Pinback button promoting Alton Parker for president, 1904. Baltimore Badge & Novelty Co., Baltimore.
When Democrats met in St. Louis in the summer of 1904 to nominate a candidate to oppose Theodore Roosevelt, they settled on Alton B. Parker, a judge on New York state Court of Appeals, who accepted after he demanded, and got, an endorsement of the gold standard in the party's platform. Lacking the president's personal magnetism and united base, Judge Parker was soundly defeated, winning only 38% of the popular vote and 140 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 336. A century later, interest in Parker is increasing and relatively little material from his campaign survives.
We offer an original pinback featuring the likeness of the disappointed Democrat.
