notification

Hard to tell with his hand in front of his face, but I think that's Woodrow Wilson second from the left in the front row!

The tradition was that Wilson did not go to the convention, but waited at home, and after a candidate was chosen at the party convention, a delegation went to "notify" the candidate that he has been selected. (As if he had not been campaigning for it the whole time!). This notification ritual was just about done at this point, an artifact of earlier times.

Alas, an artifact that is missed. No constant campaigning for two years, no endless fundraising, no endless straw polls, beginning as early as a year before the first primary; just some back room deals for a few weeks and you're the nominee. I'm not sure that we've gotten better candidates since then, just a far more convoluted process that doesn't have much to do with governing.

New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic nominee, received this delegation at the Governor's summer residence in Sea Girt, New Jersey, on August 7, 1912. This link takes you to a photo of the delegation with Wilson, and even a recording of a portion of Wilson's speech on that occasion: www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/index.asp?section=timeline&...

New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson meets with one of the delegations of Democratic Party officials who traveled to Sea Girt, New Jersey, to notify him of his nomination:

NYTimes has good article on its website dated 7/29/08 talking about how Taft is notified in Cincinnati of his nomination for President by the Republican Party. Notification Day was made a holiday in Cincinnati. The Notification Committee was led by Sen William Warner of MO. The Committee was escorted from the Hotel Sinton to the Taft residence by 600 veterans of the Civil War. The Committee was comprised of Republican representatives of ALL of the states and the territories. The Taft residence was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, first architect of Washington D.C., and purchased by Taft's father-in-law. The Republican Convention was held in Chicago.

Great stuff! Taft is Notified -- Here's a link to that New York Times article, which is available as a PDF file.

But the above photo was taken at the White House in Washington, D. C., in June, 1912, when Taft was the incumbent President. This was his second experience of the notification ritual. The committee had traveled from the Republican National Convention in Chicago {yes, Chicago again} where Taft had been nominated for a second term. In the era before a candidate attended the convention in person, this was his ceremonial acceptance. But of course, Taft went down to defeat in November. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, was victorious, and Theodore Roosevelt, leader of the Bull Moose Party, came in second. In the Bain Company files at LOC is a photo of Taft's 1908 notification, in Cincinnati (his home town) -- but LOC has not yet posted that photo on Flickr.

I believe the man to the right of Taft (Taft's left) is Luther A. Brewer of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It does appear to be Brewer--thanks for identifying him! We'll add to the description when we update.