HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – One of America’s largest troves of political and campaign memorabilia is headed for the auction block, spurring protests from some who do not want to see it divided up and sold to private collectors.
The University of Hartford plans to hire an auction house and sell off more than 70,000 items, many of them donated by the late J. Doyle DeWitt, a former chairman of The Travelers Cos. who spent decades amassing letters from presidents, campaign posters, and pins and advertisements dating to the 18th century.
The artifacts include a pin worn by George Washington at his inauguration and torchlights used by a political group, The Wide Awakes, which marched at night in northern states during the 1860 campaign in support of Abraham Lincoln.
The university, which once served as home to the federally-funded Museum of American Political Life, said it offered the collection for sale to other schools, the state, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. But no other institution has agreed to buy the entire collection.
“The university began the process of selling this memorabilia after determining that maintaining and exhibiting the collection as an academic resource on campus no longer matches the university’s best interests and needs, and that maintaining the collection is not the best use of university resources,” the school said in a statement.