regime
Pierce Administration
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division , retrieved October 2, 2026
Source
Public domain: published 1856, US; LOC: "No known restrictions on publication." Baker & Godwin, New York, 1856 (LC-DIG-pga-03523); Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

Full record at propagandaarchive.org

A woodcut banner printed by Baker & Godwin of New York in 1856 presents Millard Fillmore as the "American Candidate for President," framed by Justice, Liberty, an eagle, and a scroll marked "The Union."

What the banner shows

Fillmore's head and shoulders sit in a round frame with an eagle on top. To the left stands Justice with her sword and scales. To the right stands Liberty in a Phrygian cap, holding a scroll whose lettering is partly hidden by her arm; the archive reads it as the Constitution. A scroll below says "The Union." The only campaign words are a name and a label.

MILLARD FILLMORE,

AMERICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE UNION.

CONS[obscured]ON

LIBERTY

FRAME transcription. Copyright line: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1856, by Baker & Godwin," Southern District of New York. A handwritten deposit note dated July 10, 1856 is a library mark, not part of the print. Full record at propagandaarchive.org.

Who made it

Baker & Godwin, a New York printing firm, registered the banner in July 1856. The archive credits the American Party campaign as the client and dates the sheet during Franklin Pierce's term. The archive holds two more Baker & Godwin sheets from that year: a James Buchanan banner and a print of Fremont "planting the American standard." A printer selling to all sides is a market, not a conspiracy.

How to read it

This is transfer in its plainest form. Justice, Liberty, the Constitution, the Union, and the eagle are shared national property. The banner rents all of them for one man. Nothing on the sheet says what Fillmore would do as president. A viewer learns his name, his party label, and that the republic's symbols are standing next to him.

The word that needs reading is "American." Here it names a party, but it is printed as if it named a quality, as though the other candidates were something less. The banner itself is silent about the party's program, and the archive record does not describe that program either. This page does not fill in what the sheet leaves out. What the sheet does show is a party claiming the country's name as its own brand, which is a move any reader of any era should notice.

For a later banner that put actual policy words beside its emblems, compare the Rease print for Lincoln and Hamlin, four years on.

Sources

  • FRAME object record, Millard Fillmore campaign banner (Baker & Godwin, 1856). Baker & Godwin, New York, printer; American Party campaign.
  • Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-03523. loc.gov/pictures/item/2003689273, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain, no known restrictions on publication.