TEXARKANA, Texas -- With this year being a presidential election year, the Texarkana Museum of Regional History has opened a temporary pictorial exhibit featuring Twin Cities presidential campaign stops.
Chris Howell, a historian and Texas A&M University-Texarkana student, said he spent about two weeks researching and sifting the museum's historical photo archives and campaign button collections, to assemble a small display of these vintage artifacts on the museum's second floor.
The display, titled On The Campaign Trail: A Pictorial of Candidates' Visits to the Twin Cities, features assorted photos and campaign buttons that go as far back as 60 years -- starting with the 1960 presidential election.
Howell said he was able to find 1960 photos of presidential candidate John F. Kennedy's visit to downtown Texarkana.
Kennedy, then a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, delivered a speech at the Arkansas-Texas fairgrounds in Texarkana, Texas, during his 1960 presidential campaign. In his speech, he discussed differences between the political parties and a need for Democratic leadership to address concerns over the growing threat of communism, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Howell also found a number of Ross Perot campaign buttons from both Perot's 1992 and 1996 bids for the Oval Office. Perot, who died last year, was born on the Texas side of Texarkana.