Jackson-Jefferson Day Dinner, Menu, Reading, Pa., March 1, 1952 (Front)

For this menu, see the front (above), inside, and back.



"Jackson-Jefferson Day Dinner honoring U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, Abraham Lincoln Hotel, Reading, Pa., March 1, 1952."

According to Wikipedia, "Jefferson-Jackson Day is the most common name given to the annual fundraising celebration (dinner) held by Democratic Party organizations in the United States. It is named for Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. During presidential election campaigns, certain dinners are considered important venues for candidates to attend."

Estes Kefauver was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee who was seeking the Democratic nomination for president when this dinner was held in March 1952. He had adopted the coonskin cap as a campaign symbol after political opponents claimed that he was a "raccoon-like Communist puppet." The unique headgear became popular in the 1950s and 1960s as the result of television programs that featured Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone wearing coonskin caps.

As Wikipedia explains, "In the 1952 presidential election, Kefauver decided to offer himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Campaigning in his coonskin cap, often by dogsled, Kefauver won in an electrifying victory in the New Hampshire primary, defeating President Harry S. Truman, the sitting President of the United States, prompting Truman to cease campaigning for renomination." Despite Kefauver's early success, the Democratic presidential nominee that year was Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson.