Tribute to Trigates
| This article first appeared in issue six of Buttons
and Ballots, in March 1997. |
There is a certain symmetry with the number three, as the ancient Pythagoreans
recognized in their reverence for the triangle. Christians worship the three-aspect
Deity referred to as the trinity. Romans invested powers of government in
the three-man triumvirate. In World War II the allies were led by the big
three of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. From a design standpoint, the
use of three elements allows a certain balance and grace. With a jugate
button, if you put the photos at 9:00 and 3:00, then 12:00 and 6:00 can
look pretty empty. By bringing in three photographs, the overall appearance
is more graceful and balanced, although to be sure there are still empty
areas.
A trigate, of course, is a button, ribbon, token, or other item that
features portraits of three persons. Which three persons to include? The
most common type of trigate pictures a party's candidates for president,
vice-president, and governor. Another common type substitutes the U.S. Senator
candidate for the gubernatorial. That third spot in the trigate can, in
fact, be filled by an aspirant for any number of offices, including member
of Congress, mayor, even state legislator or sheriff. Some trigates leave
out the vice-presidential candidate, and some leave out the presidential
too, thus giving all three spots to state or local candidates. Some trigates
are not campaign items, but picture three prominent citizens such as world
leaders or Hollywood movie stars. One popular McGovern button pictures musicians
Carole King, Barbara Streisand, and James Taylor, while referring to the
candidate himself by text only.
Trigates can present certain problems. Who are those three
people, anyway? The "Republican Candidates" cello pictured here
is generally identified as a New York item, but I don't know of any reference
that will quickly and easily identify the three men pictured, or provide
the date. Similarly, the black and white Socialist trigate pictured below
(photo taken from an Anderson Auction catalog) was considered such a nice
item it went for $92 even in stained condition. But who, when, where? Fortunately
this button had at least one clue: The name of an Erie, Pennsylvania Socialist
newspaper on the backpaper.
When did the first trigates appear? Undoubtedly there are trigate ribbons
from the pre-1896 period, though I haven't managed to locate any for use
in this article. The first trigate pinbacks appeared in 1896, the same year
pinbacks generally appeared. From the two McKinley campaigns there are eleven
designs of trigates listed in Hake's Encyclopedia, as well as one
"in memoriam" trigate picturing Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.
All of these trigates are 1.25 inches or larger—the designers apparently
decided the pictures would be too small on 7/8 inch buttons. There are only
five designs of Bryan trigates from the campaigns of 1896, 1900, and 1908
listed in Hake's. Actually one of these five is an unusual anti-Bryan
trigate, linking Bryan, Philippine guerilla Emilio Aguinaldo, and New York
machine politician Richard Croker (whose name is misspelled "Croaker").
Under the heading "Three of a Kind," the button characterized
the Democrats as anti-American as well as corrupt.
The 1896 and 1900 campaigns were remarkable for the outpouring of button
designs. In fact, these first campaigns to produce trigate pinbacks also
seem to be the high water mark for trigates. A random thumbing through Hake's
Encyclopedia shows the Parker campaign with one trigate button (illustrated
a second time attached to a ribbon), and the Hughes campaign with five listed
trigates. Landon, Willkie, Eisenhower, and Kennedy have none listed. The
trigate seems to have suffered from the appearance of inexpensive litho
word pins. Instead of trigates, campaigns after 1920 tended to simply produce
litho word pins with the names of the three candidates being
boosted.
It's kind of sad to trace the demise of the trigate. Still, the form
is not quite dead yet. Pictured below is a beautiful 1996 trigate from Morgan
County West Virginia, issued by Al Salter and the Morgan County Democrats
as a fund raiser for the county committee. This latter-day trigate saw the
gentlemen on left and right elected, but Charlotte Pritt failed to win election
as West Virginia's governor.
Collecting trigates would make an interesting specialty. Given the hundreds
of jugate collectors out there, it seems odd no one specializes in trigates.
Just how many are out there anyway? Who are the candidates pictured on the
wordless trigates? A lot of research awaits some lucky collector!
Identifications: In order, the pictured trigates are: Massachusetts
1916 textless pin (Hughes-Lodge-McCall). New Jersey Republican trigate from
1916 with celluloid bow (Edge-Hughes-Frelinghuysen). Republican candidates
trigate from New York (can anyone supply the date and candidates' names?).
Socialist Candidates, probably from Erie, Pennsylvania area (Warde-Gould-Wilson).
Minnesota trigate from 1900 (McKinley-Roosevelt-Van Sant). McKinley trigate
from 1900, with McKinley, TR, and one other candidate (Herrick of Ohio?).
Massachusetts Republican trigate from 1922 (Channing Cox-Lodge-Fulton).
1996 trigate from West Virginia (Clinton-Pritt-Gore). Republican trigate
from Massachusetts in 1924 (Coolidge-Fuller-Gillett.) Further identification
information for the candidates I haven't named is solicited—please
e-mail the editor.
Thanks to: Larry Brokofsky and Tim Coughlin for helping with some
of the identifications and clarifying the history of the ttrigate picturing
Bryan, Aguinaldo, and Croker trigate.
Illustration sources: Illustrations are from the inventory of
Cresswell's List, with the exception of the Socialist trigate, reproduced
from Al Anderson auction catalog 88.
| © 1997 by Stephen Cresswell |
