Soap, William McKinley, 1896: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Many factors, including changes in technology and the emotionally charged issues of the day, led to an explosion of campaign items in the 1896 presidential election. Of the more than 2000 varieties produced, none was more unusual than the soap baby. The campaigns of both the Republican candidate and eventual winner William McKinley and his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan featured individual infant-shaped soaps each of which rested in a cardboard box with a tag promoting the policies of the relevant party. Future politicians abandoned these items apparently because voters thought they looked too much like babies in coffins.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1896
• Object Name: Soap doll, McKinley,1896
• ID Number: PL.227739.1896.X5
• catalog number: 227739.1896.X5
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.