‘MAGA BLACK’ hats, clear swag bags, the first Trump/Vance signs: Highlights of what the Smithsonian is archiving from the Republican convention

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Claire Jerry, Smithsonian Institution and Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Institution

(THE CONVERSATION) Political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, collecting items from clothing to signs that will help tell the story of the 2024 presidential election. Conversation U.S. politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed them last week, before they set out from Washington, D.C., to Wisconsin, about what they try to collect and why. Now that they’re at the event, curators Claire Jerry and Jon Grinspan reported back to Schalit on their collecting progress. Turns out, a clear plastic bag handed out to attendees may tell the big story of the convention, which began just a few days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Schalit: What are you seeing and what do you have?

Grinspan: There’s not a ton of handmade stuff, because the security perimeter is so tight....