When Schenectady liked Ike

Eisenhower Schenectady campaign stop 1952 NYS Archives

The other day while looking for something else, we stumbled across this photo of a Dwight Eisenhower campaign stop in Schenectady in October of 1952 in the NYS Archives digital collection.

There's something about the photo that caught our eye -- the candidate had yet to arrive and the photo is of the crowd, waiting, the banner on the building declaring the now-famous campaign slogan. Maybe it's that the scene feels different somehow compared to the current presidential campaign.

Head over the NYS Archives website and check out the zoomable version of the photo -- there are all sorts of little details. We liked the way you can spot people watching from windows of the surrounding buildings.

Here's a photo of Eisenhower at the campaign stop.

Just about two weeks before this photo, then President Harry Truman also made his way through Schenectady and Albany. He was campaigning for the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson. And he criticized Eisenhower, the great WWII general, for proposing a cut to military spending.

Of course, Eisenhower would go on to win the election. He also won New York State, and almost every county in the state except three in New York City.

photo: New York State Archives

Comments

Note, too, that Ike coined the phrase "the military-industrial complex." Specifically, he warned "...we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex."
(Eisenhower's farewell address from office, Jan. 17, 1961.)

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