Running for Office: Candidates, Campaigns, and the Cartoons of Clifford Berryman

It follows the campaign trail, from the candidate's initial decision to enter the race to the final tallying of votes, with the cartoons of Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist, Clifford K. Berryman. A staff political cartoonist for the Washington Post and the Washington Evening Star for the first half of the twentieth century, Berryman drew thousands of cartoons commenting on the candidates, campaigns, issues and elections of his era, highlighting both specific and timeless aspects of American election campaign.

Political cartoons are unlike any other form of political commentary. With simple pen strokes, they foreshadow the future, poke fun at the past, and imply hidden motives in ways which elude written or spoken reporting. Berryman was renowned for his exacting portraiture and political observations. Throughout his extraordinary career, he drew every presidential administration from Benjamin Harrison to Harry Truman. He satirized both Democratic and Republican political figures but never used outlandish caricature, which won him great respect from politicians.

Published in association with the National Archives, Washington, DC.