Grand Rapids Public Library collection of politics and elections ephemera
Scope and Contents
The first series of the collection consists of material related to individual candidates running for office and elected politicians, organized alphabetically by surname. Most of these materials are flyers and newspapers that would have been distributed via mail or at events to promote the candidate and their positions on various issues. The second series is organized by topic and election year. Materials in this series include publications and flyers by political parties, movements, and organizations that had a stake in election issues that year. There are some original or sample ballots and voting instructions. This series also includes non-partisan voter guides, which were published to educate voters on proposals and the positions of each candidate. It should be noted that this collection is not meant to represent government procedures or the actions of elected officials after being voted into office.
Dates
- Creation: 1859 - 2025
Biographical / Historical
This collection provides a picture of the political landscape over time in Grand Rapids. It represents a wide variety of candidates, proposals, and significant election issues that would have been put forward to Grand Rapidians to vote on. Although the focus is on local politics, some state and nationwide campaigns have been included as well, in order to provide a holistic view of the broader political environment. Voting processes changed in the early 2020s, and Michigan began allowing for early and no-reason absentee voting. Voter disenfranchisement and election security were also hot topics. Some materials demonstrate these concerns and expanded attempts to educate voters on legal changes and voting rights.
Full Extent
3.558 Cubic Feet (9 containers)
Full Extent
5 Linear Feet (8 boxes and 1 flat file)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This devised collection is comprised of materials related to elections and political campaigns in West Michigan. The bulk of the collection consists of campaign flyers and newspapers from individual candidates who ran for office in the 20th and 21st century. It also contains informational flyers, booklets, and voter guides detailing important election issues, proposals, millages, the voting process, and political party platforms. This collection would be particularly useful for researchers interested in learning about political issues that were important to voters each election. The flyers provide a snapshot of the political climate at the time and examples of rhetoric that was used to garner support for or in opposition to candidates and proposals.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This material came from multiple accession records as well as materials that were never accessioned. Some of the accession records have been linked to the collection. Many other materials were processed directly into the collection with no record of having been donated or accessioned.
Processing Information
This collection includes materials previously housed within the political series of GRPL’s ephemera collection 216 as well as archival materials found in the “Elections” vertical files. Many of the campaign flyers (organized by candidate) in this collection dating to the early 21st century were collected by library staff. In 2025, the political and election materials were merged with the campaign flyers collected by library staff to create this devised collection. Some materials previously in 216 that were each individually described have been compiled into a single file folder under the candidate’s name.
- Title
- Finding aid for the Grand Rapids Public Library collection of politics and elections ephemera;
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jamie Wasilchenko
- Date
- October 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Grand Rapids History Center Repository
Grand Rapids Public Library
111 Library Street NE
Grand Rapids Michigan 49503 USA
616-988-5497
localhis@grpl.org